Page 2 of A Dusk Of Stars

“I’m off to spend another yearworkingalongsidethem,” I tell him, in a noticeably colder voice, “so I think I’m good.”

I move to walk away, but I guess my life choices have once again touched a nerve, because he blocks my way to say, “It’s not natural, Anna.”

This time, I actually do roll my eyes at him, but he doesn’t stop. “And I’d understand if it were a last-resort kind of thing. But it’s not theonlyplace you could get a job as a goddamn librarian.”

I take a deep breath and then a step closer to him. “This is Grimm Academy we’re talking about, Steve. So sure, maybe it’s not the only place.” I grin. “But it’s the very best one.Goodbye,” I say in a final tone of voice, smiling and waving as I turn around, “and have a good life.”

“You’re seriously leaving?” I hear him raise his voice. “You know, you’re twenty nine, Anna, you’re not getting any younger.”

Yeah, and I have fat on my stomach, and a huge ass, and one day, I’ll turn to dust. So what?

I just keep walking towards the pub. I guess I’ve made it clear enough that we’re done here, because he doesn’t follow.

My frustration with him dissipates almost as soon as he’s out of my sight. He’s not the first guy who’s pretended to be nice right up until I said no to him. It’s sad, but that’s just how men are.

He’s definitely not the first person who’s felt the call to restore me to the right path. But I never told himwhyI was working at an Academy for Originals. He probably thinks it’s for the money — humans tend to think all Originals are rich beyond belief. I wonder how he’d feel if I told him the truth — that Idon’tfind it endlessly terrifying or even unsettling to be around vampires, shifters and faes. That I can’t seem to live in a world with magic without trying to get as close to it as possible.

I huff a laugh through my nose. He’d probably tell me I need therapy, I think as I approach the wooden pub door, the glossy black paint peeling off in strips down its length.

Taking a lungful of the crisp night air, I open the door, step into the cozy, dimly lit little space and look around.

As usual this time of night, it’s still noisy, but there’s only the fae bartender behind the beer-stained wooden bar to my left and a group of people giving off shifter vibes sitting around low tables to my right, framed retro posters adorning the soot-stained walls.

Perfect, I think with a smile. I’ll have my coffee and in no time, I’ll be back at the Academy.

But just as I close the door behind me and move to grab the table in the far right corner — the one closest to the three doors on the wall opposite me, my phone pings.

An email from Professor Naehorn.

My eyebrows shoot up. I know it’s two o’clock in the afternoon there, but it’s strange for her to be sending anything before the first faculty meeting of the year.

Then I skim over the text. Jaeger has resigned. Unexpectedly, but for real.

Almost instantly, my heart sinks.

***

My mind is buzzing, and it’s on autopilot that I order a black coffee and start making my way to the table. No one pays me any attention — not the bartender watching something on the screen above her, not the rowdy group of tattooed shifters with beers in front of them, not even the attractive young couple I only spot once I walk past the shifters. They’re both on their phones, the girl’s legs thrown lazily over the guy’s.

Vampires? I’m almost positive thatheis, but you can never know for sure.

My mind rushes back to the email. I walk past the couple, put my coffee and my tote down on the table in front of me and my suitcase on the floor. I sit down, making sure I’m facing the middle of the three doors on the back wall.

It’s then that it starts becoming real.

She just left?

Trying to sip my coffee despite it still being piping hot, I try to remember if she’s given me any hints.

Is she ill? Fuck.

No, she’s one tough vampire, and they don’t get sick so easily. She’s probably just gotten fed up with the Academy.

But to leave without telling me?

Something nudges me to look over my shoulder, in the direction of the girl from the young couple. For a second, I think she’s looking at me, then I realize she’s just inconspicuously staring at her guy with adoration in her eyes.

Human, no doubt about it, I think as I tear my eyes away. The way she’s trying to carry herself… She just looks too much like one of those humans who can’t seem to make peace with one very simple thing — the fact that you can’t be turned into a vampire, you can only be born as one.

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