Page 60 of Faerie Marked

Someone must have rigged the lottery to show my name first. I didn’t know how and I surely didn’t know why, but that had to be the case.

Despite Melia’s protests, I rushed off after the assembly and sought out my divination teacher. She and I needed to have some words. The door was open and I pushed through it without pausing to knock.

“Hello?” I called out.

“Come on in.”

The muffled response came from the back of the room and I shuffled inside. “Professor Marsh, where are you?”

“Tavi, is that you?”

I followed the sound of her voice into a small office I’d never noticed before. Marsh sat behind an oddly neat desk with her fingers flying over the keyboard of a sleek and compact laptop. She glanced up when I entered, those silvery-green eyes without their normal black kohl liner. It didn’t make them any less odd.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at the assembly?” she asked with the quirk of a brow. Then returned her attention to the screen. “Did you get out early? How did the lottery proceed? I assume you are here because you have some kind of question on your final grade.”

I took a seat when my legs felt too shaky to hold me up. My heart threatened to beat right out of my chest and the sound of my pulse echoing in my ears resembled the crashing of ocean waves. “I’m number one,” I said, coming right out with it, my words barely above a whisper.

Marsh jerked her head up to stare at me unblinking. “Come again?”

“Number one. On the list.” My tongue felt swollen to three times its size. “I somehow managed to get the highest spot of my class and I don’t know how. Or why.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” she began slowly, “it seems like something you should be celebrating. Making it through the lottery is a great delight. And occupying the number one slot is an amazing feat. You should be proud of yourself.”

“There’s no way I can be number one,” I insisted. My skin had broken out in a cold sweat. “I didn’t finish your crystal ball lesson. You told me it would impact my grade and I was ready to take the risk. There’s no way I can be number one after failing the lesson. It’s not possible. Especially not when I’ve been in the middle of the road with all my other classes as well.”

Marsh clicked her nails together in thought, lips pursed. “I admit I did give you high marks for the class despite your failing with the crystal ball and making an absolute fool of yourself with your ridiculous excuse.” The woman sounded amused but oddly pleased with me.

“Why did you place me so high?” I needed to know because it didn’t make sense to me. I saw no reason why Professor Marsh would want to push me through to next semester. I was an average student on my best day. Then I remembered how long she’d stared at me on my first day. How she’d felt like home. Felt likepack.

I leaned back in the chair. Did my reaction have something to do with her reasoning?

We hadn’t really spoken much since the day when I’d lied about my quartz allergy. Marsh hadn’t pushed. But she’d continued to sigh with audible disappointment whenever she came over to chat with our table.

Her fingers paused on the keyboard and she sighed yet again, closing the lid. “You want the truth, Tavi? You’re one of the brightest students I have come across in my many years of teaching,” she told me. Then scowled at my sound of derision, which of course ended on a snort. “No, don’t make light of my statement. You may not believe this about yourself but I’m telling you the truth.”

It sounded insincere to me.

“Miss Alderidge, I didn’t want you to fail my class because you have some kind of problem with quartz crystal you won’t tell me about.” Marsh avoided my gaze now, staring out the window instead.

“So, you passed me through because youlikeme?” It didn’t sound right when I voiced it out loud.

She shook her head, her straight hair catching the light and illuminating the strands of red. “No, I passed you because I think you have what it takes to go all the way,” she corrected. “I rely on my intuition every day of my life. It impacts everything I do. I have a sense you will gain your place in Faerie. It would be wrong to fail you, to go against my own intuition in a way that seems unjustified.”

“I didn’t think professors were allowed to play favorites.”

“You think I’m playing favorites? I’m sorry if you think so. I don’t believe in playing favorites, unlike some of the other professors here.”

I stored the last bit of information away for later, although it still didn’t answer my question. Something smelled fishy about this conversation and I wasn’t done getting to the bottom of it. Intuition, eh? It made sense, but it also didn’t feel like the whole story.

We finished our chat and I left her office feeling torn. Did I really earn my spot or had Marsh done something to get me the top spot on purpose?

I didn’t want the top spot. Not in the least. Not when the last two front runners of my class had been murdered.

22

Ishook my head at the name changes posted on the doors to the cafeteria untilTAVI ALDERIDGEreached the top slot, literally glowing with magic and marking me as a target. Dread settled beneath my chest in a tight knot no amount of massaging could loosen.

“I can’t believe you did it. Is it wrong to take credit? My guidance is what got you this honor, this prestige. You can thank me now, and thank me again later.”

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