Page 13 of Faerie Gift

“Half?” Nora squeaked. “Can they cut so many?”

Melia nodded, her lower lip poking out as if remembering her own experience. “Can and will. Trust me. It’s not going to be pretty. I suggest you all work on your defensive spells because people will do whatever it takes to stay. This is when people start freaking out.”

“For good reason. I’m freaking out rightnow! I’m never going to sleep again.” Nora let out a groan.

But Leaves continued to address the crowd, smiling like a fool as though we should be happy about this news.

“Do your best, keep your chins up,” he said. “And always remember this is a competition. This is all about the end goal—your citizenship in Faerie. Not all of you will make it through.”

Murmurings in the crowd of students began to grow. We were expecting answers from the assembly but only ended up with more questions.

5

Not all of you will make it through.

Gulp.

Why had Leaves said it likethat? Nothing like having the Headmaster drop an anvil on your head, because I felt the pressure. Surely none of us needed a reminder of our precarious position in the school, and he’d sounded particularly delighted to tighten the noose.

I ended up lost in my own head and drowning out the rest of Leaves’s welcome-slash-warning speech. Nothing he said would be able to top the news of the exchange students and our second culling. My class had already been cut in half since first arriving.

I knew enough to expect changes to class structure this semester. Now, the first-years were being integrated into homerooms with older students, something about diversifying our outlooks and gaining insight on different perspectives. My homeroom hadn’t changed, though, so I hitched my bag of books over my shoulder, heading for that room after the assembly ended.

Grabbing a seat in the last row, I was pleasantly surprised when Mike took the desk next to mine. He flashed me a smile and let his own books drop to the desktop with a bang. For effect, I guess.

Wow, yeah, he filled out his uniform blazer nicely. I tried not to be obvious about it as I took him in, from the shoulders and tight material around his biceps to the black slacks he wore. Although we were all required to wear the same kind of outfit, Mike certainly made it look delicious. Who was I kidding—he could wear a potato sack and I would feel the same way.

I forced the lecherous grin off my face.

“Hey you,” he said easily. “You should have waited for me so we could walk together.”

“I didn’t realize you’d be joining me,” I answered.

“Oh, yeah, they shuffled me around and I ended up here. Are you ready for the competition to begin?”

I met his teasing with a soft laugh. Much better than ogling, although I found that when I got to looking at him it was hard to keep from slipping into lecherous territory.

“I should be asking you the same thing. You heard the headmaster. This is going to be a cutthroat competition. I’m not sure you can handle it.”

“Ican handle it,” he insisted.

“You’re going to have to prove it to me.”

He balanced his chin on his hand, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, I look forward to it. I think this semester is going to hold a lot of surprises.”

I mimicked his posture. “Care to fill me in?”

“Nooo, you’ll have to wait and see,” he said with atskof his tongue.

Our playful back-and-forth banter came to a screeching end soon enough.

“My God. Oh myGod. I told you it was him, Katha. Didn’t Itellyou?”

I jerked up at the voice, sounding like it came from directly in front of me. Which it did. A third-year girl with bouncing black curls popped up near my desk with her attention focused completely on Mike. And when I say completely, I mean completely. Like nothing else in the room existed. She looked like she held her breath, her hands clasped to her chest. Her friend—Katha, I guessed—stood as close as humanly possible to the speaker and both sported equally adoring looks on their faces.

“Hello. Can I help you?” Mike asked politely.

I was surprised he didn’t lean back in his seat to draw away from them. Clearly neither had any concept of personal space. I had a sinking feeling if they could have jumped on the desk and snuggled him, they would have.

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