Page 24 of Faerie Gift

“This is the one,” she crowed.

Somewhere from the dim recesses of the space came Mustardseed’s angry hiss to be quiet.

Yes, a good memory indeed. When I worked for my uncle at his law firm, his partners had to resort to writing notes on sticky paper and leaving them around for me. I’d gotten a little better with studying since being accepted at the academy but I was nowhere near Melia status.

She insisted this wasn’t the case, but I could almost swear she had a photographic memory.

“Okay, now to find the passage… Let’s go somewhere we won’t be disturbed. I don’t want anyone to overhear us. Not if we’re discussing covert information and we might get loud.” Melia clutched the tome to her chest and led the way toward the private study rooms. Being a fourth-year at the academy had its perks. Not only did she get her own room, but she had access to isolated study areas others did not.

She’d given me the code once. I, of course, promptly forgot the word. It was a wonder I remembered to change my clothes daily, to be honest.

Whispering the spell, Melia unlocked the door and ushered me inside. I immediately dropped my bag on the floor, my jacket along with it, candles magically lighting since the room was in use. The flames filled the space with a warm glow. It wasn’t a big room, large enough to accommodate a table and enough seats for six people. There were empty shelves lining the lower half of the walls and a window overlooking the rear lawn.

Melia placed the book on the long oak table and began to flip through to find the right chapter. “It’s in here somewhere.”

“I’m in awe you found the book in the first place. Tell me your secrets for a good memory. Is there something I can do to match yours? Or were you born this way?”

Melia didn’t look up but flashed me a warm grin. “I’d like to tell you it’s practice, but really my mind is like a vault. Things get stored in there and I can’t shake them loose. I guess it comes in handy for schoolwork. Anything else, I’m not sure about. I’ve retained nearly all the memories from my life and some of those I’dloveto forget, girl, let me tell you.Let me tell you.”

She flipped pages, scanning as she went, and finally came to rest on a long paragraph and diagram toward the end of the book.

“Did you find it?” I asked, crowding closer.

“Yuppers. Here we go. Your symbol. IknewI’d seen it somewhere. Don’t worry, though,” she hastened to say, tapping the page. “This book hadn’t been checked out in a long time. I can tell from the stamps in the front. So the chance of someone not only finding your test strip but recognizing the symbol is astronomically low. Here, Tavi. Take a look at what it says.”

Bending down, I scrutinized the black-and-white text, comparing the drawing of the symbol to what I remembered on the paper. Two interlocking circles with an arrow-like shape through the center and a long straight line perpendicular underneath.

“It’s the symbol for transfiguration,” Melia continued over my shoulder.

“What does it mean? Transfiguration?” I asked.

I was already capable of shifting into a wolf. Well, not currently, because of the potion I took, though I felt my wolf prowling beneath the surface. Without fear of discovery.

Melia tapped the page again and we both took a seat, scooting closer until our arms bumped. “Transfiguration is extremely rare. Rarer even than cognitive manipulation. It means you’re capable of shirting into anything you want.Anything, Tavi. Not just a wolf. Anything at all. Sentient, non-sentient. If you see it, you can be it.” She shook her head, her lips rounded in a low whistle. “Damn!”

“So, like, I could be a…a…a candlestick,” I said, only partially joking.

But Melia wasn’t joking. “Yes. A candlestick. A mouse. A table. A car. A bird.If you can see it…you get what I mean?” She continued to tap the page, this time as a nervous gesture while her mind raced. “The catch is it’s something you have to have seen before. An image you can hold in your mind’s eye in detail. Now I remember why it stood out to me when I first read the text. You ready for this?”

My eyes blurred and I had stopped reading while she spoke. Now I glanced down at the page. “Hit me with it.”

“Only people with shifter blood can possess the power of transfiguration, Tavi.”

I swallowed over the lump in my throat. “Shifter blood?”

“Yes, exactly. It’s why the power is so rare, because half-fae, half-shifters are not supposed to exist. I mean, I even heard a rumor there are people out there actively working to wipe out shifter halflings.” She shook her head. “And even so, notallhalf-fae, half-shifters manifest the power of transfiguration. If anyone finds out about you having this power…”

Melia trailed off. She didn’t need to finish the sentence. I already knew. If someone found out, then they’d know my secret without a doubt. They’d know I was a shifter and didn’t belong here.

The cold knot in my stomach refused to go away and grew by the second.

9

The culling would cut our first-year numbers in half.

Possessing two innate powers was impossible for half-fae, half-human. I possessed two. Unless I managed to hide the second one, I’d be found out and exposed.

Hoarfrost wanted me expelled.

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