Page 25 of Faerie Gift

What next?

I still had tests and homework to worry about. Grades and points to maintain. A standing in the school to keep.

Hey, at least I still had my hair.

A few weeks later, I found myself alone in the library without company. Melia’s group project demanded more and more of her time, as she met with her own classmates to determine the focus of their final study.

Mike decided he needed extra tutoring with his time manipulation power and found another student to help him, someone who manifested the same kind of magic. I didn’t blame him; it was a good move. That’s what I should have been focusing on, too—learning more about my innate power and the stipulations required to master it.

Instead I was spending time, yet again, thinking about what Professor Hoarfrost had said to me despite my promise not to worry. How he would makepersonallysure I would not get into Faerie.

My fingers trailed on the table Mike and I had unofficially claimed for our own, my mind lost in thought and the book in front of me open to a random page.

Hoarfrost’s attitude toward me hadn’t improved and I knew without a doubt nothing I said or did would change his mind now. I’d gone too far. He never called on me, so I didn’t have to worry about not knowing something or giving a wrong answer. He wouldn’t even make eye contact with me anymore. Which was fine, as long as he didn’t deduct random points for no reason. I made sure to be on my best behavior as I sat through his lectures, taking copious notes and keeping to myself.

Would hereallykeep me from entering Faerie? I mean, barring I didn’t fail out of the academy or get kicked out for any other reason, did he have that kind of power?

It was an added complication I couldn’t deal with, and yet I couldn’tstopthinking about it either. Nightmares while I slept, and his voice playing on a loop while I was awake—I couldn’t win.

Around me, several other students worked on their own projects in silence. I didn’t know them. One of the groups was made up solely of exchange students and their chaperone, although I wondered why they gathered in the library. It wasn’t as if they had any actual work to do or projects to complete. They were simply biding time.

Maybe they had developed a taste for reading dry literature? The thought had me chuckling under my breath. Maybe they were getting extra study sessions in to prepare themselves for what would happen after they entered Faerie.

Who was I to say? And what did it matter? I rested my forehead in my palm. I probably wasn’t getting into Faerie anyway at this point.

They spoke in low voices and my ears pricked when I caught some of their words.

“…to the academy students,” the chaperone whispered. When I glanced in their direction, I saw the woman leaning close to them, pointing a finger in the air for emphasis.

“But why?” one of the students asked in a hiss.

I knew better than to eavesdrop, yet I couldn’t stop myself. Shifting a bit closer, I tilted my head to make it look like I had my attention focused on the book instead of their conversation, letting my hair hide my face.

“Because bad things happen when you get too close,” the chaperone was saying. My ears twitched. “I shouldn’t have to repeat myself. Stay away from them. They may seem like they want to be your friends but we must take certain precautionary measures while we are here. The best thing you can do is keep your distance.”

This conversation wasn’t suspicious at all.

“Some of them are very friendly,” a second student argued. “Will it not be better for us to maintain an air of civility with them?”

“Civility and distance go hand in hand.”

Okay, now they really had my curiosity piqued.

They noticed my glance in their direction and got up from their table in a hurry. I scrambled to look like I was actually engrossed in the text I was supposed to study. To no avail. They’d already made me.

Had I been too obvious?

I tapped my finger against the desk. Why were the Canadian chaperones warning their students not to get close to us? Didn’t that go against everything Headmaster Leaves said at the assembly? I had to wonder what Headmaster Cote would say about it if he knew. Probably nothing. He’d returned to their campus a few days after arriving.

I shook my head, eyes wide. It was weird. Sure, strange and tragic things had happened at the academy since I’d been here, but Roman’s betrayal only hurt a handful of people. Ifmurdercounted as “hurt.”

Yet the majority of academy students I’d met were great people. We had our terrors—cough, Persephone, cough—and those who would fight dirty to secure their place, but most of the students I’d met readily extended a helping hand.

So why were they warning the exchange students away from us?

It added to the low-lying thread of anger inside of me, growing it thicker piece by piece until I felt it like a solid thing.

I went back to my books, determined to drown everything out.Focus,Tavi.These passages aren’t going to memorize themselves.

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