Page 27 of Darkened Wings
I breathed out a sigh of relief. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“Are all of the classes like this?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “You might have to study a little if you want to get a good grade but if you don’t, you can just skirt by, unnoticed, not getting any unwanted attention. Right under the radar. If you don’t dotoowell, they can’t move you back to the other classes.”
Another student sitting in front of me cleared their throat while turning around to look at us. Callum straightened up and then stiffened. He remembered who he was talking to.
Even he was well aware of reputation.
The first class was Raven Mythology-R and I was glad for it. These were the basic facts I was hungry to learn.
The professor straightened her skirt as she walked back and forth in front of the class. “Why do Ravens have the brighter, more iridescent feathers? Well, we all know that. But where does that come from? Why do we have them?”
No hands went in the air, and I assumed no one knew. Okay, I wasn’t the only one in the class who was clueless. There were several groans and mumbles and the professor chuckled. “Old news, I see. I’m sure your parents told you all about it. Now, let’s go onto why we should stay away from humans.”
My arm shot up of its own accord. “Why are our feathers different?” I asked before being called on.
Callum covered his mouth, but there was no denying the chuckle I heard come from him. He was laughing at me. Laughing at my question. Humans probably knew the answer to that question.
“Anyone?” the professor asked the class.
One girl turned around because the answer to the question was just for me. But there was no hatred or condescension in her eyes. “It’s because after the witch cursed the crows to, well, become crows, she blessed the rest of us with iridescent feathers and made our beaks more rounded so we could tell the difference. But when we are human, there’s really no way to tell other than scent. Crows smell sour to me.”
There was some agreement from the rest of the class about her sour comment.
Good to know. Crows smelled sour.
Maybe I could avoid talking to them inadvertently and thereby avoid Raddix altogether.
“Can we move on? Are there any other questions?”
I shook my head since I was the only one behind, even in this class, but I could catch up fast. I wouldn’t be sliding under the radar as Callum had mentioned. I wanted to soak up every bit of knowledge these classes had to offer, if nothing else, to be on an intellectual level as everyone else.
One less way to feel left in the darkness.
No one asked any more questions, but when the professor got to the subject of humans, she referred to me. I was not used to being in the spotlight, but I did what I could.
“Gwendoline, I understand you have some expertise on this particular subject. You have spent time with humans?”
I sighed. She was asking me to crack my chest open, lay out all of my vulnerabilities before the people who hated me the most.
“I have.”
The professor nodded and perched on the edge of her desk. “How do they treat shifters? How do they treat people who are different from them? Did anyone ever suspect you were not so completely human?”
I took a deep breath and from the corner of my eye saw Callum slip his glasses back on. Maybe he knew this was the time to take a nap. Me talking about humans had to be boring.
“They kept their distance for the most part,” I stammered, but decided while my chest was wide open, I might as well empty it. “They probably sensed that something was different about me. Plus, I kept to myself. They didn’t want to know me as much as I didn’t want to be known. Then again, I was trying to survive, not form a sorority.”
Some snickered at my assessment, but the professor leaned forward, appearing intrigued. “And did you hear anything about shifters from them? Do they even know we exist?”
I might’ve been overexposed to humans in my life, but these people lived under a raven rock. Did they never interact with humans? Did they not buy groceries or go to the library? It must’ve been as tough for them to avoid humans as it was for me to survive the streets.
Maybe not as bad.
“They think shifters are a myth. Creatures that exist in movies and paranormal romance novels.”
The same girl who explained raven feathers turned around once again. “What about hunters? Did you see any of them?”
