Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Very well.” She sighed and ran a hand over her sleek silver hair. “I cannot excuse you from all classes you share with this particular group because the logistics are impossible, but I will allow you to attend study hall in lieu of PE for the rest of this semester, Mr. Connor,” she said to Avery. “Or you can choose any other class that suits you and join it. How does that sound?”
“Perfect. Thank you, Headmistress.” There was a note of relief in Avery’s voice that strung my heart. How long had those cabrons in his gym class been picking on him? Despite the fact that he was small, my roommate was tough and he wasn’t one to complain. I wished I would have known what he was going through—maybe I could have threatened the other Drakes to leave him alone before all this happened.
Then I reminded myself that he probably hated and feared me now anyway, so what did any of this wishing about the past matter?
“Very good—then I will consider this problem solved. But Mr. Santiago…”
I looked up to see her staring at me again.
“Yes, Headmistress?” I asked, my voice sounding slightly hoarse in my own ears.
“Do not let this happen again,” she said sternly. “If your Drake shows so much as a single scale, I’ll have no choice other than to expel you and send you back to the Sky Lands. I am a big believer in giving second chances, but I cannot endanger every other student in my care for one troubled Drake. Do you understand?”
I nodded and swallowed hard.
“I…I understand,” I said.
“Good. Then you and Mr. Connor are dismissed.” She frowned. “I do believe it’s nearly meal time, so you should be just in time to eat with the rest of your friends.”
“Thank you, Headmistress,” Avery said and I mumbled my thanks as well. We rose and left her office, not saying a word to each other and—in my case at least—not even looking at each other.
So I hadn’t been kicked out, after all. But I was sure my roommate hated me now and I couldn’t say that I blamed him.
My Drake’s misery was like a ball of hot lead in my stomach at the thought but there was nothing I could do about it. So I just stayed silent and walked beside Avery, wondering when he would ask me to leave his room and never come near him again.
7
AVERY
Supper that night was an awkward affair. I went through the line as usual but I didn’t even have the heart to bother Nasty Nancy Rattcliff.
Nancy was a witch who had tried to kill my Coven mates and was on perpetual dining room duty as a result. Usually I made her taste some of the horrible Norm food the cafeteria offered up to its non-magical students because I don’t forgive any kind of threat against my friends.
The Norm food was always a mish-mash of the leftovers baked in the oven with a thick layer of greasy orange cheese on top. And I mean any and all leftovers. The kitchen staff wasn’t above throwing tuna fish and canned fruit cocktail in the same casserole together and covering it with cheese.
The cheese itself looked and tasted like melted crayons and it had been the bane of my Coven mates’ existences for as long as we’d all been at Nocturne Academy together. But now that Megan was a Sister, Kaitlyn was a Drake, and Emma was an honest-to-Goddess Fairy Princess, none of them had to eat it anymore.
In fact, I didn’t know of anyone who had to eat it except Nancy, when I made her, because Headmistress Nightworthy had ruled that anyone at all could demand that Nancy and her nasty little friends must taste any of the dishes when they were asked. That was due to them tampering with the food and making Emma extremely ill—Nancy had a lot of tricks up her witchy sleeve. So I usually took every opportunity to make her taste whatever nasty stuff the cafeteria ladies had cooked up for Norm students.
This evening, however, I was still deep in thought and feeling a mixture of angry, worried, and blue after the interview we’d just gone through in Headmistress Nightworthy’s office.
“I am no lover of men!” Saint’s scornful words were still ringing in my ears as I pushed my tray along, mechanically accepting the fresh fish and salad that was on the Sister’s menu that evening. How could he say something like that right in front of me? All this time I’d been thinking that he didn’t hate me for being gay, the way the rest of the Drakes did, (Ari and Kaitlyn excepted, of course.) But the way he’d said it—like he was denying that he had a particularly virulent form of the plague—had made my stomach knot.