Book 2 Chapter 11
1675 Words
11
When I wake again, I’m alone. Or I think so, until a familiar gravelly voice says, “You’re finally up.”
I sit up, the blood rushing to my head and making me feel woozy. I give myself a moment and then I spot him.
I no longer have the room to myself. Nico is now on the hospital bed next to mine. I prop myself up with some pillows while he gives me a toothy grin.
“Edie, the girl who saved my life.”
He looks a lot better, with color in his cheeks and an eyepatch covering his ruined socket. He actually looks quite dashing, like a werewolf-pirate hybrid.
“I didn’t realize you were such a celebrity around here. A dragon shifter?”
I blush. “It sounds cool, but I recently found out it probably just means I’m a Moggy. You know? Like some interspecies boot-knocking is in my past.” I blush even harder. Who even says ‘knocking boots?’ I know Themis wanted me to spread the lie, but this is beyond embarrassing.
But Nico just shakes his head. “If you’re the result of interspecies mingling, I’m all for it,” he says. Then with a slight frown, adds, “So long as you keep it in the shifter family.”
Suddenly I’m highly aware of the fact that if he and I ‘knocked boots’ it would be ‘keeping it in the family’ and why am I even thinking about this?
Oh my gods, Edie, get a grip.
Nico frowns as he studies me even more intently. It’s hard not to squirm beneath the intensity of his gaze. “You don’t know who your parents are, then?”
“No.” I look down and pick at the pilling on the blanket covering me. “I thought I did, but it turns out they weren’t my real parents and they basically lied to me my whole life.”
“Not your whole life. Seems they must’ve come clean if they’re trying to find your birth parents now.”
“Yeah, no.” I clear my throat which has suddenly become thick. “My dad died and my mom was taken by the monsters. That’s why I was out in the desert. I was leading a mission to find her, but the portal keys got all messed up.”
Nico rubs a hand across his heavily-stubbled jaw. I can’t help but compare him to Val. Everything about Val is liquid and smooth and cold. Nico on the other hand is rough and ragged…and hot.
He frowns. “That shouldn’t happen.”
“Yeah, I know.” I hesitate, unsure how much I should confide in him. “I guess all the keys were actually wrong. It looks like someone messed with them on purpose.” He still looks concerned, so trying to reassure him, I add, “Themis will get it figured out. If anyone can, it’s her.”
“Themis?” Nico sits up straighter. “She knows how to twist things so they suit her, convince you of things that aren’t the truth. Mr. Zee trusts her too much and gives her too much leeway—” He stops himself. “I shouldn’t be saying this. She was here, watching you while you slept. I thought it was weird, but I don’t know, maybe you two have a thing.”
“No! There’s no thing. We’re not a thing.” I mean, I guess I trust Themis but I want to know what Nico has to say.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and lean closer to Nico, not wanting to be overheard.
“She’s who told me I might be a Moggy.”
“Yeah, I snuck out of bed to stretch my legs when she was here. I noticed Themis was quick to put up a silence shield, but I don’t need to hear what she said to know that if it comes out of Themis’ mouth, it’s not the truth. My mom and I have been saying for years now—she’s gotta go. If she stopped getting in Mr. Zee’s way and just let him run the Academy as he sees fit—”
“Well, I don’t know about that…” I say, trying to find a diplomatic way to let Nico know I’m not exactly on team Zee either. Especially when Nico is clearly a superfan. His one good eye is lit up with a wolfish glow, and he doesn’t even seem to hear me.
“You’re obviously something special, Edie, and Themis doesn’t like when people are too special. It was the same with my mother. She was kicked out for not falling into line, for refusing to bow and scrape for Themis.”
Nico looks around, making sure no one else is nearby, before leaning in toward me. We are now both sitting at the edges of our beds, knees nearly touching. His breath fans my face.
“That’s all gonna change soon. I just got a message from my mom. Mr. Zee’s eyes were opened when monsters invaded that dance. It happened on Themis’ watch. He finally realizes he needs to take more control. And he’s starting with the summer semester special guest instructor. Hermes booked old man Priapus, because he loves his s*x-ed class. But Mr. Zee has a better idea.”
Nico grins. I don’t even know what he’s talking about, but his enthusiasm is infectious. Also, anything that will get us out of s*x-ed is okay in my book. Grabbing hold of my hands, he squeezes them tight. “This summer, we’re learning real world survival skills with my mother, Maddox Tralano.”
Nico looks at me expectantly. As if he just announced his mom was Kate Winslet or the Queen of England. I am clearly meant to be impressed.
“Um…wow,” I say. “Your mom who got kicked out of the Academy is returning to teach.”
“Yup. Themis is gonna lose her mind.” He flashes me a toothy grin.
“Hello!” Fern bustles into the room. “Nice to see my two favorite patients getting along so well!”
Nico immediately withdraws, dropping my hands as the light in his eye goes out. “Yeah,” he says, the one syllable flat and disinterested.
I’m surprised at this sudden change. He’s being so rude to Fern. Which is weird because everyone loves Fern. It’s an unwritten campus rule—be nice to Fern.
Catching my eye, Fern gives a little ‘what can you do’ shrug. Peeling up my bandage, she attempts to smooth over the awkward atmosphere. “So, I don’t know if you heard, Edie, but we all thought Nico had died. He was out on a mission with another student—”
“The traitor,” Nico growls.
Fern hesitates. “Yes, Emmie was a traitor. We didn’t realize at the time.”
“When I realized what she was, she tried to kill me.” He laughs, bitterly, and suddenly I am seeing a whole different side of him. “She took my eye, but not my life,” he scoffs. “She left me for dead. When I tried to make my way back to the Academy, the monsters caught me. They couldn’t have been more pleased that I was alive. That way I was…useful.”
I wince, aware what that must mean, and where all his other injuries must have come from.
“They didn’t get anything out of me, though,” he says, jaw tense. “It takes more than monsters to break a Tralano.”
“Well, all’s well that ends well,” Fern chirps, but the smile she gives me is strained. I wonder if—like Cassie—she was friends with Emmie.
I never met her, but have heard her story many times. She was on a mission with another student—Nico, I guess. They were captured. Nico was killed…or not. And Emmie escaped, making it back to Mount Olympus Academy. They thought she was a hero, but then discovered she’d been turned by the monsters and was a traitor instead. Before she could be questioned, Emmie and her boyfriend, Derrick, escaped.
“All’s well that ends well?” Nico sneers. “Easy for you to say, witch. You didn’t spend almost a year being tortured in a monster prison cell.”
Fern sighs.
“Nico is not a fan of non-shifters,” she explains away his casual bigotry to me as she finishes securing a new bandage and turns toward Nico. “He hates vampires on principle and only tolerates us witches because occasionally he has need of a healer.” And with that she rips off his bandage with a lot less care than she did mine.
Nico grunts. “Who could hate those gentle healer hands?”
Fern laughs and presses her hand to Nico’s chest. “Lie back so I can check your eye socket.”
He’s surprisingly obedient. Only softly growling, “watch it,” as she pours something that bubbles and hisses as it touches his skin.
“There you go,” Fern says after replacing the bandage over Nico’s eye. “You should be good as new by tomorrow. Not including the eye, of course.”
She starts to walk away, and Nico grabs her hand. Surprised, and maybe a little scared, she spins.
Nico gives her one of his disarmingly charming canine smiles.
“Thank you.” He says it softly, then releases her and leans back into his bed, looking the other way, almost as if he’s embarrassed by his own decency.
Fern’s smile is tight. “I guess this makes me your favorite witch.”
“Nope,” Nico quickly replies. “That’s Cassie. She’s the reason I got away. And once you tell me I’m healthy as I’m gonna get—I’m going back for her.”
- Writer
