Page 16 of Faerie Gift

Isat down across the lunch table from Melia, with my specially wrapped meal in front of me. Another damn sandwich. Another two pieces of dry toast and nearly inedible lunch meat, but hey, at least it wasn’t laden down with garlic, I tried to remind myself.

I also had a bag of potato chips and a crumbling cookie looking like someone had fished it out of a box in storage. I wasn’t surprised to see a thin layer of dust on the plastic.

Melia stared at me with her mouth full and a curious expression lighting her eyes. “You have something you want to say?” she asked around the food. “You’ve got a look on your face. You can’t hide anything from me. What did you find out? Something about the exchange students?”

“You bet.”

She waggled her eyebrows. “Tell me, then. Don’t keep me waiting!”

I shifted closer to lessen the odds of someone overhearing and told her everything I’d learned from Zinnia and the others. Which wasn’t much, but it was a start. And if anyone could help put the pieces together it would be the halfling in front of me. She was a brainiac by very definition, her mind constantly working.

Plus she was always reading about current events and news. Not just in this world but in Faerie. If anyone would know more about the broken portal then it would be Melia.

“What do you think?” I asked her when I finished, grabbing the sandwich and lifting it without taking a bite. “What’s your take on this whole situation?”

She drummed her fingers on the table. Her gaze focused on nothing as she thought and connected the pieces. “I’m not sure, really. I haven’t heard anything about our sister school or any issues there. Wouldn’t a damaged portal make the news? It’s a pretty big deal. As far as I’m aware, there are only three portals in the entire North American continent. Canada, the United States, and one in Central America. Yeah, it’s a big deal if one goes down.”

“That’s what I think too,” I said with a conspiratorial wink.

“It doesn’t make sense for it to not be reported. If the portal just broke down temporarily, then maybe, because a minor breakdown isn’t newsworthy. But you said they told you it was destroyed. They actually used the worddestroyed?”

I swallowed over a lump of extremely dry wheat bread. “Yeah, I think so. I guess it could have been an accident? But it didn’t seem like this was something they wanted to discuss. It seemed like they preferred to keep it a secret. The other two who weren’t so chatty looked like they wanted Zinnia and Saffron to shut the hell up about the portal.”

“Are we talking aboutthisagain?” Mike wanted to know as he sat. He sighed and adjusted himself on the seat. “It sounds like you’d rather focus on this than classes, Tavi. Keep up that kind of negative mindset and I’ll definitely displace you for number one top student. Mark my words.”

“In your dreams, Mike. And yes, I’m still talking about this because it’s weird and it doesn’t feel right. You agreed with me earlier.”

We always tried to keep the conversation light when we ate together. We were a man down from last semester. Mike had introduced me to his friend Roman on our first day and we felt his loss keenly.

Then again, he’d been trying to kill me.

Roman had been another half-shifter hiding in plain sight, although his motives for being here were still murky. He’d said something about working to make sure Mike kept his place here at the school.

I didn’t understand. Thus I’d pushed it to the back of my mind. Mike pointedly avoided looking at the empty seat next to him where his friend Roman had once sat. None of us cared to talk about his death and the policeman who shot him.

“Do you think you could ask your parents about it?” Melia turned to Mike and fixed him with her version of a hard stare. It still didn’t work, although I knew she’d been practicing in the mirror. There was nothinghardabout my friend. But I wouldn’t tell her that when she’d been practicing so diligently.

Mike looked like he’d just bitten into a lemon and came up with a worm. “I’m not going to talk to the old bastard,” he insisted.

It must be nice to be able to talk about the King of Faerie in those terms. If I tried to insult the monarchy, surely Mike’s special guards would be over here in a hot second ready to drag me away.

Still, I hadn’t seen those guards anywhere. Either Mike had insisted he could go it alone this semester or they were that good at their jobs.Invisible.

I worked to keep my response neutral. “Okay. How about your mom?”

He stuck his fork in a slice of meatloaf and it stood straight up. The scent of garlic rose from the tine puncture holes. He scrunched up his nose. “Yeah, I can ask her. I told her I’d call when I got here, anyway. I forgot.”

“You’re a model son,” Melia told him with mock seriousness. He only grunted in response.

Melia and I both focused our attention on Mike, watching him chew. He swallowed hard and his gaze darted between the two of us. “What’s the look for? You want me to call hernow?”

The two of us nodded in unison.

“At least let a guy get his garlic intake for the day,” Mike joked. He wiped at his mouth with a napkin. “It’s going to help me keep the rest of my admirers at a three-foot distance, at least.”

Okay, I could agree with him there. “Finish eating and then we’ll go.” In fact, he should eat all of it just to make sure those girls stayed away.

“We can use my room,” Melia offered. “Fourth-year privileges.”

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