Page 52 of Great Falls Cadet
“For the record, I understand what you just said about as well as I understand my mathematics homework.”
Arisha rubs her face. “Well, we’ve proof of fae and not witches, but how can one prove that something doesn’t exist? It’s like proving a negative. You can’t prove a negative. And that isn’t a dog. There has to—”
“You are babbling,” I tell Arisha.
“And you are fae,” she shoots back. “So that makes us even.”
Silence settles through the room. Arisha hugs herself. I cross my arms over my chest, my head cold and blank. Shade growls. The silence grows thicker, heavier. Outside our tall open window, the slowly lowering sun casts a warm peachy light over the spring evening—a bizarre contrast to the tension in this room.
Something. I have to do something. Say something. But what?
Arisha covers her face with her hands, rubbing her forehead. When she speaks, her voice shakes slightly, as if she’s fighting her own better judgment. “Gavriel is my uncle. So I know…everything.” She lowers her hands. “It’s not just gossip. I’m training for the Guild, so he had good reason tell me. And yes, Iknowit’s forbidden to interfere, but whoever wrote that rule wasn’t stuck in a room with—” She waves her hand at Shade’s wolf, now snapping at a fly daring to buzz around his head, “Ruffle.”
I drop onto my bed, sitting right atop a still very damp Shade, who somehow managed to sprawl across the covers when I wasn’t paying attention. The wolf huffs his displeasure before shifting over. A hollow ringing fills my ears, as if someone just struck me over the head with a club. “How long?” I ask.
Arisha looks at her bare feet. “Two day after you came. When you were out with Coal.”
“Is that why you—” I pause as the rest of the words Arisha said finally catch up with me. “What did you say about not interfering?”
“The Guild is not supposed to do anything to influence any fae that might cross—it’s one of the Guild’s tenets,” says Arisha, plainly regaining her footing with a chance to offer up information, reminding me so much of Autumn for a brief moment that my chest squeezes. “The ancients were very clear on wanting no fraternization between the worlds, hence the wards and Mystwood and all. And more practically, it keeps the peace. Without the noninterference vow, you’d have the whole Guild maneuvering to try to influence the Protector instead of cooperating and sharing knowledge.”
“Wait.” I hold up my hand. “What you are describing is not Gavriel.”
“You’re telling me,” she says with a snort. “That’s why the Guild threw him out… He didn’t tell you that part, did he?”
“No.”
Arisha blushes. “It looks like I’m little better. Stars. All the rules make so much sense on parchment, but reality is never quite so clean.”
“Is this why you’ve been avoiding me?” I ask, biting my lip. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d been missing Arisha’s friendship until this moment.
The wave of relief rushing through me at Arisha’s nod makes me sink into Shade’s fur.
Shade.
I straighten up, suddenly remembering how we got into this conversation. “So, about the wolf. Could you possibly not mention him to, well,anyone?”
Arisha eyes Shade warily. With his head resting on furry paws, the wolf seems to be following the conversation, one long ear flickering now and again. With new attention suddenly on him, Shade lifts his black snout and sneezes, sending a new cloud of gray fur and lupine drool into the air.
“Is he really a pet from Lunos?” Arisha asks, her face filled with momentary curiosity before her eyes widen again. With a shriek, she rushes to grab the bedspread off her cot, hastily covering her still mostly naked body. “It’s one of them, isn’t it? One of the four males. Stars. Coal? Is that Coal in our room? Did you empty a pitcher of water on bloodyCoal?I was already doing badly enough in his lessons—”
“It’s not Coal,” I say quickly. “I promise.”
Arisha’s gaze narrows. “But it is one of them?”
I wince. So much for keeping my head down until rescue arrives. “Shade.”
“I’ll never step into the infirmary again without turning so red I set the walls on fire,” Arisha whispers hoarsely.
“If it makes you feel better, Shade won’t be aware of this. I mean, the version of Shade you think you know doesn’t know he’s fae, much less that he shifts into a wolf now and again.” I drop flat onto my mattress, ignoring the wolf’s indignant rumble. If he wants to take up the entire mattress, then he can hardly complain when I use him for a footrest. “It’s a mess all around.”
Arisha tilts her head in consideration. “All right. So will you tell Shade the truth? I imagine waking with a belly full of meat—or whatever that beast you are using as a pillow does with its teeth—is rather disconcerting.”
“If I accused you of being fae while also claiming that everything you think you know about your life is an utter lie and that you secretly turn into a wild beast, what would you do?”
“At best, I’d think you daft. At worst… I’d think you were conjuring an accusation as a threat—that you are thinking of making the claim to the inquisitors.” Arisha winces. “And by the time those inquisitor bastards are done seeking proof—wait. Proof. What if you had proof?”
“I tried that,” I say, recounting what happened when I forced Coal to touch his own ear, my stomach turning at his phantom screams. “The veil magic is fighting for its survival, and I think it attacks when cornered. That means I stay the hell clear of anything that might provoke it until someone who knows what they are doing comes.”
