Page 8 of Fortune Academy: Year One
Defense mechanisms? “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, the words choppy as I convulsed from a new surge of cold that swept relentless needles through my body.
Kaito held out a hand. “Dante, give me your blade.” When my eyes went wide, Kaito lowered his voice. “Lily, I need you to trust me right now. If you don’t let me help you then you’re going to die. If you break that summoning artifact in your pocket, then we alldie. Even if I could teach you how to feed,I can’t allow you to feed in the way your body needs, not here. That’ll set off every alarm in this place and then we’re all dead. You’re just going to have to stay very still, can you do that for me?”
I was probably an idiot to trust this guy, but I was scared, and he felt like he knew what he was talking about. Something about the cold running through my body wasn’t normal. I had always pushed it off as a weird blood condition or that I just didn’t retain body heat very well, but now that I was thinking about it, that was a pretty ridiculous notion. I knew that I was supernatural, so I should have listened to my body and picked up the cues. Something was wrong with me and even if I wasn’t sure what it was, Kaito’s experience said he’d seen this before and it didn’t end well.
“Fine,” I said and uncurled my fingers placing my palms face-up on my thighs. “Do whatever you need to do.”
Kaito nodded and then glanced at Dante who produced the same blade that he’d used to make our back door portal. Kaito swept two fingers over the steel and made it glow the same silver as his eyes.
I expected him to cut me with it, but he didn’t. He let the cool kiss of the blade etched over my skin, leaving a sweeping rune to appear on my left inner forearm. He wiped over the skin once and seemed satisfied with the work before moving to my other arm and repeating the motion.
When he was done the sensation of ice filling my body subsided, except for the cool kiss of the runes across my arms. It was as if the magic had gathered all of the cold and pulled it into one place.
“That’ll hold for now,” Kaito said, wiping the sweat from his brow. He returned the blade to Dante who frowned.
“You drained all of it. Hendrik’s going to kill me.”
I was starting to get curious about this Hendrik guy. If even Dante was afraid of him, then I wanted to know what kind of powers he had.
Kaito’s gaze lingered on me for a moment and I blushed when I realized that he was eye-level with my breasts and had been staring for quite some time. He seemed to inwardly shake himself and gave me a nervous glance. I had the feeling that Kaito wasn’t a guy who often got nervous. “I’m sorry about that, the runes, I mean,” he added quickly. He rubbed the back of his neck before reclaiming his seat. He took a sip of his tea, but then grimaced and put it down.
“So what did you do, exactly?” I asked. I glanced down at my own cup and frowned at the layer of ice that frosted over it. Apparently I hadn’t been imagining the intense cold that had been radiating through my body just a moment before.
“It has to do with what you are,” he began, “but that’s one question I’m afraid I’m not ready to answer for you yet. You need to ease into your truth, not be rushed and confronted by it. You’ve lost your memories, yes?”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and placed the frozen teacup back on the table. “What if I have?” I didn’t like how much these guys seemed to know about me but I didn’t know anything about them.
Kaito gave me a sympathetic smile. “That’s okay. That’s how most supernaturals come to us. When the Second Echo of Calamity struck and multiple realms collided, supernaturals were ripped from their homes and their lives. Such a traumatic event comes with a price.”
“Are you saying I’m not from Earth?” I asked and crossed my arms. “That’s quite the leap.” I knew something was off about me, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I didn’t even belong on Earth.
Kaito shared a knowing look with Dante, making my irritation bristle. Dante cleared his throat before adding to the conversation. “We’re not saying that you aren’t from Earth, but well, let’s just say that you’re a complicated case.”
“Then why am I not talking with the dean right now? Why risk my life and bring me through a botched back door tunnel to the Academy? I’m sitting in an office with the two of you in the middle of the night and you’re talking about me like I’m some secret.”
“You are a secret,” Dante said, his tone flat. “No one can know who or what you are.”
I clawed my fingers into the seat, desperately wanting to shred something right now. “Even I don’t know who or what I am!” That was the whole purpose I was here. If these guys weren’t going to help then I was going to have to make them help.
“And it’s best we keep it that way,” Kaito agreed with Dante, his voice steady even though I was starting to get seriously pissed off. “Now that you’re here, we can sneak you in with the new freshmen, get you a dorm and—”
“No,” I snapped and shot to my feet, sending my shins hitting hard against the table and I winced. It was hard to look intimidating when I was on the losing end of a battle with furniture. “I need to know what I am. How am I supposed to protect myself?”
“What do you need protection from?” Dante asked, crossing his arms while he managed to look insulted. “You can’t seriously believe that I’d go through all the trouble to bring you here just to harm you. If I wanted you dead, then I would have done it at the bar and saved myself the trouble.”
I pointed at Kaito who was still sitting all calm and reserved like we were in a regularly planned mentor-student meeting rather than whatever the hell this was. “You brought me to himto get your bounty. This is a school for the supernatural, right? You guys want to study me? I must be something special if both Fortune Academy and Monster Academy are fighting over me.” I crossed my arms and tried to keep my pounding heart from flying out of my chest. Cindy and Jess, they’d done worse than just fight over me. They’d pretended to be my friends, my family, and the moment it looked like they weren’t going to get their way, they were willing to kill me.
It hurt.
Kaito must have misunderstood the expressions I wore so carelessly on my face, because he sighed and opened his palms. I recognized the body language as a display of submission. He wanted me to feel like I was safe, but how could I ever feel safe again? How could I trust anyone not to just be looking out for themselves?
“I won’t lie to you, Lily. Yes, the Academy studies supernatural just as often as it takes on new students, but it’s not a sentiment that Dante or I agree with. We work for the Academy, not the other way around, but this is where we can do some good for supernaturals like you. If you’ll just give us a chance, I’ll show you that this wasn’t a bounty. You weren’t collected to be studied, but if word got out who you were, then yes, that’s exactly what would happen.”
I swallowed hard. No matter how upset I was, or how betrayed I felt, I knew when someone was lying and Kaito was telling me the bold truth. This Academy wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t going to hide that from me, but if everything he was saying was true, he would be getting some major kudos from the dean by turning me in now. It didn’t make sense to hide me.
Feeling deflated, I plopped back onto the chair and curled my fingers over my knees. I was glad I’d worn jeans today or else all my scrambling around through realms would have skinned me pretty good. The fabric was streaked with dirt and blood and rain. Getting myself a dorm and a hot shower was starting to sound pretty good right about now. “Okay, say that I go along with this. What’s the plan?”
Kaito straightened and smiled, looking far too pleased with himself. “Orientation’s tomorrow.” He jumped up and rummaged through his desk, producing a badge with the school’s emblem. He held it out to me. “Welcome to Fortune Academy.”
