I opened the door to the pool room and, from the corner of my eye, saw the mermaids splashing and playing. Thanks to my uncle’s voice, though, I couldn’t hear them or their siren friends. With one seductive note, any of those creatures could lure me to my watery grave.
Ignoring the mad gestures they were employing in an attempt to get me to glance their way, I skirted the tiled space and let myself into the bathroom, the designated location for our meeting.
Three girls glanced up from their places around the partial drawing on the floor. They looked completely normal. Human, like me. But I knew better than to believe appearances and didn’t stop to stare at what they were doing. My lessons were too ingrained.
Moving to the sinks, I held my hazel gaze in the mirror, observing what the druids were doing from my peripheral. One of them gestured at her ears and shook her head. Despite her mimed request, I didn’t take out my earbuds.
Druids were a different level of lethal compared to the other creatures in Uttira. While these girls wouldn’t eat my heart from my chest or grind my bones for a substitute parmesan pizza topping, they would still use me in a second if it helped a spell. Or worse, use me as a Guinea pig to test a spell. And, since they were here to cast one to get rid of Eliana’s mom, I wasn’t sure which role the druids might unexpectedly decide I could fill.
Hopefully, Eliana would show before I found out.
The girl who’d gestured got up and plucked one of the earbuds from my ears.
“We’re siren proof in here,” she said, tossing it at me. “You can put that back in and keep staring at the mirror, but it’s not necessary. It’s not like we can hurt you here.”
That was laughable. The ward would prevent my death, but there were still many ways I could be hurt. If she had suffered a day in her life, she would know that.
However, she was right about not needing the earbuds. I couldn’t hear the sirens, and blocking the sound of the druids wasn’t necessary. Technically, neither was avoiding eye contact with them. But since most of the creatures didn’t wear species indicators, it always paid to follow the no eye contact rule.
“Focus, Anne. What the human does or doesn’t do isn’t our concern as long as she stays out of the way,” one of the other two said.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” the third said with a level of excitement. “It’ll get the Council’s attention for sure. If this doesn’t earn us our marks, I don’t know what will.”
I struggled not to roll my eyes at the mention of the infamous Mark of Mantirum and removed my other earbud.
“Tone down your optimism, Meg. We’ll probably need to wait another year, just like most druids before us.”
“We have a lot more experience, and Adira knows it.”
Adira, the sole “counselor” for Girderon Academy, cared about far more than experience. Maturity, the ability to follow simple rules, and how all the cogs fit into her power-machine seemed to be at the top of her list. Likely, the three cogs before me didn’t have their marks because Adira hadn’t yet decided how they could best contribute to Mantirum society.
However, the speaker was right about one thing. Theywouldeventually get their ticket to freedom. With their marks, they would be able to come and go from Uttira as they pleased. Something I would never be able to do.
Leaning against the sink, I boldly watched the three work. They placed a few bowls in their circle and had barely finished the last chalk rune on the floor when the door opened.
The blonde hair and petite form were easily recognizable from the corner of my eye, and I lifted my gaze to give Eliana a friendly wave. She was one of the creatures I’d been warned never to look at, but the young succubus wasn’t like everyone else in this town. She truly didn’t want to hurt me and was an honest friend. That was why I was happy to see her and why I supported her, even though I was against this whole setup. I didn’t want these druids doing something that would cause Eliana more trouble than she already had in her life.
Eliana returned my wave before the Debbie-downer of the druid group spoke up.
“Perfect timing,” she said. “We just finished setting everything up.”
“What do you need me to do?” Eliana asked.
“You and the human should stand off to the side.”
“Ashlyn,” Eliana said, letting her annoyance show. “Her name is Ashlyn.”
Her defense of me almost made me smile. To her, I was a person. To everyone else, I was simply fair game.
“Great. This is Meg,” the leader pointed to a girl with thick hair, “Anne,” she indicated the one with glitter makeup, “and I’m Lauv. We’ll do the spell, and when I point to you, you’ll need to speak your mother’s name. That’s it. Nothing to it.”
“How many times have you successfully performed this spell?” I asked.
“More than a dozen times inside the barrier. Finding volunteers with a mark to travel outside the barrier is a little harder.”
“So never?” I pressed.
“The spell is the same. It’s just the location that’s different.” Lauv’s gaze shifted to Eliana. “Are you changing your mind?”
