I was missing something here, one of those “rules” or “etiquettes” of this world.
Larissa and Ilia exchanged a quick look, and I was about to yell at them to just tell me already, when Ilia answered, “Shifters are very primal. A lot of their instincts go back to their animals within. And there are some things that are universal between them all. Food is a bonding experience. They love it. They revel in it. It’s an experience for them. If a shifter offers you some of their food, it’s about more than just sharing. It’s about pack. About even … romance, sometimes.”
I swallowed hard. “So, Jesse was like … shifter-style flirting with me?”
Ilia shrugged, and Larissa nodded.
“He was definitely doing something,” Ilia added. “Only time will tell what that something was.”
“Be wary,” Larissa said seriously. “Jesse has a long-term girl: Chellie. I mean, they’re off and on all the time, and I heard it’s definitely off right now, but she can be a real bitch when someone tries to touch her man.”
“Even when they don’t,” Ilia said with a snort of laughter. “She’s theothermean girl in the school and is best friends with Kate.”
Well, great. I now probably had two bitches gunning for me. I hadn’t seen the Clovers at lunch, thankfully, so maybe they wouldn’t find out.
“Well, I’m relieved to say that I didn’t take his food, so hopefully he’ll see that as a rejection.” And stop shifter flirting and creating a huge issue for me.
Ilia lifted her hands and pressed her palms to her chest, and then to either side of her forehead, leaving just the tips of her fingers sticking up above the side of her head. “From your mouth to the mother god’s ears.”
A prayer gesture.
I had so much to learn.
The music rang out across the air again, the magic tingled in my blood, and I realized that lunch was over. Wow, that two hours had felt like five minutes, and I’d barely even seen my friends.
“Sorry we were late for lunch,” Ilia said, looking around as students started to move. “I got caught up with Princeps Jones. He needed some advice on another bounty they’re searching for. A bear shifter who has been living in a forest in Germany… Anyway, it took longer than I expected.”
“And I had a group project,” Larissa added, “that ran way over in my last class. I mean, trying to get a vampire and fey to stop arguing with each other took half the lesson, and then there was no time for actual work.”
I laughed and shook my head. “It’s totally fine. I don’t need to be babysat. You do your thing and I know we’ll find each other at some point.”
I’d been independent my entire life; it was enough to know they were there. That they had my back.
The girls dropped me off at my next class, which was back in the classroom section. I had no idea what to expect from Demon Mythology 101, because all I knew about demons was that they were soul-sucking entities from hell. I was interested to find out what was real and fake in the human lore on them.
Dropping my fancy bag beside my table, I waited for the class to begin. It was filling with a lot of students that I’d seen in my last classes, and a few I hadn’t. Curious expressions met mine, and two hostile ones from pretty, dark-haired chicks. They looked so similar that I guessed they were twins.
I had no idea how they could have hated me already, since I hadn’t ever seen either of them before. I must have stared a little too long, because one of them sneered at me. “Whore,” she muttered. “Think you can stroll in and take the Atlantean-five?”
Ah, right. This was about me sitting with Jesse and Axl. No wonder everyone was staring at me. I’d definitely broken some kind of unspoken rule at lunch. I returned her glare with one of my own. “I didn’t take anything,” I said, not showing an ounce of weakness. “If they wanted you, then they would be with you. Don’t blame me for your lack of—”
The teacher breezed into the room then and I cut myself off. Both brunette bitches shot me one last glare before they swung in unison to face the front of the room. Twins that spent a little too much time together.
No one sat at the desks on either side of me; I tried not to take offence to that. I was pretty used to making social fuckups. This was par for the course. Simon wasn’t in this class with me, which was a disappointment. I’d have to ask him for his schedule next time I saw him.
Focusing on the teacher, I was surprised to see that she was barely five feet tall. Her hair was short and curled, strands of red and orange intertwining. Her skin was dark brown, with hints of red, and when she smiled a bright white smile, her teeth were slightly pointed. Overall, she was the most interesting-looking supe I’d seen so far.
Outside of Mossie, because there was nothing topping a goblin.
“Good afternoon,” the teacher began. “Welcome to Demon Mythology. I’m Coco, and I’m half demi-fey, half magic user. Sorcerer level, of course.”
Of course.
I wondered what sort of demi-fey she was. I hoped we’d get to explore their school as well at some point, because that’s where the truly unusual supernaturals would be. I wanted to meet them all. Especially the mermaids.
“This class has two parts to it,” Coco said. “First is history of demons and the world they now inhabit, and part two iswarningandreason.Because I don’t like to give you rules without making you understand why.”
Whatever noise had been in the classroom faded away, and the focus was completely on Coco now. “Demons were once fey that lost their souls to the darkness. They became so tainted with the evil energy that upon death they could not move on to the world after. They became stuck in purgatory … in the land with no energy and no life.”
