He moved back beside me and snaked his arm around my waist, resting his hand on my hip as he pulled me closer. “I’ve got you.”
My tablet laid in my lap, and Lachlan held his with his free hand, but his touch was my lifeline right now. It was a strange feeling, but I was grateful for it.
“There,” Professor Cunningham declared with a raspy laugh. “If you check your newest document, you should see the official Kalista list of our hierarchy.”
I poked the notification on the screen and the list pulled up. I scanned it, paying careful attention to the ranks. The hierarchy list at the village was outdated, so this list had changed since I’d seen it last.
Kalista Hierarchy Ranking
Dragons/Firedrakes/Icedrakes
Basilisks
Phoenixes
Demons
Fae
Warlocks/Witches
Vampires
Sirens
Werewolves
Shifters
Kelpies
Griffins
Sphinxes
Banshees/Phantoms
Harpys
Gargoyles
Centaurs
Trolls
Imp
Humans
I was happy to see that shifters had gone from rank eleven to rank ten, but I didn’t see much of a difference other than that. My gaze lingered on ranks one, four, five, six, seven, nine, and ten.
I’d come to know wonderful supernaturals on a higher rank than I was, and it made my heart swell. Back in Briesia, it was forbidden to speak to any supernatural outside shifters, and it was frowned upon to associate with other types of shifters. Coming to Fate Hollow had really opened my eyes to how similar we all were. If only all of Kalista could realize that.
“In Fate Hollow, hierarchy doesn’t matter. That being said, there are a lot of occasions where higher ranked supernaturals take advantage of the lower rank.” She sighed, putting her palm against her cheek. “If you look at rank fourteen, you’ll see banshees and phantoms. I’m a banshee, and my mate was a phantom.”
The reaction from the class was a mixture of silence, awws, and huffs of disapproval that made my skin crawl.
Her eyes turned sad for a moment before she cleared her throat. “We lived in The Bizzare with all the ranks lower than shifters. As you can imagine, it’s not received well by the rest of Kalista, but I will say it’s a lot like Fate Hollow in that all the ranks below shifters live in harmony. They don’t divide supernaturals, and most of them are mated to supernaturals outside their species.”
