“Good. Pouvoir?”
“Wood weavers,” she said. “They live inside trees, and some can disguise themselvesastrees. They’re carnivorous.”
“Miss Clover?”
“Undines. Water Horrors that lay their eggs in the decaying bodies of their drowned prey.” She shuddered.
“Good, very good. What else? Mr. Trent?”
The boy in question did his best deer-in-tramlights impression. “I… I didn’t get a chance to do the reading.”
Vitra tipped his head to the side. “Didn’t get a chance or couldn’t be bothered?”
The student looked trapped, eyes darting this way and that.
Vitra sipped his drink and sighed. “Get out.”
“What?” Trent said.
“Don’t make me repeat myself, Mr. Trent.”
“Please, sir, I’ll catch up.”
“Yes, you will. You’ll do the required reading and the next four chapters, and I’ll be testing you on the content next class. If you fail, you’ll be allocated to Domestic.”
Trent looked about at his fellow classmates, as if expecting someone to stand up for him, but everyone was suddenly extremely interested in their notebooks. Vitra waited and watched, his body so still it was unnerving, until Trent gathered his things and quickly left the room.
“Miss Thistle, I hopeyoudid the reading.” He graced her with a smile of confidence, and she practically preened.
“I did.” She glanced about, smug.
“Then please remind us of the last two main types of Horror.”
“Sylphs and salamanders,” she said quickly. “Sylphs will steal the oxygen from your lungs, suffocating you on dry land, and a salamander…well, it’ll burn you up. Top tip: do not light campfires in the forest as these can spawn salamanders.”
“The forest is alive,” Vitra said with a nod. “A sentient entity that houses many more creatures than what we’ve learned. New Horrors are born every decade, and the old evolve and change. What we know today is not necessarily what will be tomorrow. But we can learn a lot from the activities of the Horrors of today and maybe use that information to predict what might happen in the future.”
Someone put up their hand, and Vitra lifted his chin in his direction.
“Is it true that mudark activity is increasing?” the student asked. “That their numbers have grown exponentially?”
Another student spoke up. “I heard there have been more proximity attacks on the boundaries the past few days.”
“Are the Horrors getting bolder?” a third student asked.
Vitra’s expression closed off. “That is a question for the hunt leaders and their teams.Thisis Horror 101, so open your books to Chapter Ten and read quietly.”
I flipped open the book to the chapter titled “Origin of the Salamander” and set to reading.
I was so absorbed in the text that I barely registered everyone leaving, and when I looked up, I was one of the last students in the room.
Vitra stood with his back to me, fiddling with his satchel and some papers.
The jacket was off, leaving his pert ass, snug in his dark gray trousers, on view. I caught a couple of students checking him out as they slowly walked past.
Good to know I wasn’t the only one lusting.
The door clicked shut behind the last student, leaving Vitra and me alone.
