NINE
The rest of the day at schoolflew byquickly, no pun intended. Yanric followed me to every single class against my protests and by the end of the day, all of the school was talking about it.
Bane.
Familiar.
Future Nightling.
Daughter of a murderer.
The things they whispered when I passed made me long for the time that my only weird thing was that I couldn’t be touched. My group elective with Master Knight was canceled for the week as she was out of town, which I was grateful for. I wasn’t sure how much more I could handle, and considering Master Clarke had told me Marissa had killed her entire family, I wasn’t ready to meet any more people who hated me based on my birth mother.
Now I sat at the dinner table with my father and Hipsie. The color was back in her cheeks and she was sitting up, so that was good.
I’d just finished telling her and my father about my day, and they stared at Yanric, who was perched on the fourth chair as if he was a guest at our table.
My father looked down at his leftover meat pie. “Are we supposed to feed it?” he asked, looking from me to the bird.
How should I know? I looked at Yanric and he tipped his little bird head high.‘I can hunt. I’m chiefly here to protect you, but I do enjoy an occasional snack.’
“Protect me from my family?” I questioned.
My dad stiffened.
“Is it talking now?”
‘He, not it,’Yanric corrected.
I nodded. “He is.”
I’d told Hipsie and Dad about the familiar and what Ayden had said, how Marissa had one and it helped kill their parents.
“I can cook it up into a nice stew if you want to get rid of it,” Hipsie offered, speaking for the first time.
Chills rushed up my arms at her words and Yanric suddenly transformed before our eyes, from feathered bird to shadow creature.
‘I’d like to see you try, magicless,’he hissed.
Everyone gasped, myself included, and Hipsie grabbed the knife my father had used to cut the pie.
“Everyone calm down!” I placed a hand in front of Yanric’s shadow form. He reminded me of the magic that Nightling had when I’d seen it feed on the woman and then disappear. It scared me, the fact that I was tethered to this creature who could do these horrible things.
“Can I speak to you privately in my room?” I asked Yanric.
Hepoofed back into a feathered being.‘Sure, but there is no need, you can speak directly into my mind.’
I frowned, unable to process that just yet and left the dinner table, stomping back to my room.
When I got there Yanric flew to the head of my bed and perched there.
“What is your reason for being here with me all the time?” I asked him.
‘To protect you, of course.’He looked at me like I was crazy, his beady little eyes bugging out.
I nodded. “Well, I appreciate that, but you’re making my life harder. Magic is new to me and this is too much. When I’m at home with my father, who has protected me my entire life, you are not needed.” I walked over and opened the window.
He looked offended.
