“Thanks,” I told her, and then got busy mopping the floors. By the time I was done, the shop was sparkling, and I had a new book in my bag:Miraculous Tales of Healing: True Stories.
“Good luck!” Avis called out, and I thanked her and headed for The Academy.
Yanric flew toward me with something large hanging from a string that he held in his beak.
‘Whoa.’I grabbed the cloth-wrapped parcel.‘You flew with this heavy thing?’
I opened the cloth and smiled when I saw one of my dad’s pulled-pork sandwiches. There was a note attached.
Luv
-Dad
The handwriting was akin to a primary schooler, and I stroked my fingers over it, grateful for my dad who was always taking care of me. He couldn’t read or write much, but I’d taught him how to sign his name and to write a few other phrases likehello,thank you,goodbye, andI love you.
‘Your dad said to be home by curfew. Also, that you have to share the food with me since I carried it over here like a dumb pigeon.’
‘Hey, pigeons aren’t dumb.’
Yanric gave me a look that said not to mess with him, and I just grinned. I was hungry. It was nearly dinnertime, and with all the time we’d been spending at the library, it was easy to accidentally skip meals. Ripping off a chunk of the bread, I held it out to him and then started on my half of the sandwich.
‘See you later?’I asked Yanric after he took his portion.
‘I’ll be around,’he confirmed with a mouthful of bread, and then flew off.
I passed Royal Row, aptly named by Eden, which was a street—full of giant tidy mansions, of course—that was easy to cut through on the way to school from work. Ariyon and Ayden’s house was at the end of this street, and I was pretty sure most of the popular kids from school lived here. I turned the corner and stopped immediately when I heard yelling.
“You will do as I ask or there will be consequences!” a man shouted.
I shrank into the hedge that lined the front yard of the house where the yelling was coming from so that I wouldn’t be seen, and I peered through the bushes.
A young man stood, shoulders slumped forward, as an older man, who I assumed to be his father, berated him for something. The kid turned, and my heart spiked when I recognized him.
Hayes?
“But I’m a healer, Father. I don’t want to take three hours of private sword lessons a day,” Hayes complained.
“How my magic skipped over you, I’ll never know. Maybe your mother laid with a healer because—”
“Don’t talk about her like that!” Hayes spat.
His father reached out blindingly fast and slapped him across the face.
I gasped.
“I’ll talk about my wife however I want. You willnotbe weak. This family has a reputation to uphold.”
Hayes cupped his cheek, and the wheels on the backs of his hands spun as he seemingly healed himself.
“Yes, Father,” he muttered, and then his dad stormed off into the house.
My stomach lurched as my last meal attempted to travel upward. Hayes’s dad was a nightmare. My father would never speak or talk to me like that. I pulled myself from the bushes, but in the effort, my ankle caught on a branch, and I went down.
A yelp tore from my throat as I fell, my hands splayed out to catch myself.
The sound of scrambling footsteps could be heard, and then Hayes was looming over me.
“Fallon?”
