Page 3 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

The room also had a vanity desk, on which sat a large mirror, a basin and pitcher, and a stack of papers.

A wooden basin stood in another corner with two chains over it, to release water from it. The orphanage had a similar system, but it was in an outdoor shed. Every morning, we had to fill up the water tank at the top of the shed. For the special kids like Kili, a fire was lit beneath the metal tank to heat the water. I rarely had shower privileges and had to wash up at the pump with cold water.

Hesitantly, I went to this basin and tugged one of the chains. A thin stream of warm water came out of the pipe. When I pulled the second chain, a soapy foam came out of a pipe at hand-level. I quickly released the chains. Magic.

That wasn’t the only sign that I wasn’t in the human realm anymore. Lights floated around the ceiling, moving over whatever I was looking at to make it easier to see. When I picked up the papers on the desk, one of them came to float right over my head, illuminating the words. On the small nightstand near the bed was a plate of food and glass of water. When I emptied the glass, it refiled itself.

I shuddered and hurried toward the door. Clearly, I was in the fae realm. So what now? What did they want with me? And just what was the Binding Academy?

I cracked open the door just a sliver at first, in case there was some murderous beast outside of my door. To my shock, I found myself staring at rows and rows of tents. Cautiously, I stepped from my room onto the grass. It was springy under my dirty shoes. The ‘inn’ that I’d been sent to was a tent, too.

My stomach knotted and I quickly stepped back into the room and shut the door. Pressing the door shut, I closed my eyes and assessed myself. Nothing felt sore or misplaced. When I wiggled my fingers and toes, I felt them respond. So I didn’t think the fae had harvested my organs or anything like that.

I opened my eyes again and looked over myself. The lights gathered over the mirror on the vanity, making me wince, but I headed over to it. The Azriel inside the mirror looked the same. Ordinary as ever. I still wore the orphanage uniform. Plain tunic, plain trousers, shoes dirty from the forest. I checked under my tunic, relieved to find my undergarments were still in place.

The brooch I always carried with me was still pinned to my undershirt. I smoothed my thumb over the amber jewel in the center of silver filigree. I might not have my knife or my messenger bag—or the book that I hadn’t finished reading—but at least I had this.

It was probably stupid, how much I cared about this brooch. It was the only thing I had that had once belonged to my parents. I wasn’t sure if the brooch had been my mother’s or my father’s, but it had been left to me when I was given to the orphanage, and was my only true belonging. Even the clothes on my back technically belonged to the orphanage.

Would they want them back, I wondered? Or was that pretty well impossible?

A heard a chattering outside and I hurried to the door, pressing my ear to it. Voices passed me by, but I couldn’t pick up any of the words. Frowning, I headed back outside. As was my habit, I memorized my location and started to explore, looking for any place that I might escape to if someone came after me.

The group that had passed by my tent was moving slowly. It appeared to be a family unit. Three of them were adults, though it was impossible to tell age from the backs of their heads. Two children walked with them, one of them the same height as the five-year-olds at the orphanage.

Judging from the aura around the family, they were fae. It seemed weird to me that they would have such a normal-looking family. But then, who knew if the kids were actually kids? I wasn’t sure they grew up the same way us humans did.

I walked in the same direction, careful not to get too close, to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“I’m hungry,” the smallest child declared.

“We’re almost back to the tent,” one of the adults said. From the high voice and long hair, I guessed it was a woman. So they weren’t all androgynous like the fae at the orphanage had been. “Remember, this is the last night before Penry joins the Academy. We have to make sure to be on our best behavior.”

The other adult with long hair hunched their shoulders. That must be Penry. It sounded like a man’s name to me, but when the person turned toward their sibling—presumably—I caught the sight of a swell of breasts before I dropped to one knee, pretending to tie my shoe to hide my spying.

“Mom, let’s not,” Penry said in a low, shy voice.

“What’s that?” the older of the children asked.

At this, the mom stopped. I risked a glance up. The kid was pointing at a huge, grand tent.

“That is the holding for the family of Court Alegro,” the last adult, the dad, said. He had a deep voice.

The tent was dyed a rich blue and had elaborate golden designs embroidered on it. It seemed to be on the edge of the group of tents, facing a wall of fog. Funny. All the tents were pitched facing the same way, but all I could see was fog.

“Unusual for one of the royal families to camp outside of the gates, but then, you hear things about their youngest girl. Not everyone can portal in, I suppose.”

There was a distinct snide edge to his voice.

From that, I surmised several things. One, all of these tents had been set up for the students who were entering the academy and their families. Two, the academy would start processing students tomorrow. Three, fae society was divided between the royal families and the non-royal families. Four, if even members of the royal families could be spoken of with such derision, I was screwed.

The family meandered around and circled back the way we came. I followed them to their tent, which was plain and boring, the same as mine. Nothing compared to the large tent that was meant to be Court Alegro’s. I headed back in that direction, and soon found myself outside of that tent again.

While it was the grandest of the tents, there were others that were also flashy. All sorts of colors filled my vision as I wandered around. I wasn’t the only one, either, and by casually wandering closer to some groups, I was able to glean more information.

It appeared that everyone in these tents had come from far distances, and some of them had been waiting for weeks. The gates to the academy were hidden within the fog, and would appear in the morning, when the highest ranked fae portaled in. Of the tents pitched here, they were arranged by rank.

My tent wasn’t the plainest, nor was it at the very back. But as I looked around, one thing became very clear. There were no humans here. Nobody looked at me as though I was human, either. A few sneered at me, but for the most part of I was ignored.