Who the hell sent him here?
“Erm, I think you should get out of here. You will be killed if you’re caught,” I gently tell him, leaning down to look in his glowing green eyes. His green skin reminds me of fresh apples, and he smells like bleach, which is a little off-putting this close-up. “Don’t you know fae creatures are hunted and killed here for sport?”
“Then why are you here?” he retorts. I still a little as Poppy laughs.
“Silly fae creature. Daesyn is in the academy, and reapers are always allowed here even when they have some fae blood in them. Like Daesyn has because of her eyes, but she isn’t a fae,” Poppy replies for me, and I softly shake my head at the Bwbachod. I will be cooking him for dinner if he gives my secret away.
“My name is Sword, and I will care for you. To be sent home in disgrace is worse than death,” he proudly states. “And I know how to hide from your kind. I will not be seen.”
“What do you think?” I ask Poppy. I want to keep him here, but this is her risk as much as mine. I’m not sure how Mossy will take me adopting a second fae creature very well.
“I mean, he has stayed hidden all this time. I don’t think we should just kick him out,” Poppy suggests. “And I am hungry. I would cook, but I’m terrible at it.”
“Same,” I mutter. Unless burnt baked beans is considered good food, because I’m ace at that.
“At your service, madam Poppy,” Sword says, and he runs out of the room faster than my eyes can track, leaving only a trail of green dust in his wake. I head back to my room, not that surprised to see Mossy sitting on the bed, his head on my pillow.
“I like it here,” he points out, “but they have shit security. It was too easy to get in, and it will be easy to get out. I’ve already hacked their cameras and system. No one looks in here anymore, and if they do, they just see the same image on rerun.”
I laugh. “Sometimes I wonder who is smarter: me or a monkey?”
“Definitely a monkey like me,” Mossy replies, and I hear his tiny stomach rumble. “Food?”
“There is a Bwbachod called Sword who has apparently moved in with us. Do you remember those creatures?” I question. I don’t remember them well, but I do remember a book on fae creatures that my uncle gave me, and they were on the first page. Bwbachods are creatures who live to clean and organise, and they feed off the pleasure they get when a room is tidy. But, if you piss them off, they can explode like a bomb and be extremely deadly.
That’s why I remember them. I always thought my mum was a little like a Bwbachod when she had cleaned the house and then I made a big mess.
“Mossy is back!” Poppy says as she steps into the room. “I was getting worried about him.”
“He was making sure we have an escape plan if shit goes wrong,” I tell her.
“Like what?” she questions. Wow, this girl has a lot to learn. The smell of cooking fills my nose, and my stomach rumbles. When I smell coffee, my legs are moving towards the kitchen. Sword has a big cup of coffee on the counter where the stools are, and I wrap my hands around it, looking for the Bwbachod, but he is moving too quickly to really see.
“Thank you!” I tell him, hoping he can hear.
Poppy laughs as she sits next to me in the stool. “You totally didn’t answer me.”
“Coffee is a priority I can’t ignore,” I tell her and sigh when she looks at me for a real answer. “I’m not all reaper, and when everyone finds out, which they might, they will try to kill me rather than let me finish the academy. Trust me, they’d be horrified to let me sit on the throne.”
Poppy looks in my eyes. “The magic of the gate let you in, therefore it decided you are a contender for the throne. Plus, you can’t be killed now by anyone outside the academy. Not even the queen herself could kill you, in fear of the gods’ wrath. This test is one tradition that must be upheld. Anyway, there are far too many reapers with Seelie blood in their system for them to kill them all. So don’t worry.”
“You really believe in this test and the academy, don’t you?”
“Nah, but I think you might just win it and screw what anyone thinks. You’d be queen,” she replies, and I chuckle. Poppy Riverlite might be the first real friend I’ve had in years, and I’m going to keep her alive, even if she hates me in the end, because only one of us can win the throne.
Chapter 10
The steady hum of music starts as soon as the sun sets, and I stare out the window at the party in the distance, the flames from a bonfire they have lighting up the trees around it in deep shadows. I crumple up the invite in my hands, the one that magically appeared when I was in the shower. Talk about bad timing.
“Are you ready?” Poppy shouts from the other side of the door after knocking a few times. Mossy is snuggled up in bed, tired from a long ass day, and I would like to be doing the same thing, but Poppy insisted on us socialising. Yuck. But she has a point. We can’t be outsiders in this academy, and to survive, we need to fit in with the pack long enough to steal their strengths as our own and murder their alphas. Pulling the door open, I step out into the living area where Poppy is waiting. She has the same black cloak on as I do—found in the amazing wardrobe full of cool shit—but under her cloak, she is wearing a cute pale pink dress and flat shoes. I look worlds away from her in black activewear leggings and a tight tank top, oh, and my black boots.
“Did you want to borrow a dress?” she asks me with wide eyes. “I mean, I know we won’t get our princess-in-training fitting for dresses until we survive the first week, but—”
“Hold on.” I stop her and hold a hand up. “We have to wear dresses?”
Her cheeks brighten as I lower my hand. “Y-yes. Part of the academy training is learning to mix with the different supernaturals and make deals with them. The castle has a very strict dress code, and we will be attending at least five balls in the first year. More if needed.”
Blowing out a long breath, I grumble, “I hate dresses. They make me lose fights.”
“I don’t think it’s optional,” she replies with a tiny laugh. I roll my eyes, sliding one of the new daggers I found in my closet off the side into a clip on my clothes near my hip.
“Where are your weapons?” I question her as we walk to a lift door. I know she has the same daggers as I do in her wardrobe, I’ve already searched this place top to bottom. And there’s a friggin’ lift that goes to all the levels of the treehouse and to the floor, as we soon figured out. Cool as fuck.
She looks at me in confusion. “It’s a party, and we will be safe.”
“Oh Poppy,” I mutter as the doors slide open, and I step inside the dark wood and white tiled lift. “You’re not safe anywhere here, but I will be watching your back. Sleep with your dagger tonight, you never know. Okay?”
“Okay.” She nods and presses the button for the ground floor. Seeing as the glowing button is on floor five, that must be us, and there isn’t a level above. We stand in silence as the lift goes down and opens on the ground floor. We both head in the direction of the fire, the smell of it filling my nose as well as the brittle cold air burning my eyes. I wrap my arms in my cloak, pulling it around me and tugging the hood up as we get closer to the fire and all the students around it. Poppy stays close to my side as I spot the drinks on a table. I pour myself a large vodka before downing it in one and pouring myself another.
“Isn’t that a lot?” Poppy whispers in horror. “We can’t get drunk.”
I want to tell her that it’s impossible to get fae drunk on mortal drinks, it just makes us lighten up if we drink a hell of a lot of it, but I swallow down my answer. “Not for me.”
“Oh, okay,” she nods. After two more shots, I relax a little bit and make my way to a place empty of students. I sit with my back to a tree, and Poppy stands next to me.
“You should go and mingle. You’re the talkative one of us both,” I suggest when she just stands there, looking awkward.
