28. Michael
28
Michael
Only one person knew about that ledger. Since its disappearance, I’ve been tearing apart my office, my suite, my classroom, any place I could have possibly put it, but I’ve known from the beginning.
Stella stole it.
I cannot figure out how or why. Leverage to hold over me doesn’t feel right. I haven’t been able to look at or talk to her because I am so angry that I trusted her and immediately got betrayed. I did this to myself, I know, but my ire is justified.
But even though I remain upset with her, when I saw her name on the list of chosen student escorts, I immediately requested to be her assigned faculty member. I couldn’t allow anyone else to have frequent access to her.
I can’t shake the feeling that it would spell her ruin.
She finds me pacing my classroom that evening, her letter clutched tightly in her hand. I look up when she enters, an unconscious movement, like she has a gravitational pull.
Her beautiful wings are flared out, pulsing gently behind her. Her brown hair is braided in two sections, and the black slip dress she wears dances around her muscular legs and clings to her chest.
Of course, her combat boots stomp loudly across the floor as she heaves herself up on a desk facing mine and swings her legs. “Been a while, Professor,” she says curtly.
Is she mad at me for avoiding her? That’s fucking rich.
She is the one who stole from me and betrayed my trust. I close my eyes and bite the inside of my cheek, knowing that if I say the words on my tongue, this conversation will not be productive. “Before we talk about the officials, we have something else to discuss.”
“Oh?” She tilts her head to the side in curiosity. “Please, then, let us begin.”
Rolling my eyes, I perch myself on my desk, mimicking her position. “How about we begin with how you stole from me?”
Her back straightens, and her knuckles whiten as she grips the desk.
I knew it.
I knew it was her, and every inch of her body vibrates with guilt. I let her stew in that feeling, not saying anything more. Eventually, she cracks.
“Technically, it wasn’t me.”
Now I’m the one clutching my desk. Someone else knows about the ledger. She told another, and they stole it. “What were you thinking?” I grit out between my teeth. “Do you have any idea how much trouble you could get me in?”
“I am fully aware,” she spits back, clearly not liking my tone. “But I needed it and knew you wouldn’t give it to me.”
“Why could you possibly need it?”
“That’s classified.”
The laugh that bubbles out of me is sarcastic and sharp. “Oh, it is, is it? Like the ledger was? You told someone else why you need it. Why not me, too?”
“He doesn’t know why, either,” she says quickly. “I needed his help procuring it.”
“Who is he?” Something that feels like jealousy but couldn’t possibly be flares inside me.
Now she looks embarrassed, her cheeks flaring red. “I don’t know his name.”
“Excuse me?” I roar, jumping off my desk and crowding her. “You gave a stranger my ledger? Are you an idiot, Stella, or are you just reckless?”
“Neither!” she shouts, jumping off the desk and pushing me. The gentle shove feels like I got tackled, and I slam against my desk, groaning. “Shit!” she says, rushing to me. “I forget sometimes how strong I am.”
I wave her away from me and stand back up, trying to hide how much my back hurts from that impact. “You need to tell me everything. Now, Stella. I need to know why you trusted someone who’s name you don’t know.”
“I followed my gut.”
“Well let’s hope your gut doesn’t get us killed, Stella. If he betrays you...” I rake my fingers through my hair, casting my eyes at the ceiling. “I will not be able to explain away to the administration why I keep this when it’s against policy to have a full record of the spirit rules.”
“How are you expected to enforce these spirit rules if you don’t know them all?”
“Valid question, and one I asked when I first became a teacher here. I was told it was on a need-to-know basis and that I didn’t need to worry about enforcing them. I didn’t like the sound of that at all, which is why I started recording them.” I cross my arms over my chest, staring at this frustrating female. “Now, your turn.”
She looks nervous, an expression I don’t think I’ve seen on her yet. She glances repeatedly at the classroom door, clearly overwhelmed with worry that someone may come in. “No one can hear this, Michael,” she whispers, using my first name intimately.
I like hearing it on her tongue in a way that is most certainly against faculty rules.
“My office, then,” I say, gesturing for her to follow me.
When we finally walk through my office door, I close and lock it before sitting down. Stella looks around the room and then grabs my woven rug. She drops to her knees and begins to shove it under the crack in the doorway. I try to force my gaze anywhere but her round ass and the flash of her upper thigh as her dress rides up, but I can’t.
My treacherous mind is a teenager again, imagining all the things I could do to her in that position.
When she feels satisfied that my room is as soundproof as it can get, she comes to sit in front of me. “I’m here on scholarship,” she tells me. “I lied about my arrest.”
“What would posses you to do that?”
Why would anyone choose to come here? Stella could easily pass for Authentic if she doesn’t fight someone or take out her wings.
What possessed her to enroll here?
“That story is why I need your ledger.” She drags her hands down her face, bending over to rest her elbows on her knees. She groans in frustration before throwing her head back and looking up at the ceiling. “It’s very hard to trust you with this, Michael. You’re a simplynatural. I have no doubt you’ll want to report me over this, and I’m really fed up with blackmail lately.”
Blackmail? What is going on in this female’s life?
“I’m not,” I say quickly. “I’m not going to report you, I mean.”
“You say that now,” she laughs wryly. “But once you know, I doubt you’ll have a choice.” She stands and begins to pace my office, muttering under her breath. I catch words every now and again, like ‘different,’ ‘risky,’ ‘idiot’, and ‘the guys.’
That last one makes my hands clench. Who are the guys? What do they mean to her that they’re a part of this turmoil she’s going through? Does that mean that, whoever they are, they know her secret?
Eventually, she sits down in front of me. “I can’t tell you, Michael. I’m sorry. I want to trust you. I just…” Her words trail off, and her dark brown eyes plead with me to understand. And I do understand.
I have secrets as well.
“I’m not like the other simplynaturals.” The words are out of my mouth so quickly I don’t have time to suck them back in. It was like my mouth was out of my control.
I’d blame my stag if he could talk.
“You never went through the program?” she asks, confused. “How did you get a teaching position.”
“Oh, I went through the program.” I yank hands through my hair. It must look like quite the sight right now. “I… fuck.” This is the moment. This is the moment where I find out if she is trustworthy. But this time, I stop myself before the words come out. “That’s the only part of my secret you get until you share yours, Stella. You’ve proven already that I cannot fully trust you, so unfortunately, I’m going to need leverage if you’d like to know more.”
Her face droops with resignation. “That’s fair. I want you to know I intend to return your ledger and will not betray you. I am not like that. I will never use something like that against you. I would never do that to you.”
I’ve always been good at reading people, and I feel in my soul that she is being honest, but I have learned I cannot trust only that feeling, and I need to know what she is holding back.
“I’m a journalist,” she says so softly I have to strain to hear her. “I’m here to figure out what is going on here. The simplynaturals are anything but natural, and I have to know how and why they end up this way. And I’m going to expose it to the realm. That’s why I need the ledger. Those rules are one more sign of how unnatural and dangerous this place is to our kind.”
My heart soars. She and I are on the same side. We could help one another.
I’m not alone in this anymore.
And then I crash back down to the ground, realizing the danger she has put herself in.
“Why would you do this?” I hiss. “Do you not realize what will happen if you get caught, Stella? You will go to prison.”
“About that.” Her eyes lock onto mine, and I can see the grief in their depths. “I have compelling evidence that no one who goes to prison gets released. That eventually, they all die under mysterious circumstances.”
I swear under my breath and shove myself off my desk. “I’m not surprised, but I wish I was. I’ve expected it but never had confirmation.” Now I’m the one pacing. “Are you planning to go public with that too?”
“Not yet.” She watches me, her eyes tracking my every movement like a predator. “I can’t shake the feeling that it’s all connected. And now, with the other countries’ officials coming here, I’m almost positive the government and Robert Sinclair are working together for nefarious reasons. I don’t know why they are and what they get out of it, but I’m going to find out.”
“I came here on a scholarship,” I interrupt, stopping my pacing to stare her down and gauge her reaction. “My friend, a bear shifter, went through the program, and he came out so different. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but I knew something was wrong and had to figure it out. So I enrolled in hopes of getting to the bottom it.”
“But you’re not like the others,” she says softly.
“It didn’t work on me. I’m not sure why. There is an exit interview, and I think that’s where the bulk of the transformation happens. But even before that I watched my classmates become shells of themselves, and I never felt that way.” The words rush out of me like a waterfall, and I sit on the edge of my desk, burying my face in my hands. “I can’t figure it out. I’ve been here for years and can’t figure it out, Stella. And if I quit my teaching job, I have to go through the exit interview.”
I look up at the beautiful warrior spirit and feel my resolve to hold her at arms length crumble. “I don’t want to end up like them.”
She sits beside me and places a hand on my back, rubbing softly between my shoulder blades. “That’s why you’re keeping the rules.”
“Yes. I have notes, too, in my suite, of things I noticed during my time as a student here. I think they’ll help your story, too.” I turn to face her better, taking one of her hands in mine. “Now, who else knows about this? Who took my ledger?”
“He doesn’t know,” she says quickly. “I trust him for some reason, even though I don’t know his name. It’s a gut feeling. I told him I’d tell him everything if he got it for me. But he hasn’t brought it to me yet.”
“Why don’t you go get it from him?”
“I can never find him. He always finds me.” She shrugs and sits down. “He’ll bring it, I have no doubt. And I planned on telling him my truth because I think he could be an asset.”
“What is his spirit? And how did he get in here to steal it?” That’s what I can’t seem to figure out. It’s one thing to know where it is, but I have several complex locks he’d have to go through to get to it, and they’re not locks that can be picked.
“The answer to the first question, I think, will explain the second. He’s a leprechaun.”
“Well, damn,” I swear quietly. Leprechauns are among the rarest of spirits, and I didn’t know we had one enrolled. It’s curious that one even ended up here. Their luck is unmatched, allowing them to get and do almost anything they desire.
How did he end up here?
“Yeah,” she chuckles. “It’s not a massive secret, I don’t think, but he also doesn’t advertise it. I know my friend Tree figured it out somehow, and I think if he hadn’t told me, my leprechaun friend never would have. He’s kind of a secretive guy.”
“And you think his luck can help you get some information?” I ask, crossing my arms. She mirrors my movement with a quirk of her mouth.
“I do. I think he’d want to help. He seems adamant about helping me even when I don’t need it.” She rolls her eyes in frustration, but continues before I can ask for more information. “And I told Ryan and Clay, my … friends.”
There’s a pause before the work friends that makes me curious and also queasy, but I don’t comment on it. “Would I know these friends?”
“Ryan is a Cyclops, Clay is a Reaper. All three of us started this quarter.”
Understanding dawns on me, and I nod slowly. “I know them both. Also rare spirits, like yourself and your leprechaun friend.”
“Are they really that rare? I know they’re not common, but I haven’t spent enough time with other supernaturals to know otherwise.”
“Cyclops are notoriously insular, only breeding with other Cyclops, which has kept their population low. Leprechauns are only male, so similar to the Valkyrie, it cuts the ability of one to be born in half. Add that they mainly go undetected due to their luck, and most never meet one. Their true population count is unknown. And the world would go into disarray if there were too many Reapers at once. There is a theory that when a new Reaper is born, another dies. Like the spirit passes through vessels.”
Her eyes widen, and she leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “I think I can confirm that Reaper theory. Clay is a Reaper born to two Authentics.”
“That shouldn’t have happened. The likelihood of two Authentics having a supernatural child is less than half a percent, and that’s if both have recent supernatural members of their bloodline. It does lend credence to the theory.”
“Another thing. Ryan got an escort notification, too.”
“The Cyclops? I don’t like that one bit.” I move behind my desk and shuffle through my paperwork on our visiting dignitary. “There are only six officials. Both of you are rare spirits. Have you spoken to your Reaper friend?”
“Not yet.”
“I would bet he and the leprechaun both got letters.” I stop shuffling the papers, unsure of what I am looking for. “Actually, the leprechaun probably won’t because of his luck. Unless he wants one, I mean. But I would bet anything that they have chosen the rarest spirits as escorts.”
“I was right, then. We’re a supernatural zoo to them. Why show off unique spirits when they’re only here to see the Academy for itself before they start one in their country?” Her question tickles the back of my mind like I should know the answer to this, but it’s slightly out of reach.
“I don’t know, but we need to find out before they get here. And something tells me that may answer our other questions.”