Chapter 9
DUD DUTY
I was a dud.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I shrieked.
Merlin turned and raised an eyebrow at me.
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t demonstrating the best behavior on my first day to the most influential people in Fortune Academy, but the man just called me a dud.
And not just that, but he’d announced it in front of a room of hundreds of judgmental supernaturals who were all eyeing me with varying degrees of pity mixed with disgust.
“It just means that we have to bring your powers out, dear,” Gwen said with a reassuring smile.
“We don’t get duds often, but we’ve gotten enough that we know what to do to help you.
Your supernatural gifts need a little bit of assistance in coming out.
” She rested a gentle touch on my arm. “Don’t worry. ”
Merlin scribbled something on a notepad and handed me the slip. “Here’s your counselor. Talk to her and she’ll get you set up with the necessary arrangements.”
Taking the piece of paper, I turned it around and frowned at it. He might as well have given me a doctor’s note with some gibberish on it.
I opened my mouth to ask who my counselor was, and probably insult Merlin and his penmanship in the process, but Logan trotted up to the stage and yanked me down. “Come on,” he whispered. “Don’t let them see you sweat.”
When we mingled back into the group I had the feeling that being a dud was just as exciting as it sounded by the pitying looks on their faces.
“I won’t be allied to a dud,” Hendrik growled. “You’re on your own, Logan, and if you choose to keep her around, consider the wolves’ alliance with the Dark Mages nullified.”
Whimpers came from the wolves, but Logan showed his teeth. “Make your threats, Hendrik, but you know very well that being a dud could mean she’s even more powerful than you.”
“Or,” Melinda drawled, looking far too pleased about this outcome, “it could mean that her supernatural side is so far regressed up her ass that she might as well be mortal.”
Logan snarled and took a step in front of me. “She resists your muse voodoo, doesn’t she? You know very well that she’s not mortal.”
I shoved Logan aside. “I don’t need you to defend me,” I insisted as I took my stance against the group of supernaturals who looked positively offended by my presence.
“Look, I didn’t want to make alliances anyway,” I said and held up my slip of paper.
“Just tell me what the hell this says and I’ll be on my way, all right? ”
Orion leaned in and squinted at the slip, then chuckled.
“Aphrodite’s tits, you’ve been assigned to Miss Williams.” He swept his fingers through his glimmering hair that seemed to sway with an invisible breeze meant only for him.
“She’s a real hard-ass. Good luck banishing your dud status being assigned to her. ”
Frowning, I crossed my arms. “Just tell me where she is.”
Logan’s fingers found their place at the small of my back again. “I’ll take you. All the counselors are on the outskirts in the short buildings.”
That’s where I’d met with Kaito.
I shrugged off his touch. I wasn’t going to make myself a target by forcing Logan to break alliances with some of the most powerful supernaturals in the Academy just because he’d gotten attached to me.
“I know where that is,” I murmured and stuffed the slip of paper into my skirt pocket. “I’ll go by myself. I’m sure you have classes of your own to get to anyway.”
Logan looked like a puppy I’d just kicked and I kind of hated myself for rejecting him, but Hendrik seemed to approve.
He rested a hand on the wolf’s shoulder.
I flinched as the air snapped and faint purple motes drifted from Logan’s skin and filtered into the Dark Mage’s pendant he wore around his neck.
No one else seemed to notice it, but this Dark Mage was feeding off of Logan’s suffering.
“The dud is trying to do you a favor,” Hendrik told Logan, digging his fingers into the wolf’s shoulder. “Don’t wolves mate for life? Don’t shackle yourself to a sinking stone.” He flashed me a grin that said he was enjoying this far too much. “Now be a good little dud and scurry on out of here.”
That was my chance to escape, but some irrational part of my brain wasn’t going to let Hendrik talk to me that way or take advantage of Logan’s pain.
I stormed up to him and ripped his hand off of Logan’s shoulder.
“Only if you’ll be a good little douche and stop feeding on my friend.
” At the look of surprise that crossed his face I knew I’d hit the mark.
“Isn’t feeding on life-force a life-sucking trait?
Would you perhaps feel more at home at Monster Academy? ”
“Daaaaamn,” Ally drawled, biting into her fist to suppress a laugh. “Dud’s able to see your magic, Hendrik. Even us Demis can’t see that.” She gave me a nod of approval. “I say let’s see if Miss Williams can bring out her nature. Maybe she’s actually one of us.”
Hendrik growled and clutched onto his necklace. “I don’t have time for this shit,” he muttered and then his lips moved, but no sound came out.
A tingling filled my chest and I could have sworn his pendant glowed, but then it went dark as if I’d imagined it.
Shaking my head, I decided that I had definitely had enough of alpha supernaturals right about now and some fresh air would do me some good. “Well, off I go,” I announced and turned my back on all of them.
Melinda’s cackles disappeared behind me as I made my way through the crowd. I’d never felt so alone in all my life.
It took me two tries of meandering around the endless streets of Fortune Academy until I dumbly realized that the paths branched out from the epicenter which was the Central Hall. Circular streets repeated alternate patterns that were logical once I got the hang of it.
When I finally stumbled upon the familiar path to the Freshman Dormitories, I walked past shifter tree forts until I reached the Dark Mage onyx spires. I kept going, finding that there was one last path that ran in a long arc that took me to a series of small golden buildings.
Bingo.
Approaching the entrance, I placed my hand up to the pad and let myself in. A few other students eyed me nervously and I figured I must be in the right place.
My people... the duds. Dante would be so proud.
I looked at the sign on the wall with names and office numbers. Miss Williams was on the second floor so I found the stairs and made my way up. Half of the lost looking souls in the lobby followed me.
“Dud duty?” a sheepish girl asked.
I gave her a nod. “Yep.”
She let out a sigh of relief and clutched onto the rail as she climbed the steps beside me.
“I thought I was the only one at first, but looks like there are quite a few of us.” She glanced back at the crowd of students who seemed engrossed in watching their feet as they followed us.
“We’ve been gathering for a few days now.
There have been orientation classes all week and I come here, but no one can read the slips. ”
I snickered. “Of course.” This place was a shit show. “But hey,” I said and shrugged. “We’ll get it sorted out. Nothing to be ashamed of. It’s not like we can control being duds, right?”
She brightened. “Right.” She bobbed her head. “So, uh, I’m Olivia.”
“Lily,” I responded and gave her a quick smile.
Dante had said that I needed to build alliances. Here was a whole untapped group of potential. Maybe Logan and his hot alliance trio was an obvious choice, but I had a feeling that group came with their own agenda. I needed people I could count on.
So if established groups of supernaturals who thought they were the best thing since sliced bread were bad news, maybe I should go for the opposite.
Being a dud didn’t mean I was mortal and neither did it mean anyone else here was weak.
I knew I was strong, but my powers were probably affected by whatever Kaito had done to me.
What if someone like Olivia also had binds on her?
Maybe it was a stretch, but I’d rather look for allies I could count on.
I felt more confident marching around with my army of duds, as ridiculous a notion as that was. Having the small comfort of others counting on me made me feel like I wasn’t so worthless.
I found Miss Williams’s door and knocked. She opened it and her eyes widened at the crowd behind me. “Are you all duds?” she asked bluntly, holding up a coffee mug and a pastry looking like she was ready to dig in to a late breakfast rather than deal with a bunch of students.
I pulled out my slip of paper and handed it to her, hoping she would know what to do with Merlin’s gibberish.
Olivia did the same, followed by the group behind us as they produced their own scribbled verdicts.
Miss Williams sighed and put down her mug, then collected the slips one at a time and paired us off by numbers between one and three.
“You’re a one,” she told me, “a dud through and through. Your Awakening will take some patience, but we’ll get you there.” Miss Williams gave me a flat smile that I think was supposed to be encouraging.
I was glad to see that Olivia was a one as well. The rest were twos or threes and had shown enough glimmer in their orientation verdicts to be placed in less “ambitious” Awakening classes, whatever that meant.
It felt good to walk with Olivia through the crowds. She felt safe, whereas Dante had made me want to jump his bones just by the proximity of his heat and Logan just had me confused.
“Are you nervous?” Olivia asked as we followed the color-coded map Miss Williams had given us.
Finally, I didn’t feel like I was going to get hopelessly lost on campus.
I’d missed the miniature lights in the street entirely that marked which branch of the circle we were on and where we needed to go.