Chapter 7
I’m used to not sleeping, but this is different. It’s with unseeing eyes and lips pressed tight that I keep sitting in the empty Library with piles of books on the table before me. It’s been quite a while since I got here — straight from the Lounge and determined to stay until I’ve gotten to the bottom of this — and I can sense Carrel throwing me looks from the Service Desk, but I still haven’t cracked a single book open. It makes my blood boil, that they’re intent on taking my job away from me.
Mostly though, I’m just stuck reliving the events of the day and wondering how the hell everything ended on the absurd conclusion that I’m a shifter.
First, there was the energy that drew me to the book
Then whatever it was that happened when I touched it.
Then I snapped at Bane, which Lorcan claims sounded like growling.
Then there was this voice in my head right before I broke the glass.
Then the Pied Piper came and managed to use the Flute on me.
Fighting the frustration, I run my hands down my face and let out a long, pent-up breath. Then I grab one of the books from the pile. The Lexarcanum book, the voice in my head, the growling — these things could all be explained away, but the Flute…
For centuries, everyone’s claimed its magic is ironclad, which is why it’s widely accepted as irrefutable proof of one’s bloodline.
But I mean, nothing’s ironclad, right? So I crack the book open and I start scouring its contents.
I learn nothing I haven’t already known. The Flute was made by the first Pied Piper ever — the fae-blooded Zahra from the first century BC, back when the Originals had already gone into hiding. She was the most powerful fae of her time, with great talents in Divine Magic. The Flute she carved so she could identify young Originals and get them to safety, it’s to this day considered to be one of the most powerful magical items.
Once I’m finished with that one, I grab another book. And another. And another, only to realize I really do already know everything there is to know about the Flute.
And no, it seems that no one has ever been able to use it on humans, making it the perfect detector of Original powers.
It all makes me grit my teeth and grip the book I’m holding tighter, fighting the urge to fling it across the room.
I mean, can’t they see how absurd it is, what they’re saying about me?
Some members of the bloodline experience their first shift when they’re five, some when they’re fifteen, but there are no records of it happening later than the teen years.
That makes perfect sense. After all, when a shifter is born, they already have two conflicting natures inside them. These natures are like two sides of one coin, which is why a shifter’s greatest fear is severing the bond with their animal.
But it’s also why they feel their animal’s presence since the moment they’re born, and hear its voice even before they learn to talk, let alone shift for the first time.
And me?
Hello? I ask, waiting for a second to see whether that voice will sound again.
Nothing happens. Of course it doesn’t.
But since the Flute has been used on me, there’d be no point arguing with them.
Exasperated by going in circles, I let my forehead drop to the table, onto the book between my hands.
Almost immediately, I lift it up and take my phone to search the web for shifters who can shift a part of their body — more specifically the eyes — without shifting in full.
I find nothing. However, I do somehow have a feeling that Jericho Bane’s animal is a fox, and I search for images of those.
Shifter foxes aren’t small, cute creatures. They’re usually large, dangerous animals, resembling monsters more than pets. We don’t have them here at the Academy, at least not right now, I think. Except for the one.
I fail to resist the urge to search for ‘Jericho Bane’ as well. It surprises me that I don’t find any images of him or articles talking about the man himself, but there’s a lot of them about his business. He does seem to own a few sports brands, but it seems to be a predominantly gambling empire — sportsbooks, racetracks and casinos.
Ugh.
It’s at the very next moment that I feel someone come to stand next to me and hear them clear their throat.
I look up, seeing Carrel looking at me with a mix of suspicion, awkwardness and sympathy. “I’ve waited as long as I could, Anna, but the day’s starting and I’ve been told to get the keys from you.”
It’s fucking morning already? My heart sinking deep into my stomach, I summon all my control and I give Carrel a smile as I dig through my pocket.
I produce my set of keys to the Library, he reaches for them and I force myself to let him take them.
Now what should I do, I wonder as I watch her go back to the Service Desk.
Should I just take their word for it and start going to classes as if this is all actually happening?
I spend the next couple of minutes in that drunken haze that always seems to set in after a sleepless night. I’m so tired and I don’t want any of this to be happening, but the students are arriving for their first study sessions of the year and I know I need to make my decision fast.
If I do as they say, the truth will eventually come out and they’ll stop with this nonsense of making me play the role of student here. No harm done, right?
Then again, I’ve no idea how long the charade will go on. In the meantime, I’ll have to go to actual classes with actual Originals. I can’t see any possible scenario where they don’t simply end up killing me.
Because even if I were a shifter, I’m obviously a terrible one.
But if I don’t do as I’m told…
They could invoke the death penalty, and it’s all over for me.
I peel my tired ass off the chair, I take a deep breath and I start walking.
As if in a dream, I find myself in front of what’s supposed to be my new home, my eyes getting drawn up, up, up. Shooting high into the overcast sky above me, the Lycan Tower is imposing to say the least — the sheer size of each individual boulder, the width of the wooden door fitted into them, the unsettling darkness of the Lycan forest sprawling behind it.
I keep looking at it, and the more I do, the more this thrill consumes me. What if they’re right?
What if I really am a shifter?
The very thought seems to be too much to handle. Everything else aside, in my mind, there’s something about being a shifter that equates with losing control to all your deepest, darkest urges. It’s particularly unsettling in the context of anger, an emotion I’ve always tried to suppress as much as possible.
If I could choose, I’d much sooner go for either fae or vampire.
Then again, whatever this is, it’s definitely not my choice.
Forcing myself to shrug it all off, I start moving for the door, feeling confused and exhilarated at the same time. I’ll do as I’m told, for now. I’ll go inside, I’ll get the welcome package from the Head Student, I’ll move into my new room in the Tower and I’ll go to my first class.
When it all comes crashing down, I’ll have my old job back, if it’s the last thing I do.