Page 46 of Bitten By the Fae

Five daysof reading and I still didn’t understand how dark magic worked. It felt unnatural and wrong, like I had to access an inappropriate part of myself to activate my abilities.

Because I don’t belong here, I thought for the millionth time.

Not being able to ignite the Midnight Fae influence inside me was probably a good thing. It meant this forced bond with Shade wouldn’t amount to much. Maybe it would disappear soon.

When I suggested that hopeful sentiment to Zephyrus yesterday, he’d remained as stoic as ever, never giving anything away.

He was the worst teacher in all the fae kingdoms and totally unapologetic about it.

Obviously, neither of us wanted to be here. Which gave us something in common. Not that it brought us any closer.

No, Zephyrus was a closed book.

And I didn’t try to pry him open.

Instead, I spent most of my time reading alone in my new room. When my stomach complained, either I joined him for meals in the living area or we walked to the cafeteria. At some point he’d gone shopping, or perhaps had food delivered, some of which were items I recognized. However, most were human meals.

Ugh.

My insides still crawled from the breakfast he’d forced upon me. Eggs with cheese and onions.An omelet,he’d called it.

Gross.

I preferred to label it astorture, but I ate the monstrosity because he refused to make anything else, and my wand didn’t want to cooperate. Turns out, his whole lecture about magic requiring energy was right. The less I ate, the worse I performed.

While part of me preferred not to be able to access the dark powers, the other part of me recognized that I needed the magic to survive in this world.

Because yeah, Midnight Fae Academy was proving to have a dangerous campus. Not only were those snakelike vines watching my every move, but I also had all types of wildlife eyeing me with curiosity. And I learned pretty fast that none of the plants or animals in this realm were kind.

My shoulder winced with the reminder of the fire gnat I met last night.

Not a pretty lightning bug, but a beast with sharp teeth and a fiery after-bite.

Zephyrus had watched the entire thing with a bored expression, not once helping me. When I demanded to know why, he merely shrugged and said, “It won’t kill you.”

Just thinking about it brought a scowl to my face. Again.

Headmaster Zephyrus served as proof that beauty on the outside did not equate to beauty on the inside. Because his exterior sure was gorgeous, but inside him lived a dark, unhelpful jackass of a man who considered me more of a burden than a project.

Well, fine. He could take his uncooperative behavior and shove it up his muscular butt. Not that I’d spent a lot of time admiring said butt. Or thinking about how many hours he had to clock at the gym to maintain such a fit physique.

Right, so that was a lie. But not many Elemental Fae were warriors, so Zephyrus’s fighter build intrigued me a little.Strongdidn’t seem like an adequate enough adjective for him. He practically oozed power from his pores without even trying. Kind of like Kolstov, but in a different way.

With a shake of my head, I pushed away thoughts of the two males and focused on the textbook in my lap. It explained Midnight Fae hierarchy and all the bloodlines. Zephyrus had told me there were only five, but according to my book, there were actually six types of Midnight Fae.

I spent yesterday reading up on the Elite Bloods and Kolstov’s family legacy as the oldest royals of that line. As primary conduits for the dark-magic source, Elite Bloods were considered the most powerful of Midnight Fae kind, hence their leadership over all the others.

The Warrior Bloods were particularly gifted in physical strength and agility, allowing them to serve as Guardians of the Elite Bloods. Ergo, Zephyrus’s role. What I still didn’tunderstand was why he’d been relegated to the Academy when his family had a long-standing history of protecting the Nachts. From what I’d read, him being here was a demotion of epic proportions. If he wasn’t such a jerk, I’d ask him.

Opening my book, I started reading up on the next bloodline.

The Death Bloods.

Shadow’s family served as the monarchs, with Aswad as the current king. Their powers were linked to necromancy and the harsher sides of dark magic. It seemed they also maintained access to the source, but in a much different way, through the art of?—

A crash inside the suite jolted me upright and off the bed.

The sound of feminine laughter followed.