“You look exhausted,” Priscilla announced at lunch. She placed the back of her hand against my skin. Her hand was frightfully warm, as dragon-shifters tended to run hot. “You’re so cold.”
“Everyone feels cold to you,” I argued and rubbed my face. “I’m in training after the Angela incident. The boys want me in tip-top shape. I suppose because they don’t want to waste so much time on protecting me.”
She nodded as if that news was the most obvious statement in the world. “I see. That’s a wise decision.” I stared at her in disbelief. Part of me had been hoping that my sole friend outside of the Council would be on my side.
“Not you too!”
She threw her hands up defensively. “You’ll have to get stronger to survive here! They’re right to want to protect you.” She dropped her voice as she leaned forward. “Actually, this is huge. This shows they all care about you. Virtually unheard of for the Council guys.”
“I’m not sure if I count grueling self-defense sessions as affection.”
“If they didn’t care about you, they wouldn’t try to make you stronger,” she explained gently. I felt like a porcelain figurine that she was handling. “If they didn’t like you, they’d have shipped you off after that Angela incident. Instead, they’re investing in you. They want you to be strong, Fiona! What an amazing thing.”
“Tell that to my muscles,” I said with a laugh. But…her words made me feel better. A strange glow settled over me; everything felt warmer, a bit brighter. Maybe she was right. They did want me to stay. “Okay, I guess I feel better.”
“Good,” she said and broke apart her brownie. “Want half?” Out of all the shifters I’d met, Priscilla was the only one who had such a sweet tooth. She said that many dragon-shifters were. The others seemed to prefer large amounts of protein. Carnivorous nature was hard to fight, I suppose. I accepted it gratefully from her. With all those extra workouts, I deserved it!
“Don’t tell Dracus,” I told her. “He lectured me about nutrition today.”
“One brownie isn’t bad if you’re working your ass off.” She brushed the crumbs falling from her brownie into a neat little pile on the napkin spread on her lap. “Don’t tell him I said that either. He is my prince, after all.” I almost forgot. Priscilla was from the same kingdom in the Land of Dragons where Dracus’ family reigned. It was odd to think that they didn’t acknowledge each other on campus.
“Does he have siblings?” I hadn’t thought to ask, and I couldn’t imagine asking that to his face.
“Dracus has two younger sisters, who are younger by ten years,” she said. I loved the way that Priscilla spoke. It was as if she was continually giving a lecture in front of a college audience. Her words were packed with precision and confidence. I was happy to have her as a friend and an ally in this place. “I think his parents had trouble conceiving, and they thought he was going to be the only heir. They pressured him greatly for the first ten years of his life. That’s why he’s so…rigid.” She settled on the word with an elegant air.
“Wow,” I muttered. I had no idea. That explained a lot. “He’s teaching me Dragon Fist.”
She choked on her brownie. I put a hand on her back as she recovered. Could shifters choke like humans?
“He’s teaching you Dragon Fist?” she asked in a fervent whisper. “Fiona, what an honor.” Oh no. I’d been a cultural asshole again, hadn’t I?
“Is it a big deal?” I asked, wincing. I hadn’t exactly been grateful this morning, although Theo thought I did fine. Dracus was frustrated by my practice, but he was calm and level-headed. He’d assigned me thirty minutes of meditation a day. How was I supposed to fit that in with my homework and training? No freaking idea.
“An absolute honor,” she said after taking a sip of her water. “The noble class and specially chosen people among the dragon-shifters are allowed to practice it at a professional level, but it’s taught on a basic level among all dragon-shifters. Outsiders are rarely taught it. Like, ever!” Yes, I’d been a total jerk again without realizing it. Oops. I’d have to make sure to thank Dracus next time.
“I’ve got meditation homework now,” I told her. She nodded.
“It’s very important for the art of Dragon Fist,” she said and smiled. “I remember, as a dragon-shifter child, we had to do it during our mornings before school. You’d gather as a huge group depending on your school. In my school, it wasn’t am affluent area; we had five hundred kids. It was odd to get everyone so quiet in our common area, but nobody questioned it.”
“I swear you teach me more about dragon-shifter culture than any book ever could,” I admitted. She threw her head back, laughing.
“It’s because I’m obsessed with it!”
It would be nice to have a culture like the shifters her. I watched her and felt a sudden sting of jealousy. My family might have been a lie; the parents who had raised me were dead in cold blood, buried somewhere beneath the ground, far outside of these walls. An icy blanket wrapped around my stomach. They might not have been my birth parents if I believed those strange visions that I was having.
I shoved a hand in my pocket for my phone but hit something else. It was the small tin that I used to store some of the calming agents that Greta had given me. I wondered if one of the side effects was visions or hallucinations? I could run by and ask her today. I gnawed my lip as Priscilla babbled on about an upcoming assignment.
“Hey, I’m going to head out early,” I told her after a moment. “I need to run by the nurse for something.”
“Is it your period?” she asked bluntly.
“No, but it will be soon,” I lied. “I wanted to get some painkillers for it.”
“While you’re there, I recommend asking for some dragon-ginger tea. It really helps with that time of the month,” she said. “We brew it much stronger at home, but Nurse Greta’s blend works too.”
I did as she suggested. Before lunch was over, I found my way back to the medical ward. My skin broke out into goosebumps underneath my cardigan as I approached. This was where I first landed in Beast Academy. Flashes came back to me — Theo’s smiling face. Nurse Greta was delivering the news about my parents. A wave of nausea struck me. I steeled myself as I went in.
Nurse Greta wasn’t on lunch. She was busy tidying up her three medicine cabinets, hulking white pieces of furniture that were immaculately organized, on one side of the ward.
“Hi, Nurse Greta,” I called as I came behind her. She was shoving sterilized cotton swabs, wrapped neatly in plastic, in a jar.
“Well, hello, my little late-bloomer,” she called out but didn’t stop her task. Although her voice was gruff, there was a certain amount of affection within her tone. I wondered if all bear-shifters gave off a warm vibe without realizing it.
“Hi,” I said and then let my eyes dart awkwardly to the side. “My friend mentioned that I could get something for my upcoming period from you. She also recommended your dragon-ginger tea.”
She nodded with a solemn look. “Of course. I’d also like to give you some special products to use.”
“Special products?”
“There are certain hygiene products that mask the scent of blood more easily than the human kind. We use a special type of cotton here at Beast Academy. It keeps students from harassing the women during that time of the month or any distraction from blood in the air.” She gently tapped her nose. “Shifter noses are good.”
I hadn’t even thought about that. I shivered. Would the boys be able to smell my hormones in the house? “That works.” Greta stopped her stockpiling of supplies and went over to the last cabinet, which was filled to the brim with both ordinary-looking supplies and strange glass containers filled with herbs or potions. I stared at them, marveling at bottles of shimmery liquid and strange stout jars containing dried flower petals. While she worked, I braved my real motive. “I meant to ask, do my calming agents have any side effects?”
Greta continued to work. “Not really. Some people get a bit sleepy, of course. If you’re taking more than you’re supposed to, then it might make you loopy, but that’s to be expected because usually, you’ll fall asleep right after the loopy feelings.”
I tried hard to recall the times I had those visions. None of them had ever left me feeling tired, besides my general exhaustion of being in such a strange new environment. They’d only occurred around the Council boys, for the most part. I frowned with Greta’s back towards me. Strange. I wasn’t sure what to make of that realization.
Nurse Greta turned around, and I faked a smile on my face. In a small bag, she packed everything I needed. “Thank you. Really, I mean it.”
“You’re welcome. It’s what I’m here for,” she said evenly. Her gaze caught my own. “Let me know if you need anything else from me. Let’s keep you on the calming agents for a bit longer.”
I nodded. “That sounds good.”
With my new goodie bag full of medicine and feminine hygiene supplies, I came out of the medical ward. A handsome familiar figure was turning the corner down the hall. Jasper! He was coming down the corridor but hadn’t seen me yet. Damn. I shoved the bag into my backpack and zipped it up with barely enough time before he finally caught sight of me. Unusual for the oddly perceptive fox-shifter. He lifted his head up finally. I realized that he’d been staring at his pant leg, which was torn. A trickle of blood was coming down one side. He cleared his throat loudly.
“Fiona,” he said. “Is Nurse Greta in?”
“She is,” I said and made a show of glancing at his leg. “Are you okay?”
“A little rough-housing with Enrique,” he replied pleasantly. Mhmm. There were plenty of rumors that Jasper was a master thief who had avoided a supernatural prison sentence by coming to Beast Academy. Rumors. I sucked in a deep breath.
“She’s inside. Have a good day. I’ll see you later.” I plowed past him towards where he’d come from. I heard the medical ward doors swing behind me.
Faintly, I heard Greta chidingly say, “Oh, Jasper. Not again!”