Ravage (Royal Fae Academy #1) - Lacey Carter Andersen Page 0,27

read his feelings just as clearly on his face. And he was a man who rarely lied, so when he did, you could see it in his eyes.

The dagger hidden in a zippered area in my brother’s bag seems heavier as I march up the steps to my class and tear down the hall. I can feel concerned glances as I walk by. For some reason, I pause and look around. There are a dozen light fae hanging around, but every gaze is on me. When I stretch out my senses, I feel sickening waves of happiness followed by uncertainty. But what’s more, I’m pretty damn sure all of them are trying to sample the emotions I’m hiding.

I draw myself up taller and smile, then tear the wall down around my anger. A couple students stagger. I hear a couple of gasps, and the atmosphere changes from one of uncertainty to one of fear. My lip curls. That’s right, taste something other than your sunshine shit. Not everyone walks around with butterflies in their hair and glitter exploding from their asses.

Just as quickly as I lowered my wall, I yank it back up, then tear into the room, not caring that I’m leaving behind a hall full of people who probably feel like they’ve been punched in the gut. Every one of them is likely certain now that I’m a dark fae, but even their kind get angry, so that’s not proof of what I am. It just makes them nervous.

As I stomp into the room and snag a seat, I glance across the room and see that Lucian is already seated. He lifts a brow when I look at him, and I’m tempted to reach out and squeeze one of his organs. Not enough to hurt him, just enough to remind him that I could. Yeah, he saved me from that iron demon. Yeah, he looks like sex-on-a-stick, that dirty blond hair of his messy, unlike the other perfect fae. And that scruff of beard of his tempting to touch.

But I jerk my gaze away.

If Dwade knew what happened to my brother, if he was involved in what happened to my brother, Lucian was too.

I hated all of them for making me distrust them. Wasn’t it bad enough I didn’t trust this world or anyone in it? I had to be uncertain about them too?

A man enters the room a minute later. He’s old for a fae, with blond hair weaved with grey, large glasses, and an easy smile. Unlike most of our kind, he doesn’t seem confident as he yanks a pile of messy papers out of his bag and dumps them onto the table. He gives a watery smile to all of us, as more students trickle in and take their seats. The bell rings, and a couple of women walk in and give him sickly sweet smiles before sitting down.

I watch it all, intrigued. Biology and Science of the Supernatural was my last class of the day. After Professor Ericson, all my teachers had been professional and polite, but they seemed to look at me too often. I felt that I made them uneasy. But would this man be the same way?

“Well, uh,” the professor says, straightening his glasses. “Today we will be discussing mates.”

That’s it. He doesn’t introduce me or himself like the other classes, just launches right into it.

I settle back in my chair, deciding I like him a little.

“What do we know of mates?”

A second later, Mary Ann enters the room. Every muscle in my body tenses, and I’m surprised to see that her face has the puffy quality of someone who’s been crying. The professor doesn’t acknowledge her, and she sits next to Lucian. Which bugs me, for some reason.

If she was actually my brother’s mate, like she claims to be, she’d know his friends...

The professor clears his throat. “So, uh, what do we know of mates?”

A fae male raises his hand and the professor nods at him. “We know that every light fae is capable of having a mate. No one knows why, although many suspect our lives are like the tangled lines of our magic, and that some lines have tangled together with other fae… We just don’t know it until we meet those people. And we also know that sometimes a female can have more than one mate. Two is uncommon. Three is even rarer. And I think there’s only been a few cases in history where a woman