Shadowborn Academy_ Year One (Dark Fae Academy #1) - G. Bailey Page 0,18

know it was him that bit you?” I quietly ask Sage, though in the tense room, I might as well have shouted it.

“I never forgot the dark pink eyes,” she whispers, her gaze permanently fixed on the side of the teacher’s face.

I did always wonder why Sage liked to dye her hair pink with magic dye. Likely the same reason I dye my own hair blue…like Pitch’s eyes.

Maybe there was some subconscious, messed-up reason for it.

“So Mr Fox Who Bites Kids, what is your real name?” I turn and ask him. I’ve clearly pissed him off with those words, as his eyes narrow on me for the first time. “Wait, I have a better question. Is your shift pink like your eyes?”

“Professor Gale,” he tensely answers, ignoring my second question entirely, but his eyes never drift from Sage’s face. She doesn’t even glance at him, her focus permanently fixed on the headmaster’s vacant chair. “I was only fourteen years old myself when I bit Sage and it was an accident. I was a scared shadowborn myself back then.”

With a humourless laugh, Sage whips her head in his direction and sneers: “I was eight and you nearly killed me!”

“My fox liked you because you saved me from that trap. I had no control over my shift back then, and I still don’t…” He pauses, rubbing a hand over his smooth dimpled chin. “I’m fucking sorry, Sage. I really am.”

“It’s not enough,” Sage growls, glaring at Professor Gale, who’s busy tugging out a small purple flask from his pocket.

He knocks the lid off and takes a long sip, closing his eyes ever so briefly.

I’m willing to bet that isn’t milk in there.

The door slams open, and I nearly jump out of my skin.

Mr Greyhorn marches over to his desk, and I hear Professor Gale whispering, “I’m well aware,” under his breath, but the words don’t seem to have an effect on Sage, who huffs and turns her gaze from him.

“I don’t know where to begin,” Mr Greyhorn starts, settling on his throne with a look of clear disgust on his countenance. “But expelling you both is high on my list after the stunt you just pulled. On your first day, no less. Have you no respect?”

Before I can open my mouth, Professor Gale jumps in. “It was my fault, sir. I instigated the attack.”

“Instigated?” He looks between Sage and the professor. “You instigated a year one to try to take the life of a member of my faculty in front of my school?”

Professor Gayle shifts somewhat uncomfortably in his seat. “As a child, my fox bit Miss Millhouse and turned her into a shadowborn. Her reaction today was completely natural, sir, under the circumstances. As the law stands, my family made sure I didn’t get locked up in the Shadowborn Prison but Miss Millhouse paid the price.”

A deafening silence stretches between us as we wait for Mr Greyhorn’s decision.

He turns his steely eyes on Sage. “Are you sorry for the attack, Miss Millhouse?”

She glances at me from the corner of her eyes.

Say yes, for the love of Selena, say yes.

“Yes,” she bites out and I know she’s only sorry she didn’t get a chance to torture the professor for longer.

Mr Greyhorn huffs, not quite buying her answer. “Regardless of the reason behind your attack, use of magic in that way is forbidden at my academy. Both you and Miss Charles will have detention this weekend, and every weekend until I decide otherwise.”

Great. Just great.

“And Miss Millhouse, after your detention on Sunday, you will personally be helping Professor Gale as he goes into the enchanted forest to find mushrooms for the science department. The mushrooms take about five hours to find. Plenty of time for you to air out your…differences.”

Professor Gale seems to choke on his own spit. I don’t think he likes the idea of spending time with the girl he nearly killed. The same one that could have killed him if I let her.

“Very well,” Professor Gale agrees.

Sage and I push off our chairs, hoping for a quick escape, but of course it’s never that easy.

“Professor Gale and Miss Millhouse, you are dismissed,” Mr Greyhorn states curtly, before turning his icy eyes back onto me. “Miss Charles, I would like a word with you in private.”

“Why?” Sage takes the question right out of my mouth, but I shake my head at her.

We’re in enough trouble as it is and Mr Greyhorn doesn’t scare me.

Without an answer, Sage follows Professor Gale out,