Page 6 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

The redhead’s name was Flora, was it? I made a mental note to find out more about her once I understood this place a little more. I was used to people pushing me around, but I wasn’t used to taking it with a smile on my face. But I had to know this place better before I could even think about revenge. If it brought more attention to me, it might be better just to duck my head and pretend as though the push didn’t happen.

The stream of people entering through the gates had started to thin, and Flora tugged my arm to pull me back into line. A mousy-looking boy who was even less attractive than I was made space for us in front of him, mumbling something about his thanks to Court Alegro.

Hmmm. Freta must be the youngest daughter that the man was talking about last night. I recalled the sneer on his face when he spoke about her. Maybe this was why he’d been so disdainful. Maybe the friendlier the fae were, the more other fae looked down on them.

On the other hand, the fae around us now seemed to hold some esteem for her. That must have to do with their auras. Now that the main group had passed, the aura around me was super weak, except for Freta. Although she didn’t have as strong an aura as the fae that had come to the orphanage to offer me a place.

Why was that?

I didn’t have much time to ponder over it, as we had reached the gates. To my surprise, there were a half-dozen small booths set up here and there, with bored-looking fae checking papers before letting anyone in. My hands went clammy.

Freta stepped behind me in the lineup. I tried to pay attention to what the students ahead of us did, but it was all muffled, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying. Each of them handed over a set of papers, though, and I scrambled in my knapsack for the ones that the person last night had given me.

“Name,” the entrance person asked me when I came up to him.

“Azriel Jones,” I said awkwardly.

The fae’s eyes flicked up to my face briefly, as though the sound of my name shocked him somehow. “Please give me your papers and report your court beast.”

Court beast? My mouth opened but I said nothing. He said it as though I should know exactly what he was talking about. And I had a feeling that I should know. If he was surprised at my name, not being able to report a court beast, whatever that was, would get me kicked out. Maybe even killed as an imposter.

“I—” I stopped again, my hand clenched around my papers.

Freta was suddenly next to me. She smoothly took the papers from me and handed them to the entrance man. “My apologies for my friend. She’s nervous. No beast to report, as she’s late-binding.”

The entrance man lifted one eyebrow but said nothing else as he inspected my papers. Would he see they were fake? I was going to be found out as human, and they were going to use me for hunting practice. They were going to throw me into the forest I could now see behind the black, gothic building, and they were going to chase me down and kill me.

But he hardly glanced over the fake birth certificate. If he thought Azriel Jones was strange, he gave no indication that Abigail Jones was unusual for a fae. He handed my papers back.

“Welcome to the Binding Academy. Next.”

Freta smoothly handed over her own papers. “Freta of Court Alegro. Bound beast, a badger.”

The man’s face changed ever so slightly, showing the same brief surprise as he had with my name. But he quickly verified Freta’s papers and waved us through.

The air slowly filled my lungs again. I rubbed my chest, hating the way my heart was still pounding. It appeared that I’d survived that first step, at least. Here, on the other side of the gate, the crowd was much less densely packed. There were a handful of booths set up around the grounds, which were much more spacious than I’d realized from outside of the gates.

“Thanks for that,” I muttered to Freta as I pushed my papers back into my knapsack.

Freta gave me another warm smile. “It’s no problem. These things can be pretty nerve-wracking.”

“Yeah,” I said, though a new unease slithered through my gut. Court beast. Unbound. What did any of it mean? It was clear that there was a lot that whoever got me a place in this school hadn’t told me. I’d been so focused on the why that I’d forgotten to think about everything else.

I was going to have learn fast or I’d give myself away.

“Don’t be too worried about being unbound,” Freta told me with a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Lots of people come to the Academy without their beast. It’s designed to bring out the beasts in unbound fae, after all. And it will be a few months before the binding trials begin.”

I nearly asked what that was, but the way she’d said it was so casual, which meant I should know. I nodded, praying that I found a library or something soon.

“So have you been to the Academy before?” I asked.

Freta shook her head. “I’m a first-year, like you. Oh … you are a first-year, right?” she asked, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.

“Yeah. I am. And it’s all really overwhelming,” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck. I realized that I hadn’t brushed my hair before joining the flow of people. Between getting knocked to the ground and trampled on, it had turned into a mess. I shook it out over my shoulder and tried to finger-comb it, but I kept getting tangles.

It was time to cut it, anyway. Long hair was just another thing for people to grab hold of when they attacked you.

“Here.” Freta held a comb out to me. She didn’t have a knapsack like I did. When I ran the comb through my hair, the tangles unwound themselves.