The Fae Academy 3: A Curse of Shadow by Julianne Berokoff

Author:Julianne Berokoff [Berokoff, Julianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mad Hag Books
Published: 2020-05-08T05:00:00+00:00

21

Tavi

I couldn’t track Vienna directly. She’s too fast, too quiet, and well made for the darkness. After admitting defeat, I’d trekked back to the Academy from the forest.

That’s when I smelled her. As I neared the edge of Noqtu, I caught the scent. Not Vienna’s, but that of her Unseelie bird. The two are different, but intertwined. Like watercolors that bleed together in the middle.

I follow the trail to an unused tower on the north end of the Academy grounds. Her usual smell is mild. Hints of cedar. And something clean and soft and bright.

I don’t pay attention to everyone’s scent. I usually do my best to block those out. But now, Vienna’s clean, cedar tones are melded with something new. Something sharper and darker, like the darkest red petals from a freshly bloomed flower.

And before I’d left her room to begin this search, Kala mentioned that she noticed Vienna’s smell changed too, and that this revelation made her understand how and why. I’m impressed the faery noticed the change it at all. It was subtle, but very noticeable if your senses are strong enough.

A whirl of emotions blast through me. I thought I'd stopped being surprised by the magic Vienna finds herself entangled in. But this proved me wrong. It may be her fate to be constantly threaded into a tapestry that neither she nor anyone else can guess.

I arrive at the top of the tower and search the skies. The scent is the sharpest and strongest here. She’s been here before. Several times, if the strength of the trail is any indication. She might land in her room again, but I have a feeling she will return to this spot.

However, there’s another scent here too. So nearly imperceptible that I almost miss it. Like glass painted with rainwater. Diamonds covered in morning dew. It’s pure and practically invisible. I wonder if this is the smell of her mysterious source. If so, he smells like no one I’ve encountered before.

I shake my head. The gravity of Vienna’s new reality unsettles me. An Unseelie. I have heard the Unseelie mentioned like they’re some made-up relic of faery folklore. I’ve never heard them spoken of like they existed. And I listened to every word Vienna spoke in that room. She was telling the truth.

Did she use the Darkstone on herself? Did she turn into an Unseelie knowingly? How long ago did this happen?

My ears pick up the slightest sigh on the breeze. It could be another bird, but this sounded like something made with larger wings. I let my sense of smell take over, but the breeze is coming off the lake, and so all I receive are notes of the water, mold and algae, and the ever-present forest.

One second, I’m alone on the rooftop. The next, a huge, magnificent bird stares back at me from only twenty feet away. When had she landed? What direction had she come from?

The knowledge that I didn’t sense her first sets me on edge.

The creature is feathered, but her form is almost dragon-like.

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