Chapter 4

Annora:

"I heard he has dragons for pets," Chia giggles, loud enough for anyone in a twenty-mile radius to hear her. 

That's how loud she could be.

A big mouth but a bigger heart to boot. The girl would give the shirt off her back, and you wouldn't even have to ask.

I slip into the bench next to her, set my lunch bag on the table, and grab my water bottle.

The courtyard is long and wide, with at least thirty tables and benches spread about.

It was located behind the massive main brick building but was encapsulated by smaller brick buildings for the specialty studies, as well as a food court and food carts along the edges.

"I can't believe your dad makes you bring a lunch from home still. For having so much power and almost being of age, Nora, you're still treated like a child." El is right, and while I hate to admit it, I understand why my dad does the things he does.

Being royal put a natural target on my back. My family rarely ate out or food prepared by someone we didn't know and trust.

While some rules made me want to pack up and run away, others never required him to ask twice.

I roll my eyes and smile at her as I pull my sandwich out of the bag.

"Are you guys talking about the mysterious wayward Fae again? You know all of those stories are made up, right?" I chuckle.

Jacob has been staring at me, not saying a word, ever since I sat down. I could never gauge if he disliked me, was afraid of me, or had some weird obsession with my appearance, and since no one else ever mentioned the way he stared, I left it alone.

Jacob was a friend of Chia's that we had accepted into the group.

While she never said it out loud, we both knew she had a crush on the guy, even though, if you asked me, she was way out of his league.

"Not all of the stories are made up, Nora. There are people who have seen him," El argues with me, but I ignore her.

People will say anything for attention.

"I heard he's sculpted like a God," El adds in a dreamy voice while staring off into space, likely imagining what her version of that looks like.

"Why did Professor Darin have you stay after class?" Genevieve's scratchy voice comes from behind me.

She was one of the few who had no issues speaking to me, let alone causing a confrontation.

Her dad was the Fae leader in a different region, and she's made it clear that she finds my royal position useless and expresses her disbelief in respecting royals in the most obvious ways.

To be honest, I respected everyone's right to feel this way. I was born into this life, and I didn't exactly ask for it.

However, I was everything but the things she constantly accused me of.

Genevieve continues to glare daggers into the back of my head. I didn't have to turn around to feel her looking at me.

I didn't really care either way. Oddly, it was nice to be acknowledged at school even if it wasn't for the best reasons.

Both Chia and El stare at me, Jacob was already staring to begin with, so now I'm really under the microscope.

"That's really none of your business, Gen," I say after swallowing my bite of my sandwich and taking a drink of my water.

While it wasn't her business, I also wasn't going to announce to everyone that I was being screwed by my professor between classes, right before the headmaster knocked on the door and nearly caught us.

No one said a word and as I looked up at my friends I could see it; the curiosity, and not in a way that I felt good about. 

They knew me too well, and they certainly knew something was up.

"Why don't you stick to the men that your Daddy has lined up for you and leave mine alone?" Gen hisses before stomping off with her posse of mean girls.

The table sat silently and awkwardly for a moment before I finally spoke up.

"I was late for class. He simply wanted to respect my position while also letting me know that he wouldn't accept special treatment just because I was the princess," I explain.

More like, lie.

I can feel in my bones that they're not sure what they believe. 

They know that Darin and I have known each other for years, but the extent of our friendship has been a secret for almost all of those years.

"Oh, come on! You guys were there when we were running late!" I whine, trying to divert their thoughts back to the fact that I wasn't the only one who was behind schedule.

"Why do you even take a dark arts study?" Jacob says, making everyone else at the table stop chewing to look at him.

He didn't speak often and I could tell by the girls reactions, they were stunned he was speaking directly to me this way at all.

Again, I couldn't tell if he was shy or simply disinterested so much in me.

"Father says you can't protect your people from what you don't understand," I shrug, trying to make light of his question, even if it felt more like some sort of hidden accusation.

Did he know about Darin and me?

I wasn't sure how that could be possible.

Our hotel escape was far from the city center or anywhere that the people I knew normally associated.

Not to mention, I always wore disguises to hide my identity, something I did when I went to a lot of different places.

School was fairly safe, considering all of the bodyguards my dad assigned to the school grounds while classes were in session.

Jacob smirks at me.

This is the first smile I think I have ever seen cross his face in my presence, and it sends a weird feeling through me.

Does no one notice the way this guy acts? I think to myself before focusing back on my sandwich.

"He's real, you know... the wayward Fae you disown so quickly," Jacob says, speaking for the second time and shocking me all over again.

Something has certainly gotten into him.

"I've met him," he adds suddenly.

We all shift our bodies in his direction. His longer, brown curly hair bounced gently with each of his movements, just above his thick, dark brown eyebrows.

The way his green eyes pierced straight into mine makes me feel something.

Something uneasy.

"His name is Finn," he shrugs nonchalantly and returns his attention to his meal.

Both my girls are speechless, obviously believing the words coming out of this fool's mouth.

What kind of name is Finn anyway? I think to myself, feeling irritated for unknown reasons.

My father always said the tales about the wayward Fae were myths, something talked about to scare kids into going to bed at a decent time or doing what their parents asked them to.

There had been a lot of chatter amongst the Fae communities recently about a Wayward Fae King, and I was beginning to wonder if the rumors were true.

"Where exactly did you meet this mysterious wayward Fae?" I ask, giving Jacob my full attention even if he acts like I haven't just asked him a question.

I can feel Chia and El tense up. They can tell I'm irritated, and to be honest, I'm not sure why I'm feeling this way at all.

Jacob finally looks up at me and blinks once before the sound of screams filters through the air, instantly making me push my chair out and stand up.

Before I can do anything else, I feel a hand grip my arm and start to pull me in a random direction as everyone starts running and rushing around the courtyard in different directions. 

Fae are busting their wings out and flying off, something that wasn't typically permitted within the school grounds but this type of emergency threw that rule out of the mix quickly.