A Faerie's Secret (Creepy Hollow Book 4) by Rachel Morgan Read Free Book Online Page B

to the textbook. I look around and get the same reaction from several other trainees. Well, not the smile, but the hurried turning away of heads.
    Focus, Calla. Read the text. Listen.
    When Irwin reaches the end of the section, which was four very long pages, he gets a debate going back and forth across the classroom. There are strong opinions on both sides of the divide. Some agree that no one should have been held accountable for actions they had no control of during Lord Draven’s reign, while others believe there should have been some form of punishment for everyone who carried out his orders, even though they were ‘brainwashed’ at the time. I listen carefully, keep my head down, and hope I don’t get called upon to participate.
    When the debate starts getting personal, with people shouting about the guilt and emotional turmoil their mother or brother or neighbor has to live with every day—“Surely that’s punishment enough!” a guy from the front row yells—Irwin brings it to a close. We’re told to report to the training center for the next three hours. After lunch we’ll be back here for another lesson with a different mentor.
    Chatter rises, along with the scraping of chair legs against the floor. Saskia’s textbook slaps shut before scooting toward the edge of the desk and dropping neatly into her bag. I stand, feeling the stirring of nerves in my stomach again. Surviving a lesson was easy enough; now I have to survive three hours in the training center. Three hours that most likely involve one-on-one combat with someone from this room who wishes I wasn’t here.
    Well, I suppose it’ll be like fighting a real opponent then.
    Saskia stands and lifts her bag onto the desk. “You don’t look the way I imagined,” she says, tilting her head to the side and examining me.
    “Oh.”
    “I’ve never met anyone with actual gold in their hair.” She pulls her own hair over her shoulder and twists it around and around, the red and brown strands tangling together. “I suppose it’s just another thing that makes you different.”
    Different. Yeah. Not something I want to be. “Um, thanks.” Her probing gaze makes me uncomfortable, but that bright smile is back on her face, so I figure I should take the opportunity to try and make a friend. “And thanks for coming to my rescue with the textbook.”
    “Oh, sure, of course. Any excuse to sit next to you.” She leans closer and lowers her voice. “I wanted to be the first to ask you about the boy and the bicycle.”
    “W-what?” A slow chill creeps up my spine. The boy and the bicycle. Incident Number Four.
    “You know,” she says. “That boy at the healer school who suddenly started riding his bicycle in frantic, weird patterns because he was convinced he was riding through a maze with some terrifying creature chasing after him.”
    I do know. I wish I didn’t, but I do. “That’s … not really …”
    “My mom’s a healer, you see, so she heard about it from her friend who teaches at the school you were expelled from. She said your mom’s an Unseelie faerie who taught you dark magic so you could make that guy go crazy as punishment for teasing you. She said I have to stay away from you. I told her she was being ridiculous, of course, and that I’d find out the real story from you.”
    “I don’t have Unseelie magic,” I say automatically. “Neither does my mother.”
    “Oh, yeah, of course not. I mean, there’s no way the Guild Council would let you in here if you did. But everyone knows weird stuff happens around you. So I just want to know how you do it.”
    I glance around. Irwin is gone, and only a few stragglers remain, quietly gathering their things. I resist the urge to hug my arms tightly around my middle. “I don’t do anything,” I say to Saskia.
    “Come on, share your secret. Otherwise everyone’s going to think you do know dark magic.”
    I step closer to her. “I don’t have a secret,” I say firmly, “and I