The second-year classes were different. We pretty much only had Anthropology and Geography together, students from all the four cabals, and the rest were tailored for each cabal according to their unique abilities. Now I only saw Klaus in Geography. It was a good thing it was one of the most important classes and we had it three times a week, otherwise I would have really missed him. When he wasn’t in class, he was with his boyfriend. And when we were all in the dining hall, he was at the MDC table and I was at the VDC table. The next day after the puking disaster Lorna had caused and Sariel had to suffer, Klaus and I were at the back of the class as Mrs. Maat was going through a quick introductory presentation of the Nine Spheres of Heaven. We were going to study the Geography of Heaven this semester, and the Geography of Hell the next. Grim Reapers didn’t only reap on Earth. That was only the beginning, and Earth only provided the most basic jobs. Angels died, too, and so did demons. Not to mention the rest of the creatures that dwelled there. If first-year geography had proved to be tougher than expected, – no, we hadn’t only learned about countries, and capitals, and mountains, and deserts; long-forgotten tunnels, hidden caves, lost cities that were still inhabited despite what human geography and history said… yeah, way more expansive than what I’d learned in high school, – then second-year geography was going to be insane! Still, what Klaus and I had to talk about was currently more important than the Nine Spheres of Heaven.
“Tell me again.”
Klaus blew out his cheeks, thought for a second, trying to make sure he had all the details in place, then shrugged.
“That’s it. That’s all we could see from the ground. Lorna was doing that thing with the leaky eyes and the booming voice, you were going higher and higher until there was a moment when we couldn’t see you anymore, and then Sariel ran out of the building, took off his uniform jacket, threw it God knows where – because he certainly couldn’t find it after, – spread his wings rather violently, if I may say so myself, and flew toward you. Lorna saw him, did this screeching sound with her teeth, like… I swear to God! We could hear it! It was so loud we could almost feel it in our bones!”
“I saw her aura. When she does that level of magic, her energy expands until it fills the entire space she occupies. That’s why we can hear her voice louder.”
He nodded thoughtfully. I wondered if he too could do what Lorna had already done twice.
“Anyway, when she saw him jump to your rescue, she got super mad. She moved like a couple of feet to the right, and the whole vortex thing moved with her. Like, she dragged you away from Sariel.”
“Makes sense why I was so damn sick. It’s no fun being whipped about like a poppet.”
“Well, you weren’t exactly a victim this time,” he chuckled. “I heard you said some pretty harsh things to her.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “They were perfectly true.”
“You know people can’t handle the truth.”
“And how is that my problem?”
“Did you handle the truth when you found out that…” He stole a glance at the students sitting closest to us and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “That Morningstar is your father?”
Burned.
I straightened my back and looked ahead, at Professor Maat. She’d drawn a loose sketch of Heaven on the white board.
“This is not the place, nor the time. I told you I never want to talk about it. Not in public.”
He shrugged, unaffected. “It was something worth pointing out. I’m not in the business of lying to you, sister. Just like when you didn’t lie to Lorna. So, I guess we have that in common. We’re both ruthlessly honest, even when it might get us in trouble.”
“You’re not in trouble,” I said in a softer voice. “It’s just that… it’s uncomfortable. And dangerous to talk about it in class. No one needs to know, remember? Not about my father, and not about the prophecy. Or it all goes to shit.”
“So, you do believe in the prophecy. You believe you’re going to be the one to retire Morningstar.”
I sighed deeply. “I don’t. And I don’t want to, either. Retiring him means… killing him.” Crude words, but I needed to say them out loud from time to time. That was how reality checks worked. “But Headmaster Colin does, and I made a promise to him.”
Klaus was silent for a while. When I thought he’d gone back to paying attention to the lesson, he whispered so softly that I could barely hear him.
“If they knew who you are… If Lorna knew, she would never touch you again. You’d be indestructible.”
His words felt like a punch to my stomach. “But not because of my skills or my brains. Because of my name.”
“So what? Most of the kids here are just that. Names. And those names open doors for them.”
“Then I’d be no different. Gracewing, Darkmoor, Chiaramonte, Saint-Germain. Morningstar.”
“Would it be so bad?”
I thought for a moment, chewing on the end of my pencil. “I don’t know. I’ve never been in that situation.”
He leaned back in his seat and trained his eyes on Mrs. Maat.
“You might find out sooner than you think.”
“What makes you say that?”