Lock and Key (Nocturne Academy 1)

Breakfast and Dinner were the two meals the entire school shared together, all eating at the same time, and the vast hall was much more crowded than it had been during my lunch period the day before. I was surprised at the number of students at the long tables—all of the Others being careful to stay in their neat, segregated groups. Here and there you might see a Drake talking to a Fae or a Nocturne consulting with a Sister but that was only for a moment before they went back to their respective tables to be with their own kind.

“Well, there you all are at last!” Avery exclaimed. Despite our late night, he looked bright-eyed and bushy tailed, as my Aunt Dellie would have said. I looked at him suspiciously as I plunked down my tray.

“Avery, don’t tell me you’re a morning person?”

“Guilty as charged.” He grinned at me charmingly and took a sip of his over-creamed-and-over-sweetened coffee. “I’m always up with the sun, even when I’m sleeping in the dungeon. It’s just the way I’m built.”

“Ugh,” Kaitlyn groaned, sipping her tea. “And he’s so annoying about it too! He’s up at six humming and singing to himself even on Other holidays when we can sleep in.”

“What are some Other holidays?” I asked, curiously.

“Oh you know—All Hallows Eve is a big one for the Sisters,” Emma said. “And of course everyone celebrates Winter’s Solstice.”

“And Valentines Day is big with Nocturnes for some reason,” Kaitlyn put in. “Only they call it ‘Bleeding Heart Day’ and they hold a kind of Sadie Hawkins dance right here in the hall.”

“You mean the girls get to ask out the guys?” I asked. I had a brief mental image of asking Griffin to the prom and then pushed it out of my head—it would be unspeakably stupid for me to go anywhere near the tall Nocturne again, after all my new friends had warned me about him.

But speaking of Griffin, where was he?

I looked around but didn’t see him anywhere. Maybe the moat monster—the Guardian—had eaten him when he tried to sneak out the night before.

The key at my throat throbbed anxiously at the thought and I absently put up a hand to quiet it.

Shh, I’m sure he’s fine. Take it easy, I thought at it.

“Yes, the ladies ask the gentlemen to the dance,” Avery answered my question, smiling. “I, of course, always have more offers than I know what to do with.”

“He took Emma and me both to the last one,” Kaitlyn said, smiling fondly at Avery. “He’s such a gentleman.”

“I most certainly am,” Avery remarked. “And the Goddess knows, there are precious few of them left in this school! So many ruffians and rogues…” He winked at me. “If only I could get asked to the dance by one of them.”

“Ha-ha, Avery,” Emma said sourly, poking at her chunk of hash brown casserole which was oozing orangish grease all over her tray. “Ugh—why can’t they ever give us Norms anything normal for breakfast?”

“Is it like this every day?” I picked up my sausage patty and dropped it from a few inches up back to the tray. It bounced and clattered like a poker chip and I had the feeling I might bend my fork if I tried to cut it.

“Pretty much.” Kaitlyn sighed. “I think because there aren’t many Norms and we’re not powerful or important like the Others, they think they can feed us crap and it won’t matter.”

“We just get the leavings from everybody else’s old meals made into a casserole,” Emma said. “I’m serious! The Sisters had yummy-looking, crispy hash browns for breakfast yesterday and the Drakes had sausage patties—only yesterday they were fresh and juicy. Today, we get what’s left from yesterday all mixed together into this mess.”

She made a face at her tray and then pushed it away in favor of her coffee.

“I told you before, I’ll get a Sisters meal along with my coffee and you two can split it,” Avery remarked.

“And get you in trouble if somebody reports you—which Nasty Nancy certainly would? No way!” Kaitlyn said loyally.

“They’re really strict about the food here,” Emma said, eyeing my plate. “But you don’t have to put up with getting the same slop that Kaitlyn and I do, Megan. You can get food from the Sisters’ selection so you should.”

“I don’t feel like I deserve it,” I said and forced myself to take a bite of the casserole, which was every bit as greasy and gross as it looked. I swallowed with some difficulty. “Maybe if I can ever manage to start doing magic, I’ll eat from the Sister’s selections. Not until,” I added, when the other three started to protest.

“Well, if you want to be a martyr, we can’t stop you,” Avery remarked airily. “Oh, look at the time.”