Tales & Time (Lost Time Academy #1)(14)

“Madi…you okay?”

I shake my head and focus on Tavvy, knowing that I can’t change anything. “We all lived on the same street. All of them, me and Quinton.”

“I guess their parents wanted them to grow up around a female descendant from a powerful line,” Tavvy muses. “Unlucky that they chose you. The Tale brothers are not who you want to know around here.”

“Why would their parents want us to grow up together?” I ask her as I eat some toast after dipping it in my beans.

“Females are rarer for us, especially ones with descendant powers. The male to female ratio is way off. I think there are only twenty girls here and a hundred and thirty guys,” she says, and I look around. She is right, there is all guys here, and I can’t see another girl in sight.

“My parents told me they marry off people here. So how does that work if there are so many guys?” I ask, curious about it. Do some people just not marry? As I want to sign up for that.

“They didn’t explain that they usually choose four to five guys for one girl? It used to be two guys until about thirty years ago when they decided to propose more males to one female,” she says, and my eyes widen in shock. An arranged marriage to five guys? I don’t even see how it could work. Wouldn’t there be jealousy? It was difficult having five male friends growing up, but luckily, they never treated me like more than a friend…except for a few times in secret.

“No, they didn’t mention that,” I say, not knowing what else to say.

“It’s not that bad, don’t look so terrified,” she chuckles. “The male descendants look like gods around here. Five god-looking guys worshipping your every move…it isn’t that bad.”

“Right, but how would one girl even keep up with five guys?”

“I don’t know, but I am looking forward to finding out,” she winks, and to my surprise, I laugh.

“Wait, even if they did that, there aren’t enough females here for the males,” I say, doing the math in my head.

“Yeah, that’s true, but when you take off the twenty percent that join the Masters’ army, and then the rest are married off to the descendants that didn’t get powers,” she says. “Only weak descendants get married off to non-powers.”

“What is the Masters’ army?” I ask, my confused look just makes her sigh a little, but she does tell me.

“They fight the dark fairy tales that love to kill us. Look, you’re going to learn a lot today and not one bit of it is going to be good, but I’ll tell you one thing,” she says.

“What?” I ask.

“I’ll be there, and at least you will have a friend in this hell hole. I never had that,” she says, smiling at me. “Life as a descendant isn’t easy or safe without friends.”

“Are we safe here? From the dark fairy tales?” I ask quietly, because I feel anything but safe in this academy.

“For now, Madi. They are getting stronger, and that’s why you need to learn everything you can here,” she says and carries on eating her food in silence. I pick at my food, waiting for her to finish her food and wondering how dangerous it actually is in this world I’ve been thrown into.





Chapter 8





“Please take a seat over there, and it’s lovely to meet you, Miss Dormiens,” the teacher says when I walk in the room, following Tavvy closely. This whole place is a complete maze, and I couldn’t be more thankful for Tavvy right now. The teacher doesn’t seem surprised to have a new student, though when I think about it, she must have new students turn up all the time. The teacher looks about seventy, with a wrinkled face, grey hair up in a bun, and a long yellow dress on with a brown belt around her waist.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you too,” I reply to her with a smile, and she nods with a strange look. I quickly pull my gaze away and shut the door behind me before looking around the classroom. The class only has ten people in it, all guys, and my eyes catch Noah’s straightaway as he sits at the back of the classroom, spinning a pencil on his desk. Noah never used to be able to sit still when we were younger, and it seems like that hasn’t changed at least. I wonder what fairy tale he is from; his looks don’t give me any clue. Noah just looks like your typical hot boy next door, but it is clear he isn’t exactly normal. No one in this room is.

“Here,” Noah says as I walk further in the room, reaching a hand out to hold out a seat next to him. I look over at Tavvy who sits at the desk nearer the front of the class, who has empty seats next to her. I mouth “sorry” to an annoyed looking Noah before going to sit next to Tavvy instead.

“You chose me over the hottie,” Tavvy says, flashing a surprised smile my way.

“The hottie knows where I am if he wants to move,” I reply, shrugging a shoulder as I take my bag off and push it under the desk.

“You think I’m hot?” Noah asks, making me jump a little, and a few guys in the room laugh around us. Noah pulls out the seat next to me and sits down, pushing his bag under his seat next to mine before focusing all his attention on me.

“Only a little bit hot,” I reply, making his lips twitch.

“I’m offended. I was your first kiss, and I’m only a little bit hot?” he says, reminding me of the time we decided to practice kissing because everyone at school was doing it.