Tales & Time (Lost Time Academy #1)(4)

“That’s my family then,” he says, and mum nods with her own smile as she looks between us, but her eyes seem somewhat worried.

“There hasn’t been a descendant with powers in two hundred years in my family line,” dad says, and he looks so proud that I almost smile at him. There is no worry in my dad’s eyes.

“What are the family powers? What am I a descendant of?” I ask, almost not wanting to hear the answer.

“Your last name answers that, hunny,” mum says, and one of the reasons I have my nickname is my last name translates into sleep. And I like to sleep a lot.

“Well, the family name and descendant name is Dormiens, but you might be more familiar with the fairy tale called Sleeping Beauty. We should have guessed with how many times you’ve been put into detention for falling asleep in class at school,” dad laughs, and he has a point. It may have happened once or fifty times, but who’s counting?

“You’re saying I’m Sleeping Beauty’s descendant?” I ask, thinking of the fairy tale. A beautiful girl sleeps for hundreds of years after pricking her thumb on a wheel, and then a prince kisses her awake. I always thought Sleeping Beauty should have punched the random stranger who snuck into her room and kissed her when she was sleeping. Though not a lot of people thought that when we watched it in school. Wasn’t Sleeping Beauty blonde as well? I lift a strand of my dark hair, twirling it around my finger. I’m sure there was a dragon or evil witch or something in the movie…I hope that was just the movie. I don’t think I’ve ever read or googled the original Sleeping Beauty fairy tale before. I clearly need to get my fairy tale books out or watch some Disney films.

“Yes. I’m not sure exactly what your gifts are, as the last family member who had your gifts died in an accident a day after she got them. There isn’t any record of our family powers, but we know it has a lot to do with sleep,” dad states, shrugging his shoulders like that isn’t a big deal. What the hell could I do? Put myself to sleep whenever I want? I’ve had that “power” for years.

“This explains why she never gets up in the morning,” mum says with a grin, and I just look at her. Seriously, mum?

“What?” she replies, rolling her eyes. “When you were a baby, you slept nearly all the time. I used to get so worried!”

“Why didn’t you tell me about all of this? Prepare me for this world you’ve just thrown me into blind? Why tell me right now?” I ask in annoyance. This isn’t something you hide for no reason.

“We are bound by our laws not to tell you until you turn seventeen and touch the book. It’s the way of the descendants, our people. Your people. One day when you marry, you will make the same vow to never tell your own child,” Dad tells me firmly, not one ounce of apology on his face. “Besides, you got to live a human life…a normal one with friends and routine. I would never have told you anything until this moment because I would have always wanted a normal upbringing for you.”

“I suppose it’s hard to be mad at you when you put it like that,” I mumble, and dad laughs.

“I’d hold off on stating you’re not mad. You have to leave here tonight,” dad tells me, not giving me any time to process any of this before dropping another bomb on me.

“Leave to go where?” I ask hesitantly. I have a feeling he means leaving home.

“Lost Time Academy,” he says with a big smile.

“What the hell is that?” I ask and then pretty much answer my own question when they don’t say a word. “Are you seriously sending me to a boarding school? You want me to leave home now?”

“It’s a school for the descendants to safely learn their gifts. Everyone from the ages of seventeen to twenty-one goes if they receive powers, and there isn’t a choice here, Madilynn,” mum tells me, using her strict tone that anyone who knows her doesn’t want to hear. Usually I would be scared and agree with her, but not at the moment.

“I’m not going,” I say, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow at her angry expression. Dad takes mum’s hand into hers, whispering something under his breath that I can’t hear, and my mum just calms down nearly instantly.

“You have to go, Madi. We don’t want our only child to go away, but we wouldn’t send you unless we had no choice,” dad tells me.

“I have a life here, a boyfriend I can’t just disappear on,” I tell him, thinking of Quinton.

“He is human, and the council of descendants will never let you stay friends with or marry a human. Our marriages are planned and told to us not long after we open the book. Whoever is chosen for you won’t let you have a human friend who you used to date. I’m sorry, Madi,” he says, and I just glare at him. This just keeps getting better and better. First off, I’m not exactly just human. Then boarding school. Now arranged marriage, and I have to break up with Quin…this birthday sucks.

“You knew I would never be able to be with Quin, yet you let me date him?” I ask, not believing my parents would let me get hurt like this. I literally feel sick at the idea of leaving Quin. We’ve already lost four of my childhood friends, and Quin would never get over me walking away from him.

“We didn’t let you; if I remember right, I walked in to get you for breakfast one morning and found you kissing the boy,” my dad says. “We couldn’t give you a reason not to date him back then, and we assumed it wouldn’t last long.”