Whirl (Ondine Quartet Book 1) (7 page)

"Mr. Rosamund, how did they remedy this
limitation?"

Dylan gave her a charming smile that had no
effect whatsoever. "Dessondines, demillirs, and the Selkie Kingdom
joined with ondines in the war. Demillirs and selkies had the
strength and speed to combat Aquidae, and infusing the combined
blood of all four races into silver produced the weapon that could
permanently destroy the demons."

I raised my hand.

"Ah, yes. Ms. Irisavie. Do you have a
question?"

"Why don't ondines work together with
gardinels and chevaliers in fighting the Aquidae?"

All eyes turned to me and several students
muttered under their breath.

"Because that's not the heritage of our race.
Have you listened to our discussion today?" Broussard frowned.
"Ondines are peaceful, powerful, and protective. Along with our
dessondine ancestors, we are responsible for the protection and
maintenance of water. We give birth to two races, ondines and
demillirs. We are beings of magic, leaders and symbols of the water
elemental world."

A scowl spread on my face with each word she
said.

"I still don't understand how training
ondines to fight is a problem."

"It goes against our very nature." Her lips
tightened. "It would be like trying to turn a swan into a
shark."

Most of the class laughed at her analogy.

I slouched back in my seat and my tone turned
mocking. "So ondines are fragile little birds? With demillirs and
selkies as their heroes? Besides, it's not as if all demillirs
become chevaliers, anyway. A lot of
them
hide like little
swans."

Broussard's beady eyes bored into me and her
voice turned frosty. "Ms. Irisavie, please take your things and
leave."

"Why? I thought this was a discussion —"

"I will not tolerate your attitude in my
classroom. Get out." She stiffly turned her back to me.

A thick silence fell. Straightening my
shoulders, I grabbed my book bag and headed for the door, refusing
to let her humiliate me.

"God, she's just like her mother," Amber said
in a loud voice and smattered laughter broke out.

"Shut up, Amber," Chloe snapped.

I tensed, but continued walking. Once I got
out to the hallway, I leaned against the wall, fuming. What was
with this place? And what was that crack Amber made about my
mother? That was the second time she'd brought up my family.

When the bell rang, students spilled out into
the hall, whispering as they passed by me. I tossed my hair and
stared right back at them.

"So, you're Kendra." Dylan sauntered over
while his friends waited for him by the door. I needed an outlet to
take out my rage and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to
teach Mr. Horn Dog a lesson.

"And you're Dylan," I breathed with a flirty
half-smile. The way I said it made him sound like a god.

His conceited smile widened and he took a
step closer. "You want to fight alongside the big boys." He gave my
body a once over that made me want to gag. "There are other ways to
spend time with guys without all that sweating and fighting."

"Oh, I don't know." Out of the corner of my
eye, I saw Amber glaring at me as she walked by. My finger lightly
toyed with the edge of his long-sleeved shirt. "I find a little bit
of physical exertion is pretty relaxing."

"I like girls who are a little wild and
crazy," he said in a low voice. "Maybe you can show me your killer
moves sometime."

I tilted my head to the side with a coy
expression. "Later?"

He nodded, barely suppressing his excitement
at the chance to score. "Sure, baby. Later."

With one last flickering glance at my chest,
he left as Chloe and Aubrey came out of the class.

"Broussard is just being a hardass," Chloe
said. "She's such a pro-ondine bitch. She thinks all the other
water elementals are beneath her."

"And she kicks someone out of her class every
few weeks," Aubrey added. "I think she gets off on it."

"Whatever," I said, impatient. Broussard was
the least of my concerns. "I need to ask you something."

We went back into the empty classroom and I
shut the door behind us. Chloe and Aubrey both looked surprised at
my abruptness.

"Amber mentioned my family twice." I watched
them carefully. "Yesterday at dinner and today she said something
about my mom."

Chloe shifted her weight onto her other leg,
suddenly looking uncomfortable. Aubrey's jaw tensed. So there was
something.

"There are a lot of things I don't know." My
words came out clipped. "And my mom wasn't great at filling me in
on her past. I need you to tell me what she's talking about."

"Kendra," Chloe said, hesitant. "Maybe now's
not the right time —"

"It's better if she knows." Aubrey sounded
resigned.

"Know what?" I demanded.

"Your mom and dad," Chloe began, "were pretty
—" she paused.

Amazing
?
Badass
?
Legendary
?

Aubrey sighed. "Your parents were really
scandalous."

"What do you mean?"

"Your mom insisted that ondines fight
alongside chevaliers and gardinels. She made as much of a fuss
about it as she could, yelling at teachers, petitioning the
Council, trying to persuade other students to join her cause."

I almost smiled at the image of Naida
Irisavie harassing Pelletier, Broussard, and the Redavi. That must
have really pissed off my grandmother.

"So?" I was rather proud. "She did the right
thing."

"Well, that's just it. You were raised
outside of Haverleau." Chloe gave me a sharp look and I suddenly
felt my stomach clench, as if expecting a punch. "Haverleau isn't
like the human world. The laws and rules are ancient and water
elementals don't like change. And your mother was trying to change
things in a big way."

She shook her head. "After she came of age,
her Claivoyance Virtue took off. Everyone thought she was this
crazy rambling woman so they —" she stopped.

"They locked her up in a Lyondale psych
ward," Aubrey finished in a rush.

I stared at them in bewilderment. "What?"

It wasn't true. My mother used to irritate me
with how self-sufficient, capable, and efficient she was.

"Because she had different ideas? But what
about her mom, my grandmother? Rhian was Governor, right?"

Chloe met my eyes steadily. "The Governor was
the one who had her sent to Lyondale Hospital."

At my age, my mother had been locked away
because she was a powerful clairvoyant who'd spoken out against
archaic social ideas. And by her own mother, no less.

She'd never mentioned it. A dull pain
throbbed somewhere near my heart and my throat closed up.

"What about my dad?" I croaked out.

"He'd been training her in secret since she
was sixteen. He was Head Chevalier, a teacher at Lumiére." Chloe's
voice was so soft now I could barely hear it. She gazed down at her
fingers, fidgeting with the buttons on her blouse. "Your dad made a
lot of noise trying to get her released. She was there for six
months before returning to Haverleau. She was pregnant with
you."

"As soon as they got back, they were mated,"
Aubrey continued. "It was a scandal. He'd been her teacher and she
was having his baby. Once you were born, they took you and went
Rogue."

I felt like I was being sucked down into a
dark whirlpool I couldn't fight against.

Anger vibrated in Chloe's voice. "Kendra, the
fucking Redavi always pick on family and bloodlines. They're
obsessed with it."

A fierce expression lit Aubrey's face. "It's
not only your family. They'll pick on anyone just to have something
to talk about."

"My mom has always had health problems,"
Chloe told me with a bleak look. "You know how an ondine's health
is directly tied to her child? My mom's never been that strong and
after her first child died, it got worse. She barely managed to
live through giving birth to me. And it's still deteriorating. Her
throat cancer came back a few months ago."

My mouth finally managed to work. "I'm
sorry."

She shook her head. "Don't be. I'm proud of
her. She's a powerful ondine and on the Governing Council. But the
Redavi think she's weak. And they talk shit about her because she
doesn't attend all the social functions."

"And my family's no better," Aubrey said, her
voice tight. "Dad left when I was five and mom died when I was
seven. Dad apparently took up with someone else."

I inhaled sharply.

My knowledge about elementals may have been
limited, but I did know the few ways an ondine could die
prematurely. One was thorough the death of a child. It went against
nature for a child to die before its parents. If it happened, an
ondine's health would become seriously compromised.

The other way was through their mate. If an
ondine's mate committed infidelity, she died. This was why
selecting a mate and the binding process that made it permanent was
such a powerful and sacred act. It was for a lifetime. The moment
Aubrey's father slept with someone else, he'd known what it would
do to her mother. He'd murdered her.

"After that, my aunt and uncle have been my
guardians. They're the worst kind of Redavi. Ass-kissing rats,
hungry for money and power." Her face hardened. "You can imagine
what the Redavi did with my story."

Tainted. Amber's words to describe Chloe and
Aubrey the other day.

The dark shadows I always fought to control
loomed up, taunting me.

Maybe she was crazy
, it whispered.
Maybe you're crazy, too
.

So many lies. So many secrets. So many things
I didn't know. It was pathetic.

Deal with it later. Put it away.

I could do this. Anger, doubt, pain, fear. I
swallowed and pushed it down deep. My heart felt like it was about
to explode.

"Are you okay?" Chloe tentatively reached a
hand out and I flinched. Surprised, she stopped.

I forced myself to look both of them straight
in the eyes. "I'll be fine. I needed to know."

I headed for the door, wanting to get away
from them. "I'll see you at dinner."

"Kendra —"

But I'd already shut the door. Amber's
insulting words. Dylan's comment about crazy girls. As I walked
through the hallways, people stared. Some laughed, while others
pointed. Like a zombie, I ignored everyone. My only focus was on
getting to my room.

I wanted to get there before the tears began
to fall.

SIX

Alone in my
room, I cried for the first time in years. Hot tears flowed
uncontrollably down my face and my breath came in sharp gasps. Once
all the tears were spent and out of my system, my initial pain and
despair turned into a raw torrent of fury.

News of my outburst in class had probably
spread throughout the school. I usually had no problem when people
gossiped about me. Most of the time it was a story of me kicking
someone's ass or some other rule-breaking exploit I tended to be
proud of.

But this was different. My ignorance was
making me look like a fool. I hated that everyone, including
bitches like Amber, knew more about me than I did. It made me feel
unbelievably stupid.

I was used to gaining respect. But I clearly
didn't have the upper hand here.

My mind returned to the one question that
bothered me the most. Why had my mother kept so much from me? She'd
taught me the importance of gathering information and facts so I'd
have every option at my disposal. It was a cornerstone of our
tactical training. And yet, she'd lied and withheld crucial
information about my heritage and past.

A profound feeling of powerlessness and
helplessness washed over me. I'd never felt so out of control in my
life.

Naida Irisavie was like a whole other person.
Everything about who I thought she was had been relentlessly
stripped away from me over the past two days. I was beginning to
wonder what part of our lives together had been real.

There was a knock at the door. Tristan stood
outside, presumably to escort me to the Governing House. I hadn't
seen him since he brought me to my room yesterday, but caught
glimpses of him between classes. During fourth period, Alex
mentioned that Tristan was one of the gardinels who trained elites
in the chevalier program.

He studied me closely. It was obvious I'd
been crying, and he'd probably already heard what happened. I
didn't think I could deal if he said anything more about it.

"Let's go," I said.

A strange look crossed his face, as though he
was surprised at how I was handling it. But he just nodded, and we
headed downstairs and out the dorm.

Aubrey and Chloe, their faces pale and drawn,
waited in the parking lot with two school gardinels.

"Kendra," Chloe began.

I cut her off with an exaggerated groan.
"Let's just get this torture session over with. Spending time with
grandma is not exactly what I'm in the mood for."

They exchanged nervous glances, but seemed to
accept my obvious desire to not talk about it.

We piled into a large, black SUV and one of
the school gardinels took up the driver's seat. The other sat on
the passenger side. Aubrey and Chloe settled in the next row and
Tristan and I took up the last row in the back.

"Are you going as a prince or as a
gardinel?"

Tristan shot me a look. "The Governor invited
me as a guest."

"So…that means you're Prince Belicoux
tonight." I looked up at him. "Any reason why you didn't tell me
about the prince part when we first met, Your Highness?"

"I met you while performing a job as a
gardinel. Not as a prince."

Of course, he'd be so straight-laced on the
rules of his jobs. Plural.