Whitethorn Academy

Chapter Thirty

While my nerves were at an all-time high, I felt slightly better having Naomi at my side. She chattered mindlessly as we walked across the quad, towards our classes. Since I was now in the Gifted program, my schedule had changed.

Naomi would be with me most of the day, save for first and last period. She had a free hour first thing in the morning, which she used to study for her other classes. Mine was my last period, which meant my days ended a little early.

Though with all these new classes, that free period might be used for extra studying. There was a lot of material for me to catch up on.

I tugged out my schedule, chewing nervously on my lip as I did so. My first class, History and Politics, was in Omega Hall. Naomi glanced at it, nodding her head as she saw the classroom number.

"It's a course on the history of our kind, mostly the past, but it also sometimes focuses on the more recent history too. Occasionally you'll discuss current events, depending on what's happening back home."

"Home?" I asked her. Everything about the Varquay was so new, and everything I learned just led to more questions than buzzed around in my head.

She nodded again. "Summit. It's a small country, hidden from the humans by magic. The capital of Haven is where most people live, but there are other villages as well. And some prefer to live among the humans."

"Do you interact with humans a lot?"

Naomi seemed thoughtful. "A fair bit, I suppose. We aren't completely self-sufficient, even with magic. Technology is helpful in all things and usually humans develop those things. So, yes, we interact with humans, though they don't know that we aren't like them. And most of the time, they don't remember us when we're gone."

I gave her a curious look. "Why not?"

"It's part of our ability to hide in plain sight. We're unassuming, sure, but part of it is magic. A lot of us have magical wards placed around us that make humans forget about us when we're gone."

I thought about Alek and his mother and how the entire neighborhood hadn't remembered them after they'd gone.

My mother had pretended I was insane, remembering something that didn't exist. But she'd recognized Elyse and Alek here at Whitethorn. Why had she lied to me?

No one else had remembered Alek and Elyse. Had they used magic to prevent people from remembering them? If so, why?

And then I thought about my missing memories from the night of the bonfire. And then there was the person who'd sat with me after I'd received the letter from my mother. Had someone used magic on me both of those times? I couldn't remember anything about the bonfire, and I could remember nothing about the stranger who'd comforted me.

"These spells that cause memory loss, do they work on other Varquay? Or just typically humans?"

Naomi scrunched her eyebrows together. "Most wards are created with the intent to misdirect human thought. Stronger spells can wipe the memory, but using any sort of memory altering spells on another of our kind is frowned upon. In most circumstances, it's illegal."

"Oh."

She gave me a curious look. "Did you think someone messed with your memories?"

I kicked a stray rock off the sidewalk. "The night of the bonfire... I thought maybe there was some outside force that could have affected my memory, but it's probably not likely. It's probably just the trauma."

I didn't bring up the other time I'd thought my memories had been messed with. My main focus right now was the night of the bonfire.

"Why do you think someone would want you to forget that night?"