INTEGRATION (Bonfire Academy Book Two) (Bonfire Chronicles) (2 page)

“Thank you, Frau Schmelder. I’m very excited to get started.”

“So are the students. Their week of activity camp comes to an end tomorrow. There will be an Integration intake meeting first thing in the morning. The schedule and program are in the iPad folder labeled
Day One
. This evening, there’ll be a staff dinner; I look forward to seeing you there. Details are in the folder titled
Staff Dinners
.” She paused.

“That’s great. Thanks.”

“Any questions?”

“How’s my brother doing?” My kid brother, Pascal, had arrived at the Academy a week ago, as part of the Initiation program. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him, as he’d left Paris just before I arrived back home.

“I haven’t heard, which means that he has arrived and settled in without drama,” The Smelt said matter-of-factly. “Anything else?”

I gathered from her tone that I’d be overstepping if I tried to have a casual conversation, so I just said, “Not right at this moment.”

Frau Schmelder looked surprised. “Well, take your time and look through the folder entitled
Important
. Call me if you have any questions or concerns. My line is open, day and night.”

“Thank you.”

She nodded and cut the call just as Faustine slumped down beside me, wearing my new quilted black leather Chanel jacket.

“You’re so lucky! Love everything you got.” She sighed, a dreamy grin plastered across her face.

“Thanks. Feel free to borrow, but remember the school rules.”

She scrunched up her nose and sniffed the leather sleeve of the jacket. Then she sat up with a jerk. “Oh, I forgot! I’m hungry! I came up to ask if you wanted to get something to eat.”

Technically, I probably should have said no and made my way to the staff cafeteria to
mingle
, but there was no rule against hanging out with the students, so I nodded happily. Food and catching up with my favorite demon princess sounded perfect.

She stood up and walked to the door.

“Not so fast.” I laughed. “You’re going to have to put the jacket back.”

“Gah!” She pouted and hung it back up in the closet. “It was worth a try.”

She linked her arm through mine, and we marched down to the Integrates’ dining hall. The room buzzed with activity, but we managed to find a table in the corner after we’d been to the food station and loaded up our plates with all the pinkish cuts of meat we could find. I was practically drooling into my plate by the time we got to our table. Our journey back from the food station had been interrupted several times as we stopped to say hello to familiar faces. Thankfully, most seemed as hungry as we were and just muttered a few words of hello between bites.

We sat and ate in silence, as usual. I finished first and watched Faustine devour mouthful after mouthful. After eating what seemed like an entire cow, she sat back and burped.

“Boy, you’re going to have to attend a finishing school before you are let back into human society.” I snickered at the breathtakingly beautiful demon princess.

She frowned. “Yeah, but it was so good. I needed that.”

“So what have you been up to in the last week?” I knew she’d been at activity camp, of course. That was what all Initiates did for a week after graduation, before they were introduced into the Integration program.

“I spent most of the time on the slopes with Jagger. He gave me a few private lessons. The rest of the time, I just hung out with Martha and Chun, mainly Martha. Chun was pretty busy messing around with Kabir. I bet we’re not going to see much of them this year. Chun’s totally into her boyfriend.”

“So what did you and Martha get up to?” I liked Martha, the sassy demon princess of Dallas.

“We hung out and watched movies, skied a bit, played video games, stuff like that.”

I waited for her to mention Ryker, her not-so-secret crush, wondering if he’d hung out with Martha or if he’d concentrated on watching over Faustine as he was supposed to.

Faustine suddenly furrowed her brow, her eyes fixating on something behind me.

“What?” I looked around, trying to figure out what had gotten her goat. A chill zipped through me as I caught a whiff of him. No way! I nearly hurled when I spotted Mason at the door with Ryker.

“I know how you feel,” Faustine whispered, scrunching up her nose at my obvious disgust.

I was not only disgusted, but surprised as well. What the hell? She leaned over to say something, but I stood up and jerked her out of her chair. I marched her out of the dining hall using the kitchen entrance. We walked down the stone hallways in silence, dodging the students in our path. I didn’t stop until we were back in my room, with the door locked. Faustine had obviously
known
because she hadn’t seemed at all surprised to see him there. Why the heck hadn’t she warned me instead of spending her time rummaging through my closet?

I shoved her into the armchair—maybe stupidly, considering who she was, but I was beyond furious. I had fully transformed and was practically darting flames into her.

“What?” She didn’t transform. She just stared up at me, waggling her eyebrows.

“Mason?” I seethed through clenched teeth.

“Oh? You didn’t know?”

“Know what? I don’t
know
anything. What’s he doing here?”

“Cordelia, calm down. Your blisters are starting to seep. It’s gross. Blech. It’s not like it’s my fault he’s here. I’d have told you earlier if I’d known that you didn’t know. Didn’t Quinn or Jagger tell you?”

I closed my eyes, trying to get a hold of myself, and transformed back. “No…” I hadn’t given either Quinn or Jagger a chance to tell me anything. I had purposely avoided all contact with them since graduation, feeling the need to take some time and think about things while I was in Paris. I had a lot of explaining to do to both of them and expected them to burst through at any moment, asking why I hadn’t called them back. Now I wish I had. At least I’d have known about Mason. “Faustine, can you tell me? Please.”

“I don’t really know much. Just that Mason’s dad arranged for him to come back for his Integration year. Ryker’s been hanging out with him, which totally pissed Martha off because she was hoping that the two of them could hang out last week. So she’s been just a peachy demon princess, as you can imagine.” She rolled her eyes.

Images of my last encounter with Mason flooded my mind. I had nearly killed him. And I would have, had it not been for Ryker’s intervention.
I should have
.

Mason was Ryker’s shifter brother. Well, adopted brother. He’d made it his mission to destroy me, and I had spent the entire last year dodging him. He turned what should have been a great Enrichment year at the school into a nightmare. I’d been relieved when he was expelled from Bonfire Academy.

But he was back.

“C
ordelia?” Faustine nudged my elbow, interrupting my fantasy—visuals of plucking feathers off the annoying bird. “Don’t worry. I’ll have your back, and so will Quinn and Jagger.”

“I’m not worried,” I spat. “Just fu—annoyed. I wonder what Mason’s dad donated to get him back into school. Must have been something substantial after what he did last year.” I felt my pulse rising. “Why the heck did he want to come back here anyway? Boone Academy is a great school.”

Faustine shrugged. “Who cares?”

“I do!” I was at a loss for words, wondering what she was on. Mason had made her life a living hell last year, too. “And so should you! What’s with the new attitude?”

“I guess it’s different for you,” she mused. “I mean, he can’t do anything to me now that I know how to go all demon. And it’s not like he can get close to me anyway. My powers make me disappear whenever I’m in danger.” She twitched her nose. “That’s a bit boring in a way. I’d love to lay into him for real.”

I drew in a deep breath. She was so wrong about her ability to disappear when faced with danger. That wasn’t
her
ability. The vanishing act was all Ryker, the Wanderer whose mission it was to keep her out of danger. He simply plucked her out of harm’s way and transported her to safety whenever she needed it. Faustine didn’t know he was responsible, though—hence her mistaken belief that it was somehow due to a power she possessed. That could be dangerous for her, as there was always a chance Ryker wouldn’t be around to do his shining-knight act in time. Then what? I guessed she’d have to rely on her actual powers, which were not to be scoffed at. All in all, she could take care of herself, but the one thing that could stand in her way was overconfidence, something that could make her careless.

“Anyhow, you don’t need to worry,” she continued. “We’ll keep you safe.”

I snorted. “I can keep myself safe. Just don’t get all cocky; Mason is dangerous. We don’t have any idea what he’s up to, so be careful. Promise?”

“Yeah, no worries,” she drawled.

I wasn’t the least bit reassured by her tone, but we were interrupted by a sharp rap on the door. I knew who it was even before he entered.

“Hey, Cordelia! Faustine!” Quinn nodded at her briefly, then turned his attention to me.

“I guess I should be going,” Faustine mumbled, throwing me a knowing look.

I nodded.

Quinn stood back with his arms folded over his chest, not making a move to come over and hug me as he usually did. “Well?” His voice was low as he clenched his teeth in an obvious attempt to keep calm. “What’s going on?”

“I needed some time to myself, away from the Academy…to think.” I cringed at the lameness of my excuse. Quinn had no idea what had happened between Jagger and me.

I didn’t really either, not fully anyway, until I asked my mother about it while we were in Paris. Even though Mom knew all about it, having synched with my dad, I’d been very hesitant to bring it up at all. Mom wasn’t a fan of faeries, so to hear that her daughter had
synched
with one would disappoint her, if not totally crush her. So I kept my questions casual, just generally asking her about synching and her own experience with it. Mom confirmed what I had already felt—that I was forever bound to Jagger. Our hearts were synched. I still wasn’t clear if that meant that we had to spend the rest of our lives together. When I had asked Mom, she’d looked surprised, as though it hadn’t even occurred to her to do otherwise. Maybe it hadn’t.

And I didn’t know why it was even a question in my mind. Perhaps it was just an academic one, my natural scientific curiosity getting the better of me. That same inquisitiveness made me want to know everything about synching. How often did it happen? What happened if a being, a part of a couple, synched with someone else? Could the couple maintain the relationship, or was it doomed? And what were the chemical and physical aspects of the phenomenon? How were we able to target just each other?

Mom had no answers and didn’t seem too interested in those aspects of synching. Her interest was instead piqued in another direction by my unexpected questions. She naturally suspected that something was up and wanted to know why I was suddenly interested in learning more about it. She asked the obvious question: Had I synched with someone? If I had told her, she’d have known that it wasn’t with Quinn. She’d have guessed that there was someone new in my life, and I wasn’t feeling ready to share that with her yet. So I skirted the issue, but I didn’t think she bought it. I was pretty sure that the next time she came to visit me at the Academy, she’d be on full alert.

So there I was, none the wiser on how to deal with any of it. Looking at Quinn, all I wanted to do was throw my arms around him and nuzzle against his neck, to breathe him in, feel him anchor me.

But I could tell he wasn’t in the mood for that.

“Well?” he repeated and pressed his lips together.

I walked over and unfolded his arms, wrapping them around my waist instead. He didn’t put up any resistance in spite of being cross with me. He tightened his arms around me and drew me so close that I could feel his ribs crushing mine.

“I’ve been worried sick,” he said, his breath warming my neck. “What’s going on? Why didn’t you return any of my phone calls?”

I considered lying. Well, lying was a given, but the content and extent were what I’d been pondering. I had considered a simple white lie, like my cell phone got eaten by a naughty elf…or dog, but I was fairly sure that wouldn’t wash.

I gritted my teeth and went for the lame option. “I didn’t mean to worry you. Sorry. Like I said, I guess I just needed some time to think.”

“Think? About what? And anyhow, a simple text wouldn’t have hurt, no matter what.” He narrowed his eyes.

“Stuff.
Girl
stuff.” That should shut him up.

“Oh. Still…”

“I know, I know,” I said. “There’s no excuse.” I hugged him closer. “I’m just so glad to see you.”

“Promise you won’t do that again, Cordelia. Just a quick email or text would have done, just to let me know you were okay. As it was, I had to call your dad to make sure you were all right.”

I was surprised. Dad never mentioned it.

“Anyhow,” he continued, “you’re here now, safe and sound. What I was really trying to contact you about was Mason. I wanted you to know that he’s back.”