Page 17 of Shadow Seer (Scythe Grove Academy 1)

"Oh."

"You seem disappointed?" He pushes the door open so I can go through it.

"It's just not what I expected."

"Is any of this what you thought it would be?" he points out.

"I never really thought about this as an option," I remind him.

"Would you like a drink?" he asks, gesturing towards the vending machine.

"Coffee please."

"I can't believe you like that stuff," he mutters, but goes over to the machine anyway.

"We have a Grove Captain meeting to go to," Juliet says before I can ask them to join us. "We'll catch up with you later?"

I nod. "Thank you for going with me today."

"Always." She smiles warmly at me.

I misjudged her badly when I first arrived here. I thought she was going to be stuck up and act as if she's better than everyone, but that's far from the person I've experienced since.

She waves goodbye, and the two of them disappear through the door that leads into the rest of the academy building.

"Where do you want to sit?" Mathias asks, holding out one of the small paper cups.

"Anywhere works."

He directs us over to a pair of armchairs.

I set my coffee down on the table between them and take a seat with Mathias opposite me, his own steaming vending cup. Now I'm thinking about it, perhaps there are better options for hot drinks.

"So, what would you have been doing if you weren't here?" he asks.

"Huh?"

"You said you'd never thought about ending up here, so what did you think you were going to be doing?"

Ah. That's a difficult one to answer. Partly because I don't know the answer. The Shadow Oath is a mystery to all of us.

"I don't know," I say honestly.

"You never thought about what career you'd want to pursue?"

He seems genuinely surprised by that, and I suppose I can understand why. Most humans think about that kind of thing and plan for what they're going to study at university once they're done with school. I just always assumed that what happened after the Shadow Oath wouldn't allow me to pursue anything.

"Honestly, no. Maybe a part of me has always felt like I was different and that's why. I mean different other than being able to see ghosts." I lean forward and pick up my coffee. I blow across the top of it before taking a sip, having learned the hard way not to drink it too quickly.

"I suppose that makes sense."

"When was the first time you saw a ghost?" I ask him.

"I don't remember. They've been around for as long as I can remember. But my parents took me and Tobias to a graveyard when we were six or seven to properly introduce us to one for the first time."

"That's a bit grim."

He chuckles. "Is it? We already knew we were reapers and would be dealing with the dead, it isn't anything weird."