Page 18 of Shadow Seer (Scythe Grove Academy 1)

"I hadn't thought about it like that."

"Which is understandable," he assures me. "I know you haven't had any clue about this before."

"It's all a bit new and overwhelming," I admit. "I'm not sure what I need to do to catch up with everyone."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. From what I've seen you pick things up quickly. You'll be up to speed on everything you need to know before too long."

"I hope you're right. I don't want everyone thinking of me as a lost cause."

"No one will think that," he promises.

"You can't know that for sure."

"True. But I've known a lot of the people who go here for many years. And it's a small academy. Everyone knows everything about everyone. I'm not trying to say that no one has any faults or anything like that. Obviously, that isn't true. But it's a generally accepting place."

"I hope you're right."

"You'll discover I normally am." A cheeky grin stretches over his face.

"I'll believe that when I have proof of it," I tease.

"I plan on giving it to you."

I believe him. Everything I've seen from Mathias so far suggests he's a genuinely good person. Though perhaps after realising how badly I judged Juliet, I shouldn't be trusting my opinion of him quite yet.

But I want to believe people are genuinely decent.

"You still haven't told me much about how you grew up," he says, bringing me back into the conversation.

"No."

"No, you admit you haven't, or no, you don't want to tell me?" He sets his half-empty cup on the table.

I sigh dramatically. "It's very boring. I'm an orphan. I was taken in by a group of people and brought up with a few other orphans. The rest of my childhood was standard. I went to school until last year and that's it."

"What happened to your parents?"

"I have no idea. I don't even know their names."

"Does it bother you?" he seems genuinely interested and something the way he's asking makes me want to tell him.

"Yes. But I've asked and no one will tell me anything." I pick up my paper cup and take a drink, mostly for something to do rather than because I want it.

"Ha

ve you tried to find anything out yourself?"

"I didn't get very far. I don't know the name I was given at birth, but apparently, it isn't Syxe Weston."

"Ah. I can see how that's a potential problem."

"Maybe knowing they were reapers will help." I frown. "They're probably both reapers, right? I'm not some kind of half-reaper?"

"I doubt it. You haven't had any problems doing reaper things yet, and that would be the case if you have one human parent."

"That's good to know, thank you."

We fall into a comfortable silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. I'd given up on the chance of discovering the truth of where I came from, but this gives me a chance to change that.