ILLYRIS | vii. "LEPRECHAUNS AREN'T REAL." THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. VEE AND MS. ILLYRIS
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THEA BLINKED DROWSILY as she opened her locker, the ringing of the seventh-period bell fading in her ears— just one more period to go and it was sweet sweet freedom. That was probably the best feeling in the universe. Having overdue physics homework done half-assed during study hall wasn't.
The weight of her physics textbook was a literal burden she was more than ready to reduce to ashes but storing it below an abandoned hoodie would suffice for now. It was strange that Peter Parker's ideas of the excruciating dullness of school in preference to the prospects of hero work... actually made sense. She thought it was the conqueror in her heart or the fire in her blood, crying out for release. Or it could've just been the mediocrity of school that was a sore disappointment she discovered after bingeing the High School Musical movies over and over when she was young.
She knew their little gathering at the coffee shop was far from over. They had to talk more about what to do, what their next step was. Thea weighed both sides when she got home— on one, they're faced with a flying man wearing a wingsuit, armed with henchmen bearing alien weapons. On the other, Peter was a boy wearing a spandex suit and she was... well, Thea didn't know what she was or where her priorities laid yet. She was Theadora Martell the Teenage Student and Rhaenerys Valaryen the Dragonborn all jumbled up in a body that was ticking like a timebomb.
For now, Theadora Martell the Teenage Student had to take over because her focus was on school.
That was better said than done. She hadn't done the homework she missed out on the day before but there were more important things to do like laying sprawled on her bed, clutching both of her dragon eggs like stuffed animals, and staring out the window for five hours. She thought of the vulture guy— a mysterious man so vaguely dangerous, he had gotten under her skin. And she hated it.
She gave a start at a tap on her shoulder, and her shoulders relaxed when Bex chuckled harmlessly.
"At ease, T," her best friend remarked. In her hand was a paper bag that she passed to Thea. "Here's some food. Abuela thinks you're too skinny and we should feed you 'cause you're an orphan."
Thea squinted her eyes, humming disapprovingly at that last part. Bex was really trying to push that "Twisted Twins" thing to the max. She couldn't focus on that thought, not with the tantalizing scent emanating from the bag. It made Thea's mouth water but also brought her to her senses. "Tell her thanks. I completely forgot about making my lunch today."
"Yeah, I figured. It like came to me in a vision or a dream, 'Holy shit, Thea didn't eat, I should swoop in and save the day." Bex mockingly waved her hands but didn't notice the sudden tensing of Thea's shoulders.
She wouldn't consider the word dream a trigger but the only thing that became associated with it was the fire and dragon she saw every night in her sleep. That bequeathed the purple lining under Thea's startlingly blue eyes. There was a certain dullness to them now, like she hadn't slept in ages—which considering her habit to push all her homework to the witching hour—was not totally undeniable.
