“What am I doing wrong?” Aiden asked. Everyone else made it look so easy.
Ms. Yang turned her attention back to him. “You’re not doing anything wrong, except maybe putting too much pressure on yourself. I can’t tell you exactly how to do it; it’s something you have to feel. Somewhere inside you, you know how to use your magic. It’s subconscious, instinct.”
“So I just keep trying until something happens?”
“Yes.”
“What if nothing happens?” Even as he said it, he thought of all those doors opening and closing, the shocked looks on the boys’ faces.
“You’re full-blooded fae.” Ms. Yang smiled. “I put extra wards on the room just for you and Dylan.”
He opened his mouth to ask what Dylan was, but he remembered the bet.
“It’ll happen. Now hurry before you miss your bus.”
CHAPTER FIVE
He should have been reading to catch up. He’d done a bit after he woke up yesterday and had made an attempt last night, but staying up all night was too hard. He could barely get through the school day—no, night. He’d crawled into bed again as soon as he got home. Maybe it would get easier next week.
He’d woken up just before noon, and instead of going for his books or his notes, he’d opened his laptop and started searching. Dylan wasn’t a demon, so he had to look for other things that could control fire. The Internet was all too happy to provide information, but Aiden couldn’t be sure any of it was right. Still, the more he looked, the more one thing stood out.
Aiden smiled. “I think I got you.” He closed the laptop and opened his history book.
The excitement of his guess kept him from thinking about the disappointment of Major Magical Control. Dylan was late to homeroom again, so Aiden had to wait all through the class, feeling like he was going to burst. He kept having to drag his attention back to the lesson instead of picturing Dylan running through the hall in his underwear.
The bell rang, and Aiden almost jumped out of his seat. “Djinn,” he told Dylan.
“What?” The boy arched an eyebrow.
“That’s what you are. You’re a djinn. They’re creatures of fire—”
“Nope.” Dylan smirked.
“What?” Aiden deflated, shoulders sagging.
“I’m not a djinn. Good guess though.” Dylan walked out, chuckling.
Aiden watched him go. “Crap.”
At lunch, he set down his tray and asked, “Are you a witch?”
“No.” Dylan took a bite of his barbecue sandwich and licked sauce from his lips.
Aiden stared at him for a long moment. “Are you going to guess what I am?”
“Waiting for some more evidence.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“I’ll know it when I see it.” Amusement brightened his eyes. Good God, did he know how handsome he was?
A girl walked up to them, scowling at Dylan. “Is that why you dumped me, so you could go be gay? Is this your new boyfriend?”
Aiden blinked. Was this girl actually bullying Dylan?
Dylan didn’t just roll his eyes, he let his head flop back. “Jesus Christ, you’re obsessed. Give it up.”
“I’m not obsessed.” She crossed her arms, making her large breasts even more noticeable. Aiden looked away before he started staring. “I just want to know why you’re hanging with this kid when you won’t even talk to anybody else. Was it love at first sight? Did your gay heart fill with gay rainbows? Do you touch yourself while thinking about—”
Dylan stood up, and the lunchroom fell silent. The hair on the back of Aiden’s neck rose and the air felt suddenly heavy. Aiden’s heart thudded in his ears as he looked up at Dylan. Eyes blazing with a green glow, Dylan growled at the girl. “Shut. Up.”
She shrank back, like a balloon deflating, and walked away without taking her eyes off him. She stumbled into a table, caught herself, then kept going until the door swung shut behind her with a thud that echoed through the lunchroom.
Dylan sat down and picked up his sandwich again. Between one blink and the next, the green fire was gone.
Aiden had to tell himself to breathe.
People started to whisper, then to talk, and the noise level went back to normal. But at their end of the table, it was silent. Aiden imagined that anger turned on him, and it made him feel like peeing his pants.
“Are you sure you’re not a demon?” he choked out.
“That was Indira. She’s my ex-girlfriend, although she was barely my girlfriend at all.” Dylan finished his sandwich and reached for his cookie.
Aiden looked down at the food that was getting cold and made himself take a bite of lasagna. “Oh.”
* * *
“There’s no need to strain,” Ms. Yang told him. “Your magic is there, waiting. Remember to keep breathing and focus.” She moved away to talk to one of the other students.
At least this gave him something to think about beside how terrifying Dylan was. Aiden stared at the target and did the stupid push motion. He tried to keep his mind on it. But he kept thinking about Dylan and his blazing eyes. How scared he’d felt. The look on Indira’s face.
It was the look the boys in the locker room had given him when they realized he was the one moving the locker doors. Aiden hadn’t even tried to do it, he was just so scared of Billy Hughes threatening to beat him up, backing him against the wall. The fear had been alive, clawing inside his ribs and trying to get out, and then—
Something escaped.
With a shock, Aiden was back in the present, staring at the fallen target.
Ms. Yang hurried over as the target reset. “Excellent! Good job, Aiden.”
“I did that?” His voice sounded weird, distant.
“Yes. Now do it again.”
* * *
Dylan turned toward the far end of the room where Aiden had just let loose a blast of magic. He took a deep breath, filtering all the other scents out. It wasn’t too hard. The smell of Aiden’s magic was strong—damp earth and growing things. A forest smell with a hint of sweetness that he’d only smelled a few times before and never so strong.
“Holy shit,” he said to himself. This was the evidence he’d been looking for, and it was completely surprising.
For once he wanted class to hurry up and end. He wanted to talk to Aiden and win their bet.
Dylan burned several more targets, stealing glances at the boy several times. Aiden managed one more blast of formless magic before the bell rang. Dylan went straight for him, ignoring the nervousness on Aiden’s face.
“You’re fae.”
The nervousness turned to surprise. “How did you know? You cheated, didn’t you?”
“No. Your magic smells like fae.”
Aiden’s brows drew together. “Is that what you were waiting for? For me to use magic?”
“Yeah. Every kind of magic has a certain scent, at least to me. I knew I’d be able to figure it out, or at least get close, if I was around when you used yours.” Dylan shook his head. “Now I know why they put you in this class.”
Aiden rubbed at his arm. “People keep saying that, but I suck at magic.”
“Maybe right now, but you’ll be able to kick pretty much anyone’s ass before long.” Maybe even mine. It made him a bit nervous to think of this dorky, skinny kid out-fighting him, but he was also excited at the idea of having a real challenge.
“You really think so?”
Dylan snorted. “Hell yeah.”
“So I guess that means you win.” He pressed his lips together, probably thinking about what losing the bet meant. “So what are you?”
The game was over. “Dragonkin.”
“What’s that?”
He shouldn’t be surprised Aiden didn’t know what that meant. It wasn’t the kind of thing that showed up in movies or TV. “My grandfather was a dragon.”
“So… what was your grandmother?”
“A human.” He hated talking about it, hated even thinking ab
out it, but he couldn’t escape it. Better to tell Aiden and get it over with. “You know in the stories where they would sacrifice a virgin to the dragon? The dragon didn’t always eat them.”
“Huh?” A second later, Aiden’s eyes started to widen. “Oh. Ohhh…”
“Yeah.” The other kids had left the gym and Ms. Yang had disappeared into her office.
“So your dad is half-dragon?”
“My mom.”
“And that makes you one-quarter dragon. That makes you really powerful, then? That’s why everyone is afraid of you?”
“Yeah. Dragons are one of the strongest creatures around. Or were. There aren’t any left, at least in this world. It’s possible they went to another world like the fae.”
Aiden shifted his feet, frowning slightly. “Mr. Johnson said something about that, the fae leaving this world. He said people like me were rare.”
“Since you know jack about magic, I’m guessing you weren’t raised by your parents. That makes you… a changeling, right?”
Aiden sighed. “Does everyone know more than me?”
“Probably.” He realized they’d been standing there for a while. “C’mon.”
After changing out of his gym clothes, Dylan found Aiden waiting for him outside the locker room.
“That thing you did at lunch today. It was really scary.” His face was pale, and a faint scent of nervousness hung around him.
“Indira pissed me off.” Annoying him was bad enough, but trying to push his buttons like that… Maybe she’d learned her lesson to stay away.
“You looked like you could explode and take the whole school with you.” Aiden met his eyes before looking down.
“I wasn’t mad at you or anything.”
“That’s not the point…” Aiden shook his head. “See you tomorrow.” He shifted his backpack and walked away.
For just a second, Dylan had an urge to apologize. He didn’t want Aiden to be scared of him like everyone else. But maybe Aiden was too much of a wimp to hang out with him.
I don’t need anybody, Dylan reminded himself.
CHAPTER SIX
Toby bounced up from his seat as soon as Aiden got on the bus. “You sat with Dylan Galloway? Are you nuts?”
“I’ve been sitting with him for three days.” He dropped his backpack into an empty seat. Aiden didn’t know what to think. Dylan seemed proud of how tough he was and that everyone was afraid of him, and it didn’t seem to bother him that Aiden was one of the people he’d scared today.
“I know. Blaine told me, and Max told me, but I thought they were like, making it up or imagining things or whatever, but I saw you today.” Toby leaned over the seat, ignoring the two kids sitting there. “What happened today? What did he do to Indira?”
“He scared her off, that’s all. She said some horrible things and it made him mad.”
Calling them gay. It made his insides twist to think that was the worst thing she could come up with. Or because she knew it would make Dylan mad? Did Dylan hate gay people? Was this town a bad place for gay people?
I want to go home. Aiden wanted all this to go away, to have his old life back.
“I can’t believe you sat with him. That he let you.”
“Could you please sit down?” the bus driver asked, starting the bus.
Toby nudged his backpack aside and sat next to Aiden. “Do you know he’s dragonkin? My parents think he’s too dangerous. That he shouldn’t be allowed to go to school.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, they talk about dragons—well, Western dragons—like they’re at the top of the list of bad things. Worse even than some of the demons or full-blooded djinn.”
Maybe Dylan was just living up to expectations. “He hasn’t been mean to me. Sort of… friendly, actually.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” Maybe Aiden was the first person who hadn’t treated him like something dangerous.
Toby tried to get more information out of him for the rest of the ride home. Aiden didn’t think it was right to share the details of their conversations, so he kept things vague, which only made Toby more curious.
“What are you, anyway?” Aiden asked. He didn’t know a way to ask that didn’t sound rude, but he wanted to know, and he wanted to distract Toby from his line of questions.
Instead of being offended, Toby smiled. “I’m a kappa.”
“A what now?”
“A type of water yokai. Er, demon. But not like horns and a red tail demon. It’s a broader term. Make sense?”
Aiden was going to do more searching on the Internet when he got home. If he could manage to stay awake. “Not really. It’s going to take me a while to understand all this stuff. I’m trying to keep an open mind.”
“That’s good.”
The bus pulled up to their stop and they got out, Tina following just behind them. She gave him a curious look but didn’t say anything. Maybe she’d get her brother to fill her in.
“See you tomorrow.” Aiden waved.
“Bye.” Toby and his sister hurried across the street.
Aiden covered a yawn as he reached the house. It was so weird coming home in the middle of the night. He walked in to find Mr. Johnson sitting at the dining room table with his parents.
“Hello, Aiden.”
“Hi.”
“Why don’t you have a seat? I’d like to talk to you for a bit about how things are going,” Mr. Johnson said.
“Is anything wrong?” He set his backpack by the door.
“Not at all. I’d just like to make sure you’re settling in. I know it will take you some time; it’s quite a lot to absorb.” Mr. Johnson folded his hands on the table.
Aiden took the seat across from him, next to his mom. “Um, what would you like to know?”
“How is school?”
He frowned. “It’s hard. I’m behind in all my classes. I’ve never been behind before. And the classes with magic… I feel like I’m at kindergarten level and everyone is so far ahead of me.” Although he’d made progress today. The feeling of tapping into his power had been frightening and thrilling at the same time.
“Don’t worry about measuring yourself against the others in your magical classes. The board considered putting you in the elementary classes, but they decided that would be more awkward for you.”
Going to class with little kids? Yeah, that sounded much worse. “Ms. Yang seems to think I belong in her class and that I’ll get to the same level as the others. Dylan said I’ll be able to kick anyone’s… butt before long.”
Mr. Johnson’s eyebrow arched. “Dylan? Do you mean Dylan Galloway?”
“Yeah.” He tensed, wondering if that was a bad thing.
Mr. Johnson leaned closer. “Are you friends with Dylan?”
“I… I’m not really sure. We talk, but I don’t know if I’d call him a friend.” Aiden wasn’t sure he wanted to be Dylan’s friend. He didn’t want to be friends with glowing-eyes, terrifying Dylan, but when he wasn’t being scary… maybe. Mysterious, lonely Dylan.
“Hmm.” Mr. Johnson nodded. “You’ll need to be careful around him.”
“Is he dangerous?” Mom asked.
“Everyone at school is dangerous.” Aiden regretted it as soon as he said it. He didn’t want her to worry.
“Including you,” Mr. Johnson said. “That’s the whole reason you’re here. You’re one of them, Aiden. One of us. Once you accept that, really accept it, things will get easier for you.”
Aiden glanced over at his parents. Adoptive parents. They kept repeating that they loved him no matter what, but did they secretly hate him? Did they wish they could trade him back for their real son?
* * *
All morning he wondered what he should say to Dylan, whether he was mad at him for not caring about how much he’d scared Aiden yesterday. He’d acted like nothing had happened when he talked to him in Major Magical Control and seemed to think that because his anger hadn’t been directed at Aiden,
it shouldn’t bother him.
But the fact that Aiden cared so much about this meant he had to say something.
Dylan walked into class late yet again, and the teacher wrote him up for detention. They were so different. Aiden would have a heart attack if someone gave him detention, and it would be even worse when he had to explain that to his parents. Dylan acted like this happened all the time.
After class ended, Aiden leaned closer. “Hey. I want to talk to you.”
Dylan turned in his seat as the other kids walked out, giving them curious glances. “Yeah?”
“That thing in the lunchroom yesterday… I know you weren’t mad at me, but seeing you like that…” It had sounded fine in his head, but out loud it sounded stupid. Too late now, he’d already started. “I was afraid of you, and I didn’t like that feeling. I don’t want to be afraid of you.” Despite what he’d told Mr. Johnson last night, Dylan was the closest thing to a friend Aiden had in this town.
Dylan’s expression turned guarded, but Aiden saw that what he’d said had affected him. “You should be. Everyone else is.”
“Is that what you want?” It was uncomfortable, but Aiden made himself hold Dylan’s gaze as the room emptied and things got quiet.
Dylan looked away first. “No.”
“Okay then. See you at lunch.” Aiden grabbed his stuff and walked out.
The hallway buzzed with activity. Something cut through the crowd, and kids made surprised noises. It pushed past a cluster of girls near Aiden, and he stared. What was a dog doing in school?
Its eyes had a milky sheen and its fur was gray. Was it old? It walked stiffly but with purpose. It stopped for just a second when it reached Aiden, looking up at him. Then it shuffled away.
“Marcus!” A teacher yelled as he stepped out of a classroom and saw the dog. “Get that thing out of here. No pets in school.”
An older boy appeared with a little smile on his face. “Sorry. Come on, Digger.” He patted his thigh and the dog heeled.
How to Make Friends and Not Incinerate People Page 3