by Bob Dattolo
“Don’t you ignore me!” Her voice dropped dangerously as her skin starts splitting, telling me she’s so freaking close to shifting that it’s crazy.
“What the fuck…what the fuck do I do with this?” I looked towards Samantha. “How do I react to this bullshit? I can’t fight back, or people will believe what they’ve heard. I can’t not fight back, or people will believe what they’ve heard. I’m fucked no matter what decision I make.”
She shrugged, “No clue. You could let them both get in an attack? Maybe two? You don’t attack back until the second one?”
Oh, huh, “That’s a possibility.” Tiffany’s still fighting her shift as I step away from the table, “Fine. You both get an attack on me. If you attack me a second time, that’s when I’ll come for you. How does that sound? No one is required to hold off when they’re being attacked. Except for me, apparently. So you get a free attack on me. I’ll defend myself, but I won’t attack back. If you attack a second time? Then I’ll attack back. Or challenge. Depending on what you do. So, go for it? You think I’m some evil girl hellbent on draining the entire fucking school, when all I want to do is get out of this hellhole? Go for it. Maybe you’ll kill me with one shot, and I won’t have to deal with this garbage any longer.”
A few of the watching people reacted when I stripped and left my clothes on the table, then moved back into a more open spot. “Any time, Tiffany. Eva. Attack the evil girl that no one has ever seen be aggressive with someone that hadn’t already started something with her.” That got some reactions from people. “Right? You guys just realized that? Now, according to the rumors, that’s because I’m setting everyone up with my crazy plan of either trying to be allies and friends with everyone or pulling away and being allies and friends with no one. Like that last one is supposed to lull people into a sense of safety or some crap like that. I’ve only ever pushed back against those coming for me. And even then? Samantha was hyper aggressive last year. I gave her a free pass to challenge me at any time. Levi? I actively saved his life in the trial. I’m sure there will be rumors out there about that and how it’s part of something or other, but I killed his parents. You can’t tell me that there’s much I can do to get through to him.” I faced Tiffany again. “Go for it. One shot. If a second one comes? Then we’ll see what happens.”
More power built from them as Tiffany continued to fight shifting. Evan leaned into her and whispered, “Are we gonna do this?”
“Just like we talked about. On three.”
Neither of them smell all that confident in this. At all. My magic began to surge, and I debated a shield of some sort before just leaving it floating around waiting for me. My hair stayed dark as I waited, power ramped out for whatever they’re doing.
Then it faltered as I felt their spells.
Ugh.
Pain from Eva and fire from Tiffany. Really? That’s what they’re going with? I would have sworn that they both saw me handle things like this in the past. Why would they think this would work better now?
Tiffany yelled, “Now!” and both of their spells kicked off at the same time. I seriously expected them to somehow change into something else, yet they didn’t. Eva’s spell raced in and hit me like a truck, sending lances of pure pain through my body that feel like my bones are being broken and possibly dragged through the skin and torn away.
The fire spell came in and lit me up, sending fire high into the air. Thank God this place is protected, otherwise even the high ceilings in here would be a problem. The fire is impressive, I’ll give her that much. Don’t think normal flames. Think something superheated. It’s nearly over the top.
It’s also not burning me.
Just like the agony spell? It hurts, don’t get me wrong, it’s just so muted compared to what I think a normal person would feel. I’ve yet to figure out why that would be.
Kids around the room screamed and got up to run as the two girls laughed and cheered. It carried on long enough that they finally realized I wasn’t screaming. Or crying. Or dropping. Or doing much at all.
“What the fuck? I ask that with all sincerity. What the fuck was that? Why would you both think these would take me down? You could have hit me with any spell either of you have, and these are the ones you picked?” My hand went up, hand open, “I’ll give you a count of five, then I’m crushing the spells and you guys get to deal with the backlash from it. Kill it yourself, and you don’t.” No response. “Five. Fou…” the spells died.
They both stared at each other, leaning in. “Okay, you both got to attack me. Do you feel better about that now? You can attack again, but like I said? I’ll either attack back or challenge. I don’t want either of those, but I’ll do them. I’ve tried to be honest with people. I really have. I haven’t outright lied to anyone here in school. Which no one can now trust because of the rumors. They’re nicely done to separate me from the herd, all the while also making that a super bad thing.” The other kids have a huge cross section of looks on their faces. I can’t tell who I’m getting through to versus just banging into a wall, yet it’s not a waste of time to me. Even getting one person to realize how things really are would make this worth it.
They continued to stare at me, although Tiffany’s roiling shift stopped completely as the scent of fear ramped up.
“You get a second attack if you want it. I can’t imagine the average person planning to murder and drain everyone allowing that. Yet here I am. Attack. Or don’t. I’m okay either way. Even if you attack and I end up dead.”
They left their trays behind and walked out without a word.
Instead of leaving their stuff there, I cleared it and dropped it all off. “I don’t fucking get any of this. This is so fucked up.” I know some can hear my muttering. I just don’t care. In the end, I emptied mine as well and left with my clothes, not even bothering to get dressed. It’s just not worth it.
Chapter 29
Time started to do its weird fast forward thing again, which keeps catching me by surprise. I’ll blink, and it’ll be Friday again. Then another blink, and it’s the next. Now it’s late December, and I’m struggling with what to do as I stare across my room.
I’ve had four more attacks on my things. Closet twice. Computer once. Dresser and computer the last time. I haven’t been able to figure out how to make the attacker glow or anything like that, but my spells have protected everything. Thankfully. Still zero idea who’s doing it, though. Makes me wonder if they’re even here. They very well may not be. I’m assuming they’re here, yet…who knows, right? It doesn’t help that I’ve been getting letters and emails and things from Samantha’s parents and the parents of the others. I had hoped they’d forget me. Nope. Not even close.
The email are vicious. The letters are worse. I’ve had six threats of lawsuits in the past two weeks alone, yet they never seem to happen.
So far.
At least things have changed on the friend front.
No, who am I kidding? No changes there. Angelica, Parece, Samantha, Kynal, Gage, Riley, and Paige are still connecting with me on the sly. They still seem gung-ho, which is good. We’ve actually met out a few towns over a few times, coordinating it so that it didn’t seem like we would be together. That was fun as hell.
Still no Kaylee. I’ve made myself available to her a few times when she’s been attacked, but she’s ignoring me even more than before. Harder. She reeks of terror when she sees me. I swear people are giving her so much shit due to us being close last year.
How’re my new allies? We’re not broken up, which is good. They came back to me just after Thanksgiving and we had a long talk. The rumors have continued, getting even more inventive and all of that, yet it’s starting to stick out to people that I talk to no one in a normal day that isn’t required by school. Yet the rumors are always that I’ve talked to people and told them, blah blah blah. Cleo picked up on that before Cesar and Stacey, which was good for me. We’re not making it obvious that we’re back together just yet, alt
hough we’re not quite hiding it entirely.
Levi? I’m so confused there. I really am. He’s gone back and forth with sitting with me and then not. I haven’t pursued him. He hasn’t talked to me outright since mid-November at this point, yet he doesn’t seem to be avoiding me. Not really. I wish I had a clue what’s happening with him that way. My anger at him has mostly worn away at this point and I’d love to find out that his has as well. I’m just not holding my breath for it, you know? The whole killed your parents thing has to stick out to him. Or so I’d believe.
Jason came to me with more rumors about him, none of which made sense. They were so off base that even he picked up on it.
How about my roomie?
Oh, you know, she spends like six days a week out of our room. She and Tiffany have hooked up with Brody, an earth mage that came from the academy in India. They’re a little trio now, although I don’t think they’re hooking up. He’s joined the twosome in glaring at me and making various threats. No other magical attacks, though. Me allowing them to do what they did seemed to seriously throw them, and it weeded through a bunch of their shit right quick.
At least for now.
That hasn’t stopped each of them, meaning all three of them, from accidentally pushing me. Knocking into me. Knocking my tray out of my hands in the caf. Staining my clothes. They’ve upped their petty personal attacks like that while backing off a little on the verbal.
I’m proud of myself for not leaving them cooling in the dark. I really am.
“C’mon, Maddie. Get the fuck out of bed.” I’ve yet to be able to sleep past 5am no matter how hard I try. It’s not yet 5, and I’ve been up for a solid half hour so far.
Since I’m no longer hiding everything, I’ve let people see me working out in the mornings. Word spread about that, then sort of died down. Everyone knows that dragons are stronger than humans that way. They just don’t seem to realize how strong I am.
Classes? They’re still the same. I’m sandbagging the magic classes something fierce. We’re working through some interesting things, it’s just that I’m past what they’re covering. That sounds so pretentious, yet that’s not how I mean it. I lucked into everything that I have, so none of this is me, per se. Yet it’s still true that what they’re covering is stuff that I fell into by accident a long time back.
Not that I show people that. I’ve shown success in the spells eventually, working hard to not be the first to do it and to not get the strongest results.
It’s funny watching the others in class. I can tell that some others are hiding things too. Samantha? Yup. Definitely. Parece, too. Paige and Riley? Not so much, although maybe they’re just better at it? It’s weird, I didn’t get it for the longest time until it hit me like two weeks ago. Since I can pick up the buildup of power, I can tell when they’re working a ton and then only trigger with a little. I had no idea it was deliberate.
Which means Angelica? She’s a fucking powerhouse. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her work a spell with her full power. She’s always keeping the results way, way down. I can’t tell if she’s the most powerful around, but I will definitely say she’s in the top five from what I’ve been able to pick up.
Again, unless others are much better at hiding things than I expected.
My feet hit the chilled floor and I slid out of bed to get dressed. I have no idea when Eva will come back to the room. It’s never two days in a row, at least lately, but it could be any other day. Just not very often. If I’m here, she’ll typically leave. She’s been late to classes because I purposefully waited here until the very last minute before leaving. I know that was bitchy, but I didn’t do it for that reason. I actually did it as a test to see how petty she’d be about things. They both, all three of them now, act like I’m the aggressor here. They’re the ones spouting off nonsense about me. not the other way around.
My breakfast passed quickly, without anyone being there to talk to me. No one even made any comments, which is rare. It’s happening a little more often lately yet it’s still rare as hell. I’m more than okay with that, though. My life overall may be pretty lonely, but it allows me time to read my grimoires like crazy. I’m up to 39 now, and they run the gamut from cheap to expensive, yet all of them are really interesting to me. I’ve gotten so many ideas for spells from them.
Breakfast passed and I showered before grabbing my clothes and heading outside to the snow. Naked. My clothes are in a bag. I got some weird comments and looks until I shifted and took off, flapping up through the swirling snow. We have a solid 20 inches of snow, which makes sense. It’s Christmas Eve in Montana. We’ll have a white Christmas. They had one last year, although I missed it. No idea what kind of Christmas I had growing up. I have snippets of the memories, yet most of it’s missing. Too many tie-ins with my family, I guess. Maybe with the house itself.
It’s much harder to fly in the snow than you’d think, yet it’s also pretty cool. We don’t get cold easily, so even being out here and flying when it’s blisteringly cold doesn’t really bother me all that much. Then again, that could be because of my weird magic and my ability to withstand temperatures.
The researchers have done a bunch of tests at times over the past few weeks. Nothing overly painful, at least on purpose, so that’s good. Some tests on my magic. No one seems to have picked up what I did for Jenny, so that’s fantastic. I’ve been keeping in touch, and her sight is just as strong as normal. Her magic is back to what it was before. She’s just about as appreciative as you could imagine.
While it’s harder to fly in the snow, it’s not easy to get lost when we’re this close to the town. It’s a decently long walk but flying makes it pass quickly. I’m in town earlier than normal, but Alicia agreed to meet me at her place. That’s why she’s at the door when I come in for a landing. Instead of messing around, I just landed in the street. There aren’t many cars out and about right now with the snow, although I did have to avoid a huge pickup fording through the mounds of snow.
She smiled as I came in and shifted to shake off the snow. Her hug was nice and warm, “Good morning.”
“Hey. Good morning.” I did throw on some sweats and a sweatshirt along with some snug boots. I might be okay with the cold, but I still love warm and cuddly.
She gives me another hug, “C’mon back?” The door got locked and she made sure the closed sign was in place.
“Thank you for meeting with me.”
“You’re welcome.” When we reached the counter with her register, she handed me a huge cup of coffee from the local coffee house. I’ve come to looove it.
“Oh my God, thank you so much!”
“You’re welcome. We’re not stopping here, though.” That got me led through her place to a back room. I’ve seen into it, just never been in it. It’s where she keeps her stock of books not out on the floor and works through mailing things out. Then we passed through to another room that’s an office and a workroom. It’s nicely set up to practice with magic. “Have a seat?” She nodded to the couch, so I plopped down, with her taking the other end. “Now, you’re struggling with charms?”
My smile dimmed a little, then came back as I sipped more delicious coffee, “Yeah, I am. No matter what I do, I can’t get one made at all. I’ve tried everything I can find. Everything online. Every recommendation. Everything. I’ve gone for simple ones to see if I can get the process to work. I’ve gone for complicated ones. Powerful ones. Weak ones. Different materials. I’m missing something, obviously, I just can’t figure out what it is.”
She sipped and frowned, “Okay, I thought that’s what you meant from your texts.”
“Can you help me with that?”
“I think so? You’re still trying to make something to help you with the mortmagi?”
“That’s my ultimate goal. In reality? Learning to create anything would be awesome. Then I can go from there. Maybe.”
She nodded to the bag I had with me, “Can you show me what you were trying to do? Walk me
through it step by step? Maybe for something simple? Like for light?”
“Umm, do you mean like a flashlight?”
“Yeah. Anything like that.”
“Sure?” She waited while I rummaged in my bag and took some things out, “Does it matter what I put it into? The books seem to say no, but there’s varying arguments about what holds it better and all of that?”
She shrugged, “There are some limits? You can get it into ice, but it’s very, very weak and washed out and fades quickly. That’s just about as liquidy as you can get. Nothing liquid will take it. Nothing alive. You can do wood and bone, but if it’s alive? Nope. You can do grass as long as it’s bundled together, just not a single blade or even two. It has to be decently thick. I’m not sure if they know why. I haven’t ever heard. Cloth will take a spell, yet it’s nearly as bad as ice is. It’ll work for a time, then it’ll be gone no matter how strong you make it. Things that are strong hold the magic much, much better. Wood holds well. Bone holds well. Stone. Gems. Metal.”
“What about plastic? Glass?”
She gave me a look, “The books didn’t cover this?”
“They were so freaking vague!” She laughed as I hit the arm of the couch. “One would say one thing, like the best is wood from a tree struck by lightning. The next would say never use wood, only use metal. The one after that would talk about only using gems and precious metals. I swear, they’re trying to confuse people on purpose!”
More laughter. “Yeah, magic can be like that. No idea why. For glass and plastic? They’re kinda weird to me. I’ve never been able to get a charm to stick in either, but I’ve known people that have. Mainly with plastic. Glass is really rare in my experience.”
“You can’t get it to stick? Why not?”
She shrugged and sipped her coffee, “No idea? It just doesn’t work even though I do what I normally would.”
“That’s weird. What are the results if you can get them to work, though?”