by Bob Dattolo
Angelica laughed from her place, “She’s not liking that she was that obvious.”
Dammit! “I’m really not. Do you think others picked up on it?”
“I doubt it. We just know you better than others. Now, what’d you figure out?” My huge friend has a patient look on her face telling me she’s going to drag this out no matter what. So maybe let’s stop fighting it?
My smile threatened physical damage to my face, “Well, it’s like this. When you drain someone of power, everything mixes in, right?”
“Umm, yeah?” She tilted her head to the side, “That’s what the spell does?”
My smile got wider, but my response was stopped by Levi pushing away from the wall, “No. Fucking. Way!”
Eva jerked and stared at him, “No fucking way what? What’d you figure out?”
He didn’t look away from me, “You did it? You managed it?”
His posture tells me a lot, “Umm, I’m not entirely sure we’re on the same page?”
He waved away my question, “Riiight. We are.”
“Will one of you get with the telling!” Parece pointed at Levi, “Maybe you? Then we’ll talk about how the fuck she healed you and scars that you’ve had since last year!” She glanced back at me, “Don’t think we forgot that.”
“Umm, these are not the droids you’re looking for?” Soft laughter from some of them.
“Suck it up, Old Ben, we’re talking about it right after whatever this is the two of you are hinting at.”
Levi stared at me longer, then nodded, “When you do the spells, you pull in their power and it integrates.”
“Right? That’s how it works?” Angelica gave me a look but didn’t quite ask me directly.
“It is. I’ve read countless articles about whether or not it’s possible to collect the power somehow. Not let it integrate. Can you do that and possibly give it to someone else? Save it, somehow?”
Samantha stood up, looking between us, “The fuck you say! Are you…” she whirled back to me, “Did you do that? Did you come up with a spell that lets you do that?!?”
“I did.” It felt good to let that out even if Eva and Tiffany are here for it.
Parece and Angelica laughed. Eva shook her head and stood, pointing at both me and Levi, “Uh-uh, nope. This isn’t happening. That’s not possible. You guys are just…I don’t know, trying to fuck with us or something like that!”
Tiffany grabbed the hand pointing at me and lowered it. I wasn’t expecting to have her smell like fear, “Eva? They smell like they’re telling the truth. Completely.”
My roomie looked between her and me and then at the others, “This is…you guys…this isn’t a lie?”
Levi shrugged, “I don’t know for sure. She’s not lying, but we don’t know for sure that she accomplished what she thinks she did.”
My turn to shrug, “That’s true. I’m not one hundred percent sure. Just…95 percent? Maybe a little higher.”
The water mage slashed her hand through the air, “I still don’t…uh-uh, this is a bunch of crap. I know you can do some crazy shit.” She looked up where my balls of light were still floating around. They started disappearing as they hit obstacles, leaving her staring up at the normal ceiling, “You can do some crazy shit. You’re a freak. I’ve seen it. I get it. But that spell’s supposed to be impossible! Where would you have found something like that?”
Every eye followed me to my massive collection, “I have 47 grimoires for a reason.”
Parece, Samantha, and Angelica didn’t indicate that they want to call my bluff. Since I ran that spell to find trackers, they darn well know that I’m doing some stuff that I shouldn’t be able to do. Thank you, Lord, for stopping them from saying something.
Tiffany tugged my roommate back down, “Did it work? Did what you think you did actually do what you wanted it to?”
My hair lit up as I flared power inside of myself. Granted, I did it on purpose, but it still happened. “I can feel their power segregated out.”
“Then…what’re you gonna do with it?” The fire dragon sounds a little scared to ask that, when she didn’t sound as freaked out before.
My gaze settled on Parece, “Parece said it earlier. I spent the summer driving around with the three of them. The idea of friendship may not mean the same to them that it does to me, but it does mean something to me. You don’t abandon your friends. You don’t leave them to die. You fight and you struggle and you fucking drag them with you if you have to. The three of them have parents that are willing to kill them if they don’t place highly enough through the ascendant trial. Sure, Samantha’s parents probably won’t be doing that now that they’re fucked, but Angelica’s? Parece’s? Both sets of parents are working on a replacement because they think they’re too weak to allow to live. Personally, I’d work on graduating and then confront them as a group. They couldn’t stop the four of us in a fight. They want to kill one of us? Then we strike first and shower in their blood.” I let that sink in a moment, “Yet we’re not together all the time. Hell, I can’t even be allies with them here because of the shit going around school causing problems for me since pretty much day one. Yet if I can do this, then I can help them when I’m not there.”
Tiffany didn’t seem to know how to respond. Eva cleared her throat, “Are you saying…are you saying that you did this to try to give them the power? For kills that you made today? In a mass fight to the death? Where you didn’t even seem to absorb any of their powers?”
My smile turned just a bit feral, “What can I say? It’s the façade I mentioned earlier. If people don’t see you absorbing power, they assume you didn’t.”
Samantha barked a laugh, “That’s hysterical. There are two spells that I’ve seen for taking power. The one everyone does and one more that’s more complicated. Yet doesn’t have the display, making it obvious it’s happening.”
I nodded at her response, “What she said.”
“Does…does that mean that you’ve drained power from everyone you’ve killed?” Now Eva smells even more like fear.
“Power has been drained from everyone that I’ve killed or been involved in killing. Not always into me.”
“Oh my freaking Lord, how many of us know that? One of the things people talk about is that you’d be even stronger if you had been absorbing power!” Tiffany reeks of fear now too. Much more so than before.
Samantha sat again, “You’re missing things. The huge water dragon that she killed when my parents came? He was a ringer. Beat something like 250 others in challenge fights. She absorbed everything from him. Now, we know that it’s not one for one, but even if she only got 20 percent it would have been like absorbing power from 50 people.”
Angelica smiled at the response, “That’s funny. Neither of you knew that?”
“How the fuck would we have guessed that?!?” Tiffany stood once again. Thank God Parece hit the room with her silence spell before this all started.
“Honestly, I just sort of assume most of the time. But that’s neither here nor there. You said you had power stored? Are you really…?” Angelica turned back to me.
“I am. I love avocado toast, and I think I can corner the market for mail order subscription services. Just 10.99 a month gets you all the toast you can eat, shipped directly to your door.”
My friends and Levi laughed. The other two? Not so much.
“Good, control that anger.” Angelica moved closer and looked from eye to eye, “You’re really willing to try this? Make us stronger?”
“I am. I don’t know how it’ll work. Maybe without touch. Maybe with touch. Maybe I have to kiss you. Or, I don’t know, bleed into your mouth or something. The spell’s incomplete.” They can’t tell by my smell that I’m skirting the reality here that I’m making it up as I go. It’s not wrong, you know? It is incomplete.
She nodded slowly, “I think I speak for the three of us when I say that if it took you shitting in our mouths for this to work? I’d get with puckering.
”
Eva’s semi-quiet, “What the fuck?” was ignored by the dragons in the room. They all feel the same way. Even Tiffany.
“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t take that. That’s a bit more up close and personal than I’m willing to get right now. I’ll do it if it comes down to it, but the fun house’s closed at this carnival.”
“I hear you. So…how do you want to try it?”
Nothing sprang out at me as an obvious place to start. “Umm, let’s try it without touching first. You ready?”
“Maddie? You’re looking at giving me free power. I’ll stay in this room until the trial starts for the chance of that happening.”
“Another thing I hope doesn’t happen. I’m getting hungry. Those hands weren’t enough.”
“I can’t believe you ate their hands…that’s fucking hard core.” Levi sounds impressed. Not that I did it for that reason.
“Okay, hold on. Let’s try this.” I reached in for power and felt the seven little compartments of power. Hmmm, I want this to be at least somewhat even. I can’t tell how powerful the girls are against each other, although I know they’re all up there. I think Angelica’s in the lead, though. Given that, I still don’t want to give her more. So to speak. Or even less. They may never know what I give them, assuming I can, but I want to be as even as possible.
That idea lets me mentally sort the locked containers until I had what feels like a decent combined level of power. Thankfully, those assholes weren’t all over the board. Something to be said for having similar power levels to your friends.
I grasped the two locked containers that I earmarked for her and tried to open them, directing the power to her.
Nothing.
Trying with power flowing doesn’t do anything.
Asking it to happen doesn’t do anything.
Hmm, let’s try a spell.
I developed a spell on the fly, but it wouldn’t trigger. Adding more power didn’t do anything. Adding a ton didn’t do anything either, other than making the lines of burning in me flare up a little more.
She didn’t move as I stepped closer, “Nothing is working so far.” She took my hand as I tried again, working through the variations.
“Fuck…nothing. I don’t…I’m pretty sure it’s not blood. No sex. What…what could it be?”
Levi’s soft voice cut through the noise in my head, “Our eyes are the windows to our power.” He didn’t say anything else. Just that.
Our eyes are the windows to our power. Lose our eyes, lose our power. Gain our eyes back, gain our power back.
Angelica tensed as I released her hands and stepped in closer and slowly reached for her face. I can tell that she wants to stop me from getting close to her eyes. If I can get my fingers in them, she’s fucked. Royally. That’s something most people here would never let someone do. Get close to their eyes. And yet I’m reaching for her face as she fights the natural desire to destroy anyone that would think to do this.
“Oh my fucking…” Eva’s voice cut off as my palms slowly touched Angelica’s closed eyes, “No fucking way.”
Instead of answering, I reached out and felt my friend with my magic. I have better insight into her power for some reason. It’s like a gateway to her. She’s got a fucking ocean of power in there. So, so much of it. Let’s see if I can do this.
This time when I reach for the cubbies, it’s like they want to open. I barely had to touch them before they sprang open and dissipated, leaving me with a combined writhing mass of power in search of a new home.
Gasps from the room as the light of the power flowed from my eyes and danced around as it grew into a thick mass, creating a cloud of possibility right in front of me. Once it was all out, it twined around and around, creating a kinda disturbing but also pretty pattern. That lasted for about a minute before the leading tendril slowed and pointed at my hands.
“What…what’s happen…” Angelica froze as the power rammed into my hands and directly into her eyes. I could feel it connect and see it flowing in and adding to her ocean of power. It raised her level a good bit, it’s just that since she started so high it’s not as big as I think it’ll be for the others.
My friends didn’t react as I stepped back, lowering my hands, “How do you feel?”
She blinked a few times before smiling at me, then Eva, “Let me say this, yes fucking way. That was…wow!”
“It worked?” Parece moved closer.
“It did. That’s a weird feeling. It’s like more of the power reached me or something. It felt like a better connection?”
“C’mon, Parece, get in position if you want your share.”
She smelled nervous as Angelica pushed her into place, “Just do it. Let’s not have your parents kill you if we can help it.”
My former roomie caught my hands before I could touch her, “This is gonna work?”
“It worked for Angelica; I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for you. Unless it’s because you’re black?”
Laughter from her and my friends. “You just know if it doesn’t work it’ll be because I’m a sister!” She laughed more. “Thank you for that. I’m freaking crazy nervous. And scared.”
“I know. I’m sorry about that. If I had a way to do it without this, I’d do it.” We both stared at my hands for a moment.
She took a deep breath, “I know. Let’s just do it. This is more than I ever would have imagined someone doing for me, so I can’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Much.”
“I hear you. Those vet dental bills…” my hands touched her eyes before she could respond, and the magic flowed less than a second later. Two minutes after that, and she was done.
“She’s right. That’s…wow.” She moved to the couch and collapsed next Angelica.
“C’mon up, Samantha. Let’s do it.”
She smells less nervous than the others. “Thank you for this. You’ve given me power before, but not like this.”
“You’re welcome. And no, I’m not doing this to try to force you guys not to go after me in the trial. You do what you gotta do. I hate the game already and I know you guys have pressures on you that I don’t have.”
She nodded and took my hands, “I know. We know. We’re not too fond of the game either, it’s just that sometimes you gotta play it or get played.” She placed my palms on her eyes and stiffened as the magic flowed into her.
When she was done, I kept quiet about what I felt. Angelica has the two of them by a ton and a half of power. The additional two people pushed Samantha and Parece up into the same huge ocean range that Angelica is already in, but…holy crap, so much power hidden away in there.
Tiffany spoke for the first time in more than 10 minutes, “You actually did it? She gave you three power?”
I nodded while Angelica responded, “She did. Honestly, that really does feel weird.”
“I don’t get you.” My roomie’s ally looked me over again, “You seriously…I just don’t understand you.”
“The thug life chose me.”
My roommate looked across the three that I gave power to, “How much…how much did you give them? You had power from seven of them, right?”
“I did. The power was separated out inside and I could feel how much each had. Sort of. I made three groups of pretty much equal power and gave them to each of them.”
“So…one person each?”
“No. Two each.”
“Did you take the last one for yourself?”
Instead of answering, I turned from her and slowly moved towards Levi. He didn’t move as I stopped in front of him, looking up at him. Emotions cross his face like machinegun fire, and I can’t quite read all of them. Hate. Fear. Confusion. Then dozens of others.
He still didn’t say anything as I reached up and slowly touched his eyes. Then the power started to flow.
Chapter 39
Sunday and Monday passed in a blur. No rumors reached me about what I did with the sharing of power. I’m kinda shocked by that, honestly.
I figured Eva and Tiffany would be spreading that far and wide. Except…nothing. At least that came back to me. I can’t tell if they told Brody or not.
The other rumors have been running rampant, though, with some of them being pretty insidious. I swear more people are believing them. That I set up those challenges on purpose. All of that. Why they’d think that was the case I just don’t know.
Frankly, if I saw someone kill shifted dragons and then seven guys at one time, I’d stay the hell away from them. For some reason, the fact that I was a stricken seems to change things for them. Look at how dangerous she is, except she was a stricken, so that means she’s weak!
None of that makes sense.
Then again, this is Sorrowfeld Academy, where insanity rules.
And power.
I’ve spent the past two days in a weird frame of mind. Everyone else feels it too. Yet another time where this could be our last weekend. Our last Monday. Now it’s Tuesday at just after 3am, and I find myself wandering outside, wondering just what the hell I should be doing and thinking through the past two days.
My magic feels better. No lingering burn lines, so that’s good. I met with Alicia and we agreed that I wouldn’t try to do another set of mortmagi. She’ll try again and see if she can somehow join up with someone else. I know sharing power is possible, its just not something others do. Like at all. Maybe they can do it, though? She was beside herself when I let her know that she can keep the charms if I die in the trial. Or in general.
She cried just a bit. It was kinda adorable.
We also coordinated having people ready to collect the new stricken from the first year’s trial. I’m praying no one ends up accepting them, but I’d rather have them do that than be dead, so there’s that.
Beyond that, I had it confirmed that we can’t take charms into the trial with us, so that kinda sucks. Nothing outside the trial other than clothes can be brought in. Not even a knife. You use their knife, not one you brought.
As if that’d make a difference.
I tried to speak with Kaylee once yesterday and she screamed and ran away. Again.