by W. J. May
Her eyes flashed in panic to Simon, who took over seamlessly. He always found it was easier to be brave when Beth was involved. “When we realized that it wasn’t something we could on our own,” he finished smoothly. “I brought her here for your guidance, you accused her of being pregnant, and the rest you know.”
Jason didn’t blink. Instead, he looked between the three of them very shrewdly.
“And this sudden exodus from London...it wouldn’t have anything to do with the massive apartment fire that happened there this afternoon?”
The three teenagers shared another look before dropping their eyes to the couch. Their story sounded a whole lot worse when it was reported on the six o’clock news. Eventually only Simon looked up, hesitantly meeting his mentor’s gaze.
“At least she didn’t turn into a dog.”
AS UNLIKELY AS IT MIGHT have seemed, brutal honesty turned out to be the best approach. The second that Simon owned up to his story, Jason accepted it and automatically began working to navigate them all through it. The first point, unfortunately, was a deal-breaker.
“I have to report this,” he said firmly. “She has to be officially trained—sanctioned and recognized by the Privy Council.”
Simon was enraged. Tristan’s look of I told you so didn’t help.
“You can’t be serious,” he cried. “Who knows what the hell they’ll even do with her? It’s not like having a girl with powers is exactly a common thing—”
He fell silent under Jason’s gaze, but continued to stubbornly fume. It was becoming harder and harder not to act like he had any special interest in Beth. Any reason beyond the usual to care.
This was supposed to be their plan for life? To pretend they weren’t in love? It was already damn near impossible!
And they were only an hour in...
“What they’ll even do with her?” Jason repeated slowly, fixing Simon intently in his gaze. “I don’t know what you mean exactly, Kerrigan, but I assure you she’ll be well taken care of.” He released Simon from his probing stare, and turned to Beth. “And he’s wrong. There are more and more women in the Privy Council every day. You would not be alone in the ranks. That is...” he cocked his head curiously, “if they decide your tatù merits the attention.”
It was a clear invitation. As plain as if he’d spoken it aloud. But as direct as it was, none of the three of them knew what to do. Apparently, a little prompting was in order.
“That was a hell of a fire I saw on the news,” he continued softly, reassuring and challenging her all at the same time. “Must be a hell of a tatù.”
Like a puppet-master had pulled up on a string, Beth rose from the couch in a single, fluid motion. She might have fled half of London’s police force earlier that afternoon, but her movements were steady and sure. She met Jason’s gaze with a flash of that defiance that Simon loved so well, but the second she raised up her arms, her hands started shaking.
“I don’t know how to control it,” she said quietly, either unwilling or unable to stop the trembling. “Every time I try...it only gets worse.”
Jason’s eyes seemed to glow in the soft light of the lamp. “I’m not asking for a blaze here, nothing flashy. Just a single flame. Show me what you can do.”
She glanced nervously around his apartment, and he stepped calmly right in front of her.
“Beth,” it was the first time he said her name, and it made an impression, “just a flame.”
Simon leaned forward intently, while Tristan knowingly inched back. For his part, Jason held his ground. Perhaps it was his confidence in her that made Beth confident herself.
With a look of steady determination, she closed her eyes and opened her hand in the same gesture. A tiny blue flame sprang into the air.
Simon’s expression turned almost smug as he looked quickly to Jason. Sure enough, his mentor’s eyes widened slightly at the color and intensity of the flame. No, this was not the usual fire that passed through these gates. This was something more. This was something better.
His eyes might have been glowing with the excitement of a new challenge, but when he spoke Jason’s voice was passive almost to the point of indifference.
“Put it out.”
Beth’s eyes shot open in surprise, and without even seeming to think about it, the fire went out. Her face tightened with a look of hurt at the lack of enthusiasm, and Simon shot his mentor an accusatory glare. But Jason regarded the entire thing intently, taking in all of the details.
“Good,” he said suddenly. “That was very good.”
Tristan and Simon shared a quick look of confusion, and Beth’s eyes flickered unconsciously to Simon for help. She wasn’t supposed to turn to him. She wasn’t supposed to show any kind of bond or favoritism, but she was so out of sorts at the moment she hardly seemed to notice.
“We’ll begin training tomorrow. There’s an empty room in the apartment behind mine; you can stay there for the night before we find you something more permanent in the morning.” Jason was all business now, as if suddenly realizing that he had to get up in less than three hours to begin work. “Be at the Oratory at eight a.m. sharp. It’s the big domed building across the lawn.” A look of faint amusement flickered across his face. “Simon can show you.”
Beth and Simon paled at the same time. Both asking themselves the same question.
What the hell did that mean?!
Fortunately, Simon had seen fit to bring a wingman. With the same charming smile that had gotten him out of so many jams before Tristan got to his feet, pulling both of his friends along with him.
“Thank you, sir.” He nodded respectfully as he herded the lot of them to the door. “We’re very sorry again for coming here so late. It won’t happen again, I promise.”
Jason said nothing, but simply watched as the three of them flooded out the door into the chilly night. They were already halfway down the porch when Simon silently doubled back, a crippling worry still on the forefront of his mind.
“You’re sure we have to tell them?” he asked softly, his eyes flickering to the administration office with something close to dread. “You’re sure it’s the best thing to do?”
For the second time that night, Jason fixed him with that probing stare. He was searching for something. Something that Simon didn’t quite realize yet himself.
When he did speak, it sounded like he was choosing his words very carefully. “There are things that we don’t hide, Simon.”
His tone implied an ending. The conversation was clearly closed.
Simon nodded as he hurried after his friends, but as he leapt down the front steps he couldn’t help but think that the way Jason had said it was strange. Like he was implying there were certain things that were different. Certain things that they did hide.
They found the empty apartment behind Jason’s without any problem, and quickly settled Beth inside. Simon wanted desperately to kiss her goodnight, to hold her once in his arms after this nightmare of a day and whisper that everything would be alright. But the walls had ears in a place like this, and after a long wistful look he bid her a simple goodbye.
She nodded quickly and disappeared into the dark bedroom. Very much alone.
“Come on, man,” Tristan prompted gently. “We may have been talking with a trainer, but Masters will still throw our asses out of school if we’re caught out after curfew again. I don’t think Jason would find it in his heart to write us a note.”
Simon sighed reluctantly and followed him outside, using his tatù to follow as they sprinted silently across the grass. As they darted up the steps to Joist Hall, Tristan flashed him a look.
“You sure edited that story a lot.”
Simon sighed again. “Shut up. It worked, didn’t it? At least she’s in.”
And she was. After surviving the catastrophic events of the day, Beth had earned her place at their freak school.
And, as it turned out...she wasn’t the only one.
Chapter 6
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, meet Jennifer Jones.”
Simon, Beth, and Tristan stared in shock at the girl standing in front of them. She was lovely and slender, quite similar to Beth, actually, with waves of dark hair. But there was a confidence in the way she was holding herself that seemed years beyond her age. An almost aggressive need to prove herself by displacing those around her. Rather than shifting uncomfortably under the stares of three complete strangers, she rose to the challenge.
“So this is them, huh?” She cocked her head teasingly to the side. “The dream team?”
Simon thought it was a rather bold way to address Jason, considering it had to be one of her first days there, but Jason merely smiled.
“This is them. As promised.”
The girl stepped forward as she sized them up. Her eyes lingered for a long while on Simon, before finally coming to rest on Beth. Then, instead of narrowing competitively as girls were sometimes prone to do, they brightened with a welcoming smile.
“I guess you and I are going to be sparring partners.”
“Sparring partners?” Simon blurted. He couldn’t help but be stunned at the speed with which things were moving. Having one girl set to train at Guilder was strange enough. Introducing another one the very next day? Was there some kind of precedent for this?
“Why yes, Kerrigan,” there was a hint of warning in Jason’s voice, “sparring partners.” He looked Simon up and down. “Unless you’d like to be partnered with her yourself.”
Simon turned beet red and muttered something about that ‘not being what he meant,’ while Tristan turned to the new girl, Jennifer, with interest.
“So what’s your ink?” he asked with no preamble. Conversations were shorter in the Oratory. Things moved fast and you learned to be blunt.
Jennifer’s eyes lit up, as if she had been dying to be asked that question. With an equal lack of hesitation, she turned around.
There was an audible gasp. But whether it had to do with the ink or with the girl herself, Simon didn’t know.
Most girls would have to roll up their shirts to show off their tatù. Not Jennifer. While her tight athletic gear looked normal enough in the front, it dissolved to nothing in the back—held together only by two very strategic strings that stretched across her tan skin.
Several of the boys training at the far end of the Oratory cocked their heads to the side in the same instant to get a better look. Even Tristan raised his eyebrows appreciatively, before Simon nudged him pointedly in the side. He, for one, was more interested in the ink.
“It’s a leopard,” she said, as if everyone couldn’t already see. “Gives me super-strength, agility, speed.”
Beth’s face brightened as well as she stepped closer for a better look. Standing together, it was easy to see the similarities between the two girls. But also the differences.
Her obvious beauty and grace aside, Beth shone with an inherent goodness. The kind that radiated from the inside out, making a person look all lit up inside, dancing behind their eyes. It was one of the first things Simon had noticed about her. One of the first things he grew to love. Yes, he could draw her petite frame by memory. Yes, he had lost himself for hours, playing with her raven locks or staring into her luminous blue eyes. But it was this inner radiance he admired most. This unquenchable light that lingered in her smile.
Jennifer lit up, too...only in a slightly different way.
Her choice of clothing was no accident. This was a girl who obviously didn’t mind showing a little skin. Or...a lot of skin. She moved like she knew the eyes of the room were upon her, and in her defense, no matter what room she was standing in they probably usually were.
She was gorgeous, like Beth. But while some might call Beth beautiful—the kind of beauty that burned a hole in your memory just as surely as her tatù—Jennifer was hot. Sexy. Badass. The leather lacing up her pants was enough to prove it.
Yet, despite their obvious differences, the girls seemed to warm to each other with unnatural speed. Probably the result of being the only two females on a campus full of men.
“We’ve got one like that here, too,” Beth grinned, gesturing behind her to Tristan. Tristan straightened up in a hurry; his mind had obviously been on other things. “Speed, strength...you two should go at it sometime.”
Jennifer cocked her head appraisingly to the side, while a faint blush colored the top of Tristan’s high cheekbones. “Oh, yeah?” She grinned mischievously. “Maybe we will.”
At this remark, Tristan seemed to decide it was best that he take his leave. Before he got himself into the kind of trouble he couldn’t get out of. With a parting nod, he bid everyone a hasty farewell and disappeared to the other side of the room to begin his training partnering up with Isaac, who was still staring open-mouthed at both Jennifer and Beth.
“Seems he wasn’t interested,” Jennifer whispered loudly, making Beth giggle and Tristan blush even brighter from across the room. Then she turned her eyes to Simon. “But what about you?” she quipped, cocking her head curiously to the side. “Got any good ink? Think you could go up against mine?”
The giggling stopped immediately as Simon automatically stiffened with a sneer.
“Hate to break it to you, Jen, but Simon’s ink will always be exactly as good as yours,” Jason interrupted, ignoring all the thinly-veiled propositions and choosing that awkward moment to intervene. “Good thing for you, he’s not ready for something like that. He’d have to see it first.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” An impish grin spread across Jennifer’s face as she danced a few steps back onto the mats. “Let’s show him.”
Simon expected Jason to refuse. For him to put this little upstart in her place. For him to focus his attention on Beth the way he was supposed to.
But his incorrigible mentor did none of those things. Instead...he chased after her.
It was a beautiful thing to watch. Once you got past the blinding speed and the hair-raising danger of it all, it was hard not to see the beauty.
Whoever this girl was, she had obviously had training in the past. She moved without hesitation or doubt, hurling her body effortlessly through the air as Jason followed behind, running up walls, swinging from the rafters, blurring their way gracefully across the room.
It was strength versus speed. Then speed versus speed. Then a whole mess of other subtle nuances Simon had yet to decipher. Whatever it was... it was intense.
Never before had he seen Jason move so fast. Blinding wasn’t even the right word. It was something quicker than that. Something more dazzling. He streaked past the girl several times, looping around behind her, before falling out of the sky right in front.
There was no way she could have possibly been ready for him. No way she could have possibly predicted such a move. And yet...she did.
Simon gasped aloud as she crouched down into a low kick, sweeping her legs across the mat to knock his feet out from under him. He dodged it, of course, and a burst of sparkling laughter echoed across the mats as the two of them tumbled to the ground. Fighting and twisting. Kicking and flipping, until finally it was Jason who came out on top.
“A leopard?” he teased as he offered down a hand. “More like a house cat.”
She grinned ruefully and pushed to her feet on her own. “Better than a freaking bird.”
“Apparently not.”
For a second, the two of them stared each other down. Their smiles sharpened with chilling intensity, balancing constantly on the edge of breaking into a snarl. Then both took a step back at the same time, laughing light-heartedly once more.
“Yes. Jennifer and Beth will be sparring partners,” Jason announced again, saying it like it was for the first time. “I think they’ll be well-suited.”
Well-suited? After the display they had just seen it was impossible not to take it as a huge compliment. Beth swelled with pride as she took a tentative step forward to her new partner. But as she did so, Jason caught her by the shoulder and lowered his
voice so only they could hear.
“I’m still going to be working with you one-on-one, teach you to master the fire. But in the meantime, you don’t need to worry about control with Jennifer. She can outrun anything you can throw her way, and if it gets away from you a bit there are five different water manipulators training here today. You’re not going to hurt anybody.”
It wasn’t until Jason said the words that Simon realized how heavily the worry had been weighing on Beth’s mind. He didn’t think she’d even realized it herself. Her shoulders dropped a good two inches as she let out a silent sigh of relief. This time, when she smiled back at Jason it wasn’t with the same coating of nerves it usually had. It was sincere.
“Thank you.”
He nodded briskly before gesturing her over to Jennifer. She was halfway there when he called out one final thing.
“And Beth?”
She turned around.
“When we’re finished today, you and I are going to call your parents.”
For a second, her skin turned pale. She started to turn automatically towards Simon, before she caught herself and forced her attention straight. Instead, she set her jaw and nodded firmly. A second later, she was trotting off across the mats towards her new sparring partner. Entering fearlessly into a whole new world, not a single emotion inside her except courage.
Simon watched with a distinct feeling of pride. A feeling he hurried to mask as Jason came and stood by his side, watching as the two girls started going through the basics.
“She’s going to be alright,” Jason murmured thoughtfully.
Simon glanced over in surprise, before following his gaze. The sound of her laughter ricocheted off the high rafters, echoed soon by Jennifer’s. His heart warmed at the sound.
Yes. She was. And he knew who he had to thank for it. Then again...it wasn’t like he could admit this was a personal favor.
Instead, he shifted the conversation to topics of a more curious nature.
“So...Jennifer, huh? Where did you find her?”