This was almost done.
Then it was gone. The smoke was gone. The rattling hall was gone. Everything was silent and still and clean. As if someone had pressed pause on the world.
“Holy hell,” Gemma gasped, pulling to a stop, her sass replaced by something I could have sworn was fear. “Not again.”
“What in the world is going on here?” A loud irritated shout cut through any question, the door behind us banging open as Analine Krul came sprinting into the hallway.
I could have sang her praises as Gemma and Edward's face blanching to a pale white. The Eternal, even though she wasn’t much taller than me, was a giant as she swept passed me, bee-lining for Gemma and her side-kick while all the other Drain’s ran down the hall and into adjoining classrooms like the rats they were.
Rats running from the light.
“What in the world do you think you are doing,” Analine snarled, leaning over Gemma. The girl didn’t even flinch, the two of them stood, chins up, staring right at her. “Why are you ganging up on a single student?”
“I’m not ganging--”
“Stop!” Analine snapped, pressing her hands up in exasperation as Gemma was thrown back into the wall. She didn’t even fight, she just glared, her jaw tight as she stared down the beautiful Eternal who was quickly taking over Mira’s spot as my favorite.
“Hey! You can’t do that!” Eddy said, running up behind Analine grabbing at her as his own magic sparked with something white and weird that I had never seen before.
“Child, you don’t want to mess with me,” Analine said with a wave of her hand, sending Eddy into the wall besides Gemma.
I couldn't help it, I laughed and clapped my hands, looking around in hopes that someone else was there to witness this magic moment. It was just me, Analine, and the two Drains.
I didn’t even try to push tears into my eyes, it wasn’t needed with what Analine was doing right in front of me.
God, it was beautiful.
“You have broken more than a dozen rules, you and your vile vermin have ganged up on one of the most respected students in the school--”
“Oh, give me a break,” Gemma started rolling her eyes before Analine flexed her fingers and they both flinched. Ed even whimpered, his chubby cheeks sucking in.
“You have attacked a respected member of our school,” Analine paused, stepping closer and placing her hand beneath the still sputtering magic of Eddy. She winced as his magic hit her skin. “As well as a teacher.”
“What the fuck?” Gemma screeched as Analine released her hold on the two and they tumbled to the ground. “You want us to attack you? I have no problem smearing your Eternal shit stain all over the walls.”
Gemma lifted her hand, ready to fight, but I sprinted forward pushing myself between the two like some kind of bodyguard.
“Why don’t you like us, Gemma?” Now I pushed the tears, letting my voice warble and whimper. “What have we ever done to you?”
“What? You are fucking crazy.” Gemma blanched, stepping back as she ground her teeth. God, she was little more than an animal.
“Don’t worry about the Drain, Miss Demarco,” Analine said, patting me on the shoulder. I could feel the warmth of her magic through my shirt. “She doesn’t--”
Analine froze as Gemma smiled, her eyes a haunting red as they reflected the light, her magic starting to pulse.
“Professor?” I asked, heart pounding in fear that Gemma had done something, but Analine was staring at the end of the hall now, her eyes narrowed as if she saw something.
As if something was talking to her.
“What is it with all you pompous assholes?” Gemma asked, magic still buzzing. “You keep breaking down like old toilets.”
“Smell like it, too,” Ed added on, the two stepping closer. Prepping.
I flinched, Analine was still staring down the hall.
“Professor?” I asked again, lightly tapping my foot against her own. That time she jumped, her eyes wide as she looked from me to the two rats before us.
“Get out of here, Gemma,” Analine snarled in little more than a hiss. “Get out of here before I take you to the headmaster.”
Gemma and Eddy looked at each other, clearly as confused as I was, before they took off down the hall. Analine grabbed my arm, dragging me in the opposite direction.
I tried to fight her, but she kept pulling, even when I tripped and landed hard on my knee.
“What are you doing?” Analine snarled after we had turned the corner, and she had dragged me into a weird little alcove that was dripping with ancient magic. “What the hell do you think you are playing at?”
“I’m--” I started to say, but Analine smashed her hand over my mouth and pressed me against the wall. Her voice was little more than a whisper as she snarled at me, inches away.
“You keep attacking that girl and I won’t be able to keep stepping in. It is vital that I retain my position at this school. You are threatening that.”
She gave me one look before she stepped back, dropping her hand and letting me breathe better.
“Stepping in?” I was trying to wrap my head around this. I had always known she hated the Drains, it’s not like she had been quiet about it. But this was different. Active. “What are you saying?”
“You and I agree on one very important point, Sia. Our world should have more class and a lot more order. However, my family does not agree with me. I wish to stay at Imdalind Academy and make sure that your spoiled little asses keep rising to greatness, but to do that I can’t keep rushing in to stop you from getting expelled.”
“She’s just a nasty Drain, Professor Krul. Trust me, no one will miss her when she’s gone.” I was firm, confident, and I had hit a nerve.
“You are a fool, Sia Demarco. That girl is being watched. She has all the Drains in the school bowing to her like she’s a queen. You don’t touch her, Sia. I won’t save you another time. Do you hear me?” Analine jabbed her finger into my chest, a sharp jerk of magic moving into me.
Warning understood.
I cringed, nodded and cowered against the pain that was now blossoming. Analine only narrowed her eyes at me before she turned away, ready to bolt down the hall.
“Wait,” I gasped, still wincing from her warning. “What if I can’t leave her alone. What if I--” I hesitated. Clearly, Analine longed for a world without the filth. That was clear even without her admission. I had already planned to go to her to find older Goldens who might be willing to help me finish my job. Even knowing of her desire, I had no way of knowing how far she would go.
She was an Eternal. I can’t imagine her rising to an extermination order.
Saying anything more was a risk. But if I couldn’t attack Gemma, if she was being watched. I had no other choice than to risk it.
“Explain.” Analine stood at the edge of the shadowed alcove, watching me, her eyes flashing with something close to fire.
“My parents are working on something,” I paused, watching how she reacted. Trying to feel her magic for some sign of excitement or fear. There was nothing from her, nothing but a slight twitch in the corner of her mouth.
It was enough.
“I have a job to do. With your cousin. With her.” I nodded my head in the direction we came from. “If I don’t succeed then all of my parent's hard work will go to waste.”
“And if you do?” She leaned in, I could nearly taste the eagerness in her tone.
“Then both of us will get what we want.” I hoped I had said enough. That she understood.
That I hadn’t said too much.
The silence lingered behind us, a heavy weight filling the alcove as she measured me, and I, her. I suddenly questioned if I had made the right choice at all.
“Come with me,” Analine whispered, wrapping her arm over my shoulder as she led me down the hall. “I think we need to have a little chat.”
I would be worried, but there was a smile on her face, a matching one blossoming on mine as
she led me to her office.
It was a different path, a different Eternal, but I had a feeling that I was about to work myself back into my father’s good graces.
18
Gemma
"Go ahead, try it, see how big you can make it," I nudged Eddy forward, closer to the slug that I had already swelled to the size of the widow’s dog back in Last Pyre, the poor withered thing always tucked underneath the trolley seats to stop the others from eating him.
I wouldn't eat this slug though. That would be foul. I was already considering a firm 'no mucous' policy.
"I think it's already big enough, Gem." He was whining, pushing against my hand as I prodded him forward.
He may not like it, but he was going to do it. After having to save Ruby from that bitch, Sia, it was clear we needed to work harder on the basics. Something that was only validated when he was reamed for an hour by Professor Gregario and his mustache about his inability to 'grow a tomato', something that about only half of us could do anyway, we were growing things. This slug just so happened to be what I found first.
I’m amazed I did. The light dusting of early autumn frost from the morning had melted, regrettably before any of us could play in it, but there was still a bite in the air. Normally when it got this cold the little bugs and things would disappear.
This guy would wish he had by the time we were done with him.
"He can always be bigger," I strained, still pushing my shoulder against Eddy's shoulder blade. "If you don't move I'm going to throw you into him. Trust me when I say it will not end well."
He hustled so fast that I fell down, flat on my face on the grass that lay in massive stretches around the campus. This particular lawn had quickly become my favorite. Not only was it always empty, the Goldens preferring to sit on the benches of the interior courtyard and stretch out around the fire pits now that it was getting colder, but the massive tree that towered over us was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Even before autumn had started to change the world, bright red leaves painted it like a crimson stain against a blue sky. Now that it was colder, and most of the leaves had begun to change, it was even more amazing, the red specks dangling like ornaments from silver branches. The beautiful thing towered over everything, taller than any other tree around. It hardly looked real, but sitting below it felt safe. Both from the sun and everything else in the world.
After so long living underground and hunting in the cities at night, too much sun was painful. But I didn't want to be away from it. I didn't think I could ever get enough of the feel of the heat against my skin, the way everything was warm and the air felt alive. I remembered little of my life before magic, but there was more magic in the sun than I had ever felt run through my veins.
“Fine, walk me through this again,” Eddy said, scowling at the slug as it was scowling at him, beady eyes waving through the air like micro-flags. We probably should hurry this up, I had a feeling the monster was contemplating how to eat him.
"Okay, now focus your magic on the slug," I instructed as I scooted into the shade, folding my legs underneath me and pulled at the strands of grass. "You gotta let it flow through the air to the thing, think about swelling it up."
"Swelling? Why in the world would I want to swell it?" He asked, his voice stuttering as he stood with his hand forward, little wisps of brightly colored smoke dancing around his fingertips, but growing no closer to the slug.
"Fine. Make it get bigger then if it doesn't make you queasy. Just make it bigger." I said, leaning back on my arms and kicking my boots off. I was really regretting wearing my tights today. There was something about the tickle of grass against my bare legs that was like magic.
This would have to do, for now. I threw my hands behind my head and shut my eyes, letting the sun fall over my face, seep into me and turn me into some kind of magical battery.
I didn’t even flinch at the cold breeze that moved over my skin, I had grown up in freezing underground cement tubes. This was amazing.
"It's all making me queasy." His voice was closer, he had obviously given up on the slug. But if he thought I was making the thing smaller he had another thing coming.
"If you want, we can work on making him explode instead. Goo, everywhere."
"Gross." Ed was full-on whining now, his massive shape hulking over me and blocking out my light, and therefore my battery-powered cynicism.
"Don't be a baby, Eddy. Focus on making him get bigger and he will." I poked him in what I assumed was his thigh, but was a bit too firm and wet to be Ed's thigh. That better not be the damn slug.
"It's actually more complicated than that." The sun turned to ice with the sound of that voice, the hoity-toity sneer drifting down from the heavens like some irritating angel. What the hell was he doing here?
“Aren’t you supposed to be scowling at me from a distance?” I snapped. “Or did you master that square on douchebag prince bingo and are moving on to scowling from nearby?”
“I haven’t been scowling at you from a distance,” Prince Rowan said, I could nearly hear his brow furrowing.
“Could have fooled me. Especially with the way your girlfriend went all psycho on me and my friends.” I smiled at him, eyes still closed in firm defiance of his existence.
“Sia’s not my girlfriend, Gemma.” He sighed, the sun popping back into existence as he stepped away before thinking better of it and rushed back.
I groaned. “Go tell her that. I think I actually enjoyed the scowling more than whatever this is.”
“I want to talk to you.” His husky whisper ran over me in a tickle of energy that pricked in the base of my spine. I stiffened. I didn’t know what that was, but it was sure as hell not welcome.
"Well, do it from over there. You're blocking my sun," I said, opening one eye to glare at Rowan.
I should have never done that. The firm wet thing I had poked made more sense. Rowan stood over me, wearing tight black shorts and a white shirt that might as well have been painted on with how it was clinging to his skin. Sweaty, sweaty skin. It dripped from his hair and beaded on his arms and shoulders like little droplets of starlight that reflected the sun in all directions.
Mini sweat rainbows.
It wasn't the sweat that was causing me to lose eighty percent of my mental capacity, because sweat is gross. Muscles, however...
In his baggy school uniform and messy black hair, I never would have guessed he was hiding all of this. I swallowed, slowly, as I tried to find some snappy comeback to hit him with. But all thought had left, the smile he was now giving me was not helping with that.
"What are you wearing?" I gasped, choking on the words and glad something else didn't come out.
"Clothes," he said, looking down at himself as if this was normal for him.
"And sweat, apparently. You sure you weren't wrestling giant slugs somewhere around here?"
"I was playing rugby." He puffed out his chest like that meant something.
"Is that something I should know? Or lick off you?" He rolled his eyes at me.
“Don’t lick me. Ever.”
“Fine by me,” I said, laying back in the prickly grass again. “You don’t know what you are missing.”
“Can we get back to the slug,” Eddy said, his voice shaking. The showdown between him and the slimy dog was reaching an apex.
"Let me help. Engorgement isn't about thinking about making things bigger. It's expanding the cells within a thing." Rowan explained, back to ignoring me, thankfully giving me back my sun.
Instead of basking in it, I rolled over, opening my eyes as his hand extended to the slug that was now growing and shrinking in size as simply as if it was breathing itself in and out of existence.
“Woah. Cool.” I whispered, a bit too loud seeing as Rowan turned, giving me what I am sure he thought was a shy smile.
I was absolutely mesmerized. There wasn't a drop of magic coming from his hand, I couldn’t even feel the buzz of his magic in the air, even though he was cl
early using it. The movement of the slug was a perfect motion; smooth, simple, beautiful. Well, as beautiful as an expanding slug could be. Eddy had now turned a fine shade of green.
"Is the slug too much?" Rowan asked, shrinking the thing back down to a normal size and letting it disappear between the blades of grass. "Ummm... let's see."
He jogged away, toward the bushes, the muscles in his back pulling with the smooth motion of...
"What the hell is going on, Gem?" Eddy hissed when Rowan was out of earshot. "Did you put him under a spell or something?"
"A spell?" I didn't even think we could do that. Or maybe we could. Why couldn't I stop staring at him? He was leaning down now, his shorts bent over...
"Damn it Gem, snap out of it and stop staring at his ass." Eddy hit me upside the head as he hissed at me, something which I thoroughly deserved. “What is going on?”
“Like I know? He’s barely talked to me for two months and his girlfriend is on a murderous rampage. I’m pretty sure I didn’t invite him to our slug swelling party.”
“Well, don’t mess it up. He came over here. That’s a good sign,” Eddy said, still watching him as he hiss-whispered at me. “We need him.”
“Yeah, like I’m the one who messed it up before.” I rolled my eyes at him, trying not to look at the way Rowan’s back was flexing as he continued to scour through the bushes.
“Well if he tries to save you again don’t tell him he’s full of himself.” Eddy was serious. What? Did he forget everything about me in the last ten seconds? That was not going to happen.
“He is full of himself. He’s a fucking prince who has scowled at me for over a month. Surprise-surprise, I can’t read his mind,” I hissed that last part, sitting up and snarling before he turned around, both of us snapping to attention and smiling like we were all innocent and shit.
"Here, let's try these," Rowan said as he jogged back, three long sticks in his hand, which he promptly handed out to me and Eddy.
"Ummm," I began looking at my stick like it was a snake. "I don't need this."
"Seeing as you thought engorgement was thinking about making things bigger, you clearly do." He gave me a wink and I about hit him with the stick. Up until two seconds ago it was my job to prod him. He was stealing my thing.
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