Adapt (A Touch of Power Book 2)

by Jay Boyce

  “I, uhm, I’m so not a morning person. I may have been a brat and pulled traveler privilege in order to not go.” They were staring at her blankly, so she tried to recover a little dignity. “Besides, I’d have had to change classes practically every day because of my stat changes, and I have almost no other breaks throughout the day. I basically go from class to class with only meals in between.” She pulled out her schedule, pushing it at them. She’d scribbled in Go see the portals and Tutoring with the Queen on her Thursday schedule, as well as having added Tutoring with Delaney on Tuesday, blocking out that time as a personal reminder.

  Jayce whistled softly as the two of them looked over her schedule. “Unbelievable, I’ve never seen a schedule like this.” He paused, then asked, “Why aren’t you taking command?”

  Jade grinned and shrugged. “Not something I need to worry about at this point. I’d rather use the time to get other things done, since I have so very little time as it is.”

  Glen shook his head. “With this schedule, you’ll never get on the obstacle courses.”

  Jade thought about this, nodding. “Yeah, well, the only time it’s offered is during my metal or geography class, so that was never going to work.”

  Jayce laughed, shaking his head. “Or you could come to morning practice. We do it in the fourteen and above class.”

  She laughed. “You just want to show off because Evan and Adam almost made it through on their first time.”

  Glen grinned. “We’ll show you what it really means to do the course...on intermediate, not beginner.”

  Jade shook her head. “I’ll think about it. Maybe if I wake up early and don’t already have a million things on my plate. It seems I always have something to do or somewhere to be.”

  “Just try,” Glen wheedled, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

  “I said I’ll see. I will try, but no promises. Like I said, I am NOT a morning person.” They laughed and grabbed their things, realizing they were the last ones in the room aside from Duke Vincent. Even his assistant had left.

  “Jade, can I speak to you for a moment?” he asked as they were headed to the door.

  “Sure thing.” She turned to Camille and said cheerfully, “I’ll meet you down at dinner.” Camille nodded, leaving her alone with Duke Vincent. Jade shut the door behind them, turning to face him.

  He was studying her seriously, and finally he stated, “You were at the art gallery last night.” She nodded. “So you’re just…a student?” His voice was both curious and sad.

  She nodded again. “Well, mostly. I’m also the traveler.” He looked a little surprised at this knowledge. She smiled softly and explained, “I’m a healer, too. It was actually my first magic. I just…couldn’t leave you like that. You were killing yourself.” She paused, looking at the ground. “I know living without the people you love is hard, but take it from someone who spent her whole life sick. No child wants to be a burden on their parents. I have no idea what happened on my old world. I don’t remember dying there before I woke up here in a healthy body. I don’t know what my family is going through. All I know is that I hope they can find happiness, even though, or especially though I’m gone.” Her voice had gone extremely quiet by the end of her little ramble.

  She saw his feet approach her, his hand resting gently on her shoulder. “Thank you.” His voice was quiet too, emotional.

  She nodded, looking up to meet his eyes as she blurted out, “I’m going to hunt the mesmer on Sunday. I don’t know…if there’s anything to bring back, but if there is, I will.”

  He looked surprised, then shook his head. “You shouldn’t go. There’s no point in throwing your life away.”

  She smiled sadly and said simply, “They took my friend, Frank. I’m going to get him back. I think I can track them, and I’m going to kill them all.” Her voice got harder.

  He studied her, then nodded. “Heaven’s speed to you, then.”

  She would bring him back. She’d promised.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Hope

  She left Duke Vincent to his thoughts as she closed the door behind her. Her fellacai, not having wanted to leave her with all the water in the air, finally took flight with seeming relief, dancing through the air around her as she walked. The few people she passed no longer gave her looks of fear or startlement but more admiration for the beauty of her little flutterbies. It seemed the campus at least had gotten the memo. She wasn’t surprised; gossip seemed to be a force to be reckoned with here. She wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. If it made her babies safer, she was fine with it.

  “Hey Jade, fancy meeting you here.” She turned at the familiar voice, having to stop herself from laughing aloud as Tyler walked up to her oh so innocently. Evidently, Evanna had been right that he would find an occasion to accidentally run into her since she’d spilled her schedule. She maybe should stop doing that.

  “Hello, Tyler. How were your classes?” She smiled at him as she kept walking towards the cafeteria. He quickly joined her, walking closer than she was comfortable with. She silently widened the distance just a hair. Granted, she’d walked arm in arm with way too many people, but they were people she instinctively trusted. Tyler had not achieved that status, or maybe it was just the knowledge that he was semi-stalking her.

  “They were great! A couple first years almost made it to the end of the obstacle course!” he enthused, eyes lighting up.

  She nodded, smiling softly. “Yeah, Adam and Evan did a great job, though I can’t say I’m surprised, knowing them.”

  He looked a little deflated at this. “You know them?”

  She nodded. “They’re friends of mine and came to me for healing afterwards.”

  He nodded back sadly. “I see. How were your classes?”

  “They were good. Geography turned mostly into a lesson about Basaigh Woods for me, and water class was more combat oriented than any of my other magic classes have been so far.” She pondered this, thinking about it. She supposed it wasn’t a truly fair assessment. Fire might have been just as combat oriented after she left, but she did leave. Contractual had no fighting. Nature did teach her some restraining and thorn tactics, but it still wasn’t super concerned with direct combat.

  It made her wonder what she’d missed with the beginner class. Was that where they learned stuff like how to make the coldboxes or purify water? Was skipping the basics actually a good thing? What if she was missing something important by trying to jump into advanced magic? Her mind wandered this road, trying to figure out the possibilities.

  “Earth to Jade, you in there?” She was startled when Tyler waved his hands in front of her face, taking a step back.

  “Oh, sorry. I space out a bit.” She looked up, realizing they were at the cafeteria and she’d missed whatever Tyler had potentially been trying to talk to her about.

  “It’s fine. You’re eating on the first floor?” She nodded, and he smiled ruefully. “Alright, I’ll catch you later then. Be careful. It would be a shame if you spaced out and smashed your face.” He winked to reassure her he was joking.

  She laughed softly. “I’ll do my best. See you later, Tyler.” She nodded to him and walked into the room, only glancing back to see him still staring at her before he finally turned and walked upstairs. She shook her head, glancing over to the line. Estelle saw her and Jade gave her a wide grin and wave. Estelle motioned for her to take a seat and Jade blew her a kiss. She’d quickly come to like the woman, despite their few interactions. Since Jade trusted her to make food decisions, she didn’t even order. Estelle would just bring out whatever she thought was best that day, which suited Jade just fine. She wasn’t picky!

  Glancing around, she saw a couple options of places she could sit. Ren was talking to Aiden and Randal, so she could sit with today’s teachers. Stephen and Eric were sitting with a few other people she couldn’t quite place, even if one of them looked familiar. He looked like a gladiator with the amount of weaponry he was wearing, and with a
start she realized it was Jarom, whom she hadn’t seen since her school interview. Lastly, Camille was sitting with her brothers and a brooding Brodie, and she realized her choice was made since she wanted answers.

  Taking the open seat next to Camille, she smiled at the royal family as she greeted them cheerfully, “Hi guys. What’s new?”

  Victor smiled and answered first. “Camille was just telling us about the changes in Duke Vincent.” Jade looked curiously at Camille.

  She explained, “Duke Vincent has been drinking himself to oblivion since he lost his son. Mom was afraid we’d have to let him go as a teacher.”

  Jade paused, trying to parse through the varied information and finally asked what she seemed was the most pertinent question, “Why would your mom be worried about that?”

  Will piped up, “Mom is the headmaster here, officially. She has last say on the staff.” Jade tried to take that in. She would never have guessed that Ashanna was in charge of the school.

  “How does she have time?” she asked curiously. She didn’t think being queen would give her a whole lot of extra time, despite the fact that she’d managed to carve time out to personally tutor Jade…

  “There’s not a whole lot she has to deal with, honestly. Most of the stuff gets taken care of long before it gets to her. She mostly deals with replacing teachers and award ceremonies.” She nodded, as this made sense to her. There was no need to go to the upper level when it could be dealt with at the bottom of the totem pole. That was the whole point of an efficient chain of command. She shook away the thought of a man in a silly hat telling them what the chain of rutting command was, grinning slightly.

  Anyway, she tried to steer the conversation back onto the original topic. “So she was going to let Duke Vincent go?”

  Camille nodded. “He hasn’t been teaching a whole lot, and it was just getting worse. I have no idea what happened to him, but he seemed like a new person today…or really, like his old self from before. He looked a lot healthier too, almost like he was…” Camille’s voice trailed off as she turned to stare at Jade. She gave her a ‘what?’ look, and Camille snorted. “You healed him, didn’t you?”

  Jade shrugged and smiled. “He was in the art gallery last night, and he was practically half dead. Of course I healed him. He should have gone to a healer long before that. He had a blood clot in his brain, his whole body was brimming with alcohol poisoning, and his liver was failing. It took me ages to clean out his system. Thankfully, he was passed out for most of it, or it would have been super painful for him.”

  Victor shook his head, staring at her in awe. “Thank you for doing that. He’s a good man.”

  She smiled at him. “I like being able to heal people. It’s probably my favorite thing about this world. I don’t have to watch people suffer. I can actually help them and make it better.” She paused, then looked at Camille. “By the way, want to tell me what was up with that class?”

  Camille groaned softly. “Samantha is a social climber. She thinks because her dad is the minister of trade that it automatically makes her special, that people should worship her and give her special privileges. Gilbert is the grandson of Count Leroy, so he’s had propriety grilled into him since he was a baby. Glen, Jayce, Kevin, and Chase are all from military families, though Chase is the black sheep of his family. Kevin lost his foot in a hunt where there was no healer around. Marie is the granddaughter of Duke Leabhar. He’s that guy sitting next to Eric over there.”

  Jade looked over, noting that while he was an older gentleman, his hair was dark black and curled lightly, despite how short it was cut. She couldn’t see his eyes from here, but he had a wiry build. “He’s the head librarian as well as one of mom’s assistant headmasters.” She paused, then tried to get back on track. “As for the rest of the class, Corey, Melvin, Jeffrey, Bryoni, and Seamus are all multi-generation nobles, and Angus was a farmer before he came here. Corey, Melvin, and Bryoni revel in any attention they can get, while Jeffrey is one of the quietest people I’ve ever met. I think he said almost as much to you today as he has the entire time I’ve known him. I don’t know what his deal is. Seamus has lost five members of his family to the mesmer in the last few years. The magic in their family’s blood is pretty strong and he’s turned a bit antisocial ever since.”

  Jade winced. “Well, I think that was more information than I needed, but it’s good to know.”

  Camille shrugged. “I figured I’d give you the whole rundown since you didn’t say who you were interested in. By the way, when did you meet Tyler?”

  Startled by the abrupt change in conversation, it took Jade a moment to realize what she was talking about. “Oh, he was just a student I randomly stopped to ask where everyone was going earlier today. Turned out to be the obstacle course.”

  Will cut in at this point, “And why was he with you just now?” There was a strange note in his voice, that if she didn’t know better, she’d have said was jealousy.

  “Oh, I ran into him on the way over.” She shrugged, smiling as Estelle made it over with plates of food for her again. She smiled and grinned. “Thanks, Estelle, you’re the best!”

  “You’re a sweetheart.” Estelle patted her on the head with a smile, then said cheerfully as she walked away. “Enjoy the food!”

  “I will!” Jade called back cheerfully as she looked at the spread in front of her. First things first, she took the empty plate and poured juice into it for her babies. They descended from where they’d been flying around the ceiling to land on the plate. She absently noted that Willow kept turning to look at her salad. With a grin, Jade grabbed a small handful of her salad and put it on the plate with them and was happy to note that her fellacai dove on the leaves voraciously in itty bitty bites. “Good to know,” she murmured before picking up her fork and happily digging into her food.

  “You’re still eating that much?” Will’s voice held a bit of shock. “I thought it wouldn’t be as bad anymore.”

  She shrugged and swallowed. “I’m using magic all the time. I don’t have to snack as much anymore, but I still need to replenish my energy fairly constantly.” Plus she was going to do a huge siphoning tonight, and she would rather be prepared for that. They talked about random things for the rest of their meal as she just enjoyed their company. Brodie was quiet, but he occasionally contributed.

  When they finished, Jade had stacked her very empty plates for easy retrieval as her babies settled on her braid once more. They made it outside and paused when Jade started to walk away from them. “Jade, where are you going? Monster Study is this way.” Will said, pointing in the direction of Caldwell.

  Jade laughed softly. “I’m not going.” At their confused looks, she raised a brow and said, “Does light magic class ring a bell for anyone?”

  Will’s face fell, and it made her laugh louder as he grumbled, “I forgot you’re in every possible magic class.”

  She chuckled, walking over to hug each of them, even Brodie, much to his surprise, and admonished, “I’ll see you guys later. Try not to get into any trouble.”

  “I think you’re the troublemaker,” Camille muttered and Jade stuck her tongue out.

  “Of course I am. Later!” She began to walk the other way, pausing only when she saw Kevin being helped out by Seamus. She reversed her direction, making a beeline for them and stopping in front of them.

  Seamus gave her a bored look as he drawled, “Can we help you?”

  Jade ignored him and looked at Kevin. “I want you to come to my workshop after class ends tonight. Will you?”

  He was giving her a curious look. “Why?”

  She gestured to his metal foot. “I want to see if I can do something about that.”

  His face turned hard. “You can’t. Every healer that’s looked has said it can’t be fixed.”

  She shrugged. “Fine. If you’ve given up so much that you can’t spare a few minutes for me, even though I’m literally a traveler from another world with much more advanced medical te
chnology, suit yourself.” She stared at him and quipped a bit sarcastically, “Sorry if I thought you were interested in getting better.”

  With that, she turned and walked away, heading towards Magnus. When she was sick, she had tried everything that was offered in the hope it would get better. That was what had kept her alive: hope. If he didn’t have even that, if he wasn’t willing to take a risk, there was no point. She didn’t know if her idea would work, and if it did, it would be extremely painful. She had wanted to try for him, but you couldn’t help people who wouldn’t help themselves. Maybe she was being too harsh, but the hopelessness she’d seen had pushed her buttons in all the wrong ways.

  More than anyone else around him, she knew that not being able to walk on your own sucked.

  Chapter Thirty – Temper

  As she was walking towards Magnus, she grinned as she realized she saw a familiar head in front of her. “Lucas!” she called out happily. He turned, looking around for whoever had called him before his eyes finally settled on her grinning face, a confused expression crossing his features as she picked up her pace to meet him. Still smiling brightly, she said, “It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve seen you!”

  He just stared at her face until finally he spoke with a note of query, “Jade?”

  It had only been a few days since she saw him, but she realized she’d undergone some fairly drastic changes in those few days. She was a little disappointed he hadn’t recognized her right away, but seriously, the changes were literally as if you hadn’t seen someone for years and they went from this anorexic skeleton to healthy and buxom. “Yup, it’s me! How’s school going for you?”

  He shook his head, still trying to take in the changes as he studied her. “School is school. What on earth happened to you? You’re like a completely new person.”

  She latched onto his arm, turning him so they were once again walked towards Magnus. “I told you I have a special ability that allows for fast growth. It’s been a crazy few days.”