by Megan Linski
Ugh. They deserved each other. They were both rotten.
I craned my neck to see who everyone else had gotten. Theo had grabbed onto Odette, obviously, who was currently chatting his ear off. Alexei had paired up with Kiara, the girl that was really shy and had helped us rescue Alexei from the taranticula.
Although, right now, Alexei was acting like the shy one. He was blushing beet red.
Alexei gave Kiara a sheepish look. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I get that I’m supposed to be helping you, but I don’t know how to control my powers. I’m kind of a crappy empath.”
“It’s okay,” Kiara said brightly. “We’ll work it the other way around. I can teach you.”
Alexei blushed even harder. I shook my head. He had a total crush on her. It was obvious.
Loud shouting pulled my attention to the side. Stefan had slid up to a goth girl and was wearing a sly grin. Her expression was red with rage.
“Babycakes? You sexist ass!” she shouted. She slapped Stefan on the chest and said, “I can’t believe you’d call me something so derogatory!”
I think I knew her. Emma hung out with her a lot— her name was Delmare.
Stefan grinned wider and said, “The words only get dirtier from here, babycakes. You can call me something naughty, too. Promise I won’t mind. The filthier, the better.”
“Ugh! You pig!” Delmare searched the class for another dragon Companion to pair up with, but too late. They were already taken. She narrowed her eyes in disgust at Stefan. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Companions, shift into your animal form!” Professor Lunesta instructed. “Use your magic to demonstrate to your partner how to use Faction magic!”
I changed into a wolven, and the rest of the Companions followed. Theo stomped his hoof and spoke gently, like a father talking to his child. “Listen, Odette. Shield magic is very simple. All you have to do is focus on creating a defense around something you want to protect, then expand that intention outward to create a large force field nothing can cross. Like so, see?”
A blooming light emerged from Theo’s horn. It wrapped itself around Odette protectively, like a large bubble. Theo prodded at the bubble with his horn, but the shield wouldn’t break. It’d bounce off any attack that came at it.
Odette giggled maniacally and said, “Let me try, let me!”
The large bubble burst as Theo drew his magic away. From the tips of her fingers, Odette created tiny shield bubbles that were miniature versions of Theo’s. But instead of expanding them, she started shooting them in bubble beams at Theo. They burst at his side and knocked him over. He scrambled to get back on his hooves.
“No, Odette, not like that! Ouch, that hurts!” Theo cried. Theo galloped away, and Odette laughed as she chased him around the training arena with her bubble beams.
Alexei was lying on the ground as a griffin, with Kiara leaning against his side. Her legs were crossed, and she stroked his feathers calmly as she said, “You just have to work on blocking the emotion out. Imagine creating a wall between you and everyone else.”
“I… I’m not sure how,” Alexei confessed. His eyes were squeezed so tightly it was almost like he was in pain. I bet that he could feel every emotion running through the arena in that moment.
“You have to pick out your own feelings from everyone else’s. You’ll know which ones are yours, because they’ll be stronger,” Kiara said calmly. “Everything that isn’t yours, try pushing outward. Or simply turning down the volume.”
Alexei’s features visibly relaxed. Kiara smiled and said, “See? You’re getting it.”
Nearby, Stefan and Delmare were creating a scene.
“Come on, shoot me, babycakes!” Stefan danced around, creating minor earthquakes as he jumped back and forth. Other teams glared at him as he shook the ground. “You know you wanna knock me on my ass!”
Delmare bared her teeth. She attempted to conjure a small ball of what looked like red electricity, but she couldn’t hold onto it. The ball flickered out before she could harness it to throw.
“Don’t tell me you’re just a pretty face,” Stefan chided. “Hit me with all you’ve got, honey!”
Delmare lost it. She screamed, and the red ball swelled to an enormous size within her hands. She cranked her hand back, and tossed it as if throwing a grenade.
People dove out of the way. Stefan’s eyes grew wide as the red ball approached. It socked him in the chest, and on impact, the trees blew backward with the force of the blow.
Stefan went flying. When he landed, shockwaves rippled across the earth. I had to cling to the ground with my claws to keep my balance. Emma fell over.
Delmare cheered with victory, raising her fists to the sky. Stefan remained on his back, four legs in the air, and didn’t get up. A couple of people sent them harsh glares and rude gestures before they returned to the exercise.
Emma got off the ground. She wrenched her eyes away from the disaster that was Stefan and Delmare and looked at me. She raised an eyebrow. “So… how are you supposed to teach me how to levitate stuff if you can’t do it yourself, since you’re not a Marked?”
“It’s all theory. It’s not much different than communicating across long distances,” I said. “The same techniques are used.”
I turned to face a large rock on the ground, about the size of my paw. “Try to lift that.”
“That?” Emma scoffed in disbelief. “It’s kinda big for my first time.”
“That’s what they all say,” I commented. Emma face-palmed, and I couldn’t resist a chuckle.
“Are you done laughing at your own jokes?” she asked. “I don’t want to be behind in this class, too.”
I cleared my throat and said, “Yes. Anyway. It’s the same as if you picked it up with your hand. It just takes mental energy instead of physical. Imagine lifting the rock into the air, but don’t move your arm. The intention is simple.”
“Well, if you can understand it, I’m sure it is,” she said. I laughed again.
Emma focused her eyes on the rock. A few moments passed, and nothing happened. But she didn’t break her concentration. The rock wiggled, and her mouth dropped open in shock. “I’m doing it!”
“Almost,” I said. “Now try lifting it.”
The sound of applause drew away our attention. Gabby had uprooted an entire oak tree and was levitating it three feet above the ground. Her face was strained, but the tree remained suspended in mid-air.
How the fuck was she doing that? She was a freaking First Year. She shouldn’t have that kind of power.
Elijah held his head up proudly, like he was doing it himself. If he wasn’t a Companion, I’d suspect he was. But Gabby was doing it all on her own. What was going on?
Professor Victor and Professor Lunesta looked similarly confused. Something was up here.
Emma seemed downcast. “Why does she has to beat me in everything?”
“Forget Gabby. That’s not normal,” I told her. “Why do you give a shit what she does, anyway? Focus on what you can do.”
“Which is practically nothing,” Emma said in discouragement. “I’m tired of always being the weakest one in the class.”
She glanced at me. “You know I am. I know what people say about me. That whoever bonds with me is getting the short end of the stick.”
Fury rose up in me and made me feel like I was going to snap. I’d heard the rumors, too, but so what? They didn’t know anything about what was between me and my mate. “Screw those people. I believe in you,” I told her. “That should be enough.”
“You think I’m being stupid, but I know I’m bound to the Phantom,” she protested. “How can someone like me ever be worthy of him? He’s an amazing shifter, and I’m nothing. I don’t know if I can survive in this world without him.”
Oh, Emma. If only you knew it was the other way around. “If the Phantom truly loves you, he’ll accept you however you are,” I said firmly. “But I know you can do this. If he were here, he’d be telling you the same
thing. Don’t prove him wrong.”
Emma sighed. She sent a last glance toward Gabby, who’d let the tree fall back on the ground, and steeled her expression. “Okay. I’ll try again.”
She fixed her eyes on the stone. This time, it wiggled immediately, rocking back and forth. Slowly, it rose into the air, turning slightly as if on a rotating axis. Emma’s expression brightened as she rose the stone in front of her face and kept it levitated.
“Way to go!” I cheered. Emma let the rock drop back down to the ground. She wavered on her feet.
“That took a lot more effort than I expected,” she said. “It was actually kind of… hard.”
“It’s not easy,” I confessed. “But with time, you’ll become more… Emma? Emma!”
Her eyes rolled back in her head as she collapsed. I changed back into a human immediately and caught her before her head hit the ground.
“Emma!” Odette called. She’d stopped chasing Theo around as she noticed her friend faint. She, Delmare, and Kiara came racing over. I cradled Emma in my arms, lifting her as I stood. She was so light and tiny. I never noticed before.
“See? Told you she was weak,” Gabby called. “She can’t even lift a little rock.”
“Miss Ciar, that is enough,” Professor Lunesta snapped. Gabby kept her mouth shut after that, though both her and Elijah were wearing giddy looks.
“I think she’s okay,” I told her friends. “She’s breathing fine. Just wiped out.”
They still looked worried. I held Emma closer to me and looked to Professor Victor. “I think she needs to rest. I’ll take her back to her dormitory.”
“Yes, that’s all very well, Mister Nowak. Make sure to tend to her carefully. You are excused,” Professor Victor said, waving me off.
The activity resumed, and I walked toward the school. As I entered, everyone’s eyes gravitated to me, then to Emma hanging limply in my arms.
Emma blearily came round as we passed the cafeteria. “What… happened?”
“You fainted,” I told her. “I’m taking you to bed.”
That sounded wrong. I stuttered as I said, “I mean, uh— I’m taking you to lie down.” Fuck, that wasn’t right, either. And now it was provoking images that were about to give me a hard-on.
Great. Emma needed me, and all I could think of was getting her naked. Not the right time, Nowak.
She blinked a few times, trying to comprehend what I was saying, before the meaning suddenly hit her. “What? No!” Emma weakly pushed against me. “Put me down. I can’t be seen like this.”
“Too late,” I told her. “Everyone’s already noticed.”
She groaned. Her head hit my chest, though she didn’t try to get away. She was still too tired.
When we got to her dorm, I put her down on the bed and covered her up with a blanket. She stared straight ahead at the wall and said, “How am I ever going to be a sorceress if I faint every time I do advanced magic?”
I sat on the edge of her bed. “You can get stronger,” I told her. “It’s like ice skating, right? A little at a time. You don’t do jumps before you learn how to glide. If you work yourself up to it, I’m sure you can handle it.”
A bit of hope came into her gaze before it quickly faded. “I guess so.”
“You need water,” I said. I got up and headed to the mini-fridge and yanked it open.
“Ethan, don’t,” she protested.
I didn’t listen. Inside, I found water, along with a shit ton of snacks— damn, Emma loved junk food— along with several strange glass bottles that were filled with a clear liquid. They looked medical.
I took out a glass bottle and turned it in my head. Human plasma? “What are these for?” I asked.
“Nothing. Just leave it,” she said.
She wasn’t ready to tell me. I bet it had to do with her condition. I still didn’t know what it was. Had it been the reason she’d passed out today? It was so severe that she needed plasma to survive?
I put the bottle back and instead grabbed a water bottle. I wouldn’t pry if she wasn’t ready. I handed the water to her, and she took a few sips.
“I think I should stop by the rink and tell Lady Magdalina you won’t be coming to practice,” I said slowly. “You have lessons on Fridays, right? You should probably skip.”
“Fuck all if I will,” she said violently.
“Emma.”
I stared at her, and she let out a resentful sigh. “Fine.”
She closed her eyes and snuggled into her pillow. I made way for the door. “My classes are done for the day. I’ll be in my dorm if you need anything.”
“Not like I’ll be able to get up anyway, let alone make it down the hall.”
Her tone was resentful. I decided saying anything else would probably be a mistake, so I left quietly.
I isolated myself in my room and tried focusing my attention on the hockey game that was playing on my TV. It was a big one, a game I’d been looking forward to all week— Malovia versus Russia.
But I couldn’t think straight. My mind kept wandering back to what I’d found in Emma’s dorm, how she’d fainted— how she didn’t want to tell me what was wrong with her.
What was Emma trying to hide from me?
I hardly saw Emma at all the following week. She was avoiding me. She kept her distance in Monster Hunting 101 and didn’t sit with me at breakfast like usual. I didn’t even spot her at the rink after hockey practice, which was unusual. She was always there. Had she been so tired from last Friday she’d taken the rest of the week off from skating?
Whenever she saw me coming, she’d blush and turn the other way. It was like she was embarrassed or something. I didn’t get why. Yeah, fainting in class was kind of humiliating, but I didn’t care that she did. It wasn’t a big deal to me. Did she think I actually thought less of her? I must’ve come off as a major jerk or something.
On Halloween, I was able to corner Emma before she emerged from her dorm that afternoon. She jumped as I silently came around the corner.
“Holy shit, Ethan.” She glared at me. “You scared the crap out of me.”
“Well, I thought I’d have to sneak up on you at some point, since you’ve ran away every time you’ve seen me coming.”
Her mouth gaped. “I’ve… I’ve been busy.”
“Uh-huh. Busy running away from me.” I put two arms on either side of her, locking her in. Her back braced up against the wall as she stared up at me. “Can’t run now,” I whispered.
Emma swallowed. “You need to get out of my way. I have to study.”
“Studying would be a sin today” I told her. “It’s Heimskanun.”
“What?”
“It’s an Arcanean festival, celebrating the transition from harvest to winter. It’s one of our biggest holidays,” I told her. “And don’t tell me you have to go to class, because there aren’t any today. They’ve all been canceled in favor of the holiday.”
She bit her lip. “I think Odette and Delmare said something about it, but I hardly listened. They invited me to come with them, but I turned them down.”
“Now why would you do that?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I’m not big into social gatherings.”
“Well, that’s no good. There’s a pagan celebration taking place in town. I dropped by to see if you’d like to come with me. And unlike your friends, I won’t take no for an answer.”
“Me?” Emma gave a skeptical look. “I’m surprised you want to be seen with me, after what happened in class.”
“Come on, Emma. It wasn’t a big deal.” I rolled my eyes.
“You’re not the one that fainted.” She went to move past me, but my arms locked her in. I grinned.
“I won’t let you by until you say yes,” I teased.
She huffed a lock of red hair out of her eyes. “Fine. Just so you’ll stop tormenting me.”
I gave a low chuckle and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I don’t plan on ending your torment for a very long time.
”
I was teasing myself. But I hadn’t promised myself I’d stay away from Emma— just that I wouldn’t make any romantic advancements toward her. Didn’t mean we couldn’t be friends, right? Just friends.
She shivered and pushed me away. “So, where are we going?”
“The festival is taking place in the middle of Dolinska right now, but the most important part of it is visiting the Katedra da du Boyina— the Cathedral of the Goddess,” I said. “You’ll see what I mean when you step inside.”
“Okay…” Emma said, reluctant to follow. She deposited her things back into her dorm. I grabbed her shoulder.
“Hold on,” I said. “You need to be properly dressed. You can’t go in your uniform.”
I took her hand and dragged her to my dorm. There, I pulled out of a shopping bag a long, ankle-length dress with long sleeves. It was white and flowing, made of cotton, with embroidery of tiny red, green, pink and black flowers on the bodice and skirt. She gasped as she observed the dress, her green eyes widening.
I handed it to her before pulling out another item, a floral headband with red and white flowers, along with tiny leather sandals.
“Women wear their hair long and flowing for the festival, with floral crowns,” I said. “I thought these would look beautiful on you.”
“These are gorgeous, Ethan.” Emma stared at the dress, unable to take her eyes off of it. “You got them for me?”
“Well, I knew you wouldn’t have anything for the festival, so I thought I’d surprise you,” I said.” I wanted to make the festival as amazing as possible for her.
She could barely contain her excitement. “Hold on. I’ll get ready.” She headed into my bathroom to change. When she came out, it nearly took my breath away. Her red hair fell in soft waves under the floral headband, and the dress fit her perfectly, tucking in at her small waist and flowing around the curves of her body.
“Is everyone going to be dressed this way?” she asked. I noticed a bit of self-consciousness in her tone.
“Mostly,” I told her. “Come on. I don’t want you to miss a thing.”
Dolinska was bustling with activity when we arrived. The streets were packed with Marked and Companions, dressed in true Malovian fashion. The Marked wore dresses similar to Emma’s, while the Companions wore knee-high black leather boots, red embroidered shirts, and navy jackets with matching pants. Streamers and ribbons flowed through the air, along with confetti, and the smells of incense rose into the air. There was folk music everywhere— it sounded like the songs of the faeries as musicians played wooden flutes, goatskin bagpipes, fiddles, and large string instruments.