Thief

by Sadie Moss

  If I can even fix it. Maybe whatever I try to do will just make it worse. It feels like everything I’ve done so far has just fucked things up more.

  I get a few weird magical blips again, different powers flaring and then receding, but I ignore them. It’s not like I can control these strange burbles or stop them from happening, and nobody’s getting hurt. Probably just something Johnson fucked me up with in our battle.

  The only class I’m really enjoying right now is Combat, and that’s just because I get to turn off my brain for a couple hours and work out some aggression with my fists and magic.

  I never spar with Dmitri anymore though. It’d be pretty hard to fight someone you’re ignoring, and besides, I wouldn’t trust either of us not to actually try to hurt the other one right now.

  The third-years have special projects throughout the year, and one of their senior seminars involves a two-day field trip. So on a Friday class in late October, they’re all out and it’s just us second- and first-years. We’re a mixed bag for Combat so the students can get all kinds of experience and practice against different levels of fighters, just like in real life.

  I miss the guys. I’ve gotten so used to having them around that it definitely feels weird when they’re gone. But maybe it’s a good thing to have a little space, given… everything.

  Cam and Asher know shit’s hit the fan. Asher couldn’t not know, walking in on us like that, and Cam’s the one who found me in the woods afterward and brought me back to campus. They’re both worried for us, and I don’t know if Dmitri’s silence or their concerned looks are making me feel worse these days. I don’t want them to worry.

  I just want this all to be fixed somehow.

  Kendal actually asks to spar with me first. I’m—surprised, and a little touched. Alyssa and the others have noticed how I’ve been acting, so they definitely know something’s wrong, and Kendal’s still hanging out with those idiots, but I can’t hate her the way I used to.

  It’s harder than you’d think to pin Kendal. She’s not competitive in the slightest, but she knows a lot thanks to her parents and her siblings, who do magical competitions for a living, and she’s a slippery one. I see a quick grin from her when I finally get her down, like she’s proud of me, and then we shake hands and she’s off to her next opponent and I’m with mine.

  It’s another second-year, Tandy. I don’t know much about her, and as far as I know, she doesn’t know much about me. We’re in classes together, we’ve nodded at each other when we’ve found seats next to each other, but that’s about it. She seems nice.

  Not that her niceness is going to stop me from wiping the floor with her.

  Tamlin calls a start to the next round, and Tandy and I go at it. She’s not as skilled as Kendal, but she’s a lot more fierce. I’ve got every belief that she’d break my nose if that was what it took to win this.

  Perfect. Just my style.

  Tandy’s power is levitation, which makes for an interesting challenge next to my spider climb. I race up the wall to use it as a launching-off point while she’s hovering in the air about two feet off the floor. When I’m six or seven feet up, I pivot and push off the stone wall, and then—

  I’m levitating.

  What. The. Fuck.

  I land on her, and we scuffle in midair. She’s fighting hard, trying to push me off her—I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m only staying up in the air because I’m holding onto her. But then she properly shoves me off and I stay hovering, same as her, a couple of feet off the floor.

  Holy shit.

  We gape at each other. I have no clue how I’m doing this. This feels different than my other magical blips. This isn’t just a little lightning strike that I can’t replicate. No, I’m fully doing the same magic she’s doing, with just as much strength, like I’m… feeding off her somehow. What’s going on?

  Yeah, I’m gonna have to talk to Tamlin or Roman or Dean Hardwick about this after class. Whatever the hell is going on with me, it’s gotten too big to downplay or ignore.

  A few of our classmates who are wrapping up their own bouts turn to look at us, probably wondering why we’re staring at each other with our mouths open like terrified goldfish.

  We recover at the same moment. I see determination in Tandy’s gaze, and I’m sure as hell not letting her kick my ass, weird new magical powers or no, so I go right back at her.

  I unleash a little of my sonic boom, and we go crashing to the floor, me on top of her. I try not to use that power too much. It’s still hard to control and tends to just send everything flying, which could really hurt people if I’m not careful. And besides, I don’t want to rely on a single power too much; I don’t want to become dependent on it.

  Tandy fights furiously, jabbing and punching and twisting and kicking, but I manage to get the upper hand and pin her to the floor, her arm wrenched behind her back.

  She thumps the floor, yielding, and I get off of her, helping her up to her feet.

  “Good fight,” I tell her sincerely, and she nods.

  “You too.”

  I turn to find another partner, only to have the blood in my veins freeze as I hear one of those piercing, gut-wrenching screams.

  Tom was the only student who lost his magic that I was around for. The others all happened when I was somewhere else. But even though I’ve only heard it happen once, I’ll never forget the way he shrieked, and the moment I hear Tandy—I know what’s happening to her.

  I whip around, and the rest of the class stops what they’re doing to stare as the willowy girl falls to the floor, screaming in agony.

  Tamlin rushes to her, calling over her shoulder as she does. “Someone get the healers! Now!”

  Kendal’s nearest the door, and she books it, headed straight for the infirmary. All the other students are huddling in fear, unsure what to do, how to help. Despite this being the fifth time this has happened, none of us are prepared, and my gut is heaving so hard my breakfast is about to reappear as Tandy writhes on the floor.

  Tamlin’s power is this magical web or rope made of energy that she can use in various ways. Right now, she wraps it around Tandy, trying to do something—stop her powers from being ripped out, maybe, or ease her pain—but it doesn’t seem to be working. A guy and girl run up, dropping to their knees beside Tandy. I think they’re her friends. They start trying to soothe her and to get her to listen to them, to calm down, but she’s having none of it. She’s in too much pain. She just keeps screaming, a sound that seems to be ripped out of her along with her magic.

  Oh fuck, I might actually vomit.

  Tandy suddenly goes limp, like a puppet with its strings cut, and lies on the floor, eyes glassy, chest heaving.

  Jesus. Poor Tandy.

  I know that sounds condescending, but I really don’t have any other words for it. This is so fucking awful.

  “Oh my God.”

  The voice belongs to Alyssa, and judging from her tone, she isn’t just scared and horrified like the rest of us. She sounds… vindictive.

  I turn to look at her and find she’s staring right at me, a dangerous glint in her eye.

  “You did this,” she murmurs.

  “What?” My voice is flat, disbelieving. Great one, Alyssa, I clearly stole Tandy’s magic when I wasn’t even doing anythi…

  Oh.

  Oh, fuck.

  Just a few minutes ago, I was somehow imitating Tandy’s magic. The whole class saw it. That’s why Alyssa thinks it was me.

  “You did this,” she repeats, advancing on me.

  Her blonde hair is a little wild and disheveled, and I see it in her eyes now. She is scared and horrified, maybe even more so than anyone else in this room. But the vindication is there too because she thinks she found the culprit.

  Me.

  My heart, which has been racing ever since Tandy first screamed, skips a beat and then thuds heavily in my chest. This can’t be happening. Surely no one will actually believe that I—

  “You too
k it from her!” Alyssa yells, pointing a shaking finger at me. “You stole her magic!”

  Well. This is just great.

  Chapter 14

  My gaze darts around the large room as more of my classmates turn to stare at me. I realize I’m surrounded, cut off from Professor Tamlin, who’s still trying to help Tandy—not that my classmates planned it this way, but it’s sure not helping that they’re all clustered around me right now.

  Their faces are pale and sweaty, their eyes wide, chests heaving. It’s only first-years and second-years in class today. The third-year students are gone. My friends are gone. Everyone who’s left is in a state of panic and fear.

  That’s when it hits me just how much danger I’m in.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  “I always knew you were a snake in the grass,” Alyssa hisses.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I see Cristina preparing some kind of spell, which is especially concerning because her power is disintegration. Jesus. I really don’t want to lose a fucking limb before I can clear all this up.

  “You’ve been out to get us, all of us, from the start! What, was winning the Trials not enough for you? You needed more magic? More attention?” Alyssa’s voice is becoming high-pitched, reaching hysteria.

  I clear my throat, trying not to let my panic show. “Um, Professor Tamlin? A little help?”

  Tamlin’s busy with Tandy, who’s regained consciousness and is groaning pitifully. But she looks up when she hears me, and her eyes go wide as she flings out a hand, sending her web of blue magic toward the threat. “Cristina, no!”

  Too late.

  The dark-haired girl sends a blast of magic at me just before Tamlin’s magic wraps around her wrists. It erupts from her hand as a sort of transparent ball of red-orange light, and I know exactly what’ll happen if it touches me. I’ve been in class with Cristina for two and a half semesters; I’ve seen her use her disintegration power plenty of times.

  I instinctively fire off a sonic boom toward her, leaping up onto the wall in a spider climb to dodge the ball of magic, which tears past the spot where I was standing just seconds earlier and hits the wall. Because this room is primarily used for combat training, the walls are enchanted to be resistant to damage, but her disintegration spell still makes bits of dust crumble from the gray stone.

  Fuck. That means the blast she threw was strong enough to have done some serious damage if it’d hit me.

  “You’re insane!” I shoot back.

  “No, you are!” Alyssa’s practically shrieking by now, and the other students are following her lead. My sonic boom bowled a few people over, but they leap back to their feet quickly, and then a dozen different kinds of magic are thrown at me at once. I scramble up the wall, half sprinting, half crawling, trying to evade the mass of spells.

  My heart’s pounding, blood is rushing in my ears, but the thing is—I don’t want to harm anyone. I don’t. If I use my sonic boom to its full extent, it’ll send all of them flying dangerously. They could get concussions. Break limbs. They could die. And my spider climb is only so good for evasion.

  But—I used Tandy’s levitation powers a few minutes ago. I didn’t take them from her like Alyssa’s accusing me of at the top of her lungs. But I borrowed them, somehow. And I used Daria’s lightning power in Perkins’ class, and she didn’t lose her magic. So…

  We learned this in one of our theory classes: if you want to cancel out someone else’s magic, you either have to use a spell that’s completely opposite—like fire and water—or you have to use the exact same spell. My innate powers aren’t exactly the opposite of anyone’s in this class. I don’t know what a sonic boom would be the opposite of anyway.

  But… I can mimic their powers. Fight them off that way.

  I don’t want to hurt anyone, and this could be the solution. I’ve never actually tried to mimic someone’s powers before. Or maybe mirror would be a better term. After all, mimicking is an imitation, and this is the real deal. It’s like I’m just suddenly able to do what they can do, at least temporarily.

  I take a deep breath. Okay, Elliot, you can do this.

  Another student steps forward to attack, and I focus on her, letting my body relax, remembering that odd feeling I got right before the lightning strike and the other blips of magic. She’s a first-year named Phoebe, and she can generate and manipulate light.

  Okay, it’s on.

  She summons a burst of light that’s nearly blinding and so hot it raises the temperature in the room several degrees. I reach out with my senses desperately, feeling the light power, trying to draw it into myself. Then I send a beam of light right back at her, making the two bright flashes flare in the air between us. They collide and seem to swell, pulsing like a single dying star before winking out.

  Holy fuck. I did it.

  I can’t help but grin a little in triumph. I can do this!

  …maybe.

  It’s still two dozen to one, and Tamlin’s yelling for people to stop, using her magic web to restrain a few students, but she’s also got poor Tandy writhing on the floor in front of her, screaming like her soul is on fire. Her focus is split, and she’s only one person.

  Tristan, a guy with gravity manipulating power, uses it to force me down the wall—it’s a good thing I’m only about ten feet up, but it still hurts like a bitch when I land.

  After the initial onslaught, my classmates took turns for a little while, but now everyone seems to realize that going after me one at a time is just ridiculous when there are far more of them than there are of me, and they all attack at once.

  Fuck, I can’t mirror them all at the same time.

  My magic seems to be taking over a bit, flowing out of me instinctively, like it always does when I’m in danger. I’m mirroring more quickly than I can even keep track of, and thank God for that, because it’s the only thing keeping my head above water. If Dmitri were around right now, I’d actually thank him—our intense sparring and his constant push for me to be better have made it so I don’t even have to think, I just have to react, and I manage to throw a second-year over my head, sending her crashing to the floor.

  Another student tackles me. A big guy named Carl.

  Shit, they’re trying to grapple me.

  More hands land on me, and in that moment my chest goes tight and I can feel myself starting to panic. I release a sonic boom, just enough to get them off me, and pray that nobody’s too badly hurt. I don’t want to injure anyone, but I’m also starting to feel like I might not make it out of this room alive.

  I’ve never felt so helpless. My magic is powerful, and I’m a tough, scrappy fighter. But I can’t turn the tide here. I shove two off only to have three more pile on, and I can’t keep this up. I’m drowning under bodies and spells and—

  The snarl that comes from Roman is practically unreal as he shoves me behind him, appearing out of nowhere, magic crackling in the very air around us like a veil’s been torn open.

  “What the fuck do you all think you’re doing?” he demands.

  Roman’s known as a popular professor. He’s aloof and hard to read, but he’s also young. He gets the slang, he’s a snazzy dresser, and he relates personally to the students, calls them into his office if he sees they’re having a hard time, that kind of thing. He’s the kind of stern but fair guy that people appreciate, and I think a lot of students look up to him as an older brother figure—the ones who aren’t crushing on him, anyway.

  But right now, everyone’s seeing their favorite professor look at them with complete and utter fury, and I gotta say, it’s pretty hot, but it’s also pretty damn vindicating.

  “I wasn’t aware that Lord of the Flies had started,” he snarls. Magic is still crackling around us, like he’s keeping it leashed by the thinnest of threads and will call up a demon the size of Godzilla if someone so much as steps a toe out of line.

  My body aches all over as I stand on wobbly legs. I’m bruised, exhausted, and out of breath—but it’s not until
the students all start to back away, giving Roman and me space, that I realize I’m shaking.

  “Cuffs on!” he barks. “If you can’t stop yourselves from using magic to attack someone, then you shouldn’t be allowed to use your magic at all.”

  The students all stare at him, slack-jawed, and I know what a blow this is. Unpredictables are already in danger of having their magic taken away by the Circuit, and now to have a favorite person tell them they might not deserve it? Ouch.

  He’s got a point, though. They attacked me without any evidence, out of nothing but panic, fear, and misguided distrust. They hurt me, and they could’ve killed me. I don’t know how much longer I could’ve held out, mentally or physically, if Roman hadn’t stepped in.

  A few people shuffle out of the way as healers move in, and I realize Roman must’ve come in with them. Kendal is standing near the door of the large classroom, her blue eyes wide and her freckles standing starkly against her pale skin. Her gaze darts from me to Tandy to Roman and back again as she tries to figure out what the hell she missed while she was away getting help.

  “I said get your cuffs on,” Roman intones as the students continue to stare. “Now.”

  Everyone scrambles to obey. Nobody seems to want to look at him, or at me, for that matter. Alyssa looks pissed, but also… embarrassed? I know she’s one of the students with a crush on Roman, so maybe having him yell at her has finally knocked some sense into her dense blonde skull. Maybe now she’ll stop and logically think through whether I could’ve been the one who stole Tandy’s magic.

  Or maybe not.

  “Josephine?” Roman turns toward Tamlin, his voice gentling a little when he speaks to her. “If you could make sure those cuffs are in place?”

  “Yes. Of course.”

  My combat professor looks shaken herself, and she throws me an apologetic glance as she crosses over to check the students. I know she was overwhelmed trying to deal with everything, and I honestly don’t know if I would’ve handled it any better in her shoes, but when I think about what could’ve happened…