by Oxford, Rain
“Darwin won’t fail.”
“Good. Then let’s begin.” He passed the large book to me.
With a sigh, I sat and started reading. It was all about magic circles. Although I didn’t know why I needed to learn how to make magic circles, differentiate them, and dissolve them, I read it anyway.
I decided not to tell Darwin why the council was harassing him, because he would take that to mean the welfare of the school depended on him. He didn’t need that much pressure. Unfortunately, he hadn’t yet made any progress with the amulet.
* * *
On Sunday, I waited for Professor Nightshade at the burn field, which was a circular rock platform raised about two feet with a diameter of about ten feet. Around it was a field of small pebbles instead of grass. It was apparently used for practice quite a lot, because the entire surface of the platform was charred. Thirty-one thick, unused, white candles were set in impressions spaced evenly apart along the edge of the platform.
The professor arrived in her person form, which was a little disappointing. My fire elemental mentor was a dragon— I couldn’t see a more perfect fit. “Were you born in your person form or dragon form?” I asked when she stepped onto the rock slab.
She smirked and flicked a lock of orange hair out of her eyes. “A misconception. I’m a dragon who can shift into a person, not the other way around like shifters. I was hatched as a dragon and developed the ability to change at about thirty years of age. Most dragons can shift.”
“So there are more of your kind?”
“We’re very rare, but that is because our birth rate is very low, not because we were hunted. Of course, the council didn’t help. Now, you mastered water and earth, right?”
“According to Remy and Professor Langril.”
“Show me.”
“Show you what? Water is trust, love, and healing, while earth is strength and balance.”
“Those are the essences of those elements. Magic is not just controlling the elements, but every spell you do is dependent on your intention, and thus, associated with an element. Even psychic magic, like reading minds, is associated with an element.”
“That’s air, right?”
“Yes. And in turn, it takes mental training to manipulate the elements, which makes elemental magic fall under psychic magic. Mind over matter is the entire concept of Quintessence, in my opinion. Everyone will tell you something different because this school means something to us all. How did you master water?”
“I learned to trust people and heal with water. Before I understood what water was, I seemed to use it instinctively. It became more controllable when I focused on the emotions while trying to do magic. The same with earth. I tried to fight my abilities because I thought that was the same as controlling it. When I learned otherwise, the magic became easier to control. I realized that the strength inside me was earth magic.”
“So what have you learned about magic?”
I thought for a moment. “Although there are elementals and supernatural beings, magic comes from inside a person.”
“Spot on. So what element out of all five do you think is your strength?”
I shrugged. “Hunt thought the one I needed the most was water, so I would think I would be most natural at the opposing element. Based on that guess, I would say fire.”
“Have you controlled fire yet?”
“I can light a fire on a torch or something, but I prefer using my lighter.”
“Good. This should be easy for you then. Since you know what I am, you can guess I don’t do magic the same as you. I also don’t teach the same way Remington or Keigan do. I’m not going to tell you what fire is; you’re going to figure that out yourself.”
“Is anything at Quintessence ever to be taken literally?”
“Only if you want to fail.” With that, she left.
* * *
On Wednesday morning, Darwin’s clothes were missing from his locker when he got out of the shower. “It’s a lock-er,” I admonished, since he never bothered to even bring a lock let alone use one. The pranks were outlandish and mostly widespread, but I did notice Darwin getting targeted a lot. Several more women had accused Darwin of copping a feel, which he adamantly denied doing, so I assumed he was being framed.
“Who steals clothes? Seriously, we can’t even have electronics, so who the hell would bother?” He stomped out wearing only a towel around his waist.
Twenty minutes later, Darwin joined Henry and me in the dining room, dressed in a dark blue hoodie. Henry rubbed his forehead absentmindedly, indicating a headache. Due to his shifting ability, his wounds were completely healed without any scars.
“Still having bad dreams?” I asked. He nodded. “Did you get in an argument or anything with your parents before school started that may have instigated your not-so-secret desire to tear their throats out with your teeth?”
He shook his head. “I don’t really remember. My memory can sometimes be fuzzy during the full moon.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t–”
I was cut off as Darwin choked on his food and spit it out. “Poison!” he yelled. The entire table as well as his tray turned neon-green.
Every student instantly turned to stare at him. “You always think it’s poisoned,” Henry said.
“No, there’s something in the eggs. Something bad.”
“The eggs are poisoned?!” Becky asked from a few tables away, suddenly very pale. “I ate the eggs!”
Neither Henry nor I had had the eggs, so we couldn’t deny it. Mass hysteria in a room full of wizards, shifters, and fae was a serious business. Despite the fact that none of the fae ate eggs, some of them were convinced their fruit was poisoned, too. While several of the students tried to vomit up their eggs, four wizards and one shifter passed out.
Immediately, I sent Henry to inform Dr. Martin and Darwin to find Remy, Hunt, and Watson. I managed to slip into the kitchen amongst the panic and grabbed two plastic sacks, one which I filled with eggs from the buffet and the second I filled with Darwin’s eggs. Afterwards, I assigned the calmest students to take the unconscious students to the infirmary, told the students who were first to arrive for breakfast to write down what they remembered seeing, and instructed several others to scour the kitchen for anything suspicious.
Surprisingly, the shifters were all calm and responded to my instructions immediately. By the time Remy arrived, most of the hysterics were over. Unfortunately, Hunt couldn’t be found. Morning classes were cancelled, which the professors were not happy about.
Before I could take the samples to Dr. Martin, Lenard Newman was sent to the infirmary in addition to the five who fainted.
When I walked into the underground infirmary, Len was sitting on the exam tables with a thermometer in his mouth, while the unconscious students were on cots in the far corner of the room. “Here are some samples of the eggs, which Darwin said was poisoned.”
The doctor sighed. “Thank you, Devon. I should have the results in twenty-four hours based on the lack of symptoms these students have. I see my day is going to be a busy one. Not like I had enough problems with the vampires complaining about their synthetic blood. I received a shipment from Stephen of pure blood for Astrid. She needs to get it from me so the other vampires don’t know she’s on it. There will be riots if they find out.”
“I’ll let her know. I’ll come back in a few hours to see if there is any change.”
Len pulled the thermometer out of his mouth. “Really, I don’t need to be here. I feel… fine.” His cheeks flushed and I barely caught him before he fell. He wasn’t completely unconscious, though.
As I laid him back on the exam table, Dr. Martin picked up his thermometer and cursed. “He has a fever of a hundred and three. Okay, so now we have a symptom. Let’s hope we find out what was in those eggs before we have a lot more students sick.”
Len mumbled something unintelligible before passing out.
“They could just have the flu or something.
Maybe they all suddenly got the flu at the same time.”
“Let’s hope.”
* * *
Classes resumed an hour later, but very little learning went on. By six in the evening, two other students were sent to the infirmary with high fevers, nausea, vomiting, and migraines. Darwin, who showed no signs of illness, was no longer worried about it.
“How are we going to deal with Gale?” he asked.
The three of us were in our usual spots in the dining room and Astrid, Amelia, and Addie were nowhere to be seen. I figured Astrid was getting her blood from Dr. Martin. “First of all, we need to make sure he can’t get the amulet.”
“Can he not just pop in and out?” Henry asked.
“Hunt has wards in place for that,” Darwin said. “What if he infiltrates the school? I mean, he could look like Devon.”
They both stared at me, as if they were expecting me to suddenly change into Gale. I stood with my untouched tray. “I’ll go talk to Hunt. Maybe he has spells or something to keep someone like that out.”
I mostly knew my way around the castle, so I allowed myself to daydream on the way to Hunt’s office. I knew Gale wasn’t going to give up. Whereas he originally killed in order to steal power, his new motive seemed to be revenge. Despite the fact that we killed Felicity for killing others, I could see his side. Astrid killed Joseph Sanders, but if anyone tried to hurt her, I would protect her.
That didn’t make him predictable. I didn’t know if he was aware of Astrid unless he saw her in my head, which meant he probably saw Darwin’s feelings for Amelia. To my knowledge, he hadn’t read Henry’s mind. I stopped in the hallway as a thought occurred to me. Gale doesn’t know that Henry hates his parents. His parents are his only family, so they’re probably a target.
I realized then that I wasn’t in a normal hallway. In fact, where the hell am I? The hallway was older and narrower than the main part of the castle, which told me I was on the south end, where the teachers’ offices were. All the students knew the offices, libraries, and sometimes classes changed locations, but reaching the third floor at the opposite end of the school without going up any steps was a bit of a stretch.
I was supposed to be here.
There it is. Someone was talking. It was too quiet to discern the words or who was speaking, but I could tell which direction to go in. Something small and bright red moved in the corner of my eye, but when I looked, it was gone. There was an open door, which would have been suspicious if this kind of thing didn’t happen a lot to me.
“I’ll need an alibi,” a voice whispered. I recognized the whisper from the first time I overheard it.
April Nightshade.
“We already have that covered.” This was a man’s voice, and a confident one at that. Although it was familiar, I didn’t know the person enough to immediately match it to a face. “Once the council falls, there will be no one to arrest us. Everyone knows they have too much power.”
“Logan will never agree to this.”
“Because of Vincent. Lately, Vincent has been spending more time away from the council than with them. Vincent is more like a spy for Logan than a member of the council; he doesn’t need to go down with them. Logan won’t have a problem with us destroying the council then.”
A loud hiss interrupted their conspiring.
“What the hell is that?” the man asked, no longer whispering. With the change in his voice, I easily recognized that it was Professor Watson.
“I think it’s a cat. I’ve seen it once in Logan’s office when Vincent was visiting. I have to go. I have a night class… which started about twenty minutes ago.”
“Okay. Keep me posted.”
I left then. Professor Nightshade was a dragon, which I could assume meant she had all kinds of abilities I wasn’t aware of. Obviously, super-hearing wasn’t one of them. I arrived at Hunt’s office a few minutes later to find him sitting at his old desk, reading over papers.
There was a distinct change in the man. He looked several years older than when I last saw him, which wasn’t saying a lot when he looked much younger than his actual age anyway. Whether it was the stress of searching for the key, the loss of his familiar, or a combination, he wasn’t taking it well.
“How are you, Devon?” he asked.
“Alive. You?”
“About the same. Have you come to discuss Gale or ask about the tower?”
“Would you answer me if I asked about the tower?”
“No.”
“Then I guess I’m here to discuss Gale. He doesn’t have the amulet anymore, but he still has the powers he stole, including shifter abilities. If he gets someone’s blood, he can shift into them. And… he got my blood.”
“Then let us hope Gale is a fool. As he is a human, I doubt he understands the true advantage he has with your blood. If he wastes it on impersonating you, then he is not the enemy I thought he was, which is good for all of us.”
“Remember I only learned that I’m a wizard a year ago. What is the worst he could do with my blood?”
“Assuming he has the power to use it, anything he wants. He can kill you in an instant or worse.” He folded his hands and leaned forward. “The worst he can do is use your blood to kill everyone you love. Fortunately, since you killed Felicity, it is unlikely he has that power or knowledge. I expect he will only be able to kill you.”
“And if he doesn’t know what blood is capable of? What if he impersonates students or teachers and infiltrates the school?”
He sat back. “As long as we do not have a traitor on the inside… again… my wards will prevent him from teleporting in and out. As far as infiltration, I will have Rosin interview…” He sighed. “Never mind. Use your mind powers if you suspect someone.”
“He will come back, right?” I asked, referring to the shifter. “Ghost always goes back to Vincent.”
“Rosin has never left before, but yes, I know he will be back. The hardest part is keeping Remy from running away. Speaking of leaving the castle, how is it going with Darwin’s training?”
“Well, I understand what you meant about fighting his teachers. We have managed to get him to change the color of objects, though not the texture, like his mother can. And, he also can’t seem to turn it off. The men’s showers are now all pastel purple. Fortunately, everyone seems to think it was done by the mysterious prankster. They’re working on naming the culprit.”
“Although any sort of controlled magic or shifting does mean he is not a throwback by the council’s standards, your best chance of convincing them is if he can defend himself in some way. While I have always suspected he had latent ability, the threat of getting expelled does not work to encourage people like Darwin. Too bad the amulet was destroyed in your battle against Gale.”
Despite what we told him and everyone else, Hunt knew the amulet wasn’t destroyed. “If we had it, it would be too dangerous for Darwin to use in front of the council.”
“If they were as intelligent as the students in my school, you would be correct. However, their arrogance is supported by a long history of ruling over wizards and not by exceptional skills. All but three of them inherited their position and were bred to be exceptionally ignorant brats rather than quick-witted scholars like the founders.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Good night, Headmaster.”
* * *
We went out again to try to get Darwin to shift, but he seemed even more hopeless. I had wanted Astrid to join us and maybe try to thrall Darwin into believing in himself, but she was nowhere to be found. After an hour of sitting around, I stood up and paced to stretch my legs. “You’ve used my power before, so this shouldn’t be difficult. Humans with no power at all can use it.”
Darwin scowled. “That’s not helping.”
“Have you ever been told that it’s all in your head? It’s called learned helplessness. You believe so hard that you can’t do it, until it becomes your reality.”
“It’s not psychological; it’s a g
enetic flaw. You can’t mix wolf and forest fae and get a functional ability. Shifters have the genomic ability to rapidly change their biology between two forms. Mix two shifters of the same species, no problem. Two shifters of different species usually result in the dominant gene taking over, but complications include split-species or in dire cases, the human form is recessive. Forest spirits like my mother are more the embodiment of magic itself than mortal beings. She is magic. There is a reason fae stick to their own species; they don’t breed well with others.”
“Then why were your parents forced together?”
“My father needed a wife and my mother’s tribe wanted the protection of the wolves. I can’t shift and the council isn’t going to be impressed with me changing the color of the wall. Whether I use your power or the amulet to use someone’s power, it’s cheating.”
“That would only matter to you if you thought the council was in the right, which you don’t. You’re afraid of the amulet working, not getting caught,” I said. He threw the amulet at Henry’s feet and stomped off.
Henry sighed. “He will get through this.”
* * *
On Thursday, I was still cautious from Mack spilling his cauldron of “mute” potion on the floor when I arrived at Remy’s class… to see the floor on fire. Remy stood outside her classroom with a suspiciously friendly smile. “Go on in,” she said. The two guys ahead of me were not willing to take the first steps.
“I’m not going in there,” one of them said.
Darwin arrived then and stuck his hand out at the door. “There’s no heat and the flickering of the flames is inconsistent with an indoor fire,” he said, then entered the knee-high flames without hesitating. Since he showed no signs of being roasted alive, the rest of us entered. I couldn’t feel anything, especially not heat, so I reached down to swipe my hand through the yellow flames that were licking at my legs. I felt nothing at all.