Academy of the Elites: Fated Magic

by Alexis Calder

  I turned at glared at him, my jaw set, my hands balled into fists. “Don’t you dare try to pin this on me. You know damn well I didn’t do anything. I was sitting in that office with you.”

  “You’re the only time user here,” he snapped. “Unless your boyfriend did this.” A sick grin spread on his lips. “In which case, he’ll be locked up for the rest of his life.”

  My stomach twisted as I stared at the fat man in front of me. He was a sad excuse for a law enforcement officer. Why hadn’t I been stuck with a strong, sexy officer? You know, the kind that poses for pictures with puppies for charity calendars? Or at least a good, smart, caring officer. The kind who does his job properly.

  No, I got stuck with the corrupt, bottom of the barrel officer who was doing all he could to see me fuck up. How the hell was this man still employed? Instead of him asking me what I did to get away with it, shouldn’t I be asking how the hell he even had his job?

  “You know damn well Matt had nothing to do with this,” I said.

  “Do I?” He smiled, showing me his pointed yellow teeth. “Do you have something you want to confess.”

  “Look.” I gestured to the main office. “Whoever did this had some serious control if they were able to keep us moving and freeze the rest of the office.”

  His upper lip twitched and he looked like I’d just told him there was no such thing as Santa Claus.

  “Sorry to ruin your fun, but I couldn’t have done this either,” I said. “And you know that. I don’t have anywhere near to this kind of control.”

  “I bet you wish you did,” he snarled.

  “Sure,” I said. “So I wouldn’t worry about using it on accident. I’m not stupid. I know how good I have it here. You really think I’d want to throw all this away just because I want to use some power I didn’t even know I had?”

  His lips parted but he didn’t say anything. I’d actually rendered him speechless. Guess he’d never considered that maybe I didn’t have any motive to use the power he was here to keep me from using.

  “Shouldn’t you be investigating this or something?” I asked, feeling emboldened by my truth bombs.

  “Yeah. But you’re coming with me.” He wrinkled his nose. “I’m not sure I believe you didn’t have anything to do with this.”

  I rolled my eyes, not even trying to hide my frustration. “Fine. Lead on, fearless leader.”

  He ignored me and started to walk toward the main office door. I followed him, my shoes crunching over broken glass from popped lights.

  The hallway was eerily quiet, despite being nearly full of people. Time had stopped right during the change between classes. I hadn’t even heard the bell in Dr. Green’s office.

  We walked past frozen mages, shifters mid-step, and vampires reaching for their friends ahead of them. Some of the students were dusted in white powder.

  I looked up and noticed that the stone of the ceiling looked cracked in places. Had it always been like that or was this new? I’d never bothered to look up in the hall before.

  I stopped in front of one of my classmates. Ian, a sulky stereotypical vampire in a long black coat with perfect black eyeliner under both eyes. He held one strap of his backpack on his shoulder and his shiny black nail polish and perfectly groomed black hair made the white powder stand out even more than it did on the other students.

  I rubbed my finger tips on his shoulder, feeling the gritty substance. It felt like fine sand. It probably had come from the ceiling.

  “What are you doing?” Officer M called.

  I looked up and narrowed my eyes to find him in the dim light of the hallway. He was almost to the stairway. Quickly, I wiped my fingers on my pants and hurried to catch up to my parole officer.

  We walked down the stairs, weaving around statue-like students mid-stride. It was like walking into the middle of the fucking apocalypse. If Medusa was running the show.

  The only thing that made it worse, was that so far, I was stuck here alone with Officer M. Literally the last person I wanted to do anything with.

  Whoever did this better fix it, fast.

  16

  Raven

  As we continued down the hall, I searched for familiar faces. I wasn’t sure what I’d do when I saw my friends, but I needed to see that they were here. That they were safe. Well, as safe as someone can be while frozen in time.

  With each face that wasn’t Ben, Luka, Matt, Zach, Makayla, or one of the other shifters I hung out with, I grew increasingly nervous.

  “Looking for someone?” Officer M asked.

  “Yes,” I admitted, seeing no reason to hide it. “I want to make sure my friends are safe.”

  He seemed surprised by my response. “I thought you’d be trying to find Mr. Obscura. If he’s not here, if he’s not frozen, that will look bad for him.”

  “We’re still on that?” I asked. “I thought we agreed that he wouldn’t be capable of this.”

  “You agreed that he wasn’t capable of this. But if you didn’t do it, someone did. And while I was convinced that you were the true perpetrator at the Yule ball, I now have my doubts,” he said.

  I shook my head. I never got anywhere with Officer M. It was like speaking to a child. It also made finding Matt a priority before the magic wore off and everyone went back to normal.

  We walked down the class hallway and I glanced inside classroom doors, most of them propped open already by students who were entering or exiting.

  As we passed the astronomy classroom, I let out a relieved breath. Both Ben and Makayla were frozen on their way out of the classroom.

  I stopped for a moment and pressed my palm to Ben’s cheek. He was warm but I couldn’t see any signs of breathing. He was here, though. And he had to be okay. He just had to be.

  I set my hand on Makayla’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. Hang in there. I’m going to get you two out of this.

  “What did you find?” Officer M asked.

  “Just some of my friends.” I caught up to him, giving a quick backward glance at Ben and Makayla. “How are we going to fix this?”

  He laughed. “You’re asking me? Between the two of us, only one of us has any experience with time magic.”

  I frowned. “Well, even if I knew how to fix it, I wouldn’t be allowed to.”

  He didn’t respond.

  Good.

  The whole thing was absurd. Why the hell was this kind of magic illegal in the first place? I mean, I guess I could see how it was dangerous. Anyone could freeze time then walk in here and do whatever they wanted.

  Okay. It was hella dangerous.

  All these people were sitting ducks. A bad guy could do whatever they wanted, take whatever they wanted.

  Until that moment, I hadn’t felt the true weight of the power I could wield. It was an overwhelming, chest crushing sensation.

  Feeling slightly dizzy, I focused on moving down the hallway, looking at the faces of my classmates.

  They were all so vulnerable like this. So fragile. No wonder they were terrified of this kind of magic.

  Though, it was also quite beautiful in its own way. It was so quiet. So peaceful. Imagine if someone used magic like this to stop a riot or freeze the fire in a burning building.

  There was so much potential for good.

  But I supposed like everything, it was abused by too many. The bad apples ruined it for the rest of us.

  “Maybe you were right,” Officer M said.

  I looked over toward his voice and laughed at the sight ahead of me. Both Matt and Zach were sitting on a bench, looking down at a book they held between them.

  Not waiting for Officer M, I ran toward them and knelt down in front of them so I could see their faces. Their eyes were glued to the page, their sandy hair hanging down over their foreheads.

  I pushed Matt’s hair back and looked into his eyes, then I did the same with Zach. My heart ached as I saw their blank expressions. No flicker of recognition. No breath. No life.

  They we
re both warm, they were both alive, I had to remind myself, but I suddenly felt like I was living in a tomb.

  I stood quickly and turned to look at Officer M. “We have to fix this. They can’t stay like this.”

  “I’ll have to call this in. I can’t fix this on my own,” he said. “Back to the office.”

  “There’s one more person I have to find,” I said, knowing I wouldn’t be able to go back until I saw Luka.

  “They’ll still be here when we get this sorted out,” he said.

  “Please,” I said. “I just need to see one more person.”

  He frowned. “Fine. But I’m going to consider you a suspect if time starts again while you’re away from me.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Seriously? We’re back to that?”

  He shrugged. “I’m just doing my job.”

  Badly. I shook my head. “I’ll meet you in the office soon. My friend had gym next, I’m just going to check there.”

  He lifted his chin in a weird little nod, then turned away from me.

  I darted down the hall, dodging students, a couple of professors, and a rather large cat that I suspected was a student who shifted.

  Finally, I made it to the gym. Luka wasn’t in the hallway. Before I could think better of it, I opened the door to the men’s locker room and nearly ran right into a classmate who had apparently been frozen seconds after entering the locker room.

  Shimmying around him, I walked around the locker room, attempting - but not really succeeding - at keeping my eyes above the waist.

  I had a lot of very good looking and well-endowed classmates.

  And two who were not so well-endowed.

  I bit down on my lip to keep from giggling like a twelve-year-old. The stress was starting to morph into feeling a bit punchy.

  My stomach twisted into knots as worry continued to spike. I had to find him. I turned a corner and ran right into someone.

  A tall someone. Who happened to be very naked.

  I screamed as embarrassment burned red-hot in my cheeks.

  Of all the people to run into while they were naked, Remi was last on my list. Yet here he was, with his trademark cocky grin that made him look so very much not frozen in time.

  I pressed my finger into his rock hard peck. He didn’t flinch. Blowing out a slow breath, I backed up so I could walk around him.

  But I did glance at the package first.

  And I could see why Makayla was enjoying herself. “You go, girl.”

  Once I was away from Remi, I saw another group of guys by another wall of lockers. One of them had his tee-shirt over his head, covering his face and most of his upper body. But I recognized that ass.

  Just to be sure, I walked around to his front and lifted the shirt. Luka stared blankly back at me.

  My knees went weak and I collapsed to the bench in front of the lockers. Seeing him like this was heartbreaking. They were all stuck. All frozen in time. And I didn’t know how to help them.

  Then, it hit me. I’d been so worried about finding my friends and proving that I hadn’t stopped time that I didn’t consider who really had.

  Shaking, I pushed myself to standing. I had to get back to the office with Officer M. While I knew he was inept, I also knew we weren’t the only people who weren’t stuck frozen in time.

  And the other person was likely the one who did this to us. But why? And why were we spared?

  I gave Luka a quick kiss on the cheek, then made my way out of the locker room. As soon as I hit the hallway, I took off at a run for the office.

  Good thing I was in such good shape now. I never realized that all the running I did in gym would be applied so literally to the things I did here at the academy.

  Officer M was hanging up the phone when I arrived back at the office. I waited for him to tell me what was going on.

  He looked up at me. “The lines are dead. No calls are going in or out.”

  “What?” My heart raced. “Did someone cut the lines? Don’t you have magic to fix that or magic to contact people?”

  “I do, yes,” he said. “But it appears that we’re in a time bubble.”

  “What’s a time bubble?” I asked.

  “Essentially, we’re totally sealed off from the outside world. Anything inside the bubble is suspended in time and anything outside the bubble is off limits to us. We can’t use modern technology or magic to communicate beyond the bubble.”

  “Well, how do we break it?” I asked.

  “You know, I have no idea,” he said. “It’s not exactly something they teach us since all time magic users were supposed to be dead.”

  An icy chill ran down my spine. “Supposed to be?”

  “Not like that,” he said. “I meant that you’re the first we’ve had record of since, well, your parents.”

  “Right,” I said. “Obviously, your people aren’t very good at keeping records because clearly you’ve missed some.”

  “It seems that’s the case,” he said.

  “I don’t blame them, really,” I said. “If I knew that those with time magic were being hunted and labeled by the government, I would hide my powers, too.”

  “You did hide your powers,” he said.

  “Not on purpose,” I said. But for the first time in my life, I thought that maybe I understood why my alcoholic aunt in the human world had been my guardian. Who knew what would have become of me if someone in this world had raised me.

  “Well, isn’t this a pretty sight? A school of frozen students and a useless officer of the guild,” a woman’s voice said.

  I turned to see Professor Halifax standing in the office doorway, her hand on her hip. “I’m guessing you don’t have a plan for fixing this, do you?”

  “Is it over?” I asked. “Is everyone unfrozen?”

  She shook her head. “There are two rooms in this building that are magic proof. The first, as you’ve probably guessed is Dr. Green’s office.”

  “Well, that explains why we weren’t hit,” I said. “The second?”

  “The old dungeons,” she said. “Obviously they didn’t want people to use magic to break out prisoners.”

  “Like confinement?” I asked, confused.

  “No, old crumbling cells. We use them for storage now. They’re definitely not safe for long term stays. Thankfully, I was working on inventory.” She glanced around. “Where’s Dr. Green?”

  “He said he had business to attend to,” Officer M said.

  “It’s just us,” I said with mock cheerfulness.

  “Alright,” she said. “Officer, you have any legal ways to break this time bubble?”

  “Um…” Officer M shifted nervously.

  Professor Halifax let out a frustrated breath. “I thought not.”

  “Please tell me you can fix this,” I said.

  “I can’t, but you can,” she said. “But in order to do that, your parole officer is going to have to turn a blind eye.”

  “Absolutely not,” he said. “She is not going to break her parole on my watch.”

  Professor Halifax folded her arms over her chest. “Fine. Then we’ll wait while you break the spell.”

  “Can’t we catch whoever did this?” I asked.

  “They’re probably outside the school,” Officer M said in a disgruntled tone. “There’s no way they stayed in here.”

  “What’s the point of all this? Why would someone do this?” I asked.

  “No idea,” Professor Halifax said. “But I’m sure we’ll find out what the next steps of their plan are soon.”

  She walked over to one of the chairs in front on Dr. Green’s desk and took a seat. “Might as well get comfortable. We could be here a while. Who knows how long. Hours, days, years…”

  “Years?” The word came out in a squeak.

  “Imagine the story when it breaks. A whole school of the most important and well connected supernatural kids taken out. The plot thickens when they find out an officer of the guild was present inside the school during
the attack.”

  She leaned back in the chair, throwing her arm over the back. “Can you imagine what Ben Lucia’s father will do to your family if his son doesn’t make it out of here alive?”

  “Fine. Do it. But not in here. And don’t give me any details,” he said.

  She stood. “I need your word that you will not punish her for this.”

  “You have my word,” he said.

  “Swear it, goblin,” she said.

  He spit on his hand and extended it to Professor Halifax. She spit on her hand and then shook.

  My nose wrinkled in disgust. Gross.

  17

  Raven

  “So he’s a goblin?” I asked as we walked out of the office.

  “You didn’t know?” Professor Halifax asked as she wiped her palm on her dress.

  “No,” I said. “He creeps me out.”

  “That’s because he’s untrustworthy and useless,” she said. “But he’ll keep his word. He has no choice.”

  “Do you really think I can fix this?” I asked.

  She stopped walking, right next to a group of students who were frozen while shoving another student against the wall. “I hope so, but we haven’t really tested what you can do.”

  “This is the only way, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “I’m afraid so,” she said.

  “Who do you think did this?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I wish I knew. My guess is the word is out about you and that someone else is looking for someone with your skill set.”

  “Another thief?” My breath caught. I didn’t want to go through all of that again.

  “I don’t think so.” She paused, as if considering. “But I’m starting to think you aren’t the only one with time magic. Maybe a distant relative or something? Who knows? When you get out of here, you might even want to find whoever it was. Maybe it’s not a malicious thing.”

  I hadn’t considered that. “Freezing a whole school seems like a pretty big thing to do out of the goodness of someone’s heart.”

  She shrugged. “Could be a show of power? Or a test? I suppose there are a lot of possibilities.”