Reawakening

by CM Raymond

  ****

  This is gonna suck, Hannah thought to herself as she walked into the first class of her life. She was more frightened than when she faced down the lycanthrope—but then she had Parker at her side. His presence made even hustling on the streets easy. But alone, and in this new place, she was completely out of her element. The Boulevard had nothing on the Academy.

  As she entered the room, every eye looked up at her.

  Guess I’m the new girl.

  She reminded herself that to all of them, she wasn’t Hannah from the Boulevard, but some rich ass bitch from beyond the walls of Arcadia. She had mystery, intrigue, and beauty on her side—all she needed to do was own it. And, at the moment, that felt harder than making a dragon out of a lizard.

  The room was packed already—apparently, she had missed the memo to show up early. One seat was left next to the curly haired boy she had sat next to at the convocation. His face turned bright red in embarrassment when he realized his situation. She walked toward him.

  “This seat taken?” She smiled and tossed her strawberry blond curls over her shoulder. Playing the girly girl was certainly out of her wheelhouse.

  “It’s, well, always been like this. I mean… it’s yes. It is open.” His face turned redder than Ezekiel’s eyes when he was teleporting.

  She smiled. “Thanks. I’m Deborah,” Hannah said, offering her hand as she took the seat.

  He grabbed it with his sweaty palm. “Deborah. I know. I mean, I... we’ve all heard of you. You’re the new professor’s daughter. From out in the country.”

  She could feel the guy swallow, and Hannah felt sorry for him. If he only knew that she was an orphan from the Boulevard who had just had her first hot shower ever, maybe he’d be just a bit more comfortable. “That’s right. But I’m afraid I don’t know your name.”

  “Gregory. I mean… Greg. But, whatever. Greg.”

  Hannah laughed. “Gregory. That’s a nice name. Like an ancient knight or something. Can I tell you a secret? I’m scared shitless right now. I don’t know anybody, and quite frankly, this place is kind of freaking me out. I’m way behind. In terms of magic, I don’t know the difference between my ass and a fireball.”

  The kid snorted. “Well, that might be a helpful distinction to make.”

  Hannah laughed, glad she was able to coax a joke out of him. But before she could respond, a voice called out from the table behind them. “Don’t waste your time with that one, Deb. Greggy wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if she fell in his lap—even a hick like you.”

  Hannah looked over her shoulder to find the girl she had run into on the campus lawn. Her comment made the boys at her table laugh. The girl tossed her own hair, happy to have scored a point in this weird competition for social dominance.

  She thought about turning the girl into a lizard but thought better of it. Instead, she decided to play this girl’s game. “Spend a lot of time falling in guys’ laps? Maybe if you pulled your head out of your ass, you could see where you were going.” The rich girl’s smile was replaced with a scowl that could spoil milk. She turned in a huff back to her now wide-eyed companions.

  Greg’s mouth hung open. “Holy shit. No one really talks to Violet like that.”

  Hannah shrugged. “I don’t like it when people talk bad about my friends.”

  Leaning back, Hannah saw a smile wider than the Arcadian gate spread across Gregory’s face. Apparently, he was pleased that the hot new girl called him a friend.

  Hannah knew that she had just alienated that girl Violet, and probably whatever friends she had, which was the opposite of what Hannah was supposed to be doing here. But she didn’t care. She wouldn’t work with someone who was that mean, no matter how desperate she was.

  But at this rate, Hannah would be the most hated person at the school by the week’s end.

  Score one for standing up to the campus bitch.

  She breathed a sigh of relief when the teacher stepped into the room to begin the lesson for the day. Her relief quickly disappeared when she saw who it was.

  Charlotte, the woman who was less than impressed at Hannah’s admissions exam, walked briskly to the front of the room. She placed her leather bag on the table at the front and began to speak. The room fell silent.

  “Welcome to Magical Basics. My name is Charlotte, and I will be your instructor. Using magic is a serious matter. Anyone not taking it seriously will be dismissed. Am I understood?”

  The woman’s icy words had a chilling effect on the class. Everyone nodded in unison, not wanting to provide a target to this woman’s wrath.

  “Good. I’ll also remind you that the Dean is currently looking for students to take part in the Chancellor’s new internship. It is an exciting opportunity and one that is available to students at any level—as long as they exhibit potential. I need to make my recommendations before the end of the term, so focus on your work, and you just may succeed.”

  A low murmur filled the room as everyone began to whisper to each other. Apparently, this internship, whatever the hell it was, was a big deal.

  Charlotte scanned the room, and her eyes caught Hannah’s. “One last thing. Most of you know each other, but we had a late admission this term. Deborah, why don’t you stand.”

  Hannah felt her cheeks flush, and she rose slowly from her chair.

  Charlotte continued. “Deborah is joining us from outside the city. Please treat her with respect. Deborah, I’ll remind you that life in the Academy is different from the country. I expect you to obey all rules—for however long you remain a student here.”

  Hannah’s cheeks turned redder, this time from anger. She understood her new professor’s not so veiled threat. The whispering began again, and Hannah took her seat.

  Hannah overheard a hushed voice somewhere behind her. “I heard her admissions exam was really impressive.”

  “Yeah right,” another voice jumped in. “More like her daddy was impressive. That’s the only reason she’s here. But I will say... she’s got a nice—”

  “There will be none of that, Morgan,” Professor Charlotte chastised the student. Hannah turned around and saw the boy who had called to her from the quad. He smiled and waved a hand in her direction. Apparently, he wasn’t done having his fun at her expense. She resisted the urge to once again flip him off.

  “Now,” Charlotte said. “Open your books to page twenty-three, and begin to work the manipulation spell listed there.”

  The class responded quickly, and before long, the room was filled with a busy hum.

  “Manipulation, huh?” Hannah asked Gregory.

  “Yeah,” he said without lifting his eyes from the text. “It says we need to turn this lump of clay into a vase.”

  Gregory left for a moment and returned with a lump of clay on a board. He placed it on the lab table in front of them.

  He shook his head. “This is supposed to be an easy spell, most of the other students learned to do stuff like this before coming here. But I’ve never been able to figure it out.” He looked up at Hannah. “Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m meant to even be here. I’m no good at magic. But my father…”

  “Your father?” Hannah raised her eyebrows, thinking she might be getting somewhere.

  “Yeah,” he said sheepishly. “My dad is Elon.”

  Hannah smiled. “I guess that’s supposed to mean something to me. Remember. New girl, right here.” She pointed to herself. “Assume nothing and speak slowly.”

  He laughed. “Of course. Elon—my dad—is Arcadia’s Chief Engineer. He’s one of the best magicians in the city—worked his way to the top—and now, he oversees magitech development. He answers to Adrien himself. They let me in because of him, and I know people expect big things of me... but…” He opened his hands in the direction of the clay. “Nothing.”

  Hannah poked the moist lump with a finger. “I’m sure they wouldn’t have let you in here if you didn’t have potential. What can you do?” Hannah was trying to be nice, but s
he truly was curious. She knew that most of the nobles learned magic at home. The laws of restriction didn’t really apply to them. But, she wondered how close their training was to her own.”

  “Oh, I can do the basics,” Gregory said. “You know, move it around a little, heat up its surface. That sort of stuff. But I’m lost when trying anything more complex.”

  She nodded along and then interjected. “You know that shaping it is really just moving it, right? I’m sure you can figure it out.”

  “I guess so, but I can’t get the damn thing to take shape.”

  “Show me,” Hannah said.

  Gregory focused on the clay. His eyes flashed black as he twirled his index fingers around each other. The clay rolled, corresponding with his movements. Then he turned his hand over and raised it, palm up. The lump of clay levitated shakily off the table. He made it spin and turn and finally dropped back into place. There was a faint line of sweat on Gregory’s brow.

  Hannah clapped. “Not bad, Gregory. You’ve got all the tools, just need to put the pieces together. Here let me try.”

  She raised her hands over the clay and started making complex motions with her fingers. Gregory’s mouth dropped open as the substance followed Hannah’s lead. Within seconds, Hannah had created a nearly perfect sculpture of Morgan—the douche in the back of the room.

  “Holy shit, you’re good,” Gregory shouted, which drew all eyes in their direction—including Morgan’s.

  It took the boy a second to realize that the clay looked like him. He smiled, flattered at first. But then Hannah closed her fist and made a downward swinging motion. The clay likeness of the boy melted into a pile of what look liked shit. Looking back at Morgan, Hannah smiled and gave him a wink. Several students laughed at Hannah’s insult.

  First day of class, and so much for the low profile.

  “Quiet,” Charlotte shouted over the edge of her book. “Back to work.”

  Gregory’s mouth still hung open. “How the hell did you do that?”

  She shrugged. “Not a big deal. I told you. You already had everything in place to do it yourself. It’s just a matter of getting your head in the right place. Not to mention, I grew up in the country. Wasn’t much to do out there except play with our power. I didn’t have douche nuggets like Morgan or Violet breathing down my neck. Now, let’s see if we can’t help you form a vase or whatever the hell we’re supposed to be doing.”

  ****

  Over the course of the period, she walked Gregory through the spell, the same way Ezekiel had shown her. With her help, he made some progress, and as the class was getting close to its end, he had been able to press the ball of clay into a flat slab with slightly raised edges.

  “Good,” Hannah said. “You’re getting the hang of it. But I think you might be trying too hard. Let’s do this: Try not to think about the task at hand. Let’s just chat instead. Allow the magic to come out of the back of your mind. That might help things.”

  “Um, OK,” Gregory said, confused by the whole proposition. “What should we talk about?”

  “I dunno. Tell me about this internship, or scholarship club, or whatever. Just keeping moving your hands over the clay.”

  Gregory bit on his lip concentrating.

  Hannah jabbed him with her elbow. “Talk. You’re trying too hard with the clay still. Let that all go.”

  He looked up. “OK. Well, the internship was a program that the Chancellor initiated just this term. He’s been recruiting a special team of students who will become, I don’t know, like advanced understudies or something. Apparently, he has already taken several upperclassmen away from their classes at the Academy. But now, he’s looking for younger students.”

  The clay started to change shape as he talked.

  “What do you do if you’re picked?” She asked.

  “Don’t know really. You, well, study with him—or something. When the students are identified, they’re pulled from normal classes to do advanced stuff, I guess. Violet’s older brother was one of Adrien’s first interns, but I haven’t seen him since then—I don’t think even Violet has. Whatever the internship is, it must be keeping them busy.”

  Hannah furrowed her brow. The way Gregory phrased that, it reminded her of something Eleanor said. Parker was too busy to come up from the factory.

  She didn’t know what, but Hannah knew that there was something fishy going on—some connection between Adrien’s internship and Parker’s new job. Her gut was rarely wrong. She committed to finding out more, but for the sake of being above suspicion, she changed the topic.

  “So, why in the world do you want to study magic?”

  Gregory continued to work the clay as they talked. It was starting to take the rough shape of an animal.

  He shrugged. “Seems the right thing to do. I mean, as a noble you don’t have many choices.”

  Hannah couldn’t help but giggle at that. She wondered if he would have said that if he knew that he was talking to a poor girl from the Boulevard. “Tell me about it!”

  “So, I could have gone into government, or maybe tried to start a business, but you know, I think that the opportunity to do good—make people’s lives better—is best through the use of magic. Although at this rate, I won’t be able to help anyone.”

  Hannah scrunched her nose. She knew that he was right, in theory. Over the course of months, she had seen the sheer power of magic and what it could do in the world. She also knew that if Gregory continued on this path, he wouldn’t be making the world better—just life for the nobles, and more so for Adrien. But the sheep had been blinded by the wolves, and Gregory was just walking the path he’d always been taught. Regardless, she knew he was not a bad guy and hoped that maybe little by little she could help him see the error of his perspective.

  “Hey, it’s coming along,” Hannah said pointing at his project. “A goat, right?”

  His face darkened. “A cat…”

  Hannah laughed and Gregory’s red face came back.

  “No biggie. Keep working it.”

  Hannah smiled, pleased to know that she was accomplishing her mission. She had infiltrated the Academy, made a good connection with Gregory and got some information that would prove useful to their work.

  She glanced over her shoulder at Violet.

  Now, if I only kept a low profile.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Alexandra stood in her interrogation room. A few yards away, Parker, her latest subject, hung naked like a side of meat. Sweat, blood, and dirt covered his body, and she could barely recognize the handsome young man who once stood there. She had tortured him to the edge of death, but she was an expert. She knew precisely how far to go and when to pull back.

  “Want me to remove the body?” her assistant asked as he entered the room.

  Alexandra smiled, still taking in the young man’s broken form and admiring her own work. “He’s not dead yet. I still might get something from him.”

  The assistant raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You were in here a while. Maybe he doesn’t have anything for you.”

  “He was impressive, that’s the truth. But you need to remember that everybody has something. I’ll get it out of him yet.”

  The assistant nodded. “Fair enough. You sure he’s still alive? I can’t even see him breathing.”

  “Oh, he’s alive. I made sure of that. Give him until morning, and then we’ll wake him back up for some more fun and games. I want the other workers to hear his screams. Besides, I haven’t even shown the little bastard my best tricks yet. After another round, he’ll give me anything I want and a whole lot more.”