Sometimes—sometimes—he wished he were single.
11
The Pixie Prince
Adara had been enjoying her lunch before the wretched spawn of perfection had appeared. Now her sandwich tasted like manure and even the departure of Kiki hadn’t mollified her mood. She should have been joking with Tray about Kiki’s dramatic breakdown, but instead, she was fighting to swallow her food and ignore her brother’s presence.
“That was Kiki Belven, wasn’t it?” he asked as he watched the blonde storm out of the cafeteria, Seth in tow.
“Unfortunately,” Tray grumbled.
“Huh. She was always pretty mean to you, Adara,” Avner noted as he took the empty chair Seth had previously been occupying.
“Yup,” was her response as she glared at her sandwich.
“I should have figured she has an Affinity, since her sister does,” Avner went on, his nonchalance provoking her to chuck her sandwich to the table; Tray made a disgusted noise when its contents spewed out in a cluttered mess.
“Can you be done talking now?”
Avner’s shrug made her twitch. “For now. We could walk to training together, if you want. The whole school goes. It’s fun, actually—”
“No, thanks.” She lurched out of her chair and yanked Ackerly up with her. “I’ll be walking with my new brother, Greenie.”
“Uh—um, what?” Ackerly stuttered as he wiped a bit of apple juice from his chin.
“Come now,” she snarled as she dragged him away from the table. After giving her real brother and Tray an obscene gesture, she exited the cafeteria with her hand clasped tightly around Ackerly’s forearm.
“Agh—stop.” Ripping his arm from her grasp, he gaped at the fact that she’d left a red mark on his pale skin. Adara registered that the welt was abnormally red and puffy, almost as if he’d been…burned. The dangerous thoughts that she’d tucked away began to resurface, so she was grateful when she noticed someone seated against the outer wall of the Naturals Building, diverting her attention.
“What the hell are you doing, Blood Boy? Where’s your girlfriend?” Hastings’s blood-red eyes trailed up toward her with leisure. Knees hugged against his torso, he had been chewing on his nails rather than food; even when he lowered his fingers from his mouth, though, he didn’t reply. “The mind reader?” Adara clarified with impatient raised eyebrows. “My roommate, the only person you’ll talk to—why aren’t you with her?”
Hastings stood, and in a steady tone, said, “She’s eating lunch with her sister.”
“Right, and you’re being all pathetic because you were hoping the two of you could have a lunch date—is that it?” His jaw shifted slightly, but his mouth didn’t open again. “If you’re not going to go in there and eat like a normal boy, why don’t you walk with us?” she offered, though she didn’t plan to give him a choice. “C’mon—I wanna hear about your conversation with the King.” Hastings snorted through his nostrils and shook his head slightly. “If you don’t tell me now, I’ll torture it out of your girlfriend later,” Adara threatened as she waved her fingers menacingly in the air.
“You’d torture Eliana? Really?” Ackerly questioned with concern. “She’s so innocent, though—”
“Greenie, please,” Adara sighed. “You’re messing with my flow.”
“He’s interested in me because of my past,” Hastings finally said. “Does that surprise you?”
“No,” she answered immediately as she took a step closer to him, “because I’m interested in your past, too. What caused your power, Blood Boy? What is your power?”
Hastings’s face remained neutral. “You wouldn’t want to know.”
“Really? Because I just told you I did—”
“You don’t want to know,” he repeated with more emphasis. They both glowered at each other for a moment before Hastings added, “Where are we walking?”
“Training, whatever the hell that is,” Adara said as she spun around to stalk toward the Physicals Building, where she and Ackerly had been earlier that morning. Other students began to file out of the cafeteria now, all babbling exuberantly about this next “class.”
“We’re probably just going to work on developing our powers,” Ackerly said as he and Hastings walked on either side of Adara. “I don’t know that it’ll work too well for me if we’re indoors, though…”
“Well, Blood Boy, if we’re practicing our powers, it looks like you’ll have to reveal yours,” she mused as her eyebrows jumped at him.
“If I do,” Hastings said darkly, “you’ll be dead and I’ll be in jail.” Even Adara couldn’t think of a sassy retort to that.
Avner had been correct when he’d said the entire school attended the training session. Ackerly didn’t even have to consult his map for them to know where the class was held; they simply followed the crowd packing into the large gymnasium. Every person on campus must have been there—well, except for Angor Periculy. Adara noticed, with disappointment, that he wasn’t standing among the other adults who lined the perimeter of the two-story, white-walled room, watching attentively as the students gathered on the orange mats in the center.
“Hurry, hurry,” Fraco Leve prompted as he ushered students in through the doors. His hand gestures were so exaggerated that Adara swore she got sprayed with oil. “We don’t have time to waste, you insolent children…”
“Oh, Fraco, I was wondering when you’d pop up again,” she greeted slyly. “I heard Kiki Belven’s in need of some hair oil.”
“Desperately in need, Fraco,” a voice added from behind, and Adara swiveled around to see that Tray and Avner had snuck up on her. At first, she thought it was her brother who had spoken, but then she remembered Perfect Avner was too kind-hearted to promote such pranks, which meant it had been Tray encouraging her.
“You’d better get your sister under control, Mr. Stromer,” Fraco advised Avner with his head held high. “She will not do well here if she continues to disrespect me—and neither will you, Mr. Stark, if you don’t start calling me Mr. Leve.”
Tray rolled his eyes, and Adara was sure it was the first time he’d ever sassed an authority figure.
“Already on Fraco’s bad side, huh?” Avner said as they walked deeper into the gymnasium. Adara prepared herself for some self-righteous scolding, but her brother merely added, “Took me about a month to get him to hate me.”
“Wow, I’m so impressed,” Adara droned as the five of them paused on the mats behind a group of girls. Ackerly was too fascinated by the room to hear her sarcasm, but Tray gave her his classic reprimanding look while Hastings gazed around, as if he’d rather not have been there. Avner played it cool, as he had this entire time, but Adara could see the hurt gnawing at his smile and wished she were less observant.
“Well, normally I’d hang around just to spite you,” Avner said, “but I’ve been asked to demonstrate what an advanced Affinity looks like for you primies.”
“What’s, um, your Affinity?” Ackerly inquired timidly.
“You’ll see.” After shooting his sister a wink, Avner shifted through the crowd to join his elderly girlfriend, Zeela, where she chatted with Eliana.
“Your brother seems nice,” Ackerly commented.
“He’s not.”
“Who’s he with?” Tray asked, studying Zeela from a distance. She wore sunglasses again today, and in her white t-shirt and wine-colored cargo pants, she did look very similar to Eliana.
“The mind reader’s sister, who is, of course, his girlfriend,” Adara grumbled, watching the three converse with eyes full of hate. “She’s blind and probably, like, a hundred years old—”
“Avner’s girlfriend is blind?” Tray repeated as his blue eyes widened. “That’s fascinating. What’s her Affinity?”
“Being blind. Who knows?” Adara huffed, crossing her arms. Her grumpiness mitigated only when Fraco began shouting to hush the crowd.
“Quiet, quiet! Silence, everyone!” he exclaimed from where he stood next to
Devil-Red. The fact that everyone disregarded him should have satisfied Adara, but instead it unfurled an impish idea in her mind. “Stop talking! Stop talk—”
“OH MY GOD!” Adara screamed as she pointed toward the doors, which were now closed due to the fact that everyone had entered. “WACKOS!”
All noise evaporated from the room as everyone looked between Adara and the doors, gawking in confusion. Relaxing, she turned to Fraco with raised eyebrows. “You’re welcome, Piece of Grease.”
“You’re from Greece, too?” Than, the history teacher, gasped from the other side of the room. “Why have you not told me, Mr. Lever?”
“It is Mr. Leve, Dr. Floros, and I believe Stromer was referring to my…predicament rather than my origin,” Fraco informed him uncomfortably as he ran his oily hand over his equally oily hair. “Now, primaries, training is a structured time during which you will each work on discovering or developing your Affinity. The teachers are all here to aid you—especially those of you who have been too ignorant to realize your Affinity. Once you know what your ability is, you may, within reason, practice with your peers, if the ability permits. For today, you will spend your time watching the older students demonstrate their own Affinities.”
Relief blossomed in Adara’s chest, but she hid it with a bored expression. She didn’t want to practice her Affinity because she didn’t know what it was—and she didn’t want to confirm her suspicions as to what it might be.
“You will have time to walk around and ask questions,” Fraco assured them, “but first, a quaternary student will come forward and display his Affinity so you all can feel as meager and pathetic as you really are. Stromer?”
Adara’s mouth settled into a frown as her brother strolled to the edge of the orange mats. Fraco shooed the students away with his hands, and everyone complied due to the fact that he was unintentionally spraying them with his excessive body secretion.
“This is Avner Stromer, everyone,” Aethelred introduced, clapping an affectionate hand on Avner’s shoulder. “Adara Stromer is his sister.”
Eyes fell toward Adara; some were friendly, some indifferent, and some adverse—particularly a pair of cold, gray ones. Adara knew she should have spotted him in the crowd before—Nero was easily the most massive person in the room. His tall but dainty girlfriend stood at his side, toying with the belt loop on her green cargo pants rather than staring at Adara. In the bright light of the gymnasium, Adara realized the girl’s hair was a bottomless ocean blue—almost exactly like Eliana’s—and she had again pinned it up in odd curls, twists, and braids. Her boyfriend was not so preoccupied by his pants, which were the dark orange of the Physicals; his steel gaze was trained on Adara as his lips inched into a sinister smirk.
His intimidation was futile; his desire for animosity only fueled her amusement. Instead of challenging him with a smirk of her own, she turned her attention away from him and stated, in reference to Aethelred’s comment, “Clearly, I’m the favorite Stromer.”
“Whose favorite?” Tray demanded in outrage, but she didn’t get the chance to answer before Aethelred spoke again.
“Avner, if you would please show us what a finely-harnessed Affinity is capable of,” the man prompted as he took a graceful step to the side.
With an irritatingly humble nod, Avner rubbed his hands together and then raised them both to face level. While the older kids all yawned and gazed around disinterestedly, the primaries ogled him with anticipation. The only reason Adara didn’t roll her eyes was because she was actually a tiny bit intrigued. He must have sensed it, since he cast her a cocky grin just before a bolt of electricity surged out of his hands and into the light switch on the wall.
The windowless gymnasium plunged into blackness, instantly evoking a shriek from Kiki somewhere on the other side of the room. Adara would have cackled if she weren’t so utterly astonished. Frantic whispers filled the air, but when another beam of lightning cut through the darkness and recharged the lights, silence ensued; Seth was the one to sever it.
“Lightning? You have lightning power?” His eyes were wide with excitement, but Kiki still whimpered on his arm.
“Lightning, electricity, whatever you wanna call it—”
“You primies are so ignorant,” Nero’s voice jeered above Avner’s. With his broad shoulders, he shoved through the crowd until he stood at the center of the mats. “You think that is the coolest Affinity? Stromer, why don’t you come over here, so I can demonstrate what a superior Affinity looks like?”
Adara had puffed up her chest and was ready to go over and challenge him, but his glare was not on her. He was provoking Avner.
“Relax, Nero. This isn’t a competition—”
“It most certainly is not!” Fraco agreed as he hurried toward Nero. “We will not be having any fights—certainly not today. This session is simply to show the primaries what your Affinities are.”
“Yeah, and I’m gonna show them—by crushing Stromer’s lemon head,” Nero threatened with a maniacal grin. “Wouldn’t be the first time I made lemon juice.”
“Lemonade,” his girlfriend corrected as she fixed a few of her blue braids.
Ignoring her, Nero stepped forward to tower over Fraco, who instinctively staggered back.
“Mr. Corvis, we will not have any problems today,” Fraco instructed, but his voice wavered. “Why don’t you observe with all of the primaries while—while the other students show off their abilities? Perhaps when you have more self-control—”
Nero, seemingly, did not even have the self-control to listen to Fraco’s rant, because by now he had drawn his muscle-laden arms over his head in a collective fist and was ready to smack down on the little man’s greasy head. A few of the teachers had moved to intervene, but ultimately it was Avner who held up his finger and zapped Nero’s hands with a small spark.
Arms convulsing, the massive tertiary wobbled backward, stabilized only by his girlfriend’s slender hands. Once he’d regained control of his extremities, he swatted her away and fixed his bull-like glower on Avner. “Stromer—”
“Corvis!” Fraco wailed as he tried to grab Nero’s oversized forearm. His finger slipped right over the skin, though, and Adara snorted into her hand. “Corvis, do not make me call Mr. Periculy!”
The boy halted, his entire body going rigid as a hint of fear flickered across his face. “Next time, Stromer,” he said tautly before retreating back to his girlfriend’s side.
Emitting the same sort of chuckles Adara had been withholding, Devil-Red said, “Well, Fraco, now it seems the primaries know what really ends up happening during training.”
“Don’t tell me what it seems like!” Fraco snipped. “And call me Mr. Leve! Now…all students besides primaries and Mr. Corvis may perform small and safe demonstrations of their powers around the room. Primaries, you may walk around to observe and inquire. Corvis, you must go sit in the bleachers and be silent.”
Even across the gymnasium, Adara could hear Nero growling as he plowed through the crowd toward the orange bleachers that lined the wall. When passing Avner, he made a point to shove him, but no one seemed to notice because a horde of enthusiastic primaries now crowded the yellow-haired freak. Adara only saw it since she was one of those primaries, though she was far from enthusiastic.
“What the hell?” she questioned and she slammed others out of the way. They were all begging for Avner to turn off the lights again as Adara struggled to berate him. “What was that?”
“All right, all right. Step away, children—he’s taken,” Zeela commanded as she parted the crowd. At the sight of her white hair and now-uncovered eyes, they all scampered away; even Adara, at first, had a hard time forming words when she saw their chilling whiteness. They were not glossed-over irises like normal blind eyes but like two little ping-pong balls that had been inserted into her eye sockets.
“What the hell do you do?” Adara demanded. “Do you scare people away with your freaky eyes?”
“Apparently not well e
nough, since you’re still here,” Zeela said as she raised her eyebrows. Even though she had no pupils, it seemed as though she were looking at Adara.
“Avner—”
“She was born blind,” he began hastily—and wisely, since Adara was ready to explode. “Her Affinity compensated, though, and gave her sight—just not normal sight. She can see in heat vision, X-ray vision…um, some kind of colors—”
“Auras,” Zeela said as her white eyeballs roved over Adara. “Yours, I’ve noticed so far, is generally red: anger.”
Adara groaned as she threw her head back. “Why did you have to pick the weirdest girl in this school?”
“She’s pretty normal for a blind girl.” As Avner shrugged, Zeela playfully elbowed him in the gut. Adara definitely would have used more force.
“I’m gonna go scare some more primies,” she informed them with a crooked smirk. “Any suggestions?”
“Kiki Belven,” Adara answered instantly. “Blonde bitch—hard to miss. She’s probably got some pink aura of superiority or something.”
“Orla’s…sister?”
“Yeah,” Avner confirmed, coughing uncomfortably as he glanced away.
“Huh.” Zeela eyed her boyfriend suspiciously. “Let’s hope, for everyone’s sake, that this younger Belven doesn’t have the same Affinity as her sister.”
With a jump of her white eyebrows, Zeela sauntered off, leaving Adara to chastise Avner alone.
“Do you mind explaining to me what the hell just happened with Nero?”
“What—how I electrocuted him? He was gonna pummel Fraco, and I know you wanted to see it, but—”
“No—no—I mean your rivalry,” Adara emphasized, stealing a brief glance at Nero, who glared at the two of them from where he sat alone on the bleachers.
“I mean, I guess you could call it a rivalry,” Avner said vaguely. “Nero came here a year after me. He was unstable—”
Blood: An Affinities Novel (The Affinities Book 1) Page 14