by Bob Dattolo
I nodded, feeling the pain of things shifting. “Four places.”
“Then why the fuck aren’t you in the hospital? Don’t you need surgery for damage like that?” Gage, again.
“Normally, yeah? I heal quickly, though. I’m 18, so they couldn’t force me to go.”
My dragon ally paced back and forth, then stopped, “There aren’t even any dragons that can heal that kind of damage quickly enough to not still be broken when Alison gets here on Friday.”
Parece looked me over again, “I have a feeling she can.”
Every eye looked to her, including mine. “Why do you say that?” Sincere curiosity from Angelica.
Parece shifted to me again, lost in thought. “I won’t say what I’ve seen or figured out, but…I’ve seen enough. She’s done some crazy things since getting here, so much of which seems to contradict other things. She suffered through gym, taking the focus from Coach enough that only she was being hit with spells and all of that. When normally she does it to everyone that’s too slow in the runs. She’s going out of her way to keep the strongest focused on her in our class. Even making it obvious with Alison that she was there. She’s confident. Then she’s not. Yet when she’s not? Two people have died. One died a few hours ago. An adult. Yet she doesn’t smell like sweat. Or enough fear to account for what happened. I can honestly say that I’d smell more like fear than she does if I was being attacked by those balls hitting hard enough to break my skull. I don’t think I could have done magic through that kind of pain to stop her, and shifting?”
Angelica sat again, “She could have killed us during a shift.”
“But she didn’t do anything! She just ran up and grabbed at her, begging her to stop, and Coach lost control of everything and killed herself.” Gage sounds so sure of himself.
Angelica tilted her head at the same time Parece did, “You’re right, Parece. That’s such an odd coincidence.”
Everyone froze as I struggled to sit forward, “Parece? Or someone? Can you help me get up?”
“Maddie? Sweetie? Didn’t you say that you had a broken knee? And broken bones in your feet?”
“Yeah? I do. Both feet. I still want to get up, though. Help me get to the mirror? In here or the bathroom is fine with me?”
Shared looks among them before Angelica got up again. “I’m not sure I agree with this, but okay.” She pushed the chair back and helped me stand, then it became a bit of a pain-filled nightmare to get into the bathroom to the full-length mirror. “Now what?”
That started a struggle as I tried to get my shirt off. She gave in and helped, pulling it off and revealing a huge swath of bandages. My shorts came next. My bra and underwear were removed in the infirmary, so I have them out in the room already.
None of them wanted to help me remove the bandages, so I struggled through that as much as I could, revealing more and more skin that looks like I spent a few hours in a rock crusher. The bruises are massive, jet black in most cases, and look deep.
Kynal had tears in his eyes as I got the last bandage off. You can see where my collar bone is broken, but you can’t really see the other breaks. “What the fuck? Why would she do this to you?”
No one saw my broken teeth as I smiled at him, “Why? Because I’m stricken. According to people here, I deserve this just because I exist.” My power built as I started to release some of my controls, keeping my hair from lighting up at all. “I plan on using that single-minded stupidity to ram it down people’s throats.” My magic swarmed out and wrapped me, making me grunt as it settled in.
“I don’t understand, how’re you gonna heal fro…” Angelica’s mouth fell open as my collar bone shifted with a grinding click and then popped back out. My skull made the same kind of grinding sounds, and dents that weren’t really visible before became obvious when the bone adjusted itself. My knee made a horrific sound as it adjusted, allowing me to put weight on it. In comparison, the shifting bones in my feet and hands was nothing.
The healing continued as I smiled, then spit the shattered remnants of the broken and cracked teeth into the sink, watching the new teeth grow in in my reflection. Then the magic dove inside and started adjusting other bones that were cracked or broken and didn’t really appear on the scans. I also felt it hit my kidneys and some other places inside. The pain from the bruises faded to maybe 20 percent of what I had been feeling, but the bruises themselves remained as I took a deep breath. Huh, I hadn’t even noticed the ribs healing. It was more work to stop the healing from continuing. I want the bruises to remain for now.
“There. So much better.”
Gage’s eyes were stuck on the teeth in the sink as he nearly whispered, “What the actual fuck was that?”
“That’s fucking im-poss-ible.” Angelica touched the side of my head where I felt the worst of the broken bone heal. “No one heals like that. That’s…that’s…what the fuck was that?”
Kynal leaned against the wall, looking like he wants to slide down it, “You know? I have to say that I agree with Gage and Angelica on this. What the fuck was that? How did you do that? Any of that?”
Parece touched my collar bone, “See now, that’s not the right question. None of those are. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good questions. But I think the three of you are overlooking a better one.”
“I don’t get it, what could be better than what the fuck was that?” Angelica touched my head again.
Parece smiled, “The better question is If she could heal those broken bones like it’s nothing, why didn’t the bruises heal?”
Dammit, Parece. That’s just mean. “Seriously?”
She smiled at my question, “What? You damn well know they would have hit on that at some point.”
“Maybe not now, though!”
Angelica poked my chest, where there’s a huge bruise that looks like it belongs on a dead person. “What the fuck.” She poked some other spots, “It’s like…it’s like none of this even remotely hurts you.” She stepped back, looking me over, “She has a good point. That’s a very good question. We dragons heal well, but we heal across the board even when we focus on the worst injuries first. But we still can’t heal like you did. None of that. And everything still hurts just like it normally would. So how the fuck could you do that? You healed broken bones in like 30 seconds. You didn’t react at all to me poking you…poking bruises that should have at least had you pull away.”
“Don’t forget not smelling like sweat.”
“Dammit, Parece!”
“I know, right?” She smiled at my new glare.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
She rolled her hand, as if trying to keep me talking, “None of us hear anything explaining how you did any of that.”
“Why would I tell you? You’re on Samantha’s side!”
Her expression didn’t change, “And yet I haven’t told her anything that I’ve seen and picked up from you.”
“Dammit, true.”
“Seriously, Maddie? How did you do any of that?” Angelica’s honest question and expression twisted things just enough that I motioned everyone back into our room. I didn’t hear Riley or Paige in their rooms, so I didn’t worry about them as I sat in my desk chair.
“Umm, don’t get me wrong. I love the show and all. But you’re kinda buck ass naked?”
Oh, huh. “Fine. Hold on. I need to take a shower, so I’ll cover the goods.” I slipped back into the same shirt and shorts from before. Neither of the girls acted like I did anything weird, but they’re dragons. I’m not sure they really caught it as a thing at all.
“Fine. Tits are away. Now, pick a topic and run with it. How did you do any of that?” Angelica held up her hand, stopping me. “You don’t have to tell us everything, but you gotta give us something.”
Parece smiled again as I looked her way, “It’s okay, man, you got this.”
“Are you serious? Lego Movie?”
“Just keep talking. Ignore her for now.” Angelica is done.<
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“Umm, fine. To start, though? I can’t tell you everything. I don’t know it. There are definitely things that I won’t be telling you or sharing. Some I’m just not sure about, but others…I don’t want to get out there.”
“Good set up. Now spike the fucking ball!”
Ignore Angelica, Maddie. Ignore her. “To start? The sweat thing? How you guys didn’t really smell sweat at all?”
“Yeah? You looked like shit. I swear I’m not sure how you didn’t pass out from dehydration.” Gage’s eyes roamed across me, as if expecting me to be sweating again.
“It’s simple. I’m not nearly as weak as I pretend to be.”
Kynal’s head tilted to the side, “I don’t get it. We all saw you run. We all saw you do jumping jacks. Barely. All of that.”
“You saw what I wanted everyone to see. I wasn’t even remotely tired from the run. None of the exercises were a strain. In the slightest. Parece mentioned something the other day about it all. How I was crying and sweating but didn’t smell like sweat or tears.” Angelica’s eyes widened. “She didn’t mention that this time, either.”
She sniffed, “You smelled a little like tears, though?”
“I did. Those balls hurt like a bitch. Prior to that, though? Up until the balls started tearing into me, I was acting. Pretending. Like you sort of figured out the other day.”
“Why would you do that, though? You were getting hit with agony just for, what, the hell of it?”
“Honestly? I’ve had cramps worse than the spell she’d been hitting me with. On Friday? Her focusing on me meant that she didn’t hit anyone else with it. The spell was supposed to really hurt people, but it didn’t do much to me. It was harder to look that weak than the pain hurt, if that makes sense. Trying to look so freaking uncoordinated that I can’t do five jumping jacks in a row without fucking them up is hard work.”
“Oh my fucking God, you were pretending?” Kynal’s eyes light up with what I think is pride.
“Pretty much. Start to finish. Today? I let her do her thing and would have continued with letting her do it, but she decided to step it up. She came too close to me losing an eye, in that it didn’t happen only due to pure luck, so I decided to share some of the pain with her. As for the sweat? I wasn’t sweaty, even though I looked it.”
“Then what was the whole sweat flying thing? If that wasn’t sweat, what was it?”
Hmm, “Condensation, basically? It was on me and looked like sweat, but it didn’t come from me.” I vaguely indicated the air, “It came from the air. It was all an act. As for the healing? How did I heal the bones but not the bruises? I’m still not sure how I can do what I can do, but I could have healed while she was hitting me, at least in the beginning before she started hitting me faster. I can heal the bruises if I want to. I just don’t want to. People expect me to be bruised. So I healed the broken bones, which most of them probably don’t buy anyway, so that I can move around without the pain. The bruises? The injuries are healed, which is why I didn’t pull away. Or, they’re mostly healed. At a guess, I’m feeling a fraction of what I should be feeling. I wanted the colors to remain in place for a while.”
“Why, though? In as much as that should be impossible, why would you want them to stay like that?” Another honest question from Kynal.
“Why? Because people won’t see me. They’ll see the pathetic stricken. Samantha is questioning everything because of what I said to her. She’ll more than likely come down thinking that there’s no way I’d ever win against her, but that’ll take her at least a day to do it. Could she have challenged me? She could have. Would I have won? I won’t guarantee it, but I think so. She is underestimating me. Everyone is. No one beyond this room has any clue. Almost no one would believe the workout I did Sunday morning. That’s why I did it when no one could see me.”
Parece frowned, “You said you’re stronger than anyone would think, but how is that? You’re a mage?”
“We don’t know that for a fact, although I seem to be. I have no idea why I’m as strong as I am. But you have to remember. I belonged to a violent earth dragon for more than four years. He treated me really well, especially compared to many of his friends, but he wasn’t gentle like a human or a mage would be. One couple that were friends of his would come in periodically, and it wasn’t rare for me to barely be able to walk for weeks and to not be recovered for a month. I was property. I was also blind and powerless. That meant that the only thing I had was myself. My body. What I could touch. With no TV to watch or anything like that, I was hard-up for things to do. So I’d exercise. For hours a day. Always hiding it so that he never really knew just how strong I was becoming. He knew I was in shape and I told him I was doing it for him since he liked that, but what I meant was that I was doing it for him. So that when I decided to break free, I’d be able to kill him and get away. Now, did I really think that would be likely? Not entirely. I was blind. Until I wasn’t any longer, I didn’t really have any confidence that I could get away.”
I let that sink in before waving around the room, “Then I come here. People hate me on sight, even my roommate. So why should I show people what I can do?”
Frowns from my allies. “I don’t get it, you said that you didn’t know magic when you got here? Are you saying you do?”
Parece looks happy at Angelica’s question. Probably because she wants to ask but doesn’t want to give anything away. “When I got here? I didn’t know shit about magic or how to do it. I tried with the police again and again and again. Countless times. I could barely get it to move at all. I could feel it, but not get it to do anything at all or move much on command.”
“But you’re saying you can do it now?”
Hmm, “Yes.”
Stunned silence. Parece smiled coyly at my response. “And yet you hide that, too?”
“Yes.”
“Can…can you cast the light spell? You’ve been in classes two days, and you haven’t been able to get so much as a flicker.” Gage’s voice is filled with confused wonder.
“I can.” Another flat admission caused a larger stir.
“I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t you just do it in class? Why hide it unless it’s weak?” Kynal shrugged as Parece looked at him, “What, they’re valid questions.”
“They are, but I think her answer will be the same. She’s new to magic, so people assume she can’t do anything at all. If she keeps up that impression, no one will think that she can use magic to fight them off. Throw in being weak and uncoordinated?”
Angelica’s head whipped back to me, “Oh my fucking God!”
“Uhh…what?” She smells shocked and excited.
“You…You…Colin…you didn’t win by accident!”
Oh, huh…crap!
She barked a laugh, “You fucking bitch! You magnificent sneaky motherfucker!”
“Umm, I don’t get it?”
She hit Kynal’s leg, “Don’t you get it? She told us that she’s stronger than any of us know. Yet we saw that fight. That means that all that ridiculous slapping garbage? None of that was real!”
“Are you kidding me? None of that was real?”
Damn, he’s so good looking, “No. None of that was real. If I walked in there and won, people might start thinking of me as a threat. I don’t want that. I just want to graduate and get the fuck out of here. If we went through the next three years with no more deaths and no one being double crossed and drained, I’d be a happy girl. So, I deliberately made it look pitiful. The crying. The screaming. The slapping. The heroic yet pitiful pushing myself up again and again after being hurt by him.”
“Oh my God, that is sneaky!”
“So, yeah, me winning that wasn’t luck. Hell, you all saw me manipulate him into not immediately attacking with magic. I had just learned the night before how to cast light and some other things, so I wanted to make sure he didn’t come in and hit me with something so debilitating that he’d win from the get-go.”
That got laugh
ter from them. “What the fuck?” Angelica laughed again, “You really…that was done on purpose?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s so fucked up. I can’t believe you did that! And that it worked!”
“How else is a huge guy going to react when I kept telling him I’m gonna kill you with my bare hands!” I went for pitiful. “Especially when I said it in gym to him while suffering during the run.” More laughter.
Angelica recovered first, “I don’t get it, though. You said you learned light the night before along with some other spells. What else did you learn?”
Umm, “That’s part of what I’d rather not say.”
“Okay, I guess I can see that. But…if you learned anything, why didn’t you use it during your fight?”
Parece shifted in her seat, “I think that’s just it. I think she did use at least one spell.”
“Umm, no? I mean, we were all there. I didn’t see her try to do any spells at all?” Gage’s confidence gets weaker as he stops talking.
“Did we not see? Or did we not really understand what we were seeing?” She sits forward a little, “We saw it. Smacks and smacks and him hitting her down again and again. Then she jumps on his back, conveniently trapping his arms under her legs. Do you remember that?”
“Umm, yeah?” Kynal looks like he expects to see what happened written on me somewhere.
“Yeah, I mean, we were there? She jumped on him and began hitting him in the back of the head?” Angelica purses her lips, “What do you think we missed?”
“What I think we missed is that just after she jumped on him, he yelled. Not the one from shock at her doing it, but from pain. She was slapping the shit out of the back of his head, but he yelled from pain. I think there was a spell in there that we somehow missed.”