When it was my turn, Castle’s face gave nothing away. But I noticed his body tensing as if ready to run. I bent my knees and lowered my center of gravity. Whatever he was going to throw at me, I’d be ready.
Just before he attacked, he smirked. That was the only warning I got. Then a stream of fire spouted from his fingers, aimed directly at my face. The noise level in the hall went through the roof. I didn’t have time to think. Dropping to the ground, I dived underneath the column and flung my hands up. Wrapping a sheet of water around me, I cowered on the gym floor and waited for the inferno to be over. My head tucked in, I prayed the layer of water between me and the fire would protect me. It didn’t.
My water cocoon grew hotter and damper until I felt like my skin was boiling off my flesh. Then the fire disappeared as quickly as it had attacked me. Instead, a whoosh of ice-cold water washed over me, cooling my skin, and drenching my clothes at the same time.
When I lifted my head, Castle stood over me. “If that had been a real fight, you’d be dead. I’ll pass you because you showed good command over your water power.”
As I struggled back to my feet, Castle turned away and addressed the class. “Never ever try to defend against fire with water. You saw what happened. If I’d continued any longer, Amber would have been boiled like a lobster. Instead, she just looks like one.”
Awkward laughter followed his lame joke. I glared at the back of his head. I wasn’t going to cry, but man, did that guy piss me off. Luke was right. He was a douchebag.
“So what should we use?” asked one of the boys.
“The only effective defense against a fire attack is an earth wall. Fire mages can only maintain a strong blast for a few seconds before they need to recover. That’s your chance. Wait until there’s a break in the attack and whack them with a weapon of your choice. But you need to be strategic. Fire users know that their recuperation time is when they’re most vulnerable. So they may try to trick you.”
What the hell? It sounded like he’d been in battle against other magic users before. Suddenly I looked at him through a different lens. Maybe his lessons were more important to us than we realized.
The last candidate was a timid kid who looked about twelve. Castle threw a water attack at him. “Use your water power to block my attack,” he shouted over the loud roar of the column of water building up in front of him. The student panicked instead and threw his primary earth power at Castle.
When a truckload of dirt mixed with the teacher’s water funnel came crashing towards Castle, the man lost his composure and tried to run. We were watching the disaster unfold in slow motion. Seeing the burly gym teacher engulfed by a mud avalanche was too much.
Tears running down our faces, we held onto each other, howling with laughter. Every time I tried to gain my composure, one look at the sodden brown mess that was our PE teacher set me off again. Talk about poetic justice.
Some boys pulled Castle to safety and helped him wipe his eyes and mouth. Then the unfortunate student asked timidly, “Did I pass?” and we lost it again. To be fair, he had bested the teacher. But I knew from the dirty look Castle threw at the kid, he would make him pay somehow.
Elemental 101 was different. The subject required a practical exam as well as a written one. I wasn’t worried about the theory. At my last school, lessons had been incredibly boring. Half the time I couldn’t have cared less, and my grades had reflected my attitude. But here, studying came easily to me. Beth had laughed at me when I read my Theoretical Handbook of Elemental Magic before going to sleep.
“Is school all day long not enough for you?”
I’d shrugged and turned the next page. Everything I read and learned was new and exciting. Sue me. But the practical exercises were much harder. I never knew in advance what was expected of us. Hopefully the exam only tested variations of what we were doing every day in class.
I was so in love with my new-found control over the lightning, I’d had to force myself not to neglect the other elements. Manipulating water, air, fire, and earth just wasn’t as exciting as playing with one billion volts of electricity.
But Mrs. Palmer had been pushing us lately. More advanced exercises required us to pull all the elements together. And that was difficult. Climate magic, in particular, was impossible. I’d read that to control the weather, you’d have to master temperature variations precisely to create updrafts, control the moisture content of the air to make clouds, and manipulate air currents.
On exam day, I woke up at five in the morning. Normally, Slug would have jumped on my tummy or yowled for food. It’d been ten days exactly since he’d been poisoned, and I still hadn’t got used to waking up without the annoying feline in my face.
This morning in particular, I would have appreciated snuggling his furry butt before getting ready for the day ahead. Instead, I pulled myself together, focusing on the excitement building when I thought of the tests.
I showered and went for a walk to calm myself down. At this hour, the campus would have been empty on a regular morning. Today, quite a few kids were moving around, deep in thought, their faces worried. Exam stress was no joke. I hope Julian and Kiernan are going to do okay.
When it was time, Mrs. Palmer called us one by one. My first challenge was to create a rainbow against the classroom wall. All I had to do was produce a mist of water droplets and maneuver them so they caught the light streaming through a window.
My second was to conjure flames on my fingertips. After the dampeners had been properly attuned to my energy signature, I’d had no problems with that exercise. I shook my hand, and whoosh, five perfect orange flames dancing at the hand of my fingers.
The third test was the hardest. Outside, each of us received a traditional kite made of wooden struts and colored paper. We held them in our hands, wondering what to do with them on a perfectly still day. The kids next to me laughed and joked as they compared the size and colors of their contraptions.
Then Mrs. Palmer gave us instructions. "I want you to fly your kite as high as the string allows. You get extra points if you block the wind so that your kite stays up, but others fall. This requires you to produce and manipulate several air currents at the same time. Good luck, class."
I’d never flown a kite in my life, but I remembered physics. What made a kite fly wasn’t the wind lifting the kite, but a faster air current flowing along the underside of the paper shape. All while keeping the string tight.
At first, it seemed impossible. I concentrated hard to get the air molecules to move and get a breeze going. Next to me, students cursed their kites as they went up a few feet and tumbled down again.
Luke’s face turned bright-red with anger. At one stage, he threw his kite into the air and flailed with both hands to get the damn thing to rise. When it fell back on his head, we howled with laughter.
Mrs. Palmer had to calm us down before we were able to concentrate on our own exam task. Pretty soon, however, several of us managed to get our kites into the air and keep them there.
My kite was bright-yellow, which made it difficult to see against the sun. I turned my back towards the blinding rays and finally focused enough to push it higher and higher.
Just below mine, Luke’s red kite was rising as well. By pure accident, I maneuvered myself to cut off the air stream to his kite. As it tumbled from the sky yet again, he became apoplectic. The air turned blue around him, while we were in stitches again.
Mrs. Palmer allowed us to get it out of our systems. Luke eventually joined in with our laughter, especially after Beth hugged him, and their girlfriend dropped a kiss on his cheek. Luke’s face turned even redder, but he didn’t protest. Instead, a shy smile appeared on his face.
“For goodness’ sake. You’re in the middle of an exam. Can you stop acting like children and focus on your task so I can go home any time soon?”
Mrs. Palmer sounded both irritated and amused. Her reminder worked like cold water on those of us who hadn’t calmed down by ourselves.
Actually, once I’d gotten my focus back and figured out the physics, it became easier and easier to drop my classmates’ kites out of the sky. Eventually, there were only Julian's and mine left, flying next to each other.
No matter how much I tried to maneuver mine into the correct position, Julian evaded at the last minute. Our kites danced in the sky, swooping, diving, attacking each other. Students were surrounding us, laughing, clapping, and cheering us on. Somebody shouted, "Hey, Amber, why don't you zap him?"
I turned around to see who’d said that. That split-second of inattention was enough for Julian to gain the upper hand. Before I could react, my string slackened, and my kite tumbled from the sky, hitting the ground with a resounding thud.
Mrs. Palmer said dryly, "Well, I suppose that makes Julian the winner. I should have known this would turn into a competition. At least you gave us some good entertainment. Well done, everybody, the individual part of the exams is over."
We exploded into cheers and applause. We were so close to being done with our finals. Only the presentations of our joint projects left to go.
We were given a half hour until then. I waved at Julian before picking up my broken kite to dispose of it. Julian’s gaze followed me as I rushed towards the library. He was headed to the same location, but walked slower while chatting to some friends.
Kiernan was waiting outside the building for a final run-through. He seemed just as nervous about our presentation as I was, pacing up and down outside the library’s front door. I smiled in greeting and was about to enter the library when he took my hand.
Oh, crap. Now what? I actually really, really wanted him to touch me, to hold my hand. But Julian was watching us. And a half hour before our finals was the worst timing to have a discussion about this. It would simply have to wait. But when I pulled my hand back, Kiernan stared at me, the hurt evident in his eyes. "Did I do something to upset you?"
I shook my head and took the lead, entering the building and walking towards our usual table. Kiernan followed me, but I knew he wouldn’t drop it. Not with the way he stared at me. "Please, Amber. What’s wrong?”
Shit. I needed to come clean with him. But the very thought made my heart beat faster and my cheeks blush. I sighed heavily. "Look, I think Julian and I are together. We kissed a couple of nights ago, but we haven't talked about making it official yet."
The relief in his eyes was evident, although it confused the hell out of me. Why wasn’t he upset? I frowned, waiting for him to say something. When he did, I nearly fell over.
"Is that all? Of course, you didn't grow up in the magic-born community. Polyamorous relationships are very common. We are drawn to powerful magic users. It doesn't matter if they are male or female. And we don’t mind sharing. My mom has two husbands, and they’re still going strong after thirty years together. Talk to Julian. If he's up for it, I don't mind if you date both of us."
My eyes had grown wider and wider as I listened to him. Was this possible? He was so damn attractive, funny, and caring, and I felt nearly as strongly for him as I did for Julian. Could I really have my cake and eat it?
A broad grin broke across my face. "Yes. I would love that."
27
I can have both of them. No way. But he just said I could. But how…?
My mind was churning while Kiernan waited for me to say something. Eventually he nudged me. “Come on. I can see there’s something on your mind. Spit it out.”
I swallowed. This was awkward. “So… Are you absolutely sure you wouldn’t get jealous of Julian if we tried this?”
He laughed. “Absolutely. We get on great.”
“I’m just finding it really hard to wrap my head around this.”
“Seriously, it’s no big deal. We’ll play it by ear, okay?”
I nodded. Kiernan bent across the table and brushed my hair back. Then he murmured into my ear, “You’re a great kisser, by the way. Better than Julian.”
My mouth dropped open, and he burst out laughing. Bastard. How was I supposed to concentrate now? Totally unfair. But, oh, so exciting at the same time. Visions of the two boys kissing swam through my mind.
“Stop smiling, you little pervert.” Kiernan winked as if he knew what I was thinking. I bit my lip, trying my hardest to straighten my face.
“Twenty-five minutes until the exam. Time’s a-wasting,” he sing-songed. That helped. We ran through our presentation twice until we were as prepared as we’d ever be. By the time we made it back, a large crowd of students was already waiting outside the school building, fidgeting and stepping from foot to foot. Mrs. Palmer hadn't arrived yet, but Julian was there with Luke, and Beth with Kenzy.
Beth waved, jumping up and down with excitement, while Julian nodded politely at Kiernan. I would have to speak to Julian after the exam was over. Absentmindedly, I rubbed my sweaty palms on my jeans. Kiernan had been adamant it wouldn't be a big deal, but how could he be so sure?
Maybe Julian wouldn't be okay with this. Then what would I do? Now that Kiernan had dangled the possibility of dating both guys in front of me, I wanted this. Badly. I’d never be able to choose between the two boys.
Sighing, I put that train of thought on hold. I had to focus on the exam. But when I looked for Kiernan, he was standing near Julian, making it easy to compare the two as I watched them appreciatively. Julian was nearly a head taller than Kiernan, and his black hair provided a striking contrast to Kiernan's blond head.
One was tanned, the other pale—they were different in every possible aspect. Night and day, light and shade. Kiernan was broad in the shoulders, with narrow hips, and far heavier muscled than Julian. Julian in contrast was tall, with the light elegance of a dancer.
"Can't make up your mind?"
I whirled around, feeling guilty at having been caught. Beth grinned as my ears turned hot.
"You know, it's quite common among magic-born to have two—"
“Two boyfriends, I know. And good thing, too, because I wouldn't be able to choose between the two of them."
Beth laughed out loud as I grinned, pleased at having made her crack up. It was nice having a female friend to joke with about these things. I'd never had this, not even at home. At school I’d been a loner, the introvert geeky girl nobody had any use for. I hadn’t been bullied, but I hadn’t had many friends, either. The few friendships I’d had had been superficial. I didn’t miss them nearly as much as I thought I would when I first got here.
"Sorry for running late. Something came up that I had to deal with." Mrs. Palmer sounded out of breath as she stopped in front of the student body. There was a suspicious dark stain next to her lips—evidence the “unavoidable” matter might have been a chocolate-based dessert. I wasn't the only one to chuckle. Mrs. Palmer was liked by all of us, and we didn't mind her little white lie.
The first students to step up were Julian and Luke. Julian's biggest talent was water magic, and Luke's fire. I was looking forward to seeing what they’d come up with. They carried a large bag between them. While we waited with bated breath, they pulled out a blimp shaped like a hot air balloon, complete with a tiny basket. Luke hammered a metal tent peg into the ground and secured the bottom of the blimp to it.
Mrs. Palmer watched with interest as the boys next constructed a contraption to support the fabric. Once the balloon hung upright, sagging sadly, they closed their eyes and stretched out their hands.
A large ball of water appeared above the ground, conjured from the molecules of hydrogen in the air. That was impressive by itself. But then Luke heated the air underneath the bubble, and as we watched, a cloud of steam rose up. Walking forward, the two boys directed the white column into the opening of the blimp.
The balloon expanded rapidly and tugged at its moorings. Julian nodded at Beth, who loosened the fastenings. The boys raised their hands, and the blimp gradually rose into the sky, following their command. The water bubble followed, providing steam the entire time. Very soon, both the air balloon and bubble ho
vered at a height of thirty feet, slowly drifting higher.
Mrs. Palmer scribbled into a notebook, nodding approvingly. “Very well done, Luke and Julian. Can you bring it down again?"
Luke nodded. He lowered his hands, and although it cost him visible effort to pull the magic back into himself, he managed it without any problems. Julian imitated his friend. But instead of pulling his magic back, he allowed the water ball to sink slowly. That took its time, and his hands soon trembled.
When the ball was right above us, Julian lost control of it.
“Oh, shit," he groaned. We screamed, preparing ourselves to be drenched, but Julian quickly moved his palms apart. Apparently he’d just had enough control left to disperse the giant ball. He broke it into droplets that rained down on us. Several of the more experienced elemental students waved their hands to disperse the drops.
Mrs. Palmer raised an eyebrow. "Not quite as perfect as Luke’s performance, I'm afraid. I will take into account it takes more energy to contain a large physical object than to rub air molecules together. Still, I appreciate you didn't drench us, Julian."
Julian smiled sheepishly, but I knew he was pleased. He’d passed, if not with the top grade, at least with a very good one. And luckily for him, he hadn’t been tested on earth magic. I made a mental note to ask him whether his magic-warping problem had gotten worse.
But next, it was my turn. My stomach swooped with nerves as I stepped forward, avoiding eye contact with the onlookers. Kiernan joined me. He shoulder-checked me and whispered, "Courage, acushla. You’ll do great."
Then he pulled a handful of sandy earth from a canvas bag and cupped both hands around the soil. As we’d practiced, I placed my hands on the outside of his. And just as before, the feel of his skin calmed me down immediately. I had no idea if this was part of his innate magic. Funny that Julian had the very same effect on me.
Kiernan closed his eyes and concentrated. Soon the brown dirt inside his palms changed. It seemed to become heavier, and the smell of earth I had grown so accustomed to rose from his skin. As I watched, the earth separated into dark, organic matter at the bottom, and a layer of pure sand on the top. Taking this as my cue, I added my own power. Tiny white sparks crept along his skin and accumulated in the bottom of the cup formed by his hands.
Second Chance Fate Page 14
