Betrayal: An Urban Fantasy Academy Series

by Bob Dattolo

Gravity, pain, sheering forces, light, and darkness all hit one after the other in rapid succession. I felt them building and managed to get my own power flowing, just not to the point that I could stop them.

  Which meant that the gravity tried to crush me at the same time the others went to town.

  Unfortunately for her, I can stand through triple gravity without a problem. The pain didn’t do much to me. The sheering forces did break my legs, which sucked and made me fall. Yet that saved me from being blinded from the light and from the darkness blocking her from me as she started to shift.

  My magic flared as I healed my leg bones, then I went to town on her as her body contorted through her shift. She wanted increased gravity, so I hit her with a solid ten times, crushing bones in her as she tried to scream. Then the fun started as a globe of darkness covered her and other spells began triggering inside.

  Fire burned her. Metal pierced her. Air sucked from her lungs. Ice wrapped her. Water began leaching from her body. The combination of them all distracted her enough that the spikes of rock that I sent up out of the ground actually pierced her.

  Then everything disappeared as I let the darkness drop, allowing her classmates to see her.

  She’s not dead, but she’s hurting. Badly. Her shift has slowed drastically, and she’s maybe halfway through it as I stalk forwards. She doesn’t seem to know what to do when I stop over her, “You done shifting, or what?” No response. “C’mon, I don’t have all day!” Her magic began to build as she tried to shift quicker, fighting through the pain. I’m not shocked to have rock spikes come up out of the ground and try to ram their way through me.

  But she was shocked when I shifted in an explosion of growth and let them shatter on my scales.

  Her classmates went dead silent as I stood over her, waiting for her to finish her shift.

  “See now, lesson to all of you in Suzi’s class. Don’t fuck with people if you can help it. You never, ever know who you’re fucking with. Someone that you think is weak may be stronger than you think. Or, like me, they may be a bit of a freak.”

  She finished her shift and tried to stand up. I did a number on her, and she can’t do it.

  “I warned you, Suzi. I did. I gave you an out in town. You didn’t want to take it. You wanted more power and thought you found a good target. I’d like to point out how bad of an idea that was. I won’t, but I’d like to.”

  She tried to bite me, but the accumulated damage made it hard for her to move enough to do it quickly enough to get me. Needless to say, she missed.

  Her breath did hit me. And promptly did nothing.

  I let her try, though. I did.

  Then I killed her.

  I went for the less showy way of draining power so that no one knew I did it. For sure.

  Her classmates started to cheer when I was done, only stopping when I flared a huge wash of light through the circle. They stopped immediately.

  “Don’t even bother. Go back to your dorm and try not to be dicks.”

  None of them spoke as I turned away from them and shifted back to human as I went to collect my clothes. My classmates weren’t cheering or clapping either. Instead of waiting, I spoke to the entire group, “The rumors cover everything I could possibly do in most situations. No matter what I do, I’m fucked. These challenges? I didn’t want them. She hit me in town. I didn’t force her. Nothing like that. He challenged me when she hit me and I ran into him. He’s alive. Still has his power, too. She’s dead, which I warned her about. The rumors would say that I would have started this. That I would have drained them both. That I have plans for that for everyone under the sun. I just…don’t. So, yeah, I’m gonna go take a shower now and head to dinner.”

  No one stopped me as I walked away. Ugh…this place, man. So messed up.

  Chapter 31

  My friends celebrated New Years with me. We had a blast.

  Wait. No. Sorry, let me back up a step. I celebrated New Years alone. Wheeeee, so much fun! Now, to be fair, Alicia did invite me over to the huge house with Jenny and the others to celebrate with them. I didn’t go because I feel bad that I haven’t taken the time to heal anyone else.

  That sounds bad. That makes it sound like I haven’t tried to come up with something that would work. I’ve tried. I just failed. Each time. That meant that I didn’t feel right about going there to celebrate something when they’re all still suffering.

  It’s been weird here at school. We haven’t had classes for the past week and have another week off, but we’re not off school. We’re expected to stay here even with no classes. How or why they think that’ll happen is beyond me. They don’t stop us from leaving, it’s just kinda implied that if they want us and can’t find us, they’ll hunt us.

  None of us really want that. We’ve managed to not have anyone whipped at all so far this year, which is pretty good.

  Yeah, that’s one of the punishments here. I heard it happened last year before I arrived, I just never saw it. It seems to not be used as often outside of first year. People learn not to do stupid shit that’ll get them torn up in front of other people. Weird, right? I don’t know what’s up with people.

  Staring out at the snow coming down on January first at 4am is a weird feeling. I woke crazy early this morning after maybe two hours of sleep. No idea why. So that got me out of bed. Eva and Tiffany are in Eva’s bed, which is crazy freaking rare. She’s still not sleeping in the room with me there most of the time and leaving when I arrive. At least usually. At least she’ll come in to get dressed to not be late for classes. Sure, she glares at me the entire time, but she does do it.

  No one seemed to change from my little speech on Christmas Eve. The rumors changed quite a bit, yet it’s even more evident that they’re scrambling to come up with something that people will believe. It’s like they’re losing control of things. I just can’t tell who’s doing it or if it’s even one person and not an entire group. I’m pretty sure it’s not a teacher, yet that’s not saying much.

  Also not anyone new this year. Since they’ve been around since last year.

  We’re also pretty sure it’s definitely not a dragon. That narrows the population, just not enough. Now, if it were all non-dragons that are guys? Then I’d have something. Instead, I got not much to go on. Narrowing it down to like 20 people isn’t enough for me. I’m not a detective. Not in the slightest.

  Are they the same person that was going after my stuff to try and damage it? I think so? It was all tied together, so I think so. Still no idea who’s doing it. No recent attempts, I just know it’ll happen again.

  Hmmm, I have to spread the word that my protection spells aren’t working. Somehow. Maybe work to change them and then spread them through Angelica or Samantha or something like that. That could be promising. I’d love to figure out who’s been fucking with me and tear them to tiny pieces and eat them.

  Ugh…my marble rolled in my hands as I looked down, ignoring the thick snow landing on me. I’ve tried to come up with a spell to help me with the pain. I’ve been looking through all of my grimoires and checking online for various things, and I haven’t been able to come up with a spell that I think does what I want it to. Could I create one from scratch? Yeah, I could, I’m just afraid of messing things up and causing some sort of irreparable damage. Turning off their ability to handle pain forever is a surefire way for them to die from a stupid injury.

  Same with holding off the pain. That was my first thought, but then I lucked into a comment online about a spell like that. Sounds great, right? No pain now? Want to know what it does? It stockpiles the pain and delivers it at the end when the spell is lifted.

  Right? You see the problem there? All the pain. At once. The spell was done twice. Both times for surgeries. Both patients died when their heart burst afterwards. Literally. They had pictures of the one. Freaking brutal.

  Soooo no way am I trying that kind of spell.

  The worst part is that I realized that what I experienced probably wasn
’t what Jenny felt. I’ve really tried to pay attention and think through the pain that I’ve felt from various things. It’s so evident that it’s not at the same level as what others are feeling. Not even close in some cases. So that means that what she experienced was worse. And what I felt was horrific, which means the pain for her? While it may have been worthwhile, I’m thinking it still sucked diseased donkey balls to go through.

  Maybe just going for less pain is the better idea? Try to lessen the pain level so it’s on a different scale. That way if something happens and it’s permanent, then they still feel pain, just less of it? That might be worth attempting.

  Which brings me to the other part of the same issue. I can’t risk burning out my magic to do this. I also can’t risk being vulnerable. That means that a different approach is needed. Yes, a spell that eases the pain will allow me to build power slower which should reduce the strain, but will that be enough?

  I’ve also been looking up spells to aid power outlay. Nothing good in the grimoires again. Alicia didn’t know of anything that she thought might work. Online had references to things, I’m just not sure they’re not fantasies more so than things that actually worked.

  Such as the charm that creates power. I have no idea how that’d work, so I can’t imagine that really does what it sounds like it’d do. People would be casting that left and right if it did.

  There’s one that multiplies power output. Same there. If it worked? People would have a dozen of the charms on them.

  One helped pull more power. No idea how that’d work. Sounds like it’d just allow you to pull more than you can. Another one that’s great on the surface until you realize that it’s still pulling from you, which means burnout can still happen. Probably before you even realize it.

  I wonder if there’s something like a turbocharger for magic. Like you’d have with an engine? Take an engine that’s only so powerful and stick one in and then make it more powerful? Doing more with what you have? Now that’s another idea worth thinking about. Let’s let that one percolate.

  My focus moved away from the marble and back out to the bright white snow in the dark sky. The best part is that I’m not even near the school, so there’s very little light pollution this way. I’m up on the cliffs that the dragons fly from. It’s private. Quiet. Intimate, while still being in the great outdoors.

  Intimate.

  Now there’s a word that I still can’t get my head around. More people are hooking up, and I can’t bring myself to even contemplate it. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to do that. I really do. Sure, I don’t have any actual friends that I hang out with right now, but I’d like to be normal at some point.

  Still the same things going on with the friends and allies. Hidden. Still there, though. We’ve connected through texts and a couple towns over again and it was a blast. It does hurt though when I see them hanging out and talking. I’ve been able to spend more time with Cesar, Cleo, and Stacey, just not a ton. We’re trying to portray that we’re friendly, just not allies.

  Even Levi has been odder than he had been.

  It was made worse when I gave out my Christmas presents.

  I got custom made grimoires for everyone and included pens that were amazing. I had them engraved. I didn’t buy one for everyone, but I did buy them for Cleo, Cesar, Stacey, Samantha, Parece, Angelica, Gage, Kynal, Paige, and Riley. I was so close to getting one for Kaylee, but she’s been over the top the past few weeks, so I stayed far away.

  I even got one for Levi.

  Why?

  I’m still not sure. Not really. I guess…I get why he’s upset. I do. I get why he hates me. I don’t want him to, but I understand it. I just…I wanted him to know that there’s nothing from my side. He accepted it, unwrapped it, and stared at it silently before walking away without saying anything. It left me confused, as you’d imagine.

  Then I saw him writing in it a couple days ago.

  That made me feel good, especially since I heard from others that they were also using theirs.

  The funniest thing is that Eva and Tiffany have used the scent thing that I bought. I picked up a huge sampling of oils, and they’ve been changing things up. Honestly, I think that’s one of the only reasons they were willing to sleep there last night. Not that I’m going to ask them to clarify that.

  Huge wings caught air high above me, making me look up. Too bad I can’t see much in the driving snow, but I know someone’s coming. It could be pretty much any of the students, so it makes me wonder if I know them.

  There’s a flash of movement off to the right and the ground trembles as a heavy weight lands. I got a flash of gold scales before the huge dragon shook itself and looked around, then headed my way.

  Levi.

  A flash of fear hit me, but it didn’t stick around. I’m close enough to the edge that I can dive off before he can do much to stop me. He also doesn’t look angry, so there’s that. I’m kinda shocked that he moves up and proceeds to turn around and settle down on the stone, holding a wing out over me as his head comes down to rest on a huge arm.

  “You get any sleep last night?”

  So not the first question I expected from him.

  “Yeah? Couple hours.”

  “Can’t sleep?”

  “Up by 5 every day, so…I can’t go back to sleep once I’m up. At least typically.”

  “That sucks.” His deep voice sounds so earnest when he says that.

  “What about you? This is early for you.”

  “It is. I got a couple hours. My mind’s been…just wandering.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. What’s Jason up to?”

  His huge shoulders shrug almost lazily before he answers, “No clue. Sleeping, I think. He wasn’t in the room when I got up.”

  “That normal for him?”

  “Normal? Not really, just not too rare. He has some friends and allies, and they’ll do sleepover things. They had a party for New Years, so I think he just slept there.”

  “You didn’t go?”

  Another shrug, “We’re not close like that. I’ve been too scattered.”

  “I’m sorry I’m the cause of that.”

  He barked a laugh, “Yeah…you and life. This place. My parents. It’s all…confusing.” We fell into silence and he seemed to catch what I was doing with my hand. “Why do you have a marble?”

  He stared at it with me as I held it out, “It’s a charm.”

  “Umm, what? A charm? In glass? That’s freaking tough as hell to do. How much did that cost you?”

  “About four hours.”

  He blinked slowly, then shook his head, “Don’t tell me; you made it?”

  “I did.”

  “Really? You made it?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Why?” He broke into quiet laughter for a bit. “You’re too much. It’s so weird talking to you. Seeing you. You come across as being weak, but you’re not. Your strength makes me forget that you’re so new to things. That you don’t have a clue. Glass is brutal to work with. Most of the people that can get something to stick at all have crappy results. It’s freaking rare to find that someone can work with it and have strong results. Knowing that you made it makes me think it’s a nuclear bomb or something. What’s it supposed to do and what does it really do? Maybe a flyswatter that crushes aircraft carriers?”

  That’s too funny. Alicia hinted again that me being able to work in glass was odd. That didn’t stop me from buying a ton of glass things to play with once I come up with something interesting to try. “It’s a light? Like a flashlight?”

  No reaction at first, “Does it allow you to see through time or something? Or like an x-ray machine? C’mon, spit it out, this is you we’re talking about. There’s no way it’s just a flashlight.”

  “Why do you think it’s more than that?”

  He gave me a look that’s funny to see on a huge dragon head, “Please. You’re Maddie. Wonder stricken. You damn well know whatever you did isn’t normal.
Now, what does it do?”

  “Umm, let me show you?”

  “Do it. Wow me with your flashlight that’s also a light saber.”

  Instead of commenting on that, I held it out, “Okay, this is what it can do.” I turned it on and made a normal flashlight. Just a normal brightness. Then I started changing it. Colors. Width, from a thin flashlight to a huge spotlight. Then brightness, from LED levels of light to bright enough to make us both close our eyes from the flash against the snow. Then I tightened the beam until the snow began to melt.

  And the stone began to burn in a thin line.

  “Oh my fucking God…that’s insane!”

  I turned it off and pocketed it. “Yeah, so that’s my flashlight. First charm I ever made.”

  “You are too fucking much. Any of the changes are pretty damn cool, but it’s a freaking laser too?!? I’ve never heard of a laser being made with magic. Ever.”

  “Yeah. That wasn’t really my intent.”

  He snorted, “See? Wonder stricken. Only you. Everyone else would have ended up with nothing since it’s in glass. If they did bone or stone or wood, they would have had a flashlight. That’s it. Just like on our phones. But you? Nope.”

  “Sorry. I don’t mean to be a freak.”

  He sighed and put his head down, looking like a huge, scaled dog. “You don’t have anything to apologize for. You do you. Part of it’s shock. Part of it’s jealousy.”

  “You’re jealous of me? Why? I’m a stricken.”

  “You are. Or you were. But…I don’t know. You know what you want. You stand up for yourself. You have enough power to back things up.” He took a deep breath, “I’ve been thinking a lot. It’s hard, sometimes. This part of me, the dragon part, doesn’t quite understand what human Levi does all the time. Just like he struggles at times with me. This part of me is better able to handle the things that his parents did to him, but it’s hard. It’s almost like parts of me were twisted a little by the human part. I see you and think about what you told me. What you went through for so long. I admire how you’ve handled things. You’re not okay with things, but you’re still pushing on. Me? I’m stuck at revenge. Or lack of it. There’s no closure. As a dragon, I’m dominant. Strong. Confident. I want to control everything in my circle, so to speak. I’m like Samantha that way, just more aggressive. Except then there’s you.”