Guardian Academy 2: Prisoner Of Magic (The Mystery Of The Four Corners)

by Maria Amor

  Dylan couldn’t be sure of anything, and the lack of certainty made him even more anxious as he considered as many angles of the situation as possible. His only hope—the way he saw it—would be to gain enough strength, get sufficiently used to the warding in the room, to be able to use some of his abilities. If he could manipulate the emotions of one of the servants, he might be able to get them to admit to something he could use.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Julia left her class at the end of the day, looking around for Dylan even though she knew she wouldn’t see him. It had been weeks since Dylan had gone missing, just before her birthday, and to the best of Julia’s knowledge, nobody had any leads on where he could possibly be. All that anyone seemed to know that he—and the air-aligned students who had been abducted the same evening—were safe.

  The fact that they know they’re safe implies that someone, somewhere, knows something, Julia thought, glancing around. She caught sight of a blue jay on a branch in the courtyard and stopped, making sure that no one was paying much attention to her before she let out a whistle. The jay piped a response, and Julia looked around again; other air-aligned students might know what she was doing, but the rest of the student population would have no idea. She pursed her lips and let out a series of whistles, commanding the bright-eyed jay. Tell the others: pay close attention to the administration of the school. Find out who is suspicious. Report to me.

  She had to keep the commands as simple as possible—after all, while the birds were intelligent, there were concepts that they just didn’t have. But Julia had been telling the different air-aligned species she could communicate with, other than the students, to find out what they could; it was one of the few things she had the power to do.

  Coming into her full abilities as a Guardian had been heady—but at the same time, she’d been so constrained in her use of her abilities, still being a student and being under the age of eighteen, that as the weeks had passed she had started to almost resent how much trouble it had been to gain them. She knew that she could do more—the evidence was strong, whenever she was intensely frustrated or angry. Julia had heard, though she wasn’t sure, that the professors for her classes had begun taking potions against her ability to compel.

  That was one thing that Julia appreciated, though she hadn’t been able to put it to good use as yet: she had, in fact, come into the ability to compel people with her own words. She’d found it out when she and Keegan had gotten into an argument, right on the first day back after her birthday. She’d yelled at Keegan to get lost, and felt the pressure in her mind, the push of her energy into Keegan’s presence, into her energy; and Keegan had turned around and walked away, headed for the woods that surrounded the campus.

  If it hadn’t been for a professor’s intervention, she might have succeeded in losing herself in the woods. No one had said much about it at Sandrine, but Ruth had Julia brought back to her place in the middle of nowhere the following weekend to school her on the way to use—and not inadvertently use—her ability to compel.

  “Telling your little spies to check the cafeteria?” Julia wheeled around and saw Blake, only a few feet away from her. Normally, at least since she’d come into her full powers as a Guardian, Julia “heard” someone coming towards her before they had the chance to surprise her.

  “Something like that,” Julia said. She’d tried to keep something of a distance from Blake, since she’d met him; even when he had gone out of his way to say hello to her on his first day at Sandrine, she’d only met his interest politely. She didn’t trust him—something about how friendly he seemed to want to be with her, and the newfound knowledge she was developing of just how devious the plans of the people around her really were, made Julia not want to even tell him when the language club would meet.

  “You’ve been giving me the cold shoulder for weeks,” Blake said.

  “It doesn’t seem like you’re hurting for friends,” Julia pointed out. It was true—the good-looking fire-aligned Guardian had plenty of admirers. Blake snickered.

  “Well I want to be friends with you, no matter what Keegan told me,” Blake said.

  “Keegan was talking smack about me? Big surprise.” Julia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Aren’t you curious? I thought the air-aligned were all about gossip,” Blake said.

  “Asking you to tell me what my ex-friend said about me would just be making myself look weak,” Julia countered.

  “What if I just told you?” Blake leaned against the nearby bench. “I mean, if I just told you about what Keegan said, then it wouldn’t make you look weak, would it?”

  “Fine, you’re obviously interested in telling me what kind of crud she had to say about me: go for it.”

  “She said that you and Dylan made out once, and that you were the type of person who would just use people to make you look good.” Julia’s eyes widened; she’d told Keegan about kissing Dylan in the dean’s office to get them both out from under suspicion—of course, she’d been in much more danger than he had been then.

  But there had been nothing more to it than a scheme to make the dean look foolish and feel awkward, and Julia and Dylan had both been no closer to being romantic afterwards than they had before. Glad I didn’t tell her about my present for his birthday, or it’d be all over the school, too.

  “Well, I guess her life is too boring,” Julia said with a shrug. “If she has to keep going into my life for material.”

  “That was about what I figured,” Blake said. “Even without the connections, you seem like a much more interesting type of person.” Julia rolled her eyes.

  “You aren’t the only one to think that—and at that, I’m pretty sure I know why. There are lots of people who think I’m ‘interesting,’” Julia said. “And it boils down to: I’m powerful, my family has all kinds of connections, and I have a reputation.”

  “That last part,” Blake said with a smirk. “You have less of a ‘reputation’ than any of the fire-aligned girls.” Julia felt her cheeks burning, and then the warmth of her blush extending down onto her chest.

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” Julia said tartly.

  “I do,” Blake agreed. “But you’re right, for most people, that’s probably it.” Julia raised an eyebrow.

  “And you’re going to tell me that you’re oh-so different from anyone else who suddenly wants to be my friend?”

  “Well, tell me this, how many of those people danced with you as well as I did?”

  Julia considered for a moment.

  “Okay, in fairness, no,” Julia admitted, feeling her lips twitch in a smile. “But that’s not a reason.”

  “Well, how about we decide that I’ll give you a reason to trust me—or more than a few reasons to trust me? And then, once you do, we can go from there?” Julia’s arms tightened on her chest. She didn’t have much of anyone else she could really trust; Dylan was gone, Magda and she had never been particularly close, she didn’t have Keegan as a friend anymore, and her closest air-aligned friends had gone the same night Dylan had.

  She wasn’t close enough to anyone else in the air-aligned student body to trust them with the depth she would need to, to get any of their help with the situation with Dylan.

  “How would you give me a reason to trust you, though?” Julia glanced at the big clock over the top of the administration building; she had plenty of time before she had to be back in the building, but no one to spend it with—not really.

  “Give me two weeks to prove to you that you can trust me,” Blake said. “In the meantime, just treat me like any other person you know and kind of like at Sandrine.” In spite of herself, Julia chuckled.

  “Two weeks?” Julia looked Blake up and down. There was a part of her that had to admit that the boy was good-looking, and charming. “I’m interested to see what you do to prove it.”

  “Well you know how us fire-aligned Guardians are,” Blake said, half-smiling. “People of action
, all of us.” Julia rolled her eyes, but she could feel the lingering heat in her cheeks from a blush.

  “I should head inside,” she said, feeling bereft of words—how was that possible? I’m fluent in six languages and know parts of three others, and I can’t think of what to say to this guy? “I’m supposed to hang out with Magda.”

  “Jelly of Magda, then,” Blake said, grinning with a flash of bright teeth. “I’ll see you around, right? You’re not going to keep avoiding me?”

  “I’m not avoiding you, I wasn’t in the first place,” Julia said. Blake raised an eyebrow.

  “I think you’re lying,” Blake said. “And I think I’ve figured out what one of the few areas of your alignment where you’re weak is.” Julia blushed again and turned away, headed towards the dormitories. She hoped that she’d be able to meet with Magda; it shocked Julia to realize how much of her time had been spent with Dylan and to a lesser degree with Keegan, and the students who’d been abducted along with Dylan.

  She wondered if it had been done purposely to make her feel completely alone. Magda was fun to be around, but she wasn’t the kind of person that Julia felt confident confiding in, especially since she didn’t know who was behind anything. The only people at the school she could really trust had either turned against her or were gone. She wanted to complain that it wasn’t fair—but at seventeen, she knew better than to rail at unfairness, especially after what she’d been through the year before.

  Julia stepped through the door into the dorm building and looked around; most of the students had something to do—the younger kids were playing on the playground, some of the students were at clubs, some of them were at tutoring, and some of them were in each other’s rooms, doing whatever it was they meant to do. Julia decided that she didn’t want to be alone; if she couldn’t find Magda, she would go to the multipurpose room for the air-aligned students’ wing, and wait to see if there was anyone worth talking to.

  Blake confused her. Julia decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator, so that she could think a bit. Probably just like all the others, Julia thought bitterly. Just wants to get close to me because my grandmother is the Regina Undinae, because people are thinking I’m eventually going to be the Regina Sylphaea. She shook her head, scowling at nothing and no one in particular, thinking of that fate for herself. She had no interest at all in ruling her element; Julia barely had an interest in doing the normal work that came along with being an air-aligned Guardian.

  “Yo—Jules!” Julia started and almost slipped on one of the steps, looking around to spot Magda, waiting for her on the floor above. Second time today I’ve been surprised. I need to get a handle on these abilities. At least the fact that she was able to be surprised meant that Julia’s ability to block the inconsistent semi-telepathic ability she’d been gifted when she came into her full abilities was working.

  “I really need to get the hang of this telepathy thing,” Julia told her friend, bounding up the last few steps to get to Magda.

  “It’s gotta be weird, right?” Magda looked at her intently. “Like, could you read my mind right now?”

  “It comes and goes,” Julia explained. “And even at that—it’s just snatches of thoughts, words—things like that.” She looked around. “What are you up to?”

  “I was going to see if you wanted to help me dye my hair,” Magda said, grinning with mischief. The fire-aligned girl had naturally blonde hair, but she constantly dyed it to match whatever mood she was in. It got her in trouble, but it technically wasn’t against the dress code, so there wasn’t much that the Sandrine administration could do about it.

  “What color are you doing it this time?” Julia gestured for Magda to lead the way. She followed the fire-aligned girl into the hallway towards her dorm. Since it was before lockdown hours, she was allowed to be in the fire-aligned areas, though it would have gotten her in trouble to be in the boys’ section alone.

  “I was thinking of doing it blue,” Magda said.

  “Unusual choice for your alignment,” Julia pointed out. “I like it.” Magda grinned.

  “Well, I figure I’ve done purple, red, orange, and yellow—might as well start back in the cool colors.”

  “One of these days, you’re going to go rainbow, aren’t you?” Magda shrugged.

  “Not without professional help—doing that on your own is a good way to end up with mud-colored hair.” Julia had to concede that the other girl had a point. “So, now that you’re fully a Guardian, are you allowed to do your own thing now?” Julia shook her head.

  “Not really,” she admitted. “My parents are still super paranoid about what could happen to me on my own in the city.”

  “Super weird that someone managed to steal a bunch of kids off the campus, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s a big part of why they don’t want me on my own.” Julia followed Magda into the bathroom she shared with four of the other rooms on her floor. “They feel like if someone could steal Dylan from right off of the Sandrine campus, I’m not exactly safe.”

  “Everyone is saying that it’s a surprise you came back at all,” Magda said. She knelt down to the cabinets under the sink, and retrieved two boxes of Pravana hair color. “This should be enough, don’t you think?”

  “Why is everyone saying it’s a surprise I came back at all? Why is everyone saying anything about me?” Julia looked at the two boxes and then at Magda’s hair; it fell to her shoulders. “It might be enough.”

  “I have another tube in my room, just in case,” Magda said. She grabbed a plastic bowl and a dye brush and turned away from Julia. “And really—I mean—how could you not expect everyone to be talking about you?”

  “I figured by now at least there’d be something more interesting going on,” Julia said.

  “Well, the fact that Dylan got kidnapped protecting you—and those other kids, too—kind of keeps you interesting. Not to mention that party.” Magda shrugged and started parting her hair. “Basically, you’re the closest thing this school has to a celebrity.”

  “I don’t want to be,” Julia said. She sighed. “Hey—have you gotten to know that new kid, Blake, at all?”

  “I’ve got some classes with him,” Magda said. Julia handed the other girl clips from the basket to section off her hair. “Why?”

  “He’s trying to make friends with me,” Julia told her.

  “Probably just wants to establish himself as a cool kid,” Magda pointed out.

  “That was my thought,” Julia said. “Apparently, Keegan is still talking trash about me.”

  “Everyone thinks she’s pathetic anyway,” Magda said, rolling her bright blue eyes. “She’s trying to stay relevant.” She opened the box of dye and took out the tube, breaking the seal on the temporary color and squirting the cream base into the bowl. “What do you care about her?”

  “Just weird,” Julia said. She hesitated, wanting to confide in Magda but at the same time not sure it was wise. Damnit, Dylan, why did you have to get yourself abducted? “But what do you think about Blake? He’s kind of cute.”

  “I’m into earth-aligned boys,” Magda said with a half-shrug. “But I guess he’s okay to look at. He seems kind of cool.”

  “What do you know about him?”

  “He’s eighteen, supposedly plays guitar and keyboard, has brothers—though they’re all at that school in Canada—and is supposed to be pretty charming.” That was only slightly more than Julia knew about the guy.

  “Have you talked to him?” Magda started painting the dye on her hair, dividing her gaze between Julia’s reflection and her own.

  “A little,” Magda said. “He seems all right. Nothing super-hinky about him.”

  “So, nothing good or bad?” Magda shrugged again.

  “I mean, he seems all right. Why? Do you have a crush on him or something?”

  “He said he wanted to be friends with me,” Julia told her friend, blushing. “That he was going to find a way in the next two weeks to convince me
to trust him.”

  “You danced with him at your birthday, right?” Julia nodded, watching idly as her friend spread the dye around on her head. She wouldn’t be needed until Magda got to the back.

  “He’s a good dancer,” Julia said. “Better than the earth-aligned boys.”

  “Well the earth-aligned boys are really only all that good at once kind of dance,” Magda said with a little grin. “Of course, you’re not looking for that, so it wouldn’t be what you’re looking for.”

  Julia’s face burned from the roots of her hair to her neck. “Fire-aligned guys are okay at that too—supposedly,” she said. “But that’s...it’s not a priority.”

  “It isn’t?” Magda raised an eyebrow. “I mean, you’re now an eligible woman—fully in your alignment, a year away from being eighteen, and with all the guys who have even a shred of ambition chasing after you. It’d be a priority for me.”

  “I want someone I can get along with,” Julia said. “Someone I can trust.”

  “Well, duh,” Magda said. “But there’s nothing wrong with a few practice runs.” Julia snickered, leaning against the wall of the bathroom.

  “I’m just not specifically looking for it,” Julia said. “I’m kind of—there are sort of important things going on in the world right now, you know?”

  “Oh—yeah,” Magda said. “I guess while Dylan’s missing it’s probably priority one.” Magda glanced at her as she tilted her head this way and that, making sure the dye was spread everywhere in the front. “What’s going on with that?”