by Cece Rose
“What happened today made me realise something,” he starts to say and then clears his throat, putting down the pasta packet he was opening. Mr. Daniels walks over to me, resting his hip on the counter and crossing his arms. He stares at me for a long time, before uncrossing his arms and tucking a bit of hair behind my ear, his fingers grazing across my cheek.
“Yes?” I ask, my voice a little bit too high-pitched. He goes to say something when the door is banged on a few times, and he closes his mouth, annoyance written all over his face.
“I’ll get it,” I say, moving away and feeling his eyes burning a hole through my back as I walk to the door. I pull it open, and Kelly is standing there, smiling widely. She looks lovely, in a white coat and her blonde hair up in some complicated bun. I’ve really got to ask her to do to my hair at some point.
“So, naked Kenzie, I think we need to talk,” she says, and I laugh. So, she heard, which means everyone must be talking about it. Great, just fucking great.
“Come on in,” I say, holding the door open. She walks in and looks around for a second, just before Mr. Daniels walks over.
“Kelly, right?” he asks, holding out a hand, and she shakes it.
“Yes. I just came to say hello to Kenzie and catch up,” she says.
“Sure, why don’t you show her your room, and I’ll keep cooking. Kelly, would you like some pasta for dinner?” he asks, and she nods.
“Are you sure you don’t need any help?” I ask him, still wondering what he was going to say to me earlier.
“No,” he says, moving away and back to the kitchen. I hook my arm in Kelly’s and walk us down towards my room, pushing the door open. The room is simple, with blue sheets on a single bed and matching, dark-blue curtains. There’s another fur rug in here and a wardrobe with a matching chest of drawers. I still need to get some more of my things from my old room, but I managed to get most of it in here. Kelly goes in and sits on the bed, as I shut the door.
“So . . .?” she asks, raising her eyebrows as she trails off. I don’t know where to start. So much has happened in the last twenty-four hours, and I haven’t a clue how to explain it all.
“Sexy East kissed me, then saw me naked in the bath. Then the twins also saw me naked in the bath. Then, I shifted back naked on top of Mr. Daniels and in front of the whole class. And then, East was a dick to me, despite the fact he has seen me naked twice now. Then, Enzo and I got drunk, like vodka from the bottle drunk.”
“There’s a whole lot of naked in that statement,” Kelly says, her eyes widening, and it makes me laugh.
“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve been naked this much since I was a baby,” I reply.
“So naked on top of Mr. Daniels, was that fun?” she asks jokingly, waggling her eyebrows.
“Totally, the whole class staring and laughing at me really set the mood,” I answer.
“Do you think it’s going to make this awkward, you staying here with him?” she asks, her voice turning more serious.
“It’s beyond awkward, but hey, maybe I’ll catch him naked sometime,” I joke.
“If you do, do the world a favour and commit the view to perfect memory . . . and then recount it for me. I’m living my relationship life vicariously through you. I’m relying on you here,” she teases.
“I don’t know why,” I mutter.
“There’s just nobody here for me,” she says and sighs dramatically, lying back on my bed.
“Come off it, Kells. You know there are plenty of guys in the academy who would be interested in you,” I reply, sitting on the edge of the bed with my back against the wall.
“Not the right ones,” she mumbles, throwing an arm over her eyes.
“What’s that supposed to mean? You have a particular guy in mind?” I ask.
“No, what would make you think that?” she asks, a little too quickly.
“Kelly Curwood, you vixen. Who is this man, and why haven’t I been told all the details?” I ask her.
“Nobody,” she says, again too quickly.
“Oh my god, I know him, right? I must, if you won’t tell me,” I say.
“There’s nobody, you’re being ridiculous,” Kelly replies.
“Sure, What’s Mr. Nobody’s name, Kells?” I ask her.
“There’s really no—”
“I will tickle the information out of you,” I say seriously, cutting her off. She moves her hand from over her face and looks me dead in the eye.
“You wouldn’t,” she says.
“Try me,” I reply sweetly.
“Fine,” she says and then sighs. “There is someone.”
“I knew it!” I exclaim.
“But, it’s complicated. He wouldn’t want me now, anyway,” she says, her voice sounding defeated.
“Why wouldn’t he?” I ask.
“Because I have two marks, just two. He’s got way more and is way too good for me,” she mutters.
“The amount of marks you have doesn’t matter, Kells,” I say to her softly, squishing in to lie beside her.
“We kissed once, me and the guy,” she says, it comes across wistful.
“When was that?” I ask curiously, dying to get some more information out of her. It’s not like Kelly to be so lock-lipped about this kind of thing.
“Months ago,” she sighs. “It only happened once, and he didn’t seem that interested after,” she says.
“Wait, you’ve been crushing on mystery man for months and haven’t told me?” I ask.
“Maybe . . .,” she says trailing off as she looks away.
“Who is he?” I ask, feeling even more curious now. She goes to answer when a knock comes at the door.
“Dinner’s ready,” Mr. Daniels’ voice calls through the door. Now that he mentions it, I can definitely smell the scent of the food slipping through the gaps in the door.
“You may be saved by my desire for food right now, but you are going to give me all the juicy information later, got it?” I say to Kelly.
“Fine,” she grumbles, but she doesn’t meet my eyes as she says it.
“But first, let’s go eat lots of pasta,” I reply lightly, letting her off the hook for now. I feel my stomach grumble in agreement as I stand. At least, something is communicating properly with me. I watch Kelly as she stands and heads toward the door. She’s hiding something more than just a name, and I intend to find out what.
Chapter 24
Kenzie
“Welcome to earth class, Miss Crowe. Nice to see you’re keeping with what I’ve heard from the other teachers,” a small lady says as I approach her and the rest of the class, who are sitting on the ground in the middle of a clearing in the woods. Did they really have to make all my classes so hard to find?
I take a better look at the teacher. She’s a small woman, no more than 5ft, with a tiny frame to match. Her hair is tied back in a neat, professional bun. and her clothing looks more like a secretary, than an earth power teacher.
“Sorry, Miss. I’m not sure what you mean?” I ask as I take a seat on the floor next to Logan. I smile at Logan, and he looks at me pityingly. Crap, what now?
“You’re fifteen minutes late, Miss Crowe. It’s nice to know that you are at least consistent. That being said, I do hope you don’t intend to remove your clothes during this class, too,” she says. A few snickers come from other students. I try to think of a retort when I feel Logan nudging me in the side. I turn and look at him, he shakes his head slightly. Shutting up it is, I guess.
“Sorry for being late,” I mumble.
“I’m sure,” she says sarcastically. “Now, seeing as you missed the beginning of my introduction, I’m wondering what you can tell me about the earth mark and what it can do. Or, will I need to repeat that information for you?” she asks me.
“The earth mark is one of the most versatile marks. It can be used both as a simple control over natural matter, like moving rocks. Or it can be used in stuff like helping plants grow or curing the rot from a tree,” I answer.
She stares at me for a moment as if surprised by my answer, before turning back to the class as a whole and continuing to lecture on the topic.
“How did you know that?” Logan whispers.
“One of my mum’s most powerful marks is earth. You should see our garden,” I answer quietly, before turning back to listen to the teacher.
“Now, class, I would first like to focus on the more nature-focused aspect of this mark.” She grabs a black bag from the ground next to her, and pulls out some flowers, dead looking flowers. No prizes for guessing what we were going to be doing today. “Take one and hand the rest along, Lucinda,” she says, passing them to the girl nearest to her. She does as she says, and the flowers pass along the two rows of seated students until we all have one. Now we’ve all got a dead flower. Fantastic.
“Now, I want you to place the stem of the flower to the ground. You will call on your mark, and try to reconnect your flower to the ground by growing its roots,” she explains.
I lay my flower down onto the ground, keeping a hand on it as I picture the earth mark in my head. A leaf curled into a circle. It’s one of the smaller marks, usually coming out a lot smaller on people’s skin than the others.
Calling on the mark and placing my other hand on the ground next to the flower, I’m waiting for something to happen. When the roots don’t immediately grow, and the flower doesn’t spring back into life, I huff and sit back, glancing around at the rest of the class. They appear to be having more success than I am. Some of them have already got the roots grown back, whereas others have completed the exercise and have pretty, live looking flowers in front of them. I put my hands back on the flower, covering where the stem meets the ground. Maybe if I can’t actually see it, it’ll work better.
I call on the mark again, feeling it respond to my call this time. I push as much energy into the plant as I can all at once, not wanting to be the last to finish the task we have been given.
A bird cries overhead, and I look up, making sure it’s not flying over me. It would just be my luck if it shit on my head. I try and spot the bird, but can’t see it anywhere.
“Kenzie?” Logan says, dragging my attention to him. I turn to face him.
“What?” I ask.
“What are you doing? The ground . . .,” he trails off.
I look down at the ground, lifting my hands away. My flower has grown roots and come to life, but all the grass within ten feet of me has grown too. Thick, lush, and deep-green, nothing like the state it was in just moments before. I notice the grass is still growing, flowers shooting out from the ground, the effect spreading even further. The whole class has turned to face me, the direct centre of the circle of green. I release the hold on the mark in my mind, stopping the flow of magic.
“Well, there is no need to show off, Mackenzie,” the teacher says, but she’s smiling now. Maybe I’m forgiven for being late?
“Shit, Kenzie. Were you even trying?” Logan whispers.
“Kind of? I was trying to do it quickly, so I pushed more energy into it, I’m not sure how the rest of this happened . . .,” I trail off, looking at the thick sea of green around me.
“Energy has to go somewhere, I guess. The flower didn’t need anymore, so the excess energy spread and gave life to everything else,” he supplies.
“That would be correct, Logan,” the teacher cuts in, having made her way across to us so quietly I hadn’t noticed her approach. “You will have to be careful with your gift, Mackenzie. Although it is good that the earth responds so easily to you, things are meant to die. We respect nature’s cycle, for the most part. Just giving it helping hands along the way. So, don’t go bringing every dull field to life now,” she jokes.
“I won’t,” I answer anyway.
“Good,” she replies to me, she then directs her attention to the whole class again. “We will now focus on what is normally the showier aspect of the earth power, manipulation.” She goes back to her black bag and pulls out some smooth, black stones, handing one to each of us. “Place the stone on the ground in front of you,” she instructs. I place mine on the ground next to Logan’s.
“This is just like moving rocks, right?” I ask Logan softly.
“Pretty much, but some people can bring a whole house down, and some can cause large-scale earthquakes,” he replies. I nod my head, having heard about a huge castle once brought to ruins by an earth marked’s power.
“All I want you to do for now, class, is to bring the stone into your hand. For those of you with the air marks, no cheating and using the air to bring it to you,” she explains. Everyone affirms their agreement with mumbles. “Oh and, Mackenzie?” she asks.
“Yes, Miss?”
“Try not to cause an earthquake,” she replies dryly.
“I make no promises,” I quip, holding my hand out towards my rock. This time I try not to focus on what everyone else is doing, and concentrate my focus solely onto my rock. I try to make it roll to me, calling on my earth mark, as I’m picturing that curved leaf in my head. Nothing. It doesn’t even twitch. Cautiously, I push more power into my call. I wait for a moment, expecting something to happen but nothing. I try pushing more energy into it, slowly at first, but then just shoving as much into the damn rock as I can. I can feel sweat beading on my forehead. No matter how much I push into it, nothing happens. Not a damn thing.
“Are you okay, Kenzie?” Logan asks.
“It’s not working,” I reply, releasing the pull on my power.
“Sometimes people can only use one side of the earth power,” he explains softly.
“I know that, but I guess I didn’t think I’d be one of them,” I reply. He brushes a strand of hair from my face and tucks it behind my ear.
“You don’t have to be good at everything,” he says.
“I guess,” I reply, feeling a little bummed. No earthquakes for me, I suppose.
“Hey, don’t look so glum. You might still be able to, maybe you just need to practice?”
“I know, it’s just everything else has kind of come pretty easily.”
“Maybe you have to struggle with the rest of us mere mortals now?” he teases. I roll my eyes. And then, I find myself looking at him, noticing how his shirt clings tightly against his broad frame. With a body like his, he looks anything but a mere mortal.
“What are you thinking?” he asks me.
“Nothing,” I snap. “Why do you ask?”
“Because your eyes seemed to glaze over. It was the same look Locke gets when there’s food,” he teases.
“It was so not,” I mutter.
“So, you’re not hungry?” he asks, leaning back and incidentally giving me an even more impressive view as his arms tense from leaning back on them.
“A little,” I admit. But, it’s not for food.
He smiles a little knowingly at me before turning his gaze forward again, I let out a deep breath and do the same.
Chapter 25
Kenzie
“Are you going to talk to me?” East asks me for the fourth time since I walked into air class. I’m actually not late for once, but the teacher is. We have all been waiting for fifteen minutes now, and he or she is a no show. I try for the tenth time to turn my phone on, but it’s not working. All I can see is my reflection across the cracked screen. My dark hair is all over the place, curly from the plait I had it in last night, and my pale eyes look tired.
“Kenz,” East says my name softly, and I glance over at him as he leans across his desk. I want to forgive him, but I’m still so mad that I can’t trust myself to respond to him at the moment. It really doesn’t help that East looks amazing as usual today, with his wavy hair looking soft and his warm eyes watching me closely. Why can’t he look tired or less attractive and easier to ignore? I just turn my head away and lean back in my chair, twirling my phone around on the table.
“Alright,” East replies. Just when I think he is going to leave it and get that I don’t want to speak to him, he stands on his desk and
claps his hands. Everyone in the room looks at him as they go silent. We all watch on as he flips through his phone and then starts playing some music I don’t recognise.
“I’m an idiot. The biggest idiot in the world. I said something really stupid and regretted it the moment I said it. So, I’m going to do anything, including begging or stripping, to get the lovely Kenzie to forgive me. I messed up and got the wrong impression when in reality, I was just jealous,” he tells me and the entire class. Some part of me wants to see if he would actually strip in front of the whole class, but then he could get in a lot of trouble for this. I just raise an eyebrow, and he grins at me.
“I don’t think you would strip, East,” I laugh, feeling my cheeks going bright-red, and he grins down at me. East knows what he is doing to me, and most of me is embarrassed and another small part is impressed that he cares enough to do this.
“That sounded like a challenge, Kenzie,” East says and slowly pulls his shirt off over his head and drops it on my table as some of the girls in the room stand up and move closer to watch. I don’t take my eyes off East as I pick his shirt up and shake my head.
“Okay, okay, I get it. You’re sorry,” I laugh as he starts unbuttoning his jeans, and I can’t help but stare at his naked chest. Fucking hell, he looks amazing with no shirt on. I’m half tempted not to give him his shirt back and actually let him strip out of all his clothes.
“I embarrassed you and fucked up yesterday, so I’m going to get naked in front of the whole class and give the school something else to talk about,” he tells me quietly, making me wonder if he planned this, and if anyone else knew. They really should have stopped him. I’m a simple girl, I would have been happy with chocolate and a foot rub.
“East! I forgive you, you don’t have to do that,” I hiss as he starts pushing his jeans down slowly, in time to the music, and I laugh when I hear a girl shout over.
