Firecracker: A Young Adult Fantasy (Arcturus Academy Book 1)

by A. L. Knorr

  “Ah.” I wilted a little as I put the gallium sphere back into the tube. “I’ve either been too busy or too tired. I will, I promise.”

  “Just make sure you return it to me when you’re finished. Wouldn’t be good to leave it floating about the school.”

  I promised I would.

  He glanced at the clock, his brow furrowed. “What time are you expecting April?”

  I followed his gaze with a start. “She’s late, which is weird because she’s always the early one.”

  Basil nodded and looked at the metal strewn across the floor. “I’m sure she’s on her way. I’ll leave you to clean up while you wait then.”

  Making what felt like my hundredth lap around the combat hall since I’d put all the metals away, I looked up at the clock over the door again. April was more than twenty minutes late. Worry gnawed at my gut as I slowed to a walk and chewed my thumbnail. Something must have happened to her. She would have sent me a message letting me know she was going to be late. Pacing for another two minutes, I finally pulled on my sweater and headed for the door.

  I made a beeline for Basil’s office. At the narrow curving steps which led up to the headmaster’s landing, I detonated in my legs and hips, jumping to the top in one flying leap. His door was closed so I rapped on it as I steadied my breathing. What if Ryan had already sabotaged April somehow?

  “Come,” Basil called from inside.

  It looked like he’d settled in for an evening of study; seated on his sofa with books strewn about and a notebook open on his lap.

  He met my eyes. “Are you alright?”

  “Any chance you could summon April for me?”

  The headmaster’s spine straightened. “She never showed?”

  I shook my head, my heart throbbing with worry. “Something must be wrong. I told you Ryan threatened her. What if she’s in trouble?”

  “It’s possible she’s just forgotten. The best of us do from time to time, in spite of a myriad of calendar apps and electronic alarms.” He shook his wristwatch. “Did you check her room?”

  A nauseating combination of relief and shame wound their way around my mind. Why hadn’t I thought of that? It hadn’t occurred to me that a girl as studious as April would have simply forgotten. “I didn’t think she’d have been so late without something bad happening to her. Sorry to have bothered you.” I backed out of his office.

  By the time I reached April’s room, my heart was back in its rightful place. I put a hand out to push her door open when I heard voices coming from inside and froze.

  “I still can’t believe it,” April was saying, her voice tremulous. She gave a sniff and I realized she’d been crying. “Can you play it one more time for me?”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, darling.” It was Jade. Her tone was laced with liquid sugar, or maybe a sugar substitute. Jade did not express concern naturally.

  “Just one last time,” April begged. “I promise I won’t ask again. I just—”

  “Alright, then.” Jade sounded smug.

  My hair stood on end as a recording of my own voice followed this exchange.

  “Thank you for bringing her up. Whatever you’ve got planned for her, can it. I mean it. Stay away from April. We both know you couldn’t possibly be interested in her for romantic reasons, so just back off.”

  Ryan’s voice came next: “I knew it. You’re jealous of the attention I’ve been paying her, of how much fun we have together. Shame on you.”

  The recording stopped. Horror and astonishment crashed through me. Shoving April’s bedroom door open, I stalked inside on stiff legs.

  “What on God’s green earth are you trying to do?” I spat at Jade.

  She flew to her feet, phone in hand. Her purse sat on the bed. A look of guilt passed over her face but it was gone in a moment, replaced by righteous indignation. It was a like the shadow of a cloud passing over. Her lip curled in disdain. “Eavesdropper!”

  April’s tear-streaked face turned to me, eyes red and nose puffy. A pile of used tissues lay scattered across her quilt. “Saxony,” she croaked. “How could you? I thought we were friends.”

  “We are friends. Don’t be daft, April. Can’t you see what’s happening here?” I gestured at Jade.

  “She certainly can, now that I’ve shown her proof.” Jade snatched up her bag and slipped her phone into it, then hooked the bag over her shoulder. “You couldn’t bear the thought of Ryan and April together, so you had to meddle. You can’t stand the thought of April being happy.”

  April reached for a tissue from the box on her bed and found it empty. She pulled her sleeve over her hand and used it to dab at the tears running down her face. “They caught you on tape, Saxony. You can’t deny what was said.”

  “I was trying to protect you,” I sputtered, disbelief making the skin of my scalp crawl like my hair was infested with ants. “What you heard was taken out of context. Do you know what else Ryan said about two seconds after he accused me of being jealous? He told me that when he was through with you, you would drop out of Arcturus.”

  April let out a laugh that chilled me to the bone. “That’s ridiculous. Everyone knows that I would drop out of Arcturus if I could anyway. I don’t need anyone to make me want to leave this place.”

  Jade, who had been listening to our exchange intently, brightened. “Exactly.”

  I shook my head, anger rolling through me in waves. “Now I can see why you didn’t show up for our tutoring session. You’ve been duped, April. It’s as plain as day.”

  “Yes,” she sniffed, reminding me of a sad Basset hound. “I’ve been duped by you.”

  “How can she ever trust you again? Shame on you. How can you expect her to continue on with your stupid coaching after what you did to her boyfriend?” Jade sat on the bed beside April and wrapped a loving arm around the girl’s shoulders.

  April blinked at Jade with pure delight at the word ‘boyfriend’. She looked at me, an expression of elation erasing the Basset hound eyes. “I see now. You’ve been trying to come between Ryan and me this whole time because you couldn’t stand the idea of him being with anyone other than you.”

  I couldn’t stop a laugh. Was I actually hearing these words? So much for appearing calm. I could feel my eyes hardening. “April that’s beyond ridiculous. I can’t stand Ryan. He knows it, Jade knows it, in fact everyone except for you seems to know it.”

  “Is that why you beat him up?”

  I let out a groan and rubbed at my temples. “I didn’t beat him up, he was acting. He faked the whole thing.”

  “Don’t you believe it,” Jade said softly in April’s ear. “I saw him myself. He was on the floor gasping for his very life’s breath while she stood over him like a tyrant. Ryan told me himself how she tried to seduce him and he had to fend her off.”

  My jaw dropped.

  April turned horrified eyes on me. She believed Jade with every fiber of her being.

  I had been about to tell April to ask Basil if she could look at the video tape, but that look quashed any desire to set things straight. Let her discover the truth for herself. If she was too stupid to see the obvious then she deserved whatever happened.

  “You know what, April?” I put my palms up. Fire flared up my neck and into my head, filling my eyes with angry light. Though rage coursed through me, I forced my voice low and apologetic. “You’re right. I’ve been lusting after Ryan since day one and the only reason I offered to tutor you in the first place was because I could see that he liked you and I thought the only way I could keep you apart was if I controlled your schedule and kept you distracted. I see now that I was wrong. It’s obvious that Ryan is head over heels in love with you.”

  April and Jade stared at me in mute shock, eyes wide and mouths agape.

  “Damn,” Jade whispered. “That’s cold. Even for you.”

  April turned her face into Jade’s shoulder and burst into tears. Jade and I locked eyes as Jade feebly patted April’s back. Her th
oughts poured out through her gaze now that April had dissolved into fits and was no longer paying attention to me. I’m not sure I’d ever seen an expression that spoke so loud and clear.

  I know I’m lying, and you know I’m lying, and we both know Ryan is lying, but I never guessed in a thousand-million years you would validate our story and seal the deal.

  The fear that crossed Jade’s face then so filled me with satisfaction that I couldn’t help the smile that came across my face. It was so arctic that it snuffed the light in my eyes and slowed my heartbeat.

  I turned and went to the door, baring my teeth as I gave them one last look before departing.

  “I never should have interfered, April. My mistake. You and Ryan clearly deserve one another.”

  Part Four

  Little, Tiny Pieces

  Twenty-Seven

  Trouble for Triplets

  Cramming the last bite of curry and rice into my mouth, I took my tray and dumped it before I was even finished chewing. Aside from a few cold glances, no one seemed to notice or care about my haste. Leaving the cafeteria, I checked the clock above the door. Four minutes to my video call with Targa.

  My heart thudded with excitement as I took the stairs to the girl’s corridor. The halls were deathly quiet. I’d purposely set the time of this call over dinner to make sure I wouldn’t be interrupted or overheard. Not that anyone came to my door anymore, aside from the occasional professor.

  Closing and locking my door, I dashed to my desk and opened my laptop. I sent a quick text to Targa: Ready when you are.

  She responded a moment later with: Uno momento!

  I took a sip of water, opened my window a crack, then changed out of my Arcturus gear into jogging pants and a t-shirt. I slid into my seat as my laptop dinged, knees jiggling with impatience.

  Targa’s pale face—framed by wavy blue-black hair—swam into focus. Her bright teal eyes crinkled with a smile. “It’s so good to see you, Saxony. How have you been? How are things over there in Dover?”

  I waved a hand. “I’m not going to win any popularity contests this year, but I’m loving my training. How are you?”

  Targa’s head wobbled back and forth. “I’m ok. Worried about Mom. But let’s talk about you first. You look like you’re about to blow.”

  I nodded. “I feel that way. I’m not supposed to talk to anyone about this report that Basil gave me, but if I don’t tell someone I’ll burst.”

  Her brows pinched. “Will you get into trouble for telling me?”

  “Not you, no,” I shook my head but the truth was that I hadn’t asked Basil if I could tell an outsider about his report. In this case I’d lean on the better to apologize than to ask permission principle. “But, I’d be in deep doo-doo if I shared this with another student.”

  She settled back in her seat and tossed a lock of hair over her shoulder. “I’m all ears.”

  Grabbing the report from where it lay on the desk, I held it up to the camera for Targa to read.

  She squinted at the title. “The Curious Case of Nero Palumbo.” Her brows went up. “Basil’s a viscount?”

  I laughed. “He is, but that’s not the point. This document reads like a police report. It was written for the agency back in the mid-eighties and it…, well it’s mind bending. For a fire mage, anyway.”

  Targa took a sip from a glass of water, then put it back off-screen. Sirens needed to drink as much as fire magi did, though for different reasons. “I didn’t know the Agency existed back then. Wasn’t Arcturus founded in 1990?”

  “Your memory is astounding.” I chuckled because this went both ways. A siren’s memory could be astoundingly bad, especially if she’d been swimming in salt water for an extended period of time. Targa’s mom had forgotten more events than Targa had even lived through. Keeping her memory sharp was one of the reasons mermaids had to hydrate so much.

  “The school was founded then, yes, but the agency already existed. That’s not the important bit either.”

  I told Targa about the conversation Basil and I had had at the beginning of the year, about how some Burned went bad and how he wanted me to tutor April to nurture my compassionate side.

  When Targa looked at me sideways, I paused. “What?”

  “Don’t you remember admitting to Georjie and me that you felt different after you came back from Venice? Harder. Less forgiving. Remember? Maybe you should take him seriously.”

  “I am, but,” I blew out a breath. “Can you just let me tell you the story?”

  Targa waved a hand. “Go on then.”

  “Basil is the youngest of a set of triplets,” I recounted, setting the document aside. I knew the story well as I’d read the report three times. I couldn’t believe I’d left off reading it for so long. All this time it had been in my room, waiting for me to peel back the layers of part of Basil’s life.

  “He has a sister named Barbara—he calls her Babs—and a brother named Bellamy, the oldest by twelve minutes. Basil is the youngest. Bellamy was the frailest of the triplets, his fire pained him excessively and was very difficult to control.”

  The way Bellamy had been described actually reminded me a lot of April, and I wondered if that was another reason Basil had wanted me to take her under my wing.

  “Who did they get their fire from? Which parent?” Targa asked.

  “The report doesn’t say that because it wasn’t relevant to Nero’s story but I mean to ask. I’d have had that conversation with him today but he always spends Sundays away from the academy. Anyway, when they were young the triplets made a pact to help one another survive a Burning, so they could all level up together.”

  Targa’s eyes widened. “Don’t Burnings kill 98% of magi?”

  “That’s the stat, yes. But they were convinced there was a secret, some hidden or lost knowledge that would allow them all to survive. I don’t know what gave them that idea, the document doesn’t say.”

  Targa tugged on her bottom lip thoughtfully. “That’ll be something else you can ask Basil.”

  “Yeah.” I grabbed a quick sip of water from my bottle. “So they made this pact when they were young but I think they kind of forgot about it until they went on holiday to the Amalfi Coast when they were seventeen. They were celebrating graduating from high school. Babs met this handsome Italian…”

  “Let me guess. Nero?”

  “Ding-ding.” I nodded. “They fell in love. The report doesn’t give any details about their relationship, but the family must have accepted him because a few months later, Nero came to stay with them. Here, at the school. It was a hotel then, though. The Chaplins must have given him one of the rooms. Basil writes that Babs eventually shared the secret of their species with Nero.”

  Targa put up a hand to stop me. “Wait, he was a regular guy?”

  I almost felt breathless from talking so fast. I inhaled and forced myself to slow down.

  “Yes. Nero was a regular dude. Babs was hoping she and Nero would one day be married and she didn’t want to start their marriage with a secret. So she told him.”

  Targa wrinkled her nose and I gave her a sympathetic smile. Targa hadn’t yet told her boyfriend Antoni about her true nature; I knew it weighed on her.

  “Some months later,” I continued, “after Nero and Babs announced their engagement, Nero called the triplets to a private meeting. He showed them a handwritten page that appeared to be ripped out of a really old journal, which he claimed he’d found hidden in the walls of his room here at the villa.” I hushed my voice. “It was supposedly written by an ancestor of the Chaplins and it contained a secret formula.”

  Targa’s eyes widened as my words sank in. Her whisper was so quiet it was more like mouthing the words. “How to survive a Burning?”

  I nodded and pushed a lock of hair away as it fell into my face. “He claimed that a calculation had to be made using the golden ratio and a measurement of blood from the mage who wished to Burn. The resulting number had to be converted—from what to wh
at, I don’t know. Then, water had to be administered when the temperature of the Burning mage reached this number. If water was administered then, it was supposed to guarantee success.”

  Targa covered her mouth as she listened, gaze glued to me. She understood what the Burning had done to me, how advanced it had made me among my species. For magi, a formula like the one Nero described would be a recipe for the elixir of supremacy.

  “Bellamy was the oldest and the most pained by the fire so they agreed he should go first. Neither Babs nor Basil could bear to watch their brother go through the process, so Nero promised to watch him and administer the water when needed. He’d even fashioned a special thermometer, which could handle extremely high temperatures, and was the only one who knew how it worked.”

  “I don’t like where this is headed,” Targa said.

  “That’s because you’re naturally cynical, thanks to your mom.”

  “Also, you said it reads like a police report so it must have gone sideways at some point. What happened next?”

  “Basil and Babs waited outside. When Nero came out, Basil writes, he became immediately alarmed because of the glow in Nero’s eyes.”

  Targa gasped and covered her mouth.

  “Nero seemed to be in shock,” I went on. “He ignored them and their questions, just kept walking, like some kind of zombie. That’s how it’s described in the report—he used that word, zombie.”

  Targa gasped. “No way!”

  “Way. And get this. They did it down in the chalk tombs.”

  “Chalk—where?” Targa cocked her head.

  “A cave system, part of which is actually old chalk mines, that run through the cliffs underneath Dover and the surrounding area. They picked a place they knew wouldn’t be found out. If their parents had known what they were up to, there would have been hell to pay.”

  “So, their parents didn’t know?”

  “That’s what the report says. Babs and Basil ran into the chamber to see if Bellamy was okay. They found him in a coma.”