by A. L. Knorr
The whites of her eyes were visible. A surge of longing went through me. It was so nice to talk to a friend, someone who knew me, trusted me. Someone who cared about what was happening in my life. I felt a tingle in my nose and shoved the emotion away. There was more story to tell.
“Babs became enraged and went after Nero while Basil called Dr. Price, she’s a professor here at the academy. She wasn’t then, obviously she was much younger and just a friend at that time. She was doing her residency, but now she teaches Supernatural Medicine and a few other classes. I always wondered why she got special treatment, she has a bigger office than the others which is only accessed through the library, this explains it.”
“Bet you’ll never look at her the same way again,” Targa said.
I nodded. “I keep wondering if I should ask her about it, but I think its kind of a taboo subject. Basil doesn’t want the report floating around school. He asked me to return it to him as soon as I was finished with it.”
“So, Bellamy survived?
“Yes, Christy and a supernatural medical team managed to save him, but it was touch and go. He was in a coma for some time.”
Targa shook her head. “And did Babs catch Nero?”
“No. He vanished, and here’s where things get crazy.”
Targa raked her hair back and blew out her cheeks. “As if that wasn’t crazy enough.”
“About a year later, Nero sent a letter to Babs and Basil. He apologized and asked for forgiveness. He inquired after Bellamy’s health and told them he’d been too frightened at what he’d done to let them know where he was. He claimed he did it to save Bellamy from his fire and that Bellamy was actually in on it. At the bottom of the note he’d added: When you’re ready to learn how I did it I’ll show you, and more.”
I wafted air over my torso by tugging at my t-shirt, feeling like my fire was warming up with indignation as I told the story.
“At first Babs and Basil were united in their hatred of Nero, and their desire to avenge their brother who was now no longer a mage. But as time went by, Babs withdrew and no longer wanted to discuss the situation. Basil suspected she was plotting revenge, but she didn’t reveal anything to him. One day, she was gone. She left a note that she’d gone to Naples.”
“She went after Nero?”
I nodded. “While she was gone, Bellamy healed and was able to resume a human life. At first he supported the story that he and Nero had colluded but then he had doubts. He changed his story and decided that Nero had conned him. He was now free of pain, but he grew to have major regrets. He was the outsider triplet. He became consumed by a desire for revenge. Basil didn’t know what to believe. He convinced Bellamy to wait until they heard from Babs.
“A few weeks after she went to Naples, Babs sent them a letter saying she and Nero were in London and wanted to meet. Bellamy and Basil were shocked, thinking Babs must have accepted Nero back even after what he’d done. Bellamy convinced Basil that Nero had indeed conned him, and that they should use the meeting to separate Babs from Nero, capture him, and bring him to the agency to be dealt with by a tribunal. I think Bellamy was hoping they would force Nero to give the fire back.” I paused to take another sip of water.
“Is that even possible?”
“In theory.” I shrugged. “But you’d have to almost kill a mage to do it and it doesn’t sound like the agency would do something like that.”
Targa leaned forward, her face taking up half of my screen. “Then what happened?”
“They went to London with a plan to capture Nero but their plan backfired. Bellamy’s burnt body was found under a bridge near the Thames.”
Targa straightened, her face wide with shock. “He died?”
“Nero killed him,” I croaked and had to clear my throat. The thought of what Basil had endured almost made me misty-eyed.
“There were no witnesses, but while Babs had an alibi for the evening that it happened, Nero didn’t. Basil was stunned because when they’d first met him, Nero had seemed kind and honorable. Babs later confirmed that both she and Nero had survived a Burning before returning to London. While she went to Naples prepared to forgive Nero, she could never forgive the murder of Bellamy. She was so broken by it that she submitted herself to a private mental institution for supernaturals for a year and a half afterwards.”
“But as of today, she’s out and well?”
“I don’t know. The report ends there. I hope Basil will tell me more. He gave it to me hoping I would take the threat of losing my empathy more seriously, which it has, but now I’ve got a whole crop of new questions.”
Targa was silent for a while and I didn’t say anything as I could see she was processing.
“Poor Basil. What an awful thing. It’s amazing that he showed you the report though, don’t you think?”
“I do. I mean, he could have just told me what had happened, but instead he gave me the official report to read. He must have known it would trigger all kinds of curiosity. Like how does he know that Nero was good to begin with? Maybe he was pretending the whole time.”
Targa threaded her fingers and propped her chin on them. “Yeah, but I’m even more curious about something else. Was the formula in the report?”
I shook my head. “No. That’s why he figured it was safe for me to read, I guess. It only says what I’ve told you.”
“But you know that there is a formula. Basil must have wanted you to know that, or he wouldn’t have shared the report with you.”
My heart did a flip as I realized she might be right. Had he really given me the report to warn me of my impending callousness? If it that was his intention, he must have realized that the other info-bomb in the document would have an even greater impact: the fact that there was a way to successfully facilitate a Burning without having to make a wild guess and risk a mage’s life.
Targa and I continued to chat for another hour. I wasn’t able to meet her boyfriend Antoni or see her mom, Mira, as she was out swimming, so I asked Targa to give them a hello from me and then signed off. I had loads of homework to do, not to mention elemental properties to memorize, but the Nero Palumbo report was never far from my mind.
Twenty-Eight
Foreign Fire
On Monday afternoon after my training session with Basil and Alfred in the combat room, I lingered until Professor Knight left. Normally I’d have to get some homework done before coaching April, but since she wanted nothing to do with me, I had a handy spare I could use to interrogate Basil. The moment the door closed behind Alfred, I pulled the Palumbo report out of my backpack and handed it to Basil with a meaningful look.
He took it, a shadow of inquiry passed over his face. “Finally got around to reading it?”
I threaded my fingers and tucked them under my chin, like the pose of a hopeful prayer. “Yes. May I ask you a few questions?”
He waved the report through the air. I wasn’t sure if it was a sign to continue or a sign of impatience. Sometimes he was hard to read.
“First,” I said, with as much respect as I could muster, “I’m sorry about Bellamy. I have two bothers. I’d be in pieces if anything happened to one of them.”
Basil rubbed a hand over his jaw, his shaved chin rasping against his palm. “Thank you. It was almost thirty years ago now but not a day goes by that I don’t miss him.” He gestured to the door. “Shall I walk you to the library, or wherever you need to be next?”
I hesitated. “But I want to ask you some things that shouldn’t be overheard. The halls are busy right now.”
“Be that as it may, I have a meeting with Susan that I cannot be late for.” He made for the door and I fell in step beside him.
“How did you end up Burned? Did Babs use the formula on you?” I blurted, desperate to stop him even if it was only for a few minutes.
He froze for a second and then swung back to me, puzzled. “Formula?”
“Yes, the one Nero used.”
Basil blinked owlishly, eyes overla
rge through his spectacles. “There is no formula, Saxony. Nero was lying. I thought you’d have deduced that from the report.”
It was my turn for confusion. “Then how did Babs safely Burn?”
He adjusted his glasses and resumed moving toward the door. “That I couldn’t tell you. I wasn’t there. But I can believe that Nero invented the story of the formula to trick us into giving him access to Bellamy’s fire. Nero knew that Babs and I would have talked Bellamy out of giving his fire away. It was too risky; in addition, we knew he’d regret it.”
As we reached the door and stepped through, I took a covert look down the hall to make sure the coast was clear. “But Bellamy’s story changed. How can you be so sure Nero didn’t con him, like he said originally?”
Basil studied my face as we walked. “Saxony, I gave you that report to help you see that a newly B—”
He just stopped himself from saying the word as Krispy appeared at the end of the hall, coming our way. Instead he made a gesture indicating to my person, meaning I was the newly Burned mage he was referring to, then he waited for her to pass.
Basil gave Krispy a formal nod. I murmured a hello but couldn’t meet her eyes.
He tucked the report under one arm and pinned me with a narrow look. “Someone like that is in danger of a rapid decline in generosity and goodwill toward others. Perhaps I should have told you an abbreviated version?”
“No,” I replied with haste, my heartbeat stepping up a notch. I wanted to give Basil no reason to regret anything he gave me, told me, or did for me. “I get that. I do. But reading it only raised more questions.”
“Obviously.” He glanced at his watch.
“Like how do you know that Nero wasn’t putting on the nice act from the first? They say that psychopaths can be very charming.” I fought against the urge to fiddle with my backpack or hair. If I wanted to be an agent one day, I’d have to learn to present a calm demeanor. It wasn’t easy when my stomach was full of fluttering moths.
“I know because Nero was head over heels in love with my sister well before she ever told him about our nature. He loved babies and baby animals and even baby vegetables, for Pete’s sake.” Basil put up a hand. “I’m not saying he was perfect. He told Babs that he never intended to hurt Bellamy, only free him from his fire. But a short time after he became Burned, Nero murdered Bellamy in cold blood. It was the action of a man who had greatly degenerated in character. I shudder to think of how far his descent may have taken him. We have reports at the agency about him from time to time, each incident seems worse than the last. And in addition to the story of Nero, my own sister has never been the same.”
“Babs?” I gasped. “She changed too?”
“Immensely.” His clipped tone said he didn’t much want to discuss Babs further.
I swallowed. Okay. That put a new light on things.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was hoping that you were wrong about Nero. That he’d always been a rat inside and his nasty nature had nothing to do with his being Burned. But with evidence of a second mage’s descent...”
He gave a single nod and began to turn away, signaling an end to the conversation. He put his hand on the doorknob to Susan Palmer’s office and gave me a look. “Now, put it out of your mind and focus on yourself. That’s my advice. You’ve gotten the point. Take the lesson to heart and ensure that a similar plunge into the abyss does not happen to you.”
I frowned. “But, April won’t even talk to me anymore.”
“She’ll come around. It’s almost December and she needs you to prep for her practical. Don’t give up on her.” With that, Basil let himself into Susan’s office and shut the door.
Scowling at the door, I wanted to yell that I hadn’t given up on her, she’d given up on me. I settled for hiking my bag with a huff and stomping away.
Basil’s words echoed annoyingly around in my mind like one of those metal bearings looking for an earhole. Stepping out into the fresh late afternoon air for some peace and quiet, I soon found myself walking rings around the fountain. An open timeslot in my schedule was wreaking havoc on my conscience. Exams were only three weeks away. The wedge April had put between us didn’t eliminate the threat of failure. Chewing a thumbnail, I hosted a heated internal debate, the outcome of which was a decision to find April and make one last attempt at a reconciliation. She was in the wrong, but she didn’t know that. She was blinded by her crush. If she snubbed me again this time then I could rest easy knowing I’d done all I could. When she failed, on her own head it would be.
I left the ring I’d worn in the gravel and stalked my way over to the outdoor entrance to the fire-gym. This close to exams the most likely places she would be were the gym or the CTH. The gym was closer, so I’d check there first.
Passing through the outer doors, the shouts and thumps and thwacks of students honing their skills assaulted my ears. Opening the inner door made me want to cringe. It reminded me of a high-school basketball game, only with a lot more flashes of light—and plumes of fire and smoke flying through the air. It seemed every square inch of space was occupied by students.
I walked the perimeter of the gym looking for April, but couldn’t find her in the sea of activity so I climbed up to the first observation deck. Passing through the door I was amazed to find myself in peaceful, insulated silence. The pod had two occupants seated in the front row murmuring quietly to one another about the scene below. At the sound of my feet on the metal flooring, they looked back.
“Hi Wanda. Hi Professor Hupelo,” I said. “Sorry if I interrupted you. Should I go?”
Wanda beckoned. “Not at all, come sit with us. Maybe you’ll even have a suggestion or two about what’s going on down there.”
Her vote of confidence filled me with a warm glow that had nothing to do with my fire. Professors who wanted to hear my thoughts, my suggestions? I was struck by it. Taking the steps down to the front row, I slid into the seat beside Professor Hupelo.
“Looks like the whole academy turned out for practice. I’ve never seen so many of us in one place before.”
“It’s always like this before exams.” Wanda leaned forward to see past Tyson.
“When we get the chance, we like to take notes so we can better coach the kids who need it.” Tyson crossed his arms over his chest, his whole upper body bulging with muscle. “You would know something about that.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant until I spotted April’s pigtails in the crowd. She was with Ryan, inside a circle taped on the floor. Gage and Tomio were in a similar circle not far away. Fire flashed between them in fits and starts.
“Oh, not any more. I’m the academy reprobate now.”
Wanda shook her head. “Still? These things have usually blown over by now. Seems like an unforgiving group, especially considering how he provoked you.”
“Justified,” I half-wailed, throwing my hands up.
They chuckled.
“Kids can be mean,” said Tyson.
“They’re not really kids anymore,” Wanda replied with another shake of her head.
As Tyson and Wanda waxed about the challenges of working with young adults, especially fiery ones, my gaze was drawn to Gage and Tomio.
Inside their ring they faced one another, hands out to the sides and palms facing one another. A snake of fire passed from Gage’s right hand and was caught and absorbed by Tomio’s left. Their other hands seemed out only for balance until the blast Gage was giving off suddenly stopped and came out of his other hand in a wild zigzag. The fire went shooting past Tomio, who tried to catch it but missed. Gage let his fire die and the two came together and began to talk and gesture, figuring out what had gone wrong. A moment later the separated and tried again.
“What are they doing?” I asked the professors.
Wanda and Tyson tried to follow my gaze but there were too many students on the floor.
“Who?” Tyson asked.
I pointed. “Gage and Tomio, there, near the middle.”
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“Oh. Foreign fire. It’s the only test in the skills exam that requires teamwork. They’re pretty good, those boys,” Wanda glanced at Tyson. “Don’t you think?”
“Gage needs to regulate, sometimes his fire is all over the place,” the Fire Science prof observed, rubbing his chin.
“So, Gage was in the wrong? Not Tomio?” I had thought it looked like Tomio had missed a catch, but apparently Gage wasn’t trying to fake him out, he’d spoiled the throw. “Basil hasn’t taught me foreign fire yet.”
“Because you’re a private student. You’d have to do it if you had peers. Foreign fire is just being able to trade fire with a fellow mage. Give and take. The good first-years will be able to do both at the same time. It’s harder than it looks, though.”
“Huh.” I looked at April and Ryan again; they appeared to be practicing the same thing, only with less success. A jet of flame spurted from Ryan’s hand and April caught it, well, part of it. Threads of errant fire broke away and swarmed past April’s outstretched palm, streaming through her fingers until they fizzled out near the border of their circle.
“Looks like April’s not absorbing very well,” I murmured.
“No, and that’s the easy part.” Wanda shifted in her seat, sounding concerned. “If she can’t take it then there isn’t much hope that she’ll be able to give it well.”
Ryan made a gesture that April should stop and she did. He beckoned to her and they met in the middle, conversing the way Tomio and Gage had. I could see Ryan’s face but not April’s. I expected him to lay into her but his expression was pleasant, his eyes soft. He’d never looked more like Gage than in that moment and an unexpected ache came into my chest. I missed my twin.
Ryan and April stepped back and tried again; this time, April caught and absorbed Ryan’s fire cleanly, her countenance brightening with amazement and pride. I’d seen that look on her face only rarely. It was a look that said she was a step closer to freedom.
