“In addition,” he says, “You will submit to observation twice a week under Dr. Robin Fashu, of the Shanghai Academy.”
And with that, the man at the window finally turns to us. He offers us the slightest bow, and takes several slow, deliberate steps to join the principal behind his desk.
I see a flicker of recognition on Flynn’s face, and he takes a step forward as well.
“Dr. Fashu was working with you, Flynn, before you transferred over, was he not?” The principal asks.
Flynn nods. “Only briefly.”
Dr. Fashu nods his head again in acknowledgment. “I look forward to continuing my studies with Octavia.” His eyes meet mine, and there is something not quite right about them. It is more than the fact that though I am sure he is a Psychic Mage, he does not test the strength of my mental walls like most do. He looks at me like he doesn’t even need to.
I must not be the only one to think so, because Draven steps forward next, unable to hold his tongue.
“What kind of ‘observation’ are we talking about here? Octavia is not some lab rat to be experimented on.”
The principal lifts his eyes so lazily to Draven that it is plain how much he values his opinion. Before he can reassure him, as well as myself, that I am not going to end up as some kind of guinea-pig, Dr. Fashu finally cuts in.
“My work with Octavia will be to monitor her progress, both magically, physically, and mentally as she prepares to present her case to the tribunal,” he says. “This way, we will be able to ensure that her trial is fair.”
Even though something about him still seems off, I can’t argue with that logic.
“Fine, I accept,” I say. “If this is what it takes for me to be able to keep my powers, I’ll take it.”
Dr. Fashu looks like he’d like to continue speaking, but the principal quickly cuts back in.
“And one more thing,” he adds. “For your own safety you will not be permitted to leave school grounds.”
“What?” I say, quickly doubling back and adding, “I mean, why’s that?”
I was seriously looking forward to escaping the academy altogether, not just the infirmary. As much as I really do appreciate the school that is teaching me to use my powers, sometimes I do just need to get away for sanity’s sake.
“Magical crime is at an all-time high. You will not leave the academy or the dormitories under any circumstances. You, above all other students, are a prime target: past events have proven that. So long as you are on these grounds nothing bad will come to you. But we cannot guarantee your safety otherwise.”
I try not to let displeasure sour my tone when I respond. “So I’m a prisoner here?”
The principal motions to the window. “I see no bars.”
And I see no point in arguing. I guess I’m already lucky enough as it is.
There can’t be much else for them to tell us. The principal is not the kind of man to waste words.
“You’ll begin your first session with Dr. Fashu tomorrow,” he says as he motions to the door and it flies open, signaling to us that it is time to leave.
“Before you go, there is someone I would like to introduce,” Dr. Fashu says. I pause in the middle of getting up from my seat. “I brought a student along to help with my observation of Octavia’s progress. Please, meet my assistant, Jennifer Li.”
I know as soon as she walks in the door that there’s going to be trouble. She is tall and slender, with a pale heart-shaped face framed by the longest, most shiny black hair I’ve ever seen. She barely glances at me as she turns first to nod at the principal and Dr. Fashu, and then, ever so slowly, turns to Flynn. I’ve never seen him go so pale.
“Hello Flynn,” she says. There is no mistaking the look that passes between them. She raises her arm to reveal the glowing blue Psychic brand.
Jessica is his other pair.
3
Flynn
I was prepared to fight for Octavia. I was prepared to argue her case, our case to him and anyone else who tried to take away her powers. I was even prepared to lose those powers if it meant I could be with her.
But I was not prepared to face her.
Jessica’s glance was brief but steeped with feeling. Everything I left the school to forget has somehow, inexplicably, followed me here.
It isn’t until Octavia starts tugging on my sleeve that I realize everyone else has already left. I still stand rooted to the same spot, my eyes now staring at the space behind where Jessica stood a few moments before.
I shake my head to clear it and follow the rest of them out. There is a strange energy among us. I cannot decide what to think of our meeting. I am just about to get lost in my own head again when Octavia shakes my arm once more and reminds me of the reason we came here in the first place.
“I can’t believe it,” she says, “I was sure he was going to take away our powers right here, right now.” Her breath comes out all in a whoosh, but as much as she tries to look happy, I can see the concern still drawing at the inner corners of her brows.
Cedric nods in agreement. “I didn’t expect an apology, that’s for sure.”
Draven and I accidentally make eye contact, and I am surprised he looks as apprehensive as I feel. He holds my gaze a moment.
“That doctor, you know him. Should we be worried?” Draven asks.
It isn’t the doctor I am worried about.
“No. He should be fine. I was also under his care for a short time in Shanghai. He’s a little pompous, but he’ll be professional.”
I realize I’ve been staring at the same patch of tiles on the floor for long enough that Octavia has already started leading the rest of the group away. Draven is the only one who seems to notice that something about me seems off, but he doesn’t say anything.
I catch Octavia before she disappears down the steps with everyone else, anxious to move her things out of the infirmary as quickly as possible.
“Octavia, I have something private I would like to address with the principal.”
She nods and wishes me luck, but not before her eyes scan my face a moment, looking for something that might be the matter. I get the suspicion that she knows the truth, and that only makes my lie sink heavier into the pit of my stomach as they leave me behind.
I don’t have to wait long for Dr. Fashu to emerge, Jessica following close at his heels. He looks unsurprised to see me waiting.
“You never were very good at concealing your thoughts from me,” he says as soon as I take a step towards them.
“And yet somehow you thought it was a good idea to bring Jessica along,” I say, “Even though you are aware of the agreement that we came to last semester.”
“Jessica is my assistant. She’s assured me that she’ll do nothing to interfere with your studies here,” he says. I know there is no way he actually believes that. “Isn’t that right, Jessica?”
Even now, my other pair brushes her hair over one shoulder as she shoots daggers at me with her eyes. Her dark lashes make the black of her pupils appear even larger and more dangerous. “Of course,” she says.
Dr. Fashu, apparently satisfied with that answer, readjusts the clipboard in his hands and heads off further down the hall. The echo of his footsteps is the only sound between us for a long moment.
Then Jessica speaks, as I knew she would. She isn’t finished yet. “Though, I am interested to see how that agreement withstands these new…developments.” Her eyes flicker over to the staircase where Octavia and the others just disappeared.
I try not to hint at the anger and frustration that rise up in me. I cannot let her see how already she is getting to me; breaking me down in that way that only she is able to.
“Soon,” I promise, though I plan to avoid her at all costs. “In the meantime, let me leave you with this.” I too glance behind me in the direction of my other paired. “Octavia is not to be messed with. The agreement between us, it stays between us.”
A muscle pulls at the corner of her mouth, t
he closest thing to a smile that she is capable of emulating. “Do you forget, Flynn Wang, that you are promised to me?”
I grit my teeth. “How could I? It weighs on my mind every day.”
“Good,” she says. “I do not like to be forgotten.”
She leaves and follows Dr. Fashu. I wait until they recede into another office before I stop and let myself slump against the wall. I will follow the others soon, but first I need time to process.
Jessica is here. I knew I would have to face her one day, but I had not expected it to be so soon. She gives me the space to practice and study, and I allow her to maintain appearances by keeping the fact that we despise each other a secret. It was a charade I planned to carry on with as long as necessary—until I met Octavia.
Suddenly I was offered something so much better, something honest and precious. It made me forget the agreement I made before.
Jessica is not the kind to forgive easily. I don’t know if she is even capable of forgiveness. But I do know one thing.
I must protect Octavia, even if it means protecting her from the truth.
She can never know that before I met her, I was engaged to Jessica Li. It takes me a moment before I have to remind myself, once more, than I still am.
4
Octavia
As soon as we are out of earshot of Flynn, I can’t hold my tongue any longer.
“There is no way that is an accident,” I say. “That doctor, therapist, whatever…”
“Dr. Fashu,” Cedric reminds me.
“Right. Dr. Fashu must have brought that girl on purpose. What are the odds he would bring Flynn’s other paired with him above any other student?”
I expected at least one of them to agree with me, but I am surprised when no one seems even the least bit concerned. I thought for sure that I’m not the only one freaking out over this, but it’s like I am the only one who even noticed. I glance between the three of them, thinking that for sure I misunderstand their silence. Finally, my eyes come to rest on Kendall. If any one of these boys would understand my situation the best, I think it’d be him.
“Kendall?” I ask. “Don’t you think it’s weird?”
But even he just shrugs.
“It actually makes sense to me,” Cedric says. “If Dr. Fashu is here to observe you, it would make sense that he would also want to study how multiple affinities are effecting both you and Flynn. If Jessica is Flynn’s second pair, then he wouldn’t be able to properly do that without her here.”
“I’m still not convinced that Dr. Fashu is here for the right reasons,” Draven says. I’m not ready to let thus whole Flynn and Jessica thing go, but all the other boys apparently are. Cedric glances over at Draven when he says this, and I can tell he’s also thinking the same thing. Even Kendall nods his agreement this time.
Well, at least there is one thing we can all agree on.
“Well then, what do you think he actually is here for?”
Draven is about to answer when Wednesday bounds up and interrupts us. I’d wonder where she got to. We weren’t in the principal’s office for very long, but she was gone by the time we got out.
“Sorry,” she says, her voice coming out in a breathy whisper. “I got caught up in something. You’ve got to come see this.”
We follow increasingly loud voices down the hall towards the entrance. By the time we are about to turn the corner, the voices have turned into shouts. We arrive just as the principal and even Dr. Fashu run up behind us and push their way through the gathering crowd at the front of the school. It’s Saturday and classes aren’t even in session, but students are pouring down the halls, staircases, and across the street from the dorms just to see what is going on.
Draven, Cedric, and Kendall are all tall enough to see what is going on above the tops of the crowd, but no matter how far I stretch to the tops of my toes, I’m unable to. Before I can try to shimmy my way into the crowd after Wednesday, who has already disappeared again, a pair of strong arms clamps around my thighs and hoists me up over the heads of my classmates.
I screech and squirm for a second before I realize it is Draven. He grins up at me and only squeezes tighter around my legs.
From up here, I can see the source of all the commotion.
The two statues, Harvel and Drummel, bar the entrance into the school. Their usual casual demeanor has been replaced with stoic, stony faces that honestly suit them better. I never noticed that they had long, stone lances before, but today they are crossed in an imposing “X” across the front of the door. On the other side, the person being barred from entering, is a girl I’m sure I’ve never seen before.
Her face is red from arguing, and her voice hoarse from shouting over the two statues.
I can see the principal struggling to press through the crowd, but there are so many students even his impressive height can’t bully its way through. At last, the principal has had enough.
“Silence!” he bellows. His voice, magically amplified, echoes through every nook and cranny in the room so loudly that tiny particles of dust shake free from the crown molding overhead. Immediately, everyone obeys, even the strange girl at the entrance. Her skin pales and turns gray at the sound.
Draven’s grip has grown so tight, I am almost afraid I am going to lose feeling in my legs. I struggle a bit until Kendall notices and helps bolster me the rest of the way up onto his shoulders. I catch a couple nasty glances from jealous students beside me, but the moment they see who I am, they scuttle quickly away.
The crowd parts and allows the principal through. Several other people follow him, but I don’t recognize them at first. Cedric must see me staring because he leans over, and I hunch down in order to hear him speak. He keeps his voice low as not to disturb the sudden chilly silence all around us.
“We had to hire all new teachers,” he says. “My father didn’t know who to trust anymore.”
I have just enough time to straighten back up before the principal addresses the two statues.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Harvel is the one to speak first. “This girl here is not a student, but she claims she’s here to enroll.”
Drummel nods his agreement. If he weren’t a ten-foot-tall marble statue, his dogged behavior would be almost adorable. “She tried to just walk on in and demanded to speak with the principal.”
“And you did not think to fetch me at once?” the principal asks.
Harvel and Drummel exchange a glance. “She isn’t on the list.”
“And yet, she found her way here, knew it was a school, and can see you for what you truly are.”
“Exquisite examples of fine baroque craftsmanship?” Drummel tries.
“Bumbling, stupid, idiots!” he snaps at them. His eyes flicker down to the girl. Up until now, she had taken a step back. But at his glance, she tries to visibly compose herself to look a little less terrified.
I must look confused, because Cedric reaches out to me again—this time in my mind.
The statues are enchanted to know every mage that is allowed through those doors.
I glance down at him before I am able to arrange my own thoughts in reply.
But what about non-mages who try to enter?
His eyes cut over to the girl.
They don’t.
“What are you doing here, Mathilda?” he says, addressing the girl. Her eyes grow wide at the mention of her name. I’m guessing she must have been rehearsing her introduction in her mind when he pried it open to look inside.
Her voice comes out as a hoarse squeak. “About four weeks ago, something happened to me.”
Four weeks. That would be around the night of Homecoming…and the rest of the drama that went down that night.
“I was on my way home from school when I saw something very odd,” she says. I can tell it is taking everything in her to say these words here, in front of everyone. “It was like, for just a moment, everything around me suddenly looked a little different. I saw a m
an in the subway talking to his pet rabbit, and then I swear I saw it talk right back.”
I can tell the principal is about to tell her she must have just been seeing things, but she cuts him off.
“I know that I wasn’t the only one that night. The city said it was toxic sewer gas leakage or whatever, and at first I believed them. But then it kept happening,” she says. “And other things too.” She looks down at her hands, and then slowly lifts one of them up and snaps her fingers. A tiny shower of sparks erupts from her fingertips as she does so.
The statues look from her to the principal, and then back. Harvel speaks.
“I swear,” he says. “She’s not on the list.”
The principal holds up a hand. “Please,” he says, “I would like to continue this conversation. In private.”
His eyes scan the faces of the crowd around him. “It seems,” he says, “That we have not yet seen the end of that night’s troubles after all.”
5
Octavia
I want to somehow weasel my way back into that office, but I am instructed, quite gruffly, to remain at a distance. All students are ordered to the assembly chambers straight away, and the girl is escorted past us towards the place that we just left. Something seizes up inside me. If this has something to do with me, which it inevitably does, I hope it doesn’t change the principal’s decision to give me a second chance.
That night four weeks ago, I was forced to complete a ritual that would have lifted The Sight. I don’t know to what extent—only that at the last second, my dyslexia caused me to speak two of the words in the wrong order. It effectively ruined the spell, but didn’t stop the majority of Manhattan, just for a second, from seeing some of the magic.
Like the girl Mathilda said, the city chalked it up to gas leaks, and most of it was forgotten right away in favor of a news article that showed a local pigeon learning to play the piano.
Adapt: Book Two of the Forgotten Affinities Series Page 2
