Chapter Twenty-One - Ice
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ice
TUESDAY AFTERNOON, SITTING in on Professor Douglas’ class, I leaned back in my chair. It was clear that Douglas did not enjoy me sitting in, but as a new professor it wasn’t unheard of. Plus, this was my free period.
I avoided turning my head to the left. I could feel her stare as if it were sunlight warming the side of my face, pulling me to look at her. After what happened between us, the pull was stronger than ever. At least, it was for me. I didn’t know about her, she had been improving on her blocking. I was sure that as long as my magic maintained blocking my side, it had to have been enough to keep it hidden.
She didn’t look at me the same recently. There was a curious stare, not in the way I expected. It was like she wanted nothing to do with me but was trying to figure me out anyway.
As much as that cold stare hurt to see, it was what I wanted, and that was a comfort of its own. I truly wanted her as far from this part of the Realm as possible. If she could change academies, that would have been better, but I didn’t see her leaving the academy her parents attended. It was the same reason I enjoyed starting here as a first-year and one reason I didn’t mind coming back after finding out just how invested the council was in Ares-Valentine.
The look she gave me might have had to do with the distance between us after my monumental slip-up. Seeing her go back to being with Caleb Thorne was no surprise after the dismissal at the end of last week’s tutoring session. With how much closer he was getting to the council, it irked me that out of anyone in the Realm, she chose to start seeing him.
The way her fingers kept tracing over the mark I left on her neck, each delicate touch sent a wild surge through me every time. I never knew if it was me she thought about or him—also sitting in this class to my right.
My pen tapped the desk in irritation. I watched Douglas scan over the class. Last week, I knew he wasn’t walking up to Harper for a simple future reading. He was looking for something, perhaps about her magic after the display in the common room. That would have definitely gotten back to them.
That was another reason I had to be in this class for each lesson. Professor Douglas, an informant, was not going to get his greedy claws into my mate’s mind. That wasn’t happening again .
As one of the last to leave Aura Reading, I heard Douglas mention another tutoring lesson with Trevor Emerson after class.
Without a date for what the council had planned, I needed to get closer and learn more of these meetings and whatever they needed prisoners for. If they were held at the meeting house in Deimos Bay, then I was still close by to catch them, but not too close.
It took just moments, hidden in shadows under the second floor, to find out they were leaving the campus for this week’s lesson. Neither Trevor nor Douglas sounded happy about the meeting.
It could have been nothing, but I knew there was something specific they were planning for the future. As much as I needed to get the truth of the past, I needed to prevent another disaster like it. Now students were getting involved way earlier than required, since they were only second-years.
After my last lesson of the day, I returned to my townhouse to hear my next-door neighbor already rushing out.
I followed them through one of Professor Douglas’ poorly protected portals. What a surprise.
The building in front of me left me racking my brain. If I wasn’t mistaken, this was a property I owned with the Valentines. It had completely slipped my mind.
The building was an antique apothecary, completely abandoned in a small city. We owned a lot of historic property here in old deals. The city was said to have been popular a couple hundred years ago and had died down since. I almost never stopped by here, even though it was only ten kilometers away from Ares-Valentine.
The building needed new paint. Its peeling dark purple color revealed an even older chipped black paint. The windows were clouded and cracked. It was a disaster. Why here?
It did appear out of the way, so old and famous for the potions that used to be sold here that there was no way anyone could justify tearing it down. The buildings on each side were also vacant and historical.
They had gone in through the front door. I portaled into the attic, having visited the old building as a teenager. The place still reeked of soured herbs, just as I remembered. The attic was closed off by old magic, only the Valentines or I could enter.
Air magic shielded around my steps to try and prevent the ancient floors from creaking. From here, it appeared like only the two were in the building, heading to the back of the emptied apothecary.
“Here.” Douglas reached for a storage closet. My eyes widened as he yanked out a man in chains who had been lying on the ground, still in the Cerberus prison uniform.
I supposed they were not entirely alone. I crouched low, peering through wide cracks in the floor.
The man slumped to the floor between them. Dirt smeared his uniform, his gag prevented him from speaking much protest. Back in the storage closet rested buckets, one of water beside dirtied plates of food on the floor .
Trevor glared at the prisoner, stepping back, but he didn’t leave the back of the shop.
“Your father wants this,” Douglas said. “Practice.”
Trevor walked up to the man, standing above him while he huddled on the floor. The prisoner stared up at him with true fear in his eyes.
Trevor flinched and spun around, taking steps toward Douglas. “Did you just try to enter my mind?”
Douglas didn’t back down, though his tone gave away his lack of backbone. “It’s my job to make sure nothing is holding you back. You need to be proficient in mental manipulation.”
I was stunned in place, watching the professor fall to his knees. A circle of water swirled around his head and quickly turned into ice. The ice formed to sharp points, getting sharper around his neck, spinning in an impressive display of magic. I rubbed my chin, impressed with the second-year.
Trevor’s laugh, lacking any amusement, echoed through the old building. “You’re planning another night of drinking alone because stalking your ex isn’t working for you? Hmm? As if you didn’t feel pathetic enough. Do not enter my mind without my permission.”
Mind reading, not like illusions, was very illegal. It was surprising that he was doing it so well. I supposed, not too surprising after Douglas was teaching him and clearly attempted it on my mate. The professor veiled it as a reading, so no one else knew. Her pained expression gave it away, and I was a second from ripping him apart with shadows .
Douglas lifted from his knees. His voice shook as he spoke, “So anger fuels you? Stay out of my mind, or these classes are over.”
“Oh, really? Tell that to the council. We are both in this.”
Douglas huffed. “Switch to light magic, since you have no shadows. They want to see if you can handle more of it.”
“I need a source for more,” he said.
Douglas shrugged. “Let’s see what you have.”
Trevor created another bind around the prisoner, a thin string of light that burned as it tightened around him. It lasted only a second before the light puffed up, glowing and floating as a measly light orb. My head shook. It was a tough magic to work with.
Trevor groaned, staring at his hands.
“They won’t be satisfied with that.”
He glared at Douglas, as if that wasn’t the first time that had been said to him.
I leaned back in the dusty attic, waiting for the lesson to be over. After glancing at my phone, I realized my own tutoring session was due to start soon.
There would be no good excuse if Lastrada found out I was late to tutoring. I assured the chancellor that my business would not get in the way of my teaching career.
My hand hovered over my phone. I needed to message Harper. It was something I had been resisting doing to prevent our bond from growing, opening another form of communication. Just like these tutoring lessons, it would only make things harder if it continued. She needed to at least be in the class to show my intention if Lastrada stopped by .
ME: Your lesson will be in my class again. I’ll be late. I’m on my way, please be on time and start with learning to melt ice.
HARPER: I don’t know how to make ice yet.
ME: With water.
I smiled as three dots came up and disappeared twice.
ME: Water and air. If you can’t do it, I will show you when I get there.
Once the prisoner was placed back into the storage closet and the house was otherwise empty, I exited the attic, heading for the storage closet. It definitely got under my skin that they were using this property.
Before I unlocked the closet, a thick mask of shadows covered my face and danced around my body. In case his mind got broken into again, I couldn’t be seen.
The man tried to scream. His voice came out weak, unable to sound louder than a rasp, as if damaged or hindered by a potion. Convenient. The chains on his ankles and hands were reattached to the wall.
“What did you do? Hmm… light magic,” I whispered, using a lower tone than normal to hide my voice as I entered his mind. A laugh rumbled out of me. “You got arrested for pissing on a council member’s lawn? Shouldn’t have fought them with light and earth magic after breaking into their house.” I shook my head at the man. Those actions still didn’t justify Cerberus.
He didn’t care for my attitude, and his glazed-over eyes barely acknowledged me, as if he had already given up, though his body trembled.
I crouched before him. “Tell you what, I’ll let you go if you let me see everything you know. ”
His eyes narrowed. Shadows seeped from my hands, showing him how easily I could remove those chains.
By the time I made it to the classroom, I found Harper pulled up to my desk. I went to set my coat over my chair.
“You made that?” I nodded to the clump of ice on my desk. Water seeped a few inches away from it in each direction, it wasn’t very solid, but I still found pride that she managed to do it.
She tugged on that bottom lip again, and I made sure my own walls were keeping the mate bond in check. Seeing her bite it the next day after our last tutoring session, knowing she thought of me when she did, lit something primal within me.
Nope. Cannot go there.
“Good, the shape could use some definition. Ice is much harder to form than just using water magic. Fire is the quickest way to melt ice, the easiest if in an emergency. You’ll want to start with the part closest to you,” I said.
“Sounds like Magical Combat. I don’t start that until next semester,” she said, still frowning at her ice. Her black hair was pulled back, showing off her neck and the messy hairs falling down.
“I’m aware.”
She cocked an eyebrow, never letting me get away with anything, and I admired that in her.
“Yes, I know your schedule, Harper.” Despite my goal, I had noted and had paid attention to every detail I could learn about her. I ignored the way those blue eyes nearly shot out of her head at my slip of her name. I crossed my arms and stared down at my desk. “Did Lastrada specify what I would have to teach you?” If the council had second-years throwing magic that fourth-years would learn, my mate would learn to protect herself. At least better than the oaf teaching Aura Reading.
“No.” Her teeth bit into her lip again, into the dark lipstick she wore.
I raised an eyebrow back. Her chest rose with a visible inhale, eyes not blinking in shock, before slowly releasing her lip from between her teeth.
I continued, “If you are not confident with fire magic, you can use water magic to undo it, but that is more difficult. Before you can undo someone else’s magic, you must first be able to form and unform your own ice magic.”
Her eyes lingered on me, but I had slipped up enough. I sat in my chair, pulling a stack of papers in front of me.
“Okay, Nick.”
It took everything in me to not look up at her, see her say my name for the first time, even in sarcasm, even if it was only because I crossed a line last time. That was fair. I showed nothing I thought of it.
“Keep trying to melt it, however you need to. You can practice forming ice again if it helps.” I started to grade the stack of papers. Waving a hand, I made the ice melt and evaporate before it got to the papers in front of me.
She cast water, keeping it contained in front of her, and focused for long minutes until the ice formed again. Her foot kicked out and touched mine under the desk. Even with everything I’ve worked on, everything at risk, I didn’t pull it away. She didn’t either. I didn’t dare raise my head to look at her. It lingered, her touching ever so slightly before she pulled sharply away a few moments later. It was then I chose to look up, to see her focused on her magic, refusing to look back at me, and I smirked.
We stayed quiet while she kept up her practice until the hour was up. She didn’t look back as she grabbed her bag and headed out the door.