Chapter Eleven #2
Nala and I head down the corridor overlooking the second courtyard after potion class finished.
I’m not sure whether I am going to take the class or not yet.
The professor seems a bit dark to me, and let’s face it, I didn’t make the best first impression.
My head is still pounding, and by the look on Nala’s face, so is hers.
The chatter of the school around us doesn’t have the same charm as it did when we first arrived.
A few more students got their Gifts last night.
Alex is one of them. He has been nonstop showing off at every chance he gets.
Looks like he is a light worker. In potion class, he was juggling balls of light off his fingertips.
They were only small, though. It’s going to take a lot of practice before he can control them properly.
He hasn’t spoken to me since the whole combat situation, but he’s been throwing daggers with his eyes any time he sees me.
It does not surprise me. If it weren’t for the healing quarters, he’d probably be on crutches or even in a wheelchair.
Nala points out the window to the second courtyard.
“Look, there’s River,” she says, tucking her black hair behind her ear.
River is sitting on a viewing bench with Ty and Jaxon from last night. They are laughing and joking about something between them. They definitely look better than I feel.
“I’m going to go have a word with him,” I say, my eyes not moving from the window.
“No worries. I’m gonna catch up to Charlie. Meet me at second meals?”
I turn to face her and nod in agreement. She runs off ahead, and I turn the opposite way to take the spiral stairs through the library and down to the courtyard.
“Going somewhere?” A voice vibrates off the metallic stairs from behind me. I grip my hands tighter on the iron bannister. I know exactly who it is. This can’t be good.
“What do you want, Alex? Another broken bone?” I throw him a deadly look.
“Haha, you think you’re funny.” His face is serious as he takes a step down towards me. “You know what I find funny?” he sneers.
“Not really,” I scoff, not really wanting to hear his response.
“Me getting my Gifts before you.” He edges towards me, taking another step down the staircase. He lights up an orb in his right hand and plays with it on his fingertips.
“Good for you,” I reply bluntly, turning away to continue down the stairs.
“Yeah, it is good for me. Good to get my own back on people who’ve pissed me off.”
This doesn’t sound good. I’m guessing he means me.
“Get a life, Alex,” I add, rolling my eyes. I go to walk down another step when I suddenly feel a sharp pain searing through my palm. I wince and yank it away from the bannister. Alex’s laugh infects my eardrums.
“My bad. Is that a little hot?” Alex has his hand around the bannister, channelling his Gift through the metal. The blackened iron glowing red from the heat.
“Asshole,” I retort at him.
“You might want to get going, freak, in case it heats up again,” he says through gritted teeth.
I stare into his eyes, and his face turns cold. He was menacing before, but now he seems different, frightened almost. I feel a tingling in my palm.
“W-w-what, what are you doing?” Alex is trembling now. I look down to where his eyes are drawn. My hand is glowing a dark red, like the iron rail.
“I don’t-” I stare at the glowing digits in confusion as my hand begins to throb and shake. What the fuck is going on? I grab hold with my other hand to try to control the shaking, but I am thrown back by an unknown force.
I hit the bottom of the stairs with a thud, and the deafening sound of high-pitched ringing suffocates any other noises around me.
I must’ve hit my head in the fall. My vision swaying and blurred, I rub my eyes to still the picture.
It’s hard to focus, but I can see a bright light in front of me.
I shake my head and gain clarity. It’s Alex… . He’s on fire?!
He tumbles down the stairs, wailing like a baby, his arms flailing around in the air so fast I can barely see them in the light.
The ringing is still haunting my eardrums, but I know he must be screaming loudly because people are starting to gather.
I watch as they clamber around him, trying to put him out.
Mr Evelyn dashes out the door and returns with a fire extinguisher.
The foam from the extinguisher swaddles Alex until the raging fire is put out.
His clothes are burnt to a crisp, and his skin is now black and ashy.
I watch as teachers run to his aid and hoist him up off the ground.
His arms are cradled over the necks of Miss Aloe and Mr Evelyn as they struggle to help him up and towards the healing quarter.
“It was you… You did this to me!” Alex declares, whilst pointing a charred finger at me.
I feel the eyes of the audience burn through me like the fire show they had just watched.
Jemima ushers beside me and lends me her hand to help me up off the floor.
“Don’t worry about him; the smoke can make you hallucinate. He really needs to learn to control his powers.” She smiles at me with kind eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I think so…” I wince as my fingers soothe the back of my head. “I don’t really know what happened,” I remark, truly confused.
Jemima takes my hand.
“Looks like he might have caught you in the fire,” she says, directing her attention to the burn mark on my hand. “You should go to the healing quarters and get some grium jelly on that.”
I take my hand back from her grip and nod my head.
“Thanks, Jemima.”
“Do you believe in karma?” A small smile forms on her lips as she struts away.
Maybe it was karma. Alex has been a dick to everyone at this school. It doesn’t make sense, though. Why would he say that it was me? I haven’t even got my Gifts yet, but my hand was glowing. I’m sure of it.
“Hey, are you alright?” a husky voice calls from behind me. “I saw the crowd. How did I know you would be involved somehow?” His lips curl upwards, and River places his hands on my cheeks as if assessing for damages.
“I’m fine, really, just a little shocked,” I say, still confused by what just took place.
“What happened?” Concern rewrites his features.
“I’m not too sure… Alex was giving me grief about combat yesterday and then he just went up in flames.” My eyebrows furrow with confusion. Nothing about it makes sense.
“Alex ought to stay away from you. You might just be his bad luck charm,” he jokes.
“It seems that way,” I laugh, but my head pounds. That fall did not do my hangover any good. I grip my forehead, and River guides me to sit in the courtyard with him.
“I’m kidding. It happens to a light worker here almost every year. They get their powers, and they just can’t control them.”
Could that really be why? It’s got to be.
There’s no other explanation. ‘You’re different’.
I push Ryder’s voice to the back of my mind for the third time today, deeper into the abyss and out of my thoughts.
“Where were you on your way to anyway? Want me to walk you there?” River asks, displacing me from my thoughts.
“Funnily enough, I was coming to see you.”
His eyebrows lift, and he runs his fingers through his hair.
“Oh well, to what do I owe this pleasure?” He does a weird posh accent, which makes me laugh, ignoring the throbbing pain in my head.
“I wanted to thank you for getting me home safe last night. I don’t really remember much.”
“That’s okay; you were pretty out of it. I found you in the courtyard and walked you back to your dorm.”
“So, we didn’t go back to the party?” I question thinking about the newspaper I assumed was from the archives.
“No, you said you felt sick and wanted your bed.”
I nod. Where did I get the article, then?
“Did I say anything strange at all?”
“You mean besides talking my ears off about Enchantra?” he smiles. “Why do you ask?”
“Just wanted to make sure I didn’t embarrass myself too much.” I laugh, disguising my real worry. Talking about Ryder.
“Definitely did not embarrass yourself.” He smiles at me and looks into my eyes, then down to my lips. He’s so sweet. I’m annoyed that I feel nothing for him. Why couldn’t I fall for a nice guy like him?
I distract him from pulling me into a kiss by reaching for my forehead again.
“I don’t feel too good,” I confess, not entirely lying.
“You must have hit your head when you fell. Come on, I’ll walk you to your room, and we’ll stop and see Miss Aloe on the way. Some grium jelly wouldn’t go amiss on that hand of yours.”
He stretches his arm around my shoulder and presses me close to him like he is trying to protect me from the outside world.
He leads me slowly, making small talk about his friends and life at Sun Sovereign, I feign engagement and nod my head every few minutes, tossing in a few ‘hmmms’ and ‘ahhhhs’.
I know I should be listening, but between the splitting headache and the unanswered questions running through my mind, there really isn’t enough room to squeeze in another thought.
We finally reach the healing quarters, and River’s arm is still cocooned around me. I gently shuffle out of his grasp and give him a small smile.
“Thanks for walking me here, second bell has just rung, and I know you’re probably hungry. I’ll be fine from here,” I send him a reassuring nod.
“Are you sure?” River still looks concerned.
“Positive.” I squeeze his shoulder. “I’ll come find you later on.”
He bends down and plants a careful kiss on my cheek before retreating to the dining hall.
Miss Aloe treats my hand for me with the grium jelly.
It smells like wax and grass and is clear and sticky.
She slathers it with care onto the palm of my hand, and it soothes me instantly; the throbbing is shunted to a halt.
She hands me some kind of thick green liquid on a spoon.
My eyes dissect it as if they are judging its form.
Miss Aloe recognises my reluctance “for the headache,” a gentle smile prods on her thin lips.
Healers have this magical way of knowing where the pain or discomfort is on their patient just by looking at them.
They can even predict the start of a disease years before it manifests, allowing them to diagnose and treat early.
Their empathic nature means that they can choose to feel others’ pain to pinpoint the exact place that damage has occurred and the best plan to correct it.
I force the remedy down my throat and stifle the gag that wants to erupt and show itself.
Miss Aloe tells me to sit down on one of the beds for ten minutes so that she knows I won’t lose my footing on the way back to my dorm.
I think the green liquid may have some unwanted after-effects for some people.
I perch my bottom on the edge of one of the beds. Opposite me and a few beds down, the curtains are drawn. Only one bed in this whole ward. That must be Alex. I’ll just have to be quiet and hope that he doesn’t notice me. A head peeks round the doorway.
“Asha, I heard what happened! Are you okay?” Nala rushes towards me.
The whole school has definitely heard about what happened by now. I hear a curtain being drawn open. Alex definitely knows I’m here now. I avert my eyes from him. Just pretend he’s not there.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Miss Aloe has sorted me right out,” I say, gesturing towards her at the far end of the room.
Nala nods her head and assesses me, kind of like River did.
“I just saw River on my way here.” A small smile spreads across her face. She knows I don’t like him like that, but she still gets giddy.
“Yeah, he was nice enough to walk me over here.”
“Bless him… How the fuck did Alex go up in flames like that?” She laughs. I know everyone has secretly been waiting for him to get his comeuppance.
“It was the strangest thing. He was trying to scare me. Burned my hand on purpose. Then… Poof! He just ignited.” I leave out the part about my hand glowing too. It wasn’t me; I couldn’t have done this. I rotate my hand, showing off my burn. Her eyes widen.
“Thank the Gods you didn’t go up in flames too.” She pulls me into a hug. “I couldn’t do this without you.”
“You’re a badass. Of course you could,” I say, my reply is muffled in her shoulder.
“Well, I don’t want to!” she says and pulls me in tighter.
“I wouldn’t get too close to her!” Alex shouts from across the room.
“Shut up, Alex. Don’t wanna set yourself on fire again,” Nala taunts.
He scoffs and sends daggers our way before closing his curtain.
Miss Aloe walks towards us. “You can start making your way back to your room now, Asha. I will excuse you from further lessons today and advise that you get some rest.”
She gently wraps my hand in a bandage and sends me on my way. Nala heads back to the hall, and I make my way to my room.
I fall into my bed, and it practically swallows me up. My headache is still present, but it is a lot fainter now. My eyes feel heavy, and I surrender to their weight as a deep slumber takes hold of me.
“Asha…”
“Asha, what are you doing here?”
“Asha…”
The voice spits me out of my slumber.
Where am I?