Chapter 35
River
My cheek throbbed as I stared at Coach’s office door, nervously chewing at my thumb.
This was a stupid idea.
I never talked to Coach. I had no reason to talk to Coach, usually, but I had no choice.
Avery wanted an ice affinate or an ice affinity, which meant I had to deliver.
The only ice affinate I knew of was Mia North. She was even on Alex’s list of military recruits, though she hadn’t known it.
Just another reason why it might be a good thing he was dead. Although–
“You got a problem, Mac?”
I clenched my jaw, but turned to find Coach strolling up the hall, still wearing his usual tracksuit because he couldn’t care less that he was the new headmaster.
“I need a favor,” I said.
Coach’s steps almost faltered, then he squinted at me as he passed, not even slowing his pace.
“Hmm,” he grunted.
I stared after him, holding in a groan as I jogged to catch up before falling into step beside him.
“So?” I asked. “Favor? Yes or no?”
“Depends what you want,” Coach replied, stopping once we entered the gym.
I shifted my weight from foot to foot, contemplating what I wanted to say next. I couldn’t tell Coach anything about me, or my life, or what the hell I was about to do. He didn’t know much about me, and even without the gleam in his eye, I could tell he didn’t like me.
Coach raised his eyebrows higher, wrinkling his forehead. “Well?”
I held in another groan.
“Pair me up with North,” I said.
Coach stared at me. “And why would I do that?”
“Please?”
His eyebrows lowered.
“Pretty please?” I tried.
“She’s into girls, you know that, right?” Coach scoffed.
“Okay, ew.” I grimaced. “Come on, I just need to be paired up with her.”
“Craig or North might kick your ass. Hell, Aria might kick your ass. They might kick my ass.”
I scrubbed a hand down my face.
This was the second staff member I’d encountered that was afraid of Skye.
Hilarious.
But infuriating.
“The fuck do you want?”
I groaned out loud now, because this situation was spiraling into something truly horrendous. The only thing that could’ve made it worse had arrived. I’d thought things might be different between us after he’d seen the bruises on me in our last class, but apparently I’d been wrong.
The dude had sucker-punched me, though, so what’d I really expect?
Well, he’d sucker-punched me, then prodded at me when he noticed the bruise from Avery.
I didn’t know what to make of any of that.
“Goddamnit, Brandt. Quit cursing!” Coach practically snarled.
Aiden blinked at him. “No.” He looked back to me, his brown eyes tracking over me in a way that had my hackles rising. “Why do you wanna be paired with Mia?”
“Reasons,” I replied.
“You know she hates you, right?” Aiden said, raising his eyebrows.
Coach let out a long, insufferable sigh, then stormed away from us, barking something into the locker room.
“You gonna pair me with her or not?” I asked, getting frustrated.
Aiden prodded the inside of his cheek with his tongue. “You wanna tell me what happened to your face?”
“Not unless you tell me what happened to yours,” I sneered.
His lips twitched, but he didn’t grin. Then he shrugged. “Okay. But you’ll owe me one.”
I was shocked, but barely held in my eye-roll. “Fine.”
He gave me a slow smile that actually looked a little evil, though it still didn’t resemble his mother. “You say that now. Just wait until I come calling for that favor.”
“Sure, as long as it isn’t a threesome.”
“Whoa. Your mind’s in the gutter, dude.”
I blinked at the floor as Aiden stalked past me, chuckling.
“Besides, I don’t need to call in a favor to have a threesome.”
Fucking fuck.
I turned on my heel and stormed past him and into the crowd of students, holding in a snarl as they parted like the sea. I stood at the back, arms crossed, almost wishing I were at the compound instead. A white-out blizzard would’ve been less irritating than today.
Why the fuck had I made that comment to him? And why the hell…did he want me to imagine him in a threesome with Skye?!
I ran a hand down my face, trying everything I could think of to banish the intrusive thought, which grew more and more graphic with each second.
Especially not now that I knew what her lips felt like. And tasted like. And what…other parts of her tasted like. And what she sounded like when–
“Alright, we’re pairing up today,” Coach announced. “I have headmaster sh– things to attend to. Brandt’s the teaching assistant, so listen to him.”
Aiden smiled brightly at us, and a few people scoffed.
Willow Craig’s blonde ponytail bobbed as she whipped her head toward the scoffers, her blue eyes staring daggers at them. She and Aiden went back and forth like siblings, and yet here she was, ready to threaten someone for him because Skye was her best friend.
It was weird.
I couldn’t imagine caring about someone just because someone I cared about, cared about them.
My eyes almost crossed at the weirdness of that thought.
Aiden began pairing people up, holding the roster low enough so the kid could read along too. Several of the thoroughly cowed students took off as quickly as possible.
Aiden looked down at the roster again, then made eye contact with me, a look on his face I couldn’t decipher.
I blew out a breath.
I knew this idea sucked.
Now I’d have to come up with another way I could possibly touch Mia without getting my ass beat by Skye or–
“North, you’re with Mac.” Aiden said, shocking everyone.
Before anyone could react, Willow exploded, just as expected.
“No fucking way! Pair her with me right now, Aiden!”
“I don’t make the pairings!” Aiden said so defensively, I almost believed him. “Coach makes the rules, I’m just trying not to fail out of this place.”
“You wouldn’t fail out of this place,” Willow argued, rolling her eyes. “You’re in a fucking Royal Chain!”
“You’re cursing way too much,” the kid said.
“Not now, Noah!” Willow hissed.
“I’m not the Royal one Willow, stop making my life harder.” Aiden looked back down at the roster, effectively dismissing her.
Willow’s jaw was on the floor. “I’m…I’ll tell Skye.”
“Okay, and?” Aiden shrugged. “You act like I wouldn’t enjoy letting her whip me.”
What…
What…did…that mean?
What the hell was going on in that penthouse?
“Why would you want to be whipped?” Noah whispered loudly.
“I’ll tell you later. Like in ten years.” Aiden replied, turning and dismissing Willow for the final time.
“You’re the worst!” Willow screeched, the sound echoing around the gym. A few students looked our way, but Coach didn’t even glance up from the paperwork on his desk.
“Why aren’t you pissed about being paired with me?”
I spun around, my heart jumping to my throat. Mia had managed to sneak up on me. She wasn’t in her platform boots, since they weren’t proper uniform for Health class. She was actually pretty tiny without them. Like, shorter than Skye. I was craning my neck downward to look her in the face.
I’d been so distracted by her shortness that I’d forgotten she’d spoken to me.
“I don’t care,” I scoffed, recovering quickly. “It’s not like you’re able to hurt me.”
Mia narrowed her dark eyes at me, and suddenly I wasn’t sure if I believed my own words.
I didn’t actually know much about Mia. She had an ice affinity, which was the reason for this whole charade, but I didn’t know what else she could do.
“River Mac,” I said, holding out my hand.
Mia sneered down at my hand before glaring up at me. “I know who you are.”
I should’ve known better.
That was stupid of me.
The teleportation affinity prickled at my fingertips as if to punctuate that point.
I tried to shake off my embarrassment that she saw through me so easily, then headed over to an empty corner of the gym. When I turned, Mia had her arms crossed over her chest, though it was in defiance, not nervousness.
“If you punch anywhere near my head, I’ll freeze your dick off.”
I snorted, then actually laughed. What the hell kind of threat was that? Wait–
“Of course she told you,” I muttered, shaking off my amusement.
“Duh?” Mia looked at me like I was an idiot. “Skye’s one of my best friends. We tell each other everything.”
“Everything?” I taunted.
“Everything,” she said, leaning forward. “I know you were at that gala.”
I froze. Mia looked smug.
My shock quickly morphed into anger.
“So?” I sneered.
Mia snorted. “Will it hurt if you go into my head?” She spoke in a mocking voice, and my jaw nearly dropped.
Fucking Skye really told them everything?
Did she make me sound like a whiny little kid or was Mia being a bitch?
“Let me guess. Daddy goes into your head to make sure you’re not planning to run away from your horrible life?
I’ll tell you something else, too. I think you set that fire, River Mac. ”
I stared at her, my anger simmering into something worse. A rage I’d felt before, but had tried to suppress as hard as possible.
An old, dark, unused affinity woke up inside me.
It felt like a jungle cat slowly waking from a slumber, stretching and yawning, then running its claws down my arms.
The teleportation affinity immediately stopped prickling at me.
How did Skye live like this?
Mia sensed the shift in me, but her eyes narrowed slightly, like she could see more than the average affinate. There was the slightest bit of concern under that glare, like she somehow knew I was afraid of whatever had just woken up inside me.
I turned to leave, deciding to fuck this plan. I hadn’t counted on Mia being a huge bitch, and I was pissed I let her get to me. I was pissed it was obvious she got to me. I was pissed that I was scared of this affinity, and that she’d woken it up without a care in the world for anyone’s safety.
“Hey!” I heard her sneakers behind me as she tried to catch up. “We’re supposed to be sparring, remember?!”
“No, fuck you.” I said, then gasped as a splash of ice-cold water sprayed across my back.
I turned slowly, facing Mia down. She watched me with her head tilted slightly to the side.
“You’re not mad about the daddy comment, are you?”
“No,” I ground out.
Mia nodded. “That’s what I thought. You actually seem more like a mommy issues kinda guy.”
My hands shook, and the water from my back pooled on the ground around my feet.
Mia’s eyes flicked down, then back up at me, and then I attacked.
The sheet of water was bigger than what she’d sent at me, but she easily froze it.
Chunks of ice shattered against the wall, and Mia glared before sending the shards of ice back at me.
I dove out of the way, trying to grab at the water within the ice, but I couldn’t.
None of my affinities worked together like they were supposed to while the scary one was awake.
Mia and I traded blows for a few minutes, just long enough to gather attention, which was the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen.
I was slow to respond, my attention split between the fight and keeping the other affinity from getting angry.
It only seemed bored for now, which could be good or bad.
I wasn’t sure anymore. It hadn’t been awake in a long, long time.
“Get his ass, Mia!” Willow screeched from the sidelines.
I groaned.
My hands stung as I sent more water toward Mia, but she caught it easily, freezing it into a single sheet of ice that slammed into my shoulder.
I wasn’t sure why it’d taken me this long to realize Mia had an affinity for water in addition to the ice. That would’ve been pretty cool if she wasn’t trying to kill me. She wasn’t pulling any of her hits, sending everything she had at me every time.
“Let me guess, this was your doing.” Coach said somewhere off to the side.
“Yep, this is what you get for making me your TA.” Aiden replied. The kid laughed, since he was like Aiden’s little mini-me now.
“I didn’t have a choice in making you the TA!” Coach shouted back.
What a clusterfuck.
And it was all my fault.
My fault, because I let Mia’s bitchy words get to me. I winced suddenly. My hands had slowly been going numb, and nothing I did was fixing it. For one horrifying moment, I wondered if this was the teleportation affinity finally killing me, and then I realized.
Mia was freezing my fucking hands without touching me.
Goddamnit, that was so fucking awesome.
But it was also a problem.
The scary affinity perked back up, and I did the only thing I could think of. My arms ignited, and I hissed as my hands thawed. Mia jumped back, shaking her head at me, and then my arms…just…went out.
“What–”
“Don’t try that again,” Aiden’s voice came from behind me.
“Whoa,” the kid said in awe.
“How…” I stared at my arms, still sizzling hot but…flame-less.
How the fuck did he do that?
I spun around, catching Mia sneaking up behind me. She threw up her elbow to block my next hit, and I hissed out a sigh of relief. I knew she’d make a mistake eventually.
She wasn’t the only one who made a mistake, though.
My hand locked around her forearm, and I felt the transfer a moment before–
She fucking kneed me in the balls.