Chapter 17 #2
He began a slow pace across the front of the room.
“Some believe that the inherent chaos within magic makes it uncontrollable, but magic is like a horse. You must bridle it tightly, and hold the reins, dictating every step of the way as you cast your runes. Let those reins slip even once, and you will find yourself in a precarious position. A runaway gallop over the nearest cliff.”
It took all I had not to look at Typhon. Because the moment he’d helped me get past the blocks that had been put on all the students in House Phoenix to quell our magic . . . the moment we’d stood at the water’s edge, and the power had spilled out of me? It had been anything but controlled.
Doyen Mallachtan displayed a rune in the air with a quick swipe of his hand so the image of it floated for us all to see, as if written on an invisible chalkboard. I stared at it long and hard, trying to read it to no avail. My hand went to my hip where my yellow glass was, but then I froze.
Mallachtan’s eyes swept the classroom, again skimming past me as if he didn’t recognize me from the night before. Maybe it had been too dark? Either way, I was glad for a small boon in that moment.
“Cast this rune, as you see it.”
Guess that’s where my luck ends. I couldn’t even read the thing.
Ellie held up her hand. “Excuse me Doyen Mallachtan, but I’m not that great with runes. Can you . . . can you tell me which one that is?”
Goddess bless her, she knew I wouldn’t be able to read it.
Typhon’s eyes flicked over her, then away. No suspicion aroused.
Mallachtan grunted. “Homeschooled Dwimmers. Can you read any runes?”
“Some.”
He looked around the room. “Anyone else struggle with basic rune reading?”
A boy at the front raised his hand. I followed slowly, then two more. Four of us, if I didn’t count Ellie. Part of me was in awe that I wasn’t alone. The other part wondered how many others there were that struggled with runes at Neverthorn and no one asked or knew.
Just assumed that they were stupid, or no good with their spellcasting.
All that wondering disappeared in a rush of horror though when Doyen Mallachtan flicked his hand toward Typhon and Zeed.
“Moreno, you and your helper, you take those five and work with them next door while I continue to work with the stronger students.”
I’d have been happy for any reason to get out of a classroom with Mallachtan at the helm . . . except for this one, that put me right under Typhon’s nose, far too close and in the bright light of day.
Typhon turned to Zeed. “My assistant is more than capable of teaching basic rune casting and has worked with students who struggled in the past. I’d rather stay with you and soak up more of that . . . expertise of yours.”
Zeed hadn’t worked with other students who’d struggled as far as I knew. But he surely had been a student who’d struggled. He was a genius, of course, but magic didn’t come nearly as easily to him as everything else seemed to.
So, what gave? Had he been training all this time that he’d been missing?
Mallachtan’s whole body seized as if Typhon had cast a rune of freezing on him, but he didn’t argue, instead he managed to wave one hand dismissively. “As you wish, Moreno. I’m sure you could use the help with your teaching skills.”
I thought Typhon would come unglued, but he only smiled and leaned against the wall. Watching Mallachtan.
Zeed’s lips twisted into a grimace as he motioned for the five of us to follow him.
He hadn’t spoken a word in the whole time he’d been here, and I had a sudden and irrational thought that maybe this wasn’t really Zeed, just like I wasn’t Hannah.
Or maybe he’d been replaced by a Switch?
Hell, we could be walking into a room with Tarquinius himself, concealed with some glamor spell, for all I knew.
That thought was not reassuring.
The room next door was as big as the one we’d left, and my blood was humming as we stepped inside.
“Everyone, please take a seat.”
Zeed’s familiar voice flowed over me, taking some of the tension away. At least it sounded like him . . . but I didn’t know how a Switch truly worked. Could he sound like Zeed if he was really Tarquinius?
Zeed cleared his throat. “I don’t want to contradict what the senator has said, but from what I learned from Doyen Moreno, it’s not as cut and dried as all that control and restriction.
” He frowned and shook his head. “It’s not about control, or breaking magic and bending it to your will, but about allowing the magic to flow through you, and then guiding it. ”
He showed us the rune that Mallachtan had just used. As if it was nothing at all to him. No sweating, no cursing. He cast the rune with such ease . . . which he then broke down step by step.
Before he’d left Neverthorn he’d struggled with everything we’d been learning – trying with all he had and still not managing to cast runes the way he needed to.
I could have cried with happiness. Being away from Neverthorn and with whatever training he’d done, had allowed him to find his footing, all without us.
If that was really him, I reminded myself. It wasn’t time to let my guard down just yet.
Ellie bowed her head three people down from me, and I knew she fought tears of joy too, same as me – her emotions were so strong I could feel them through the connection to the stone in my hip bag.
Zeed worked with two of the students, walking them through the steps while we watched. His eyes never flicked to me or Ellie – not once.
When he got to Ellie, he finally looked at her and frowned. “What’s your name?”
She cleared her throat. “E-Esther.”
The question here was, did we trust him enough to tell him the truth, despite the circumstances of his arrival?
If this really was Zeed, then my gut said yes.
It was a dicey prospect no matter how much we trusted him, though.
I didn’t think he’d work for Tarquinius or Typhon, but we didn’t know what he’d been told about us.
If he was really Zeed, had they turned him against us?
Were they using runes or spells to control him?
What I did know was that his Quirk involved touch. And, while I didn’t know exactly what he could do – he’d been carted off before we could see it in action – I had my suspicions that it had to do with reading someone else’s mind in some way.
Ellie was careful to keep her eyes down. “Can you show me the rune again, and tell me what it does?”
“Of course.” He stepped back from her and cast the rune, going through the motions slowly. “It’s a simple rune as Doyen Mallachtan said, but not so simple in the casting. It should produce a burst of light over your head. Say if you were in trouble somewhere.”
“A light flare.” I knew the rune, but not by the image he’d shown me. I used them sometimes when I’d been working my jobs, they were an easy way to signal Josh, my pick-up driver.
Zeed’s green eyes flicked to me, and I made myself hold his gaze.
A part of me wanted him to see me. He was smart – smarter than the rest of us.
We’d kept our names starting with the same letter, as much for ourselves as for, maybe this moment?
And if I took his hand, would he be able to read my mind?
Maybe we had instinctively sensed that if someone who really knew us showed up, they’d be able to read through our deceptions? That we wanted to be found by the right people. The person meant to be with us.
I took a breath. There was one way to find out . . .
“I’m Hannah.” I stuck my hand out, and Zeed did not take it.
“I don’t shake hands. Nothing personal.” He dipped his head toward me in apology.
Bingo, it had to be Zeed.
In order to use his Quirk, he had to be in physical contact with a person.
When his Quirk had risen, he’d put his hand on my shoulder, and he’d seen what I’d seen back at the site of the massacre of the Neverthorn Nine.
We’d never had a chance to talk about it, but I was sure as sure could be that he’d experienced the same thing I had.
“A hugger, hey? Me too. Come on, bring it in,” I said, opening my arms wide. I wasn’t a hugger. Not even close, and certainly not with someone I’d just met, but it was worth a shot . . .
“I’m a hugger, too. Can I get in on that?” The other female student piped in from her seat as she batted her eyes at him.
“Nope. No hugging.” He lifted his hands in the air.
I shrugged, even more certain than before that this was our friend Zeed before me. “Shaking it is then.”
I stuck my hand out a second time and he looked at it like it was a snake about to bite him, then I grabbed his hand before he could back away. I gave him a squeeze and held tight as he tried to pull back.
Damn it, his emotions opened to me as if he’d already tied himself to me through one of the stones, as the others had.
I shouldn’t have been able to feel them, but there was no doubt that I could.
Maybe something to do with his Quirk? Whatever it was, I could see that he was worried, and fearful, and .
. . hopeful. I held onto his hand and just kept looking at him, willing him to see through the facade. I couldn’t say it out loud.
Come on, Zeed, use that Quirk of yours and see me. See me, buddy.
“H-Hannah?” He didn’t let go of my hand but turned and looked at Ellie whose eyes were full of tears again.
His hand suddenly tightened on mine and his chest lifted faster with each breath.
He was getting it, I was sure of it – he was too smart not to put it together, when he no doubt had been sent here to help find us.
Or maybe it was his Quirk. Either way, I’d take it.
“Esther and Hannah.” I held on tighter yet. I was probably cutting off circulation to his fingers, but I needed him to know we were here.
He put his other hand over mine and his eyes went wide as he mouthed one word.
“Harlow?”
Score.