Hello, Paul, I say to him in his head.
His eyes widen.
“H-hello,” he says.
You can tell the class that you hear me.
He gives the class an anxious look.“I can hear him in my head.”
More impressed murmurs abound.
Now, I’m going to keep talking to you and I want you to take that magic I just gave you and try to pull this voice from my throat.Keep visualizing that heat and light that you saw that went in you.Make sure it goes back out of your palm.
He nods.“Okay.”He looks at the class again.“He’s telling me to take his voice.”
I stare into Paul’s dark eyes.Are you ready?I’ll keep my voice going, but I need you to start visualizing and manifesting this to happen.His pupils go large as he frowns in concentration.Focus on my voice, focus on taking it, focus on that golden light, that pure energy and life force and using it to—
Golden streams sprout out from Paul’s hand and come for my throat.I try to keep using the voice, but already I feel it being taken from me.
I watch as the gold twists in the air and then suddenly:
IT WORKED!
Paul’s voice blows through the room, enough to make me stumble backward against the desk, my hands over my ears.
Then the light goes out, and he rushes over to me.“I’m so sorry, are you all right?”he asks, sounding panicked.
I laugh, straightening up.“I’m fine.I’m fine.You were just a little loud, that’s all.”
“So it really worked?”he asks.“How long do I have it for?Will it ever go back to you?”
“I hope so,” I admit, since I’ve never actually had it taken away from me.“Energy is renewable.My voice is earned by magic I’ve practiced so it should come back.But for now, I’m depleted of it.As for you, it depends.”I look at the class, feeling a burst of pride at how enraptured they all are.This is why I am here.This is what I was meant to do.
“I don’t expect this exact scenario to ever come up,” I tell them, “because all it will end up being is a shouting match, but now you know that if you are in a situation, where perhapssomeone is attacking you with fire, you can take that fire from them and either use it for yourself or disable it within the person, at least for a period of time.”
“Can we have another demonstration?”Matilda asks.“Something that would hold back the headless horseman?”
“Of course,” I say, but I don’t ask for a volunteer.I pick on Kat all the damn time so I decide to pick on Brom for a change.
Brom, who has shown zero magical ability.
But if he’s related to Sisters Sophie and Margaret, there is potentially a lot of power lying in those bulky veins of his.After all, there must be some reason why he’s the one chosen to be with Kat.What does it say about me that I’m a little disappointed that I was never the chosen one that Kat was supposed to marry?
“Brom Bones,” I say to him with a flourish of my hand.“Care to step up here, help me demonstrate how to defend yourself against the headless horseman?”
Oh, if looks could kill, I would be a dead man.
But Brom gets to his feet, and I’m honestly surprised he’s doing this at all, considering, well,everything.It also gets me hot under the collar to know that even in this setting, he obeys me like the good boy that he is.It takes all my self-control to keep from praising him like that as he stands in front of me on the platform.
I’m still grinning at him like a fool, though.
“Brom,” I say to him, standing much closer to him than I was to Paul.
“Professor Crane,” he says slowly, his jaw flexing.
“Tell me,” I say, tapping my finger on my chin, “let’s pretendyou’re the horseman for a moment.What kind of power would you have, what kind of magic would you use to try to hurt me?”
He stares.“I’d probably use my ax and chop your damn head off.”
