One more thing to add to the list.
I was about to turn the hell blade back over to Hunter so everyone could get in another round, when I noticed a group of six students hovering by the door. They were watching us.
I signaled to my friends to stop sparring. “They look like they want to talk.” I waved our peers over.
Kira and José, both people I thought of as friends last year, but who had been haters this year, led the group over and stopped in front of us.
“Hey,” Kira said, and pulled her bundle of black braids over her shoulder.
“Hey,” I said, dropping the dagger into the scabbard I wore at my hip for safer transport. I glanced to the other half of the room. Diana’s jealous ex and the other Crucible student were still sparring, now with magic instead of fists. “Did you guys want to use this area? Because we’ll finish in a half hour tops.”
It was almost eight, and I still needed to squeeze in a warping lesson with Alex before homework and bed.
“That’s not why we’re here,” José said. “Actually, we came to apologize to you, Odette.”
My mouth dropped open.Well, this is unexpected.
Kira nodded. “We’ve been shitty all year.” Her cheeks, the color of light mocha, pinked slightly. “I’ll be the first to admit that I was jealous. I only got emissary spy, and didn’t think you deserved your rank.” Her gaze dropped to the ground. “But I’ve heard stories from Andre and Diana, and am woman enough to admit that I was wrong.”
“We don’t know what’s going on around you,” Dakota Wily spoke up. He was a thin, very academic guy with horn-rimmed glasses who I’d rarely spoken to last year and not once this year. His inclusion in this group surprised me. “But we recognize that something is up. Something that might have to do with the curse of our year. We want to be allies, if you need us.”
Curse of our year?
So much had happened since the end of last term, I hadn’t even considered that others were still fretting over the curse. That was probably because I knew the truth. There was no curse on our year, only a prophecy relating to Alex and me. While I didn’t know everything about it, I knew enough. The demons wanted us to open the Hellgate.
“That is, if you’ll have us,” Jasmine Shani added, clearly taking my silence to mean I was mulling over their offer of friendship. “We understand if you want nothing to do with us, but like Kira said, we heard about the games. You’ve been a key component to your team twice. Obviously, we were wrong to think that you weren’t skilled enough.”
Annie Thomas and Nian Zhen, who stood at the back of the group, both nodded their agreement.
My heart swelled. I’d given up on a quarter of my class liking me, but here they were, offering friendship.
An alliance. One I wanted and would most likely need in the future.
A smile broke on my face. “Thank you, all of you. I appreciate that very much. And yes, I’d love to be friends.”
I was still riding high from the interactions in the Physical Conditioning room when Alex and I snuck into the woods to begin his first warping lesson.
Although it felt like bad juju, we opted to practice in the same clearing where we’d banished the ghost. It was open, quiet, and most of all, private.
I was under no illusion that the professors or staff would be happy to find me teaching Alex how to warp. With only six months of warping under my belt, I was considered too new to be teaching others the dangerous skill of warping.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked as we walked through the woods. “I’ve heard that some people lose limbs or get fourth-degree burns from manipulating energy incorrectly.”
“You won’t scare me out of this, Odie. I’m well aware of the risks.” He darted a glance to me. “Plus, not all students hurt themselves—you never have. You didn’t even have a lesson before your first experience. And you warped us all the way from New York City to Maine.”
I snorted. “Yeah, but I’d been accosted by Ishtar and had an army’s amount of adrenaline running through my veins when I first warped.” I squeezed his hand. “I also had your totem to help me out.”
He shot me a sheepish grin. “Okay, okay, I get it. It’s not an apples to apples comparison. Still, you can’t blame me for wanting to try. And if you don’t show me, I’ll just do it myself.”
Universe have mercy. Why was my boyfriend stubborn at the most inopportune times?
“Fine. But it's freezing out here, so an hour max. You probably won’t be able to last that long anyway,” I said, recalling Andre’s first lesson.
He’d tapped out after a half hour of trying—and he’d shown ability beforehand. To my knowledge, Alex had never even attempted to create a warphole.
The minute we entered the clearing, I pointed Alex to the far side. If by some miracle he opened a warphole, I’d have him start by traversing short expanses. Being able to see the exit spot was best.
“Okay, so I’ll teach you two ways. The first is how Professor Tittelbaum does it. He’s more technical, and since you’re . . . you, I think that might work.”
