CHAPTER
TWENTY
EMBER
Beware the vulnerable moments, intimate ones, moments of relief or breakthrough, moments when you would run to your Counterpart and take comfort in their arms — moments when bonds are most likely to form.
— Helen Blackburn, Echelon to the
School of Mental Magic
Ididn’t hear from Leland until the next morning.
Leland Stray:Another fourth year, Belinda Gatewood, will take you and Skye to the academy. It will be hot. Wear the jacket I left on your porch if you want cooling magic.
The door to Ash’s room was open, and a strong ray of daylight poured in through her gossamer window curtain, warming my face. It was the first day since my arrival that Hartik’s Hollow hadn’t been partially cloudy or completely overcast. I paused, watching as Nova fetched a rainbow fuzzy mouse. Centered under a small chandelier, Skye sat on the edge of the dark wood queen-sized bed, surrounded by neatly folded stacks of her clothing on top of the quilted coverlet.
“Are you . . .” I glanced at the closet Skye had made herown over the last three days, now empty but for a few loosely swinging hangers. “You’re coming with me? To the Creation Academy? Don’t you have to be a student?”
She gave Nova a salmon treat for bringing her the mouse. “I am.”
“A student?”
“Yes. A first year. I was here when the tall one told you that.”
“I know, but . . .”She said life would be meaningless if she couldn’t be an Elemental.“Does this mean you’re going to be a Creator?”
She tossed the mouse and stared out the window, gazing longingly at the hills, until Nova hopped on the bed and spat the mouse out in her lap. “I am going to the Creation Academy, yes.”
Okay, so.Still not a real answer.
I still hadn’t established if she was a Seven, but if she was allowed to follow me to the Creation Academy, I guessed she must be? It was a weird choice for her to make though. Creatus was in the desert, and Skye hated being hot. She did things at ungodly hours, specifically toavoidthe sun. There was also the fact she didn’t port.
“But you want to be a mermaid,” I said. She had mermaids tattooed on her body — a mermaid cove from her shoulder to halfway down her arm. If she was switching to creation magic, it was her business. But I hoped she wasn’t doing it for me.
“Yes. For the killing.”
“You hate hot weather — yourdelicate skin?”
“My delicate skin will survive,” she said flatly, and nodded to her toned biceps as though they might help her fight her way through the desert. “I am very strong and manly.”
“Sure. But in a hundred degrees?”
“I live at the Creation Academy now. The desert is where I belong. Now go . . .” Her silver rings shone in the sunlight as she flicked a hand to shoo me. “You’re not a good packer. That iswhat you should be focusing on.”
By that point, I knew her well enough to know pressing the issue would get me nowhere, so I kept my thoughts to myself and left to pack, taking the rest of the day to shove everything in my hefting satchel. I could’ve finished it sooner, had Skye not gotten bored.
She decided to entertain herself by tossing grapes in my mouth and clementines at my head, hiding her fists behind her back, telling me to pick one, and then not letting me keep what I’d picked.
I dressed in a tank, cut-off jean shorts, and Leland’s cooling jacket. Then, around dinnertime, Skye and I watched through the front window as Belinda bounded up the hill path. Belinda’s straight brown hair swished with her boisterous steps, and her warm, light-brown skin glowed in the sinking sun. We went out to the porch, and as I was still registering the small face of a white bunny rabbit poking out of Belinda’s lime-green bag, she raced up the steps and crushed me in a hug. I glanced down to make sure her Familiar was still breathing.
“I have heard,” Belinda said, beaming with enthusiasm, “somuch about you. From the papers. From — ” She pushed her hair behind her ear, suddenly hesitant. “Actually. Not important. This is Pepper.” She swiveled to show me the rabbit. “I know, I know.Physically, she’s more of a Salt, but once you get to know her gift — ”
Skye slowly shook her head in warning. Familiars’ gifts were just as sensitive as a witch’s was.
“Spiritually,” Belinda whispered, “she’s totally more of a Pepper.”
No one mentioned Nova.
