“Quick, if we hurry we’ll have time to get to the cart,” Belle said, pushing past a couple of students chatting in the middleof the hall.
Cart?
There was no time to ask her what she was talking about, as her tiny figure slipped through gaps in the crowd, leaving mestuck behind a couple kissing like it was their last day on Earth—desperate, drugging, and reminding me that the spark ofmagic heating our blood was no joke.
By the time I made it to the end of the hallway, Belle was already waiting in the line for what appeared to be a breakfastcart. “You’re a fucking angel,” I moaned, my stomach rumbling as the scent of coffee and bagels hit me. “I was just panickedabout starving through these first classes.”
Her face twisted into an expression of horror. “My motto in life is Never Go Hungry. My older sister who graduated last yeartold me this was the key to sleeping as late as you could. Not that I sleep enough to worry about it, but I do enjoy fastfood.”
Belle already knew the key to my heart. “I have four siblings at this school, and all of them are going to hear about my lackof knowledge of the breakfast cart.” How dare they hold out on me like that? Those bastards would be hearing from my lawyerswhen I charged them with withholding the truth and miscarriage of justice.
“Is that right, sis?” Trevor swung his arm over my shoulder and jerked me against him in a rough one-armed hug. Throwing my elbow into his side had no reaction, and I was silently fuming that he was too large and strong to easily injure now. “Aw, come on. We would have told you about the cart eventually. It’s a rite of passage to starve through the first week of school.”
Before I could ream him a new one, Belle held out her hand. “You must be one of Paisley’s siblings.”
“The best looking, most charming of them all,” Trevor said, grasping her hand briefly. “I’m Trevor.”
“Belle,” she replied with a glint in her eye. “And I’m stressed for the college community if there are three more of you floatingaround out there.”
Trevor wasn’t offended. “I like the fire, Red. See you two later.”
With that, he cut in line, stole the next two coffees and breakfast sandwiches, biting into them as he walked away. Bellestared after him for a beat, before turning back to me. “Girl, you did not mention that your brother is Trevor freaking Hallistar.”
I snorted, taking a wrapped sandwich from the blonde witch behind the cart. I got a coffee as well, moving off to the sideto add my cream and sugar. Belle took a sandwich too, but she got hot chai.
“How do you know Trevor?” I asked her. “Do you know Alice, Jenna, and Jensen too?”
Belle blew on her tea, lifting the cup to take a sip. “My sister told me that the Hallistars have tons of gorgeous, powerfulkids, and she mentioned your brother won Hottest Warlock last year. Did he tell you that?”
It was interesting to know our reputations preceded us. “He announced it every morning during Christmas break,”I told her dryly, “as if he was being introduced on a bachelor reality TV contest.Welcome to the breakfast table, Trevor Hallistar, Weatherstone’s Hottest Warlock of the Year.Trevor is a lot of things, but lacking in confidence is not one of them.”
“I couldn’t tell,” she deadpanned, and we both laughed as we headed for class. As we walked, I alternated between sippingcoffee and munching on a delicious breakfast combo of scrambled eggs, hashbrown, and crispy bacon.
It was easier to move now that most students were in class. Belle knew where she was going—she’d been studying the maps forweeks, she’d told me when I asked—getting us to Elemental 101 with a few minutes to spare. This was a freshman-only class,which explained the nervous faces lingering around the door as we entered.
My sandwich was finished, so I threw the trash away and followed Belle into the room. There were a few rows of desks arrangedconcentrically with everyone staring into the middle. My black dress shoes clicked across the cobbled gray stone floor, whichmatched the walls. It wasn’t well lit, with the main lighting coming fromilluminaglobes, high on the walls.
My parents’ house was in a human neighborhood, so we used electricity to power our house. But if you lived in one of the exclusivemagical communities, you’d use illumina. They were spheres that could be placed into scones or chandeliers, and were createdthrough a combination of earth and fire magic, burning bright for years. They could be dimmed and turned off as needed too.
Belle and I sat in the third row of seats from the center. I placed my almost empty coffee cup on the edge of the wooden deskand lifted my satchel over my head as a light voice echoed through the room. “Doors closing in two minutes.”
Energy sprinkled across my skin, and I turned to find a professor dressed in dark robes drifting a few feet off theground, demonstrating an impressive use of air. She looked to be in her late forties, and under her robes she wore a blue suit similar to our uniform. Her blond hair was pulled back in a simple bun at the nape of her neck, setting off the severity of her dark blue eyes, which observed every seated student.
“I’m Professor Damone,” she continued with a no-nonsense snap, “and I’ll be guiding you through Elemental 101. I’m a strongair elemental, but I can touch all elements to call, in very minimal capacities. I tend to bring in seniors and other studentsto help with more advanced elemental training.”
She was in the center of the room, staring at us as she moved slowly in a circle. “Time’s up,” she said with a smile as sheclapped her hands, and the doors slammed shut. Exactly two minutes after her last warning.
“Let’s begin, shall we...”
Chapter 9
There was a clatter of bags as students pulled out the textbook, but Professor Damone waved them away. “You won’t need thattoday. First, we need to determine what we already know about your elemental capabilities, and then where we take them fromhere.
“The elements,” she continued, “are air, water, fire, earth, and metal.” She produced a spark of each as she ran through them.“As I said, my main affinity is with air, but every one of you should be able to touch an element minutely. Even if you’renot an elemental, we all draw from the same magical essence.”
As she waved her hands, a breeze ruffled around us, sending pieces of parchment floating to each desk. I studied the diagramsketched on it, a pentacle showing how the five elements were connected, all of them nourishing or quenching, a combinationof yin and yang.
“If you are predominantly elemental,” Professor Damone continued, “you will use your strongest elements by instinct, but therest can be accessed if you work hard enough and open those pathways.” Belle shot me an excited smile, as if she was morethan ready to expand on her water power. “We’re all connected through the affinities, our energy, and the Earth. Without one,there would be none.”
