“But what if I’m not strong enough?” I asked.
“The magic is inside of you. That’s what makes the spells work. You have it, you just need to learn to access it,” Kiara said. “Picture it as a well you’re drawing from. It’ll come easier.”
Kiara’s words gave me inspiration. I decided to try again. This time, I closed my eyes and placed my hands slightly over the sword. I pictured my powers as a huge waterfall, hundreds of feet high. I saw myself standing at the bottom of it with a wooden bucket, ready to draw from its endless supply without worrying if there was enough.
I needed to feel protected. I thought of the Phantom, and how he’d come from out of nowhere to save me. I’d never have to worry about being in danger or being hurt again as long as he was around. He’d protect me from anything. I remembered the cool and comforting look he’d given me when he’d left me on the balcony beneath the stars. It was unlike anything I’d experienced in the world.
I felt a tingling warmth spread from my palms, and I opened my eyes. The sword now gleamed blue.
“See? You can do it, Emma,” Kiara encouraged. “You merely need to have faith.”
Professor Calliope stopped by our table again. “Looks like Miss Sosna works better with her eyes closed than open to direct the magic. That’s the sign of an advanced Marked,” she praised. “You’re an excellent sorceress. You merely need to get out of your own head.”
I was beaming when I left class. Kiara fell in-step beside me. She hid a tiny smile behind the many books she carried.
“I finally did it! I’m such a badass,” I said. “Thanks for all your help, Kiara. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Yes you could’ve. You did the work, not me.” She shuffled the books in her arms as we wandered through the crowded hallways, keeping her head down. “Where are you off to now? Another class?”
“I’m actually meeting up with my friends. Want to come?” I asked her. I stopped in front of a stained glass window that had a bench in front of it.
Kiara bit her lip. “Um… I don’t know.” She scuffed the ground with her shoe. “I don’t really do well with new people.”
“I didn’t either, before I came here,” I told her. “I promise you’ll like them. Odette and Delmare are awesome.”
She looked down. “It’s not that.”
I sat on the window seat. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”
Kiara hesitated. The look in her eyes was fearful— like she worried that if she said what was really on her mind, I’d use it against her later.
She slowly took a seat across from me. “I’m surprised you want to me seen with me. Seeing how I look like… well, this.”
“Your face is beautiful. Fuck anyone who tells you otherwise,” I stated.
“It’s the mark of an outsider,” she said quietly. “My mother was a Marked who mated with a human. I came out with a mark on my face, and all over my body.”
“But why does that matter? It just makes you unique,” I said.
“You don’t understand. It was a huge scandal when my mother mated with someone who wasn’t our kind, that she never found a Companion to guard. She didn’t do her duty to our people,” Kiara explained. “When others found out she was pregnant with me, they tried to stop the pregnancy. They called me a halfling baby. That’s why Lady Korva told me to fix my face. So people wouldn’t know I was half-human.”
“Oh my gosh.” I put a hand over my mouth. “That’s horrible.”
She nodded. “We were allowed to live in Dolinska, but on the outskirts, as outcasts. I have more human blood than faerie. People say it makes me weak.”
“That’s bullshit. You’re more talented with magic than anyone in our class, probably the whole school, even,” I said. “If anything, your human blood makes you stronger.”
“I don’t know.” She nuzzled her head into her books, so that her nose was hidden behind it. “I just don’t want to be picked on anymore. This is embarrassing, but to be honest, I’ve never had a real friend.”
I placed my hand over hers. “I’m an outsider, too. I didn’t know anything about this world until recently. I didn’t even know Arcanea existed.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened.
“Yes,” I told her. “And you shouldn’t be worried about being bullied by my friends. They’re pretty weird themselves. I wouldn’t hang out with them if they were jerks.”
Her eyes nervously darted away from mine. “Okay. If you say so…”
“I know so. Come on.” I hooked Kiara’s arm in mine, and stood up. “Odette is going to love you, I just know it. She never sees the bad in anyone. And as long as you laugh at Delmare’s shitty jokes, you should be fine.”
