Lucien gestured for us to rise. “Push your desks to the side— I want everyone to work on creating a portal of their own. Don’t worry— if you fail, it won’t hurt you, just throw you back. I expect everyone to be able to create their own portal by the end of the semester.”
Chairs and desks made scraping sounds as they were moved to the side. I watched as students performed the same hand gestures Lucien had done the moment before. As their portals opened, many tried to step through, but ended up being blasted backward as the portal shut unexpectedly. Too many were thrown against the wall or on their ass as the portals sent them flying.
Odette made little grunting noises as she concentrated. She was still struggling to create her portal, but I hadn’t tried yet.
Lucien laid a hand on my shoulder. “Emma, what’s the hesitation?” he asked.
I scowled. “To be honest, I don’t want to end up with a broken leg.” I observed as Nicoli helped a girl off the ground, who’d been thrown so far backward by her portal she’d landed in the desks on the other side of the room and torn the sleeve of her sweater.
“We try here at Arcanea University. Broken bones are not something to be afraid of,” Lucien encouraged.
Easy for him to say. He didn’t have a big skating competition coming up next fall. “I’m not sure I can do it,” I confessed.
“Emma, a core tenet of illusion magic is belief. If youmake the choiceto do something, and are certain you will go through whatever means necessary to make that achievement, you will be able to accomplish great feats of magic,” Lucien said. “But you will never get anywhere if you don’t take the first step.”
“But I doubt myself,” I admitted. “How can I believe I can do magic if I’m just feeling... I don’t know, unconfident?”
“You can feel negative emotions while still persisting in belief,” Lucien said. “Belief is a choice, Emma. Not something we feel. Faith is something we do in spite of conflicting emotions, not something we experience. Have faith your magic can do this, no matter what your head or your heart says.”
I took a breath. He was right. I didn’t want to be seen as a coward for refusing to do the assignment. “Okay. Let me try.”
Lucien stepped back. I summoned my magic, concentrating on it as a ball of energy in my chest. It waited there, warm and powerful. It was ready to do whatever I told it to. At that moment, it truly felt like I could accomplishanything.
Okay, I told myself.I am going to make this portal, and I am going to reappear next to the chalkboard. I’m not leaving this classroom until I do. This will be easy for me, and if it’s not, I’ll take the steps I need to in order to make it easy. I can do this. My magic is strong enough.
I moved my hands in the way Lucien had shown us. At first, a bit of doubt rose in my stomach, and the sparks that emerged in front of me flickered, like they were about to go out.
No, I thought.This is going to work. I’ve decided that it will.
The doubt was still there, but my magic persisted besides. The portal opened— I saw when I faced it the portal created a window to where I wanted to go, displaying the desk beside the chalkboard.
I dropped my hands. I was sure the portal was steady, but my head screamed at me not to walk through it, just in case it backfired.
Don’t care. Doing it anyway.I held my breath as I walked through the portal. A sensation of weightlessness came over me as I passed through. Colors swirled around me in a beautiful rainbow, almost making it look like I was the center of a mix of paints and water. It felt like I was floating, though I pushed my feet to move forward.
My shoes hit solid ground again, and the portal closed behind me as I emerged next to the chalkboard— twelve feet from where I was standing before.
A wide smile spread across my face. I’d done it— and on my first try!
“Well done!” Lucien announced. “We’ve had our first success of the day!”
A couple of people cheered, though most sent me dirty looks. They wanted to be the first one to do it, and me, the shunned cheater, had shown them up.
Odette clapped her hands and bounced. “Yay! Go, Emma!”
I tried again. This time, I was able to make the portal take me back to the spot I’d been standing in before. I made three others, each one taking me to different places around the classroom. I expected one of them to fail and backfire on me at some point, but none of them did.
Unlike most forms of magic, portals were so freaking easy for me. I could do these in my sleep. Odette and I used the rest of class time to practice making them. Half of the class had gotten it by the time our hour was up, but no one had managed to make as many as I did. In fact, I was so proficient Lucien asked me to work ahead, and showed me how to begin shutting down portals that were created by other fae. I closed each of the portals he summoned with ease as I focused my intention on blocking his power.
I felt relieved. I was usually behind in most of my classes on account of being the outcast. I might get a good grade for once, instead of barely passing like I had last semester.
Hey, C’s get degrees, right?
“Portal work is not something I recommend for everyday practice,” Lucien announced as class ended. “In fact, I advise you to create portals only when it is absolutely necessary. Overextending your powers by summoning a portal that is beyond your control has been known to result in death. Use them wisely.”
Ew. That wasn’t pleasant. As people flooded out of the classroom, I touched Odette’s arm. She looked exhausted, and hadn’t created a portal all session. “Odette, are you all right?”
Odette was breathing hard. “Yeah... I’m... I’m fine.”
