She hums but doesn’t say anything. I know she’s probably in an enormous amount of pain. When the devil hit her with his shield she had slammed into the wall and crashed with so much force I was sure her spine was shattered. At the very least she has to have a few ribs broken.
Callahan comes up behind her but doesn’t touch her. “Firecracker?” he murmurs. He doesn’t look too good himself either.
She closes her eyes for a second, tilts her head down, turns, and then snaps them open. A wisp of her aura flutters around her and her sweet poisonous scent wafts around us.
Her expression hardens as she stares at Professor Asier. His own glare falters for a second as he takes half a step back.
“They should have been dead,” she murmurs. Some of the people in the corner had started to stand and move towards the stairs to leave, but we all freeze at her voice. She soundsalmostlike how the mage did. Whispered words that ricochet in the air. “My magic was about to kill them when something stopped it.Almost like time tripped and within that empty space someone lessened my blow. And then they shadow twisted.”
It was peculiar. The way they had been so ready to fight and then Mavyn’s magic. I had felt it. It seemed like she hesitated but. . . no.Shedidn’t hesitate, her magic did. A blood art magic I’ve never seen before.
Abloodart.
And the sc –
I think it would be best, Ms. Waterstone, if this was something you did not overthink.
I jump and then freeze. Asher comes to my side but I feel stuck in my head as those words from a voice that is not my own echo in my mind.
You are a bright student and an excellent water mage. I think your future at Syngenia could be bright. I wouldn’t want anything bad happening to you.
I keep my eyes locked on the blood staining Mavyn’s shirt. It’s what I had been looking at when I thought –
I don’t even finish that thought. I try not to think about it. I can’t look at him either because I don’t want a chance of anything happening. I’m already shit at keeping secrets and Asher can read me like a damned –
Then you better start working on your mental shields, Ms. Waterstone.
Why?
It feels like I whisper that word even in my mind. Professor Asier is quiet for a moment. I hadn’t been asking why I shouldwork on my mental shields because that is very much obvious right now, but why did he –
Because, he faintly growls.It is not what you are thinking and I do not have the patients right now to explain it. In addition, I do not want you making accusations that are wrong without knowing everything. And you do not know anything.
“I thought,” the professor says – out loud, “that the magic I was feeling was Kolasi aiming at you. I created the shield between the magic and who was being attacked. I did not know you were the one creating a death blow.”
I still can’t look away from Mavyn’s bloody cuffs, but I’m sure she does something along the lines of rolling her eyes. She’s good at that. She gives bratty energy perfectly. She’d be the perfect main female character in a dark romance.
“We had felt your aura,” he continues with a deep, dark tone, “all the way on the other side of the school. For a fraction of a second a magic flashed and then there was nothing. And then moments later we felt it again. A gradual build that seemed to strength more and more with no signs of stopping.”
Mavyn crosses her arms and more blood is smeared on her shirt. It’s already stained from dust and debris and blood on her back from when she hit the wall. That won’t be washing out. Not that she seems to care. I’m sure she forgot that there was even blood on herself.
“What is your point, Professor?”
A low growl sounds. I’m glad she’s standing up to them.
“Mypoint,” he hisses, “is how in unholy gods do you have magic like that asnothing.”
Mavyn flinches right as I snap my eyes to the professor with a steeling glare. He almost looks unhinged. Covered in dirt and grime with weapons strapped all over his body and a glare that could freeze over hell.
No.
Actually, it’s the opposite. His glare holds only fire, but a heat from Mavyn overwhelms him. She had felt like she was almost burning when she hugged me and melted my frost. She’s said before she’s always burning. Normally it’s always around when she’s about to or just coming out of a nightmare. Or like when Thorne pushed her in the sun our first day of classes.
She said she’d burn for all eternity.
I can actually feel the heat coming off of her. Glancing at her I expect to see steam floating off her, but instead I find eyes several shades darker than her usual pink. While she was fighting the rebels they had been a deep red. Like blood.
Something happens in her head, I know something has to happen, because she goes primordially still. And then she becomes nothing. As in there’s not an energy, a scent, afeelingfrom her. I’m staring directly at her but I can’t feel her, can’t comprehend that she’s actually in front of me. I can’t even touch the water within her. An organic materialeveryone has.
