Second Chance Fate Page 8

  Julian’s expression was incredulous as he stretched out his hand, trying to pet the cat. Slug hissed a warning, but then, to my amazement, rolled onto his back. Julian laughed and ran his fingers over Slug’s chest and tummy, cooing all the time.

  That gave me an idea. “Hey, since you two get on so well, would you help me wash him? He smells pretty rank.”

  “Sure. I’ve got a big cat at home. This kitty doesn’t scare me at all.”

  Slug glared at Julian and whacked him with his front paw. The claws were retracted, though, so I knew he didn’t mean it.

  “Right,” Julian said, “let’s get him into a bath.”

  Slug obviously understood what that meant. Julian had barely uttered the words when the cat yelped sharply, twisted in Julian's hands, and ran off. Anybody watching would have laughed their heads off, but for us, it stopped being a game quickly and turned into a matter of pride.

  After Slug had slipped away from me for the third time, Julian finally had enough. Using the gesture I’d seen him do several times in class, he pushed his palms together, pulled them apart, and slung a good-sized water bubble at the cornered animal.

  15

  Slug ducked to dive underneath the bubble, but Julian popped it with perfect timing to douse the cat in a waterfall.

  I took one look at my pet and burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh at you. But you look ridiculous."

  And he certainly did. The massive tomcat with the scars and the evil eye was completely soaked. The wet fur clinging to his body showed how skinny he actually was. Water rivulets ran down his ribs and thin limbs. All his bulk had been a lie. Only his head was as big as before, and his blue eyes stared at me in abject betrayal.

  I felt sorry for him. "Come on, tiger." I kneeled on the ground and opened my arms.

  Julian shouted, "No!" but it was too late. Slug did a running jump into my arms, knocking me backward. Then he stood above me like a conquering lion and shook himself dry, drenching me and the room alike. This time, it was Julian who was laughing loudly.

  We were still drying the cat and ourselves when a knock sounded on the door. Julian whispered, “Your roommates?”

  I shook my head. It couldn’t be. They’d just walk in.

  Julian stepped into the bathroom. I still didn’t know whether I was allowed to have boys in the dorms, but going by how Julian acted, probably not. Sharon might not care to be found out, but I did. So I waited until he was out of sight before opening the door.

  Mr. Strickland stood before me, his fist raised for another knock. I stepped aside, and he entered, smiling when he saw Slug. "I assume this is not a familiar?"

  Oh shit. How did he know? What if he complained to Ms. Farkas I had an illegal pet in my room? There was no way I would give him up. Maybe I could bend the truth a little? "Well, I was told he’s a familiar. But I can’t be sure since my magic is so new."

  Mr. Strickland watched the cat as he groomed himself. Slug gave us a great view of his butt as he slung his hind leg over his head and licked I didn’t want to know where. Somehow I got the impression he did it on purpose. Mr. Strickland’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing else. Instead he turned towards me and smiled. “I need to talk to you, Amber. Would you accompany me for a walk around the premises? I want to make sure we can’t be overheard."

  I nodded. It was a little strange that the teacher who seemed to be second-in-charge after Ms. Farkas was afraid of being overheard, but who was I to argue? After three days here, I still had no clue who the main players were. I made sure to pull the door shut to stop Slug following me. Julian would let himself out.

  For the first few minutes, we walked quietly, each of us following our own train of thoughts. Eventually Strickland said, "I spoke to Castle this morning about what happened in PE. He said you have huge power but no idea how to access it. Is that correct?"

  I shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not sure. The two times I raised lightning, I wasn't in control of it. But when I tried using my elemental powers this morning, nothing happened. Nothing at all. No matter how hard I focused.”

  Mr. Strickland nodded. “I suspect something is holding you back. In fact, I'm pretty sure something is blocking you on purpose within the walls of the academy."

  "Oh, you mean the dampeners? I heard people talking about them. Aren’t they supposed to protect the students in case we lose control?"

  Mr. Strickland’s mouth tightened before he continued. "Yes, we employ dampeners for that reason. But I am talking about a different purpose. You see, we can tune the dampeners to specific powers. Before you got here, we made sure your lightning magic was dampened, but your general elemental powers were not. And yet, you say you don't seem to be able to access them. That makes me very suspicious."

  Now it was my turn to stare at him. "But wouldn't that make sense, given how I hurt people with those powers?"

  "No, Amber. You should be able to access all of your powers, just not at full strength. The fact you were able to throw lightning bolts at your teacher yesterday, yet weren't able to access your elemental powers today, doesn't bode well. There is something else going on.”

  The teacher glanced at me and seemed to consider his next words carefully. When he continued, his voice was lower and quieter. I had to listen closely to catch what he said next. “You see, the magical world is not as unified as it seems to outsiders. For example, even among magic users, there is a hierarchy of magic-born and magic conduits."

  I nodded. "Yes, Julian explained it to me. We’re called shunts, right?"

  Mr. Strickland stared at me. “He called you that?"

  “He didn’t, but others did. Julian explained it wasn't a very nice term. That's when he mentioned magic-born and conduits."

  We had arrived at the main building. Mr. Strickland opened the door. He looked straight into my eyes, his expression worried and intense. “I need to talk about this with the head witch. Be very careful who you trust. Something isn't right here. I'm going to get to the bottom of it, but I don't want you to get caught in the crossfire. Your power is extraordinarily strong. There are magic users who wouldn't hesitate to hurt you if that gave them access to your raw energy."

  I stared after him as he entered the main building. His words had made me feel vulnerable. An icy shiver ran down my arms, and I rubbed them hard, trying to warm up despite the hot day.

  I was just about to turn back when something touched my ankle and pushed so hard against it, I nearly fell over. With both arms flailing to catch my balance, I looked down at Slug. Surprised, I crouched down next to him. "How did you get here? Did Julian not close the door after himself?"

  Slug purred loudly as he pushed his whiskered face against mine. His pink tongue darted out, and he licked right across my cheek. It was cute but also totally disgusting. "Ew, Slug. Seriously? What the hell have you had for breakfast? Mouse soufflé?"

  Slug sat down on his butt, wound his bushy tail around himself, and stared at me as if he couldn't believe I’d just said that.

  "Hey, look at you, making out with a cat."

  I looked up and recognized Kiernan. Was he making fun of me? He grinned broadly, but his expression held no malice.

  "Yeah, my pet… familiar followed me. I must have left the door open."

  His eyebrow climbed. "Well, if he is your familiar, he’ll follow you everywhere in case you need help. That's what they do."

  That was interesting. I’d had no idea. "He is my very first familiar. I don't really know how to use him yet. Will they teach us here?

  "No, they can only tell you the most basic stuff about familiars. They are tuned to our magic, so every mage needs to figure this out by themselves. It's cool you have one early. Usually, it takes a few years for magic users to figure out their powers before they acquire familiars.”

  “So how do you get one? Do they just show up? Do your parents buy one for you? How does it work?"

  He looked at me quizzically. "Well, how did you find yours?

&nb
sp; I shrugged. I didn't want to go into any of the detail, but maybe my story wasn't that unusual. "When my lightning first materialized, he popped up. I found him under a car.”

  Kiernan nodded. "They usually show up when we least expect them. He is particularly protective of you, though. How long have you had him?"

  "Just a few days."

  "Well. Your bond is already stronger than I've seen between familiars and their owners after months.”

  I looked down at Slug with surprise. The big cat sat in front of me, his ears back, not aggressive but watchful.

  "Can I pet him?"

  Before I could stop him, Kiernan bent down and stroked Slug’s head. Instead of biting his hand off, which I'd half-expected, the large cat purred and pushed his head at Kiernan’s fingers.

  "Damn, I envy you. You won’t have to go through school alone.”

  The wistfulness in his voice made me curious. "Why are you here?" I asked hesitatingly. "You don't have to tell me. I mean, I think I know why I'm here. But why are you?"

  Kiernan looked to the ground, his ears turning red. "My mother insisted on me being here. In the magical world, the Second Chance Academy is the equivalent of a military school. We get one phone call a week, we’re expected to study hard, and we can’t leave when we want to. It gets even worse when we turn eighteen.”

  “How so?”

  “Until we are eighteen, our parents are in control of us. But once we become adults, supervision rights go to the head witch."

  I gasped. " Are you serious? So it’s like jail for you as well?"

  Kiernan shook his head. "It's not really a prison. There are rules in prison. A judge and jury decide how long you need to be in for. Here it’s different. The magical world has always operated outside the human world, and we have our own rules. But ever since the explosion, innocents like you have been caught up in this.

  “It's too dangerous to leave them out there, without training, without guidance. In the first couple of months after the accident, the FBMA started getting reports of duds—that is, humans without any magical powers— lighting themselves on fire or blowing up buildings. Yet no accelerants or explosives were ever found.

  “It took them a little while to understand how many duds had been exposed to the fallout. The authorities had no choice but to snatch them from the street for their own good and bring them to facilities like these.”

  That made sense. Although it brought up another question. "So are there many other people like me who suddenly developed powers and killed by accident?"

  Kiernan nodded. "Yes, and it's a good thing there are. Because of them, the authorities were able to develop a system to teach control quickly. The only other option would have been to eliminate them as threats to all of us."

  I gulped. "Do you mean, kill them?"

  I hadn't realized I’d stepped back instinctively, until Kiernan grabbed my arm and pulled me against his broad chest. “Shush, acushla. Yes, the FBMA would have killed every single one of the magical conduits. But they figured out how to teach control so they didn’t have to. If you got any problems, I’ll help you, okay?”

  My fear receded as he stroked my hair. When he felt me relax, he loosened his embrace. Hesitating just a moment, he kissed my cheek. I turned my head, and our mouths met.

  Kiernan pulled back to whisper, “You sure?”

  What was it with these guys asking for permission? Not that I minded. They were a damn sight more considerate than the boys at my old school, from what I’d heard. So I nodded, my heart beating into my throat.

  Wow, making out with two guys wasn’t how I’d planned my day. If my mom could see me, she’d have a cow. And then his soft lips descended onto mine, and all thoughts of my mother left my mind.

  16

  I was hoping to run into Kiernan again, but my days were crazy busy. After I left the dorm in the morning, I barely had an hour to catch lunch before lessons continued. In the evenings, I either hit the library or did homework. Slug loved rubbing his head against my chin as I lay on my bed. More often than not, his deep rumbling purr made me drowsy until I fell asleep with my clothes on. One day swam into the next, and in all that time, I didn’t see Kiernan other than waving at him briefly as we crossed paths.

  Ms. Farkas had kept her word and spoken to the teachers. For the next couple of weeks, I was able to attend classes and knuckle down to my homework without any more harassment. She’d also eased up on her order to not give me practical exercises. Not that it did any good. No matter how hard I tried in class, I couldn’t tap into my magic.

  The campus store ordered in special cat food for Slug, who turned out to be very picky for a former alley cat. He wouldn’t touch any of the dried kibble normal cats ate. No, Slug insisted on the finest tuna pouches, the ones depicting cute little kittens who ate from plates garnished with parsley. And once I could have sworn I saw him outside the cafeteria building, begging for treats.

  I was lucky the academy covered all costs related to familiars. All I had to do was rock up to the volunteers in charge of the store and tell them I needed supplies for a familiar. The next day, a delivery waited for me with everything the discerning cat required. A soft bed, a pretty bowl, a comb for his fur, and, of course, cat food.

  I still didn't like PE and Mr. Castle in particular. Even though he wasn't picking on me directly, every class he made sure to drop one or two comments to remind everyone what a loser I was.

  At the end of my first month at the academy, I sat in the library, trying to focus on a bone-dry text about elemental magic. I’d improved somewhat, and I was now able to light a dull, red glow in my palm.

  It still wasn't a flame, but it was getting closer. Mrs. Palmer was very encouraging about my progress, although it was annoying to watch other students doing cool things like controlling the temperature of their flames. Luke even managed to conjure a blue flame that didn't hurt him, but was painfully icy to everybody else.

  "Hey, Amber.”

  I looked up at a group of kids I vaguely remembered from PE class. They usually huddled in a corner, about as eager to participate as me. A guy smaller than me, with a thin face and flat eyes like gray pebbles, pulled out the chair next to me and sat down. I thought his name was Paul, although I wasn’t totally sure.

  "So, it's no secret that you're not here voluntarily. Am I right?"

  I eyed him suspiciously, waiting for him to continue.

  The second boy spoke up. "Look, we don't like it here, either. There's something off. We got a bad feeling about this place. Nobody ever checks up on the academy, and we haven't been in touch with our families since we got here. Every time I call home, something goes wrong. Either the line disconnects, or there is no ringtone. I'm sure my parents would have come here by now if they knew where we were."

  I nodded. I’d had the same experience. But rather than disconnected calls, twice somebody had picked up the receiver, waited for me to speak, and hung up again. I didn't like it either.

  I remembered complaining to Beth one night. She hadn’t taken it seriously. "Maybe your parents just don't want to speak to you."

  Apparently I’d looked so shocked, she’d thrown up her hands and laughed. "Don't get upset. I was joking. I had no problems talking to Daddy last night. Have you tried sending them a letter?"

  I’d never written a letter in my life. But after three unsuccessful attempts of reaching out to my family, I was getting pretty desperate. All this roiled in my head as I continued watching the group making themselves comfortable around my study area.

  Paul leaned forward across the table, whispering as if somebody could overhear us. "We thought we'd ask you because you have this awesome lightning power. Do you want to get out of here with us?”

  I was taken aback by his directness. Yes, I was desperately homesick. But everybody told me this was the best place for me. I answered, "I'm not sure. We seem to be learning a lot. But you're right, I miss my parents, too."

  The third member of the group lau
ghed bitterly. "I don't know if you’re learning as much as you think you are. I watched you in PE You haven't been able to produce anything useful since you got here. Maybe if you had a better teacher outside, you'd achieve more."

  Mr. Strickland's description of the dampeners came back to me. He said they were specially tuned to our magic. Maybe the girl was right. Since I’d arrived here, I’d made very little progress. Other students had moved from tiny manifestations of their chosen elements to larger-scale magic. Only I was still stuck with droplets of water appearing on my fingertips or a little red glow on my palms.

  Paul got up. "Look, you know where to find us. If you want to take part, let us know. We’re still in the planning stages, but we want to get out of here before the exams. And don’t tell anybody. Believe me, we’d know."

  I watched them leave with mixed feelings. My stomach hurt with longing whenever I thought of how sad Mom and Dad must have been, not knowing what was happening to me. I missed them so much, I cried myself to sleep most nights.

  And Mr. Strickland's warning about something odd brewing at the academy worried me. So did Paul’s warning as he’d left. How powerful were these kids? Or were there others in on their plot? Belatedly, I realized I only knew Paul’s name. But since I’d recognized them from class, it shouldn't be too hard to contact them once I'd come to a decision.

  When I returned to my dorm, Sharon and Beth were out. No doubt hanging with their many friends. Or in Beth’s case, the redhead named Kenzy. To be honest, I was glad to have the room to myself for a little while.

  Slug was waiting for me in my bed. His eyes followed me as I left the bathroom and made my way towards the bed. Not for the first time I wondered how his face could seem so… expressive? Was that the right word? He wrinkled his nose, and I understood him perfectly. Come to bed, human. I want to cuddle.

  I never had a pet before. Maybe that’s why people went gaga over cats. Because they became companions, and their owners transferred their affection to them until they basically anthropomorphized them. And kudos to biology in high school for teaching me that word.