Adapt (A Touch of Power Book 2) Read online

  When all was said and done, chance, fate, or whatever else you called it, only helped those who helped themselves.

  Chapter Six – Fire

  The rest of the walk to Magnus was spent in small talk and companionable silence. He dropped her off at her workshop, where Jade could see several curious students queuing down the hall look over curiously. She quickly slipped into her safe space, breathing a sigh of relief. Putting her sunglasses on a shelf, she stowed the rest of her battlegear, leaving her chosen knives in place. She’d have to get used to wearing them from now on. It was funny, but she never thought that weaponry would be her main accessories of choice.

  Walking over to her sitting corner, she grabbed the cool cloak Camille had left there after the shopping spree. Sadly, it was the only item of clothing that had stayed at the academy. Slipping it over her shoulders, she figured that it at least covered the obvious cuts on her shirt, and she could just drape it across her lap when she was sitting. Standing up, it encompassed her figure completely, so no one could tell what the condition of her clothing was or how many weapons she was carrying. Not that being armed was a surprising thing or something she had to hide, but still.

  Now feeling prepared to go to her beginner fire class, she sang softly, “Now I see fire, inside the classroom. I see fire, burning for free. And I hope that you’ll educate me…” In her head, she didn’t sing the original version, but had a bunch of acapella voices going on in the background. She’d loved Peter’s version even as she changed it for her circumstances. It made her sad that she couldn’t watch his videos on YouTube anymore; there was so much amazing music that she wished she could bring to life again, but she already felt like she was starting to forget some of it…

  Shaking her head, she left her workshop, carefully locking it behind her as she turned left and headed for the small group of milling students. It was just around the corner of the building, labelled clearly as 2F. She almost laughed at how appropriate having Fire in the F classroom was. Still, she was surprised by how large of a group it was, comparatively. She counted fourteen students including herself. Sadly, she didn’t recognize a single one of them.

  They were already divided into little groups, so instead of trying to join in, she just hovered at the side a little awkwardly with a small smile, trying to look friendly. Some of them were sneaking glances at her, but they held barely contained sneers as they took in her cloak. She heard one whisper that wasn’t really a whisper, “Does she think she’s trying to make a fashion statement? Who wears a cloak to a fire class?”

  Now that she looked, they were all wearing clothes that were as light as they could make them. She pinpointed the non-whispering voice as a boy who looked like he could be Will’s cousin. He had the same shiny platinum hair and bright cornflower blue eyes, along with the customary fit build and sword at his waist. His clothes, while light, were also fancier than the other students’. His shiny white teeth flashed with his mocking smirk, as if he were a dog baring them at an intruder. Considering that fully eight of the clumped students were orbiting around him and fawning, she felt pretty secure in assuming he was probably royal.

  He looked like he was about to say something else disparaging when the door opened and there stood Baronet Tristan. Jade smiled at him, remembering that he’d said he was the assistant for this class. He didn’t immediately spot her however, as his gaze was drawn to the royal jerk. “You’re all welcome to come in now.” Jerkface nodded imperiously to him, stalking past everyone else to be the first into the room and claim whatever he considered to be the best seats. She didn’t care. Let him have his petty pride.

  His posse followed closely behind him, then the other groups made their way in with Jade bringing up the rear. When she reached him, Tristan smiled at her. “All settled in?”

  She nodded cheerfully. “Yes, thanks to your help. How’ve you been?”

  He grinned, and she couldn’t help but admire his dreds. He was one of the few people she’d seen who had a truly different hairstyle. “I’ve been good. Nothing too exciting usually happens on campus.” She nodded and walked into the room, glancing around to find an empty seat. There was only one, but she was a bit wary of it, given that royal jerk had the seat right behind her. She thought she’d just avoid him, or that all the seats around him would be filled with his minions. Apparently he’d decided to try and torment her from behind. Well, he could try.

  Walking over to the seat, she smiled innocently at him, which seemed to confound him for a moment before she took her seat. Silently, she created a wind wall on three sides, leaving only the front to the professor open. It wouldn’t be obvious unless someone tried something. Satisfied that she was protected, she carefully arranged her cloak to make sure she was covered, then looked at the front of the room where Count Rachtin sat observing the class.

  Stephen had introduced her to the quiet professor, and she had wondered that he looked so little like a match for his element. With weathered olive skin, dark brown almond shaped eyes, and black hair combed neatly to one side, he reminded her of one of the Hindu doctors she’d met. Once they were all settled, he began while Tristan started walking around the room with piles of wood in his hand. It was then that she noticed these desks were made out of pure metal…probably a smart idea to not have flammable desks in the fire classroom. She honestly wasn’t sure metal was the best idea, either. She’d have chosen stone. Maybe it was to teach them control over heat?

  “Good afternoon, class. As you can see, Tristan is passing out wood. Before we begin, I’d like to assess your proficiency with fire magic so I know where to start. Please light your pile of wood on fire and keep it burning for as long as possible.” Thankfully, the easiest way to get to her desk was from the front, so she didn’t have to move her wind walls for Tristan. She smiled and thanked him as he passed her the wood, glancing around.

  Several of the students were staring at the wood, utterly stumped as to how to light it on fire. One student had smoke coming from his wood, but no actual flame. Unsurprisingly, royal jerk and several of his cronies had lit their wood on fire and were watching everyone else struggle with smug looks.

  Leaning forward, the jerk whispered not so quietly, “What, too scared to even try?”

  Jade laughed softly, smiling at him. “I’ve never lit anything on fire before, but how hard can it be if you can do it?” Her tone was completely innocent, in stark contrast to her biting words. He was glaring in outrage at her as she turned her back on him. Looking at the pile of wood on her desk, she concentrated.

  Fire was just another form of energy. She could feel the warmth of her magic spreading into her fingers as she contemplated what she wanted to do. Something about what the professor had said had caught her attention. Try to keep it going for as long as possible. The point then wasn’t to light the wood on fire; it was to create a fire without burning it. Holding her palm out, she imagined a small fireball there, willing it to coalesce.

  After a moment, a little flame flickered into existence, slowly growing stronger as she got the feel for it. Concentrating on the wood, she imagined it coating the wood without burning it. Like the light, she wanted to attach it. Still, she left about half the wood uncoated, since she wanted to be able to pick it up as necessary. Satisfied when the top of the wood was coated in flame but the wood wasn’t turning to charcoal, she grinned and started to play with it.

  She’d always heard the saying, ‘I saw images in the flames,’ so she decided that’s what she wanted. Picturing an apple tree, she had the flames grow up in a 3D image of it, though the branches were more uniform than she wanted, so she started mangling them. While she left the trunk as red flame, she decided the leaves would be blue and green, with the apples being white hot. Totally absorbed in playing with the fire, she was oblivious to the rest of the room.

  It was the jerk’s mutter that brought her back to reality, “Show off, tramp.” She looked back just in time to meet his eyes as they got an evil glow and he leaned
forward, seemingly curious as he said, “Wow, what did you…oh!” He ‘accidentally’ shoved his wood right at her in his attempt to see her creation. For a second, self satisfied glee took over his expression when the wood went flying straight for her, but his expression quickly turned to panic.

  His wood struck her wind barrier which rebounded the force directly back at him…and the wind had also enhanced the flames. Evidently, fanning the fire was easy to do. Still, the fact that a fireball basically got sent back at him had the entire class panicking as he screamed. His fancy clothes were on fire and his right arm was pretty crisped from where he’d blocked his face. His hair was also on fire. “Put it out! Put it OUT!” His yells dominated the otherwise silent with shock room.

  Rachtin reacted quickly, calling the fire from his body and holding it in his hand for a moment before he extinguished it. He obviously hadn’t been watching what went down because he asked inquisitively, “How exactly did you lose control of your flame?”

  “I need a healer now! Someone call the healer!” He was screeching in futility, completely ignoring the count’s question.

  With a sigh, Rachtin looked at Jade and asked, “Would you heal him so we can figure out what happened?”

  Jade smiled at him, then shrugged, “I’m sorry, but no. What happened was he tried to light me on fire, but I had a wind barrier around me in case of something like this. His fire rebounded off of my barrier and the wind fueled it a bit, so that’s why he got lit up so much. So no, I won’t heal him because he got injured trying to do me harm. He can wait for a healer to come, as he no doubt thought that I would have to.”

  The rest of the class was listening intently to their conversation, and jerkface blanched at having her sum up the situation so cleanly. Still, his rage took over. “You’re a healer? Then by the heavens, heal me! Do you know who I am?”

  She tilted her head, looking at him with consideration. “No, I don’t, but it’s not like I care who you are.”

  He raged even more at her while everyone around her was looking nervous. “I’m the nephew of the king! I’ll have your head for this!”

  Jade smiled serenely at him. “Oh, is that so?” Glancing around at the horrified looks on everyone’s faces, she felt like his threat might have been carried out in the past. “Well, then I suppose I should tell you that I’m a traveler, and I won’t put up with your crap. You can ask the king to kill me if you want, but I think he’ll have his own thoughts on the matter.”

  “You wench, I’ll kill you myself!” Roaring in anger, he pulled his sword out and tried to stab her while she just watched him with a wry look on her face. It was rather amusing to watch him hack and slash at her wind barriers, which she’d now encircled herself with, just to be sure. Everyone else had retreated to the sides of the room during his mad rampage, save Rachtin, who stood behind her, frowning.

  Jade took a seat on top of her desk and began picking at the nonexistent dirt beneath her nails as she spoke boldly, “You can throw yourself at me all you want, you’re not going to get past my barrier. It’s an effort of futility. Besides, the longer you wait to see a healer, the more likely it is that you’re going to lose your nerve endings and be permanently scarred. You’re only making it worse with your rash movements.”

  He just continued to roar, though what he was trying to say was incoherent now. He looked like an ugly raging bull with his burned appearance. It went on for a full two minutes before she finally decided she was bored and wasting valuable time. Checking her pocket watch, she snapped it closed and turned to look at Rachtin. “Enough is enough. Are you going to stop the psychopath or should I?”

  Rachtin sighed, looking at him. “I’d rather not go near him right now.” Jade nodded, thoughtful. He was swinging pretty wildly, so behind her or far away were the only truly safe spots at the moment.

  Looking back at jerkface, she mentally grabbed the air around him, freezing it so that he could no longer move. He struggled ineffectually against the barrier, and she decided she quite liked wind. Pondering on whether or not she should just hit him upside the head, he started cursing more coherently at her again, since he could no longer swing his sword.

  Annoyed, she growled, “That’s it! SHUT UP!” She pulled the wind from his lungs. She’d just take away his air until he passed out. He was going red and purple with rage and lack of oxygen, until finally, his eyes rolled up and his body went limp. She let the air flow back into his lungs. She wasn’t keen to kill him, after all, even if he was a git.

  With a sigh, she moved two desks together with her wind, then placed his inert form on top. Reaching out, she healed his burns and left him unconscious. She was tempted to leave hideous scars, then sighed again and did it properly. She glared at his cronies as she said menacingly, “This is my warning. I’ll let it pass this once because he’s an idiot who doesn’t know when to stop. I would suggest the rest of you learn to discourage him from such behaviors in the future because this? This had better not happen ever again.” The last words were said slowly, punctuating each for emphasis.

  Looking at Rachtin, she inquired, “Do you know where I can find Victor or Camille? They should be in private tutoring at the moment, and it seems like I need to have a word with them.”

  Rachtin shook his head. “I’m sorry, but that’s not something anyone but the tutors would know.” She nodded, as that made sense. Looking at jerkface, who a quick check of her notifications told her was named Brodie, she shook her head. Of course he was named Brodie. It was a typical villain name. Still, Rachtin was staring at him with something akin to remorse. “Sorry about Brodie. He’s been…difficult since Tevin was taken by the mesmer.”

  And then it clicked. His dad was the Uncle Tevin that Jackson had been telling her about when he explained why the royal family got sequestered when a mesmer came over the wall. She nodded, then conceded, “Still. I think it’s best I find another class to go to next week. I’ll be in touch.”

  Rachtin nodded regretfully. “When will he wake up?”

  Jade smiled. “Probably in about five minutes. I just wanted him out long enough for me to leave.”

  Rachtin nodded in understanding, then glared at the rest of the students. “This isn’t to spread beyond this classroom unless you’re being interviewed by someone from the royal family or someone they’ve sent. Do you understand?”

  A chorus of “Yes, sir,” rang out from their lips, and Jade wiggled her fingers at them and grabbed her fire tree as she nodded respectfully to Rachtin and Tristan, who still looked concerned.

  Tristan held the door open for her as she left, whispering a soft, “Sorry about all that.” She smiled and shook her head.

  “Not your fault. Have a good day, Tristan.” She then walked out, quickly disappearing around the corner and heading towards her workshop.

  She had a lot to think about. Still, she couldn’t help but sing softly with a wry grin, “Light him up, up, up. He’ll taste fiyaaaaaaaaaaaah.”

  Chapter Seven – Neighbors

  To Jade’s surprise, when she rounded the corner, the hallway wasn’t as empty as she had anticipated. At the far end of the hall in front of her workshop door were a few people hovering anxiously, as if they could will her to appear. Tucking her burning branch behind her back, she approached them quietly, scaring a few of them enough to make them jump when she asked innocently, “Whatcha doooin?”

  It was pretty much a rhetorical question because she could see why they were there. The boy on the makeshift stretcher in front of her was covered in what looked like a torn up blanket that was slowly becoming a dark reddish-brown and the smell of iron assaulted her nose. One of them asked quickly, “Are you Jade?”

  She nodded, walking past them to unlock her door and hold it open. “Bring him in, gently. He obviously doesn’t need to lose any more blood.” They scrambled to oblige, gingerly but quickly pulling the makeshift stretcher up and carrying him into the room, moving him to the table she pointed at as she brushed against them w
ith the barest fingertip as they passed in order to grab her new dots. As soon as they’d entered, she followed them to a table, setting her fire tree on the next nearest table and putting a gentle hand on his arm as his injuries flooded into her mind’s view.

  She frowned at the sheer magnitude of his injuries. Gesturing to the ‘bandages’ they’d shoved on him, she ordered, “Gently get rid of anything covering the wounds. I’ve stopped the blood flow, but I don’t want to heal any threads into his injury or use more blood to clean it out if I don’t have to.” She frowned again as she muttered, “And then you get to tell me how he got mauled by a giant animal so badly while at Dracona.”

  Seriously, where did this happen? She wanted to stay waaaaaay clear of wherever it was. Still, she didn’t have much brainpower to devote to the problem, given that she was trying to keep this dude alive. He’d lost way too much blood. The other two had finally finished pulling away all the bandages and clothes covering his wounds by the time she’d identified all of the wounds and what she needed to do.

  Concentrating, she pulled out as little blood as she could in order to get rid of the contaminants that were obviously on the claws of the creature. After that, she quickly knit together muscle and bone. The kid was a mess. It was a full ten minutes later before she finally sat back, perspiration beading on her forehead. She glanced around, only to notice that the table looked like a massacre had happened, what with all the blood and bloody rags sitting there.

  Unable to stomach the view, she silently called to the blood, and one of the boys cursed as it started to move, wriggling through the air until it formed a globe above her hand. She grimaced, seeing how much blood he’d actually spilled. It was likely that this wasn’t everything either. The poor sap was at least completely out the whole time, so he didn’t have to deal with the pain of her healing him. She put it on the table a little ways away from her fire tree. As a globe, it looked less grotesque than when it was splattered everywhere, though the others seemed a little unnerved by her actions.