I played with my journal. “I don’t know. I wish I could keep up with everyone else. I’m falling behind. I bet I don’t even have any fae blood. I’m some kind of fluke or something.”
“Heads up.” I barely had time to raise my eyes before a large snowball hit me smack in the face.
I squealed and leapt up. My leather journal fell to the ground. Chunks of snow fell off my cheeks as I wiped my eyes. Lucien had gotten to his feet. He had a snowball in hand, and was tossing it up and down playfully.
“Well, come on.” Lucien raised his eyebrows. “Aren’t you going to retaliate?”
I stood there, open-mouthed. Was I really about to get in a snowball fight with my teacher?
Lucien chucked the snowball he had at me, and I leapt to dodge it. Okay, that was it. This meant war.
I stooped to the ground and scooped up a bunch of snow. I formed a ball before I chucked it at Lucien’s head. He ducked and sent another snowball sailing back, yelling, “You can do better than that!”
I made two more snowballs and threw them. One missed, but another smacked him square in the chest. “Ha!” I shouted. “Caught you!”
It didn’t deter him. Lucien grabbed a gigantic clump of snow in his large hands, hurried over and dropped it on my head. It slipped inside my clothes and ran down my back. I screamed at the cold, and Lucien laughed.
“I’m gonna make you pay for that!” I took a handful of snow and tossed it in his face. Lucien blew snowflakes off his lips and shook his head free of the snow chunks. Before long, we were both running around the courtyard, tossing snowballs back and forth at each other and laughing.
Lucien had cheated and had taken refuge behind a stone wall. I hurled snowballs at him as fast as I could make them, and they splattered in the places where he poked his head out to see. It should’ve been weird that I was having a snowball fight with my middle-aged teacher, but it wasn’t. It just felt like fun.
Lucien came out from behind the wall. Now was my chance. “That’s it. You’re toast!”
Without thinking about it, I raised my hand. Of their own accord, three snowballs formed on the ground, rising quickly into the air. I laughed as I pointed them at Lucien and prepared to fire.
He gave a broad grin.
“See,” Lucien said. “What did I tell you?”
I stopped what I was doing. I realized with shock that I was levitating three snowballs off the ground, my arm whirled backward as if I was a pitcher, ready to toss them at Lucien in great succession.
The minute I realized that I was actuallyusing telepathy, the snowballs dropped out of the air and crushed on the ground. I tried again to form the snowballs and make them rise, but now that I realized I was doing magic, it was like my powers wouldn’t work. I scrunched up my face and concentrated, but nothing happened. It was as if my magic had decided to get up and walk away.
“What the hell? I just did it!” I said.
“You get in your own head, Emma,” Lucien said. “What you can do comes naturally, if you don’t think yourself out of it. You have the ability to do whatanysorceress can, and so much more. Let it come when it will.”
I took a deep breath. Lucien was right. “I guess I have a confidence problem,” I admitted.
“As we all do.” Lucien strode forward and placed his hand on my shoulder. “I’ve been watching you for awhile, and I know you have the ability. Once you become more self-confident, the magic will be easy. Give yourself some time. No accomplished sorceress was created in a day.”
My shoulder was warm underneath his hand. I glowed with the praise. “Well… good to know someone here believes in me.”
“I always will. I am your teacher— my job is to make sure you are ready to take on this world, whatever it may bring.” He shook my shoulder before letting his hand drop. “No matter how discouraged you may get, you must not give up. Just say the word, and I will be here to help you. With anything.”
“Thanks, Professor.” I felt so much better than I did this morning. There was actually hope for me. Lucien thought that I could do this— survive as an Arcanea. And I’d prove to him I could. I didn’t want to let him down.
No matter what, I wanted to make Lucien proud.
* * *
I waiteduntil after midnight to sneak out of my dorm and down to the main grounds. I knew I shouldn’t be up late, as I had ice practice tomorrow, but dammit, I wanted some answers. An alert had come up on my phone about an hour ago that the Phantom had been sighted in Dolinska, so I knew he was running around. If he was a student, and tomorrow was Monday, he’d have to come back to campus tonight to avoid raising suspicion about who he was. So I’d lie in wait and catch him in the act, tonight.
The Phantom would have to come through one of these damn doors. There were only three entrances to the school— the main gate, the right-side gate, and the left-side gate. Unless he scaled the walls of the school, he’d have to come through one of those entrances. I had no doubt that he could climb walls, especially with that fancy grappling hook thingy, but that attracted attention, and I bet he wanted to remain as inconspicuous as possible now that the sighting report was live.
He probably wouldn’t come through the main gate, as it was fairly secure and open. Anyone who was looking for him would spot him coming a mile away. The left side gate was closest to the city, while the right-side gate led through the woods.
The woods would be the most secretive option, but it was a long walk to that entrance and it’d take time, not to mention he’d likely encounter monsters lurking in the shadows. However, I was pretty sure there were Alliance forces walking around the Dolinska city gate, so he couldn’t go through there.
