I couldn’t watch this anymore. I turned my back on the TV and returned to my dorm. I planned to bury myself in my grimoire, and ignore the rest of the world until I had to go to class, but Ethan stopped me.
“Don’t let this ruin your day,onawilke,” he said.
“How can they think he’s a good leader?” I burst. “It’s obvious he’s hurting so many people.”
“A good leader installs peace, and brings people of different viewpoints together over common ground. He doesn’t drive them apart, and take sides. But not everyone knows that,” Ethan said. He squeezed my arms. “I know it’s hard to see now, but leaders like him don’t last forever. They’re taken down, or they fall away to allow better men take their place. We must keep faith in that.”
“But how? How can we have faith when our world is falling apart?” I asked. “This world is just…sodisgusting, and I can’t do anything about it!”
“You told me the gods put Eli on the throne for a reason, and I’m apt to believe you. Our world has to get worse before it gets better. Things are just coming to a head now, and it’s tough to slog through all the shit. But we will get through it. I promise. Just hold on.”
My lip quivered. “I just wish we had more power to make a change.”
“Hey, remember what you told me?” Ethan took my face in his hands. “It takes a lot of people doing a lot of small things in order to make a change. This is what we can handle and what we can help with. All we can do is our part, nothing more.”
I knew he was right, but I still felt so helpless. I wanted to do more.
My mood hadn’t improved by the time I walked into Illusion 102. I sat beside Kiara at our desk and took a few deep breaths, trying to get myself in the right frame of mind. I’d been improving so far with my magic because I had been working on my thoughts. I didn’t want to ruin my progress by continuing to have a shitty attitude.
Lady Korva walked around the room, distributing back our essays from last week. If anyone refused to acknowledge the divide in this country, it was Lady Korva. She couldn’t give a shit or less if someone was bothered or upset by the political bullshit currently holding us all hostage— she expected you to make her class your first priority, no exceptions. While some teachers had given us less homework due to the distraction of all the uprisings, Korva had made up for it by doubling our work load.
Yeah. She was a real bitch.
Lady Korva slapped my paper down in front of me. My jaw dropped open when I saw the grade at the top of the paper.D-minus? Excuse me? I workedforeveron that paper! I knew my research was accurate, and all my sources were cited. When I looked for comments on what I might’ve done wrong, the only thing I found was a note at the end in Korva’s handwriting;insufficient explanation.
Kiara had gotten a C, which told me Korva had been really tough on us this time. Kiara never got anything less than straight A’s. Kiara frowned at her paper, but her eyes pleaded with me not to say anything.
Too late. My hand shot into the air. “Lady Korva, excuse me. I think there’s been a mistake.”
Korva’s lips tightened as she stared at me. “Mistake? I think not, Miss Sosna. You have earned the grade I think you deserve.”
“But it’s not fair,” I insisted. “I cited everything from our textbook, and from the noted materials in the library thatyouput on the syllabus. Is there anything I can do to earn a higher grade?”
Korva’s mouth upturned in delight. “I’m afraid not. I understand people withyour conditioncannot aptly perform the duties most students can handle. I’m sorry to say that your disease has gotten in the way of your learning, and unfortunately, this is the best I find you capable of doing. Perhaps your time would be better spent in a hospital instead of a university.”
My blood drained of color as Korva outed me to the entire classroom. Kiara froze. The other girls in the class gasped. Korva gave a devious smirk as my classmates began to whisper.
“Disease?”
“What’s Korva talking about?”
“Is Emma sick?”
No one knew I had CVID— no one but my family, my friends, and my teachers, who had been alerted to my condition by the school’s disability office. At least, that’s how it had been a few seconds ago. Now the entire class knew… and it wouldn’t take long for word to spread. I could already hear people typing on their phones as they texted my business to the world. News that I had a rare illness would be around the school before lunchtime.
Helena had her hand over her mouth. “Gosh, Emma! Do you have cancer?”
“We feelso sorryfor you,” her partner purred. “Is your life even worth living? Because I’d kill myself if I had to deal with all that. Isocouldn’t have a disease.”
A girl across from me leaned in. “It’s not anything contagious, right? Like, you can’t give it to the rest of us, I hope.”
“We allknewthere was something wrong with Emma. She lost the Contest because she’s weak, and this proves it,” Morgan said from the front. “It makes sense she hangs out with freaks like Kiara Malurski.”
Melissa giggled. “Emma probably gave Kiara what’s all over her face.”
Kiara stood up from the desk. Her chair knocked backward. “You’re going to have something all overyourface if you don’t shut up!” she cried, raising her hand. A yellow spell gleamed in her fingers, and Melissa lurched back.
It was so crazy to see Kiara like that— she never stood up to bullies, but apparently, she would if it was to defend me.
