Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) (10 page)

As I laid him back on the exam table, Dr. Martin
picked up his thermometer and cursed. “He has a fever of a hundred and three.
Okay, so now we have a symptom. Let’s hope we find out what was in those eggs
before we have a lot more students sick.”

Len mumbled something unintelligible before passing
out.

“They could just have the flu or something. Maybe
they all suddenly got the flu at the same time.”

“Let’s hope.”

*          *          *

Classes resumed an hour later, but very little
learning went on. By six in the evening, two other students were sent to the
infirmary with high fevers, nausea, vomiting, and migraines. Darwin, who showed
no signs of illness, was no longer worried about it.

“How are we going to deal with Gale?” he asked.

The three of us were in our usual spots in the dining
room and Astrid, Amelia, and Addie were nowhere to be seen. I figured Astrid
was getting her blood from Dr. Martin. “First of all, we need to make sure he
can’t get the amulet.”

“Can he not just pop in and out?” Henry asked.

“Hunt has wards in place for that,” Darwin said.
“What if he infiltrates the school? I mean, he could look like Devon.”

They both stared at me, as if they were expecting me
to suddenly change into Gale. I stood with my untouched tray. “I’ll go talk to
Hunt. Maybe he has spells or something to keep someone like that out.”

I mostly knew my way around the castle, so I allowed
myself to daydream on the way to Hunt’s office. I knew Gale wasn’t going to
give up. Whereas he originally killed in order to steal power, his new motive
seemed to be revenge. Despite the fact that we killed Felicity for killing
others, I could see his side. Astrid killed Joseph Sanders, but if anyone tried
to hurt her, I would protect her.

That didn’t make him predictable. I didn’t know if he
was aware of Astrid unless he saw her in my head, which meant he probably saw
Darwin’s feelings for Amelia. To my knowledge, he hadn’t read Henry’s mind. I
stopped in the hallway as a thought occurred to me.
Gale doesn’t know that
Henry hates his parents. His parents are his only family, so they’re probably a
target.

I realized then that I wasn’t in a normal hallway.
In
fact, where the hell am I?
The hallway was older and narrower than the main
part of the castle, which told me I was on the south end, where the teachers’ offices
were. All the students knew the offices, libraries, and sometimes classes
changed locations, but reaching the third floor at the opposite end of the
school without going up any steps was a bit of a stretch.

I was supposed to be here.

There it is.
Someone was talking. It was too
quiet to discern the words or who was speaking, but I could tell which
direction to go in. Something small and bright red moved in the corner of my
eye, but when I looked, it was gone. There was an open door, which would have
been suspicious if this kind of thing didn’t happen a lot to me.

“I’ll need an alibi,” a voice whispered. I recognized
the whisper from the first time I overheard it.

April Nightshade.

“We already have that covered.” This was a man’s
voice, and a confident one at that. Although it was familiar, I didn’t know the
person enough to immediately match it to a face. “Once the council falls, there
will be no one to arrest us. Everyone knows they have too much power.”

“Logan will never agree to this.”

“Because of Vincent. Lately, Vincent has been
spending more time away from the council than with them. Vincent is more like a
spy for Logan than a member of the council; he doesn’t need to go down with
them. Logan won’t have a problem with us destroying the council then.”

A loud hiss interrupted their conspiring.

“What the hell is that?” the man asked, no longer
whispering. With the change in his voice, I easily recognized that it was
Professor Watson.

“I think it’s a cat. I’ve seen it once in Logan’s
office when Vincent was visiting. I have to go. I have a night class… which
started about twenty minutes ago.”

“Okay. Keep me posted.”

I left then. Professor Nightshade was a dragon, which
I could assume meant she had all kinds of abilities I wasn’t aware of.
Obviously, super-hearing wasn’t one of them. I arrived at Hunt’s office a few
minutes later to find him sitting at his old desk, reading over papers.

There was a distinct change in the man. He looked
several years older than when I last saw him, which wasn’t saying a lot when he
looked much younger than his actual age anyway. Whether it was the stress of
searching for the key, the loss of his familiar, or a combination, he wasn’t
taking it well.

“How are you, Devon?” he asked.

“Alive. You?”

“About the same. Have you come to discuss Gale or ask
about the tower?”

“Would you answer me if I asked about the tower?”

“No.”

“Then I guess I’m here to discuss Gale. He doesn’t
have the amulet anymore, but he still has the powers he stole, including
shifter abilities. If he gets someone’s blood, he can shift into them. And… he
got my blood.”

“Then let us hope Gale is a fool. As he is a human, I
doubt he understands the true advantage he has with your blood. If he wastes it
on impersonating you, then he is not the enemy I thought he was, which is good
for all of us.”

“Remember I only learned that I’m a wizard a year
ago. What is the worst he could do with my blood?”

“Assuming he has the power to use it, anything he
wants. He can kill you in an instant or worse.” He folded his hands and leaned
forward. “The worst he can do is use your blood to kill everyone you love.
Fortunately, since you killed Felicity, it is unlikely he has that power or
knowledge. I expect he will only be able to kill you.”

“And if he doesn’t know what blood is capable of?
What if he impersonates students or teachers and infiltrates the school?”

He sat back. “As long as we do not have a traitor on
the inside… again… my wards will prevent him from teleporting in and out. As
far as infiltration, I will have Rosin interview…” He sighed. “Never mind. Use
your mind powers if you suspect someone.”

“He will come back, right?” I asked, referring to the
shifter. “Ghost always goes back to Vincent.”

“Rosin has never left before, but yes, I know he will
be back. The hardest part is keeping Remy from running away. Speaking of
leaving the castle, how is it going with Darwin’s training?”

“Well, I understand what you meant about fighting his
teachers. We have managed to get him to change the color of objects, though not
the texture, like his mother can. And, he also can’t seem to turn it off. The
men’s showers are now all pastel purple. Fortunately, everyone seems to think
it was done by the mysterious prankster. They’re working on naming the
culprit.”

“Although any sort of controlled magic or shifting
does mean he is not a throwback by the council’s standards, your best chance of
convincing them is if he can defend himself in some way. While I have always
suspected he had latent ability, the threat of getting expelled does not work
to encourage people like Darwin. Too bad the amulet was destroyed in your
battle against Gale.”

Despite what we told him and everyone else, Hunt knew
the amulet wasn’t destroyed. “If we had it, it would be too dangerous for
Darwin to use in front of the council.”

“If they were as intelligent as the students in my
school, you would be correct. However, their arrogance is supported by a long
history of ruling over wizards and not by exceptional skills. All but three of
them inherited their position and were bred to be exceptionally ignorant brats
rather than quick-witted scholars like the founders.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Good night, Headmaster.”

*          *          *

We went out again to try to get Darwin to shift, but
he seemed even more hopeless. I had wanted Astrid to join us and maybe try to
thrall Darwin into believing in himself, but she was nowhere to be found. After
an hour of sitting around, I stood up and paced to stretch my legs. “You’ve
used my power before, so this shouldn’t be difficult. Humans with no power at
all can use it.”

Darwin scowled. “That’s not helping.”

“Have you ever been told that it’s all in your head?
It’s called learned helplessness. You believe so hard that you can’t do it,
until it becomes your reality.”

“It’s not psychological; it’s a genetic flaw. You
can’t mix wolf and forest fae and get a functional ability. Shifters have the
genomic ability to rapidly change their biology between two forms. Mix two
shifters of the same species, no problem. Two shifters of different species
usually result in the dominant gene taking over, but complications include
split-species or in dire cases, the human form is recessive. Forest spirits
like my mother are more the embodiment of magic itself than mortal beings. She
is
magic. There is a reason fae stick to their own species; they don’t breed well
with others.”

“Then why were your parents forced together?”

“My father needed a wife and my mother’s tribe wanted
the protection of the wolves. I can’t shift and the council isn’t going to be
impressed with me changing the color of the wall. Whether I use your power or
the amulet to use someone’s power, it’s cheating.”

“That would only matter to you if you thought the
council was in the right, which you don’t. You’re afraid of the amulet working,
not getting caught,” I said. He threw the amulet at Henry’s feet and stomped
off.

Henry sighed. “He will get through this.”

*          *          *

On Thursday, I was still cautious from Mack spilling
his cauldron of “mute” potion on the floor when I arrived at Remy’s class… to
see the floor on fire. Remy stood outside her classroom with a suspiciously
friendly smile. “Go on in,” she said. The two guys ahead of me were not willing
to take the first steps.

“I’m not going in there,” one of them said.

 Darwin arrived then and stuck his hand out at the
door. “There’s no heat and the flickering of the flames is inconsistent with an
indoor fire,” he said, then entered the knee-high flames without hesitating.
Since he showed no signs of being roasted alive, the rest of us entered. I
couldn’t feel anything, especially not heat, so I reached down to swipe my hand
through the yellow flames that were licking at my legs. I felt nothing at all.

“Is Len okay?” one of the students asked Remy before
entering.

“He’s fine. I’m sure it’s just the flu.”

Once everyone was seated, the fake fire died and Remy
went to the front of the room. As she did, the darkened windows grew lighter,
as if the sun was coming out. “The fire was an illusion.” She picked up a green
apple off her desk and tossed it between her hands as she spoke. “Illusions
like this one can be used in defense, to attack, as a distraction, or even to
escape a situation.”

“Isn’t illusion like mass hypnosis? My sister is a
C-Five and she said it’s basically the same.”

“Illusion is not the same, no.” She put the apple
down and sat on her desk. “They can both rely heavily on suggestion and they
both come down to a test of wills. All of you should have taken a class on
focusing and visualization, in which you learned that the way you perceive
something is based on not only your five senses, but also your own personal
experiences.

“For example, there are some people who have a
certain expression which can be considered happy or angry, depending on who is
looking at them. Let’s say Len and Darwin both see this person, and the person
actually resembles Len’s brother and Darwin’s father. Because Len’s brother is
perpetually angry, he will see this expression and know instantly, without a
shadow of a doubt, that this stranger is angry. His brain will process the
resemblance to the stranger to his brother and connect the dots. At the same
time, Darwin will see this person and know without any hesitation or doubt that
the man is happy, since his own father is typically a happy person.

“Even without knowing a person, you can predict their
reaction. Who can tell me what kind of apple I like?”

Almost everyone in class raise their hand. “Ashton?”
she called.

“Green,” Ashton answered.

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you have a green apple on your desk.”

“No, it’s a trick question!” Nathan interrupted. “She
didn’t eat the green apple. Maybe that’s the illusion, because she doesn’t like
them, so she didn’t eat it!” There were murmurs as students tried to figure out
which theory made more sense.

“Nathan, you’re half right. Who said I like apples?”
she asked. Silence fell. “I asked which apple I like, but I didn’t say I liked
apples at all. You just assumed I liked apples because I limited your options
to specific apples. But I never said those were the only options. Now for the
second part of the question.” She stood and pointed to her desk, where there
were now two apples. “Which is real and which is the illusion?”

After a few minutes, a student asked, “Are they both
real?”

“Are they both illusions?” another countered.

“You were playing with the left one, so the right one
should be fake.”

“Or that was a trick.”

“Or she thought we would think it’s a trick and it’s
actually the real one.”

“My brain hurts!”

“And that is where you tricked by your own brain,”
Remy said. “You were all sure it was real when you first saw it. Now, you don’t
know whether it was real or not. You cannot even be sure the desk I’m sitting
on is real.”

There was a light knock on the door and then Jackson
walked in with a stack of papers. “Professor Langril wanted me to deliver these
to you… at this exact time… for some reason.”