Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) (11 page)

She thanked him, took them from him, and set them on
the table without looking at them. As soon as he shut the door, she asked,
“What color were his shoes?” After some debate, the consensus was that he wore
brown boots, since several students thought he always wore brown boots. “What
color was his shirt? What about his pants?” That answer came much quicker,
almost with relief that it was an easier question. “What color was his jacket?”

Students thought for a moment. “It was blue, I think,”
Nathan said.

“No, it was black. I know it was black.”

“You’re an idiot! It was definitely blue!” Dre
argued.

As the class argued over his jacket, Darwin leaned in
to whisper to me. “He wasn’t wearing a jacket, was he?”

I shook my head. After letting the class go on for
another ten minutes, Remy revealed that there was in fact no jacket. With her
point about the power of suggestion made, she moved on to the lesson.

“You all learned to visualize something, such as an
apple, so strongly that you could see it, feel it, smell it, and even taste it.
Today, you are going to visualize fire so strongly that everyone else can see
it too. Pair up. If you can’t create fire yet, partner with someone who can.
Each pair needs one box, two candles, and the appropriate correspondences.”

The correspondences were in the closet for the
students to fight over, the thick candles were in a box on her desk, and the
boxes were stacked behind her desk. The boxes were about a foot wide, a foot
deep, and two feet long. Dividing the box in the middle was a two-sided mirror.
Darwin gathered our correspondences while I set up the rest of it.

Darwin brought back a bottle of basil, a bottle of
cinnamon, an amber necklace, an outlandishly fake wand with rubies in its brass
handle, and a large silver triangle which he set facing downward from our
position. “The downward triangle is for water,” I said.

“That’s the balance because water is contrary to
fire.”

“Everyone should have a box with a two-sided mirror.
Place one candle in the middle of each side of your box. You will take turns on
this. Sit across from each other on the far ends of the box so that the mirror
reflects your candles and each of you see what looks like two candles. Decide
who goes first and that person will light one candle. Do that now. With your
magic, Carrie,” she said as Carrie pulled out a match.

Darwin laughed, but I knew he was really laughing at
me for all the times I used a lighter.

I imagined the heat of fire, as I had quite a lot of
practice doing this. It was more difficult to focus the heat into a wick than a
larger torch, but it only took a couple of seconds for a flame to erupt.

“Good,” Remy said once everyone was done. “Now, blow
it out and do it again. As you do, imagine the reflected candle doesn’t go
out.” She waved her hand and the windows and skylight darkened until only the
smallest amount of light seeped through. “Repeat this exercise until you can
see it with absolute certainty.”

I imagined the reflected flame remaining lit as I
blew out the candle. I repeated this process five times before the light of the
candles was really burned into my eyes so that when I blew it out, there were
twin spots of white light in the dark box.

“Woah,” Darwin said when I lit the candle for the
eighth time.

I blew it out and imagined the reflected candle still
lit. Remington appeared beside me, slid the mirror out of its groove, and set
it aside.

“Still holding the image?” she asked gently.

Remy was right next to me, her face lit with the soft
glow of imaginary light… it felt very intimate. The fact that I knew how she
felt pressed against me didn’t help.

“Do it again,” she said.

“Huh?” I asked.

“Light the candle.”

“Oh, that.”

“As you light it, you should imagine the second one
lighting, just like the reflected one did. If it doesn’t, blow it out and light
it again until it does.” She walked away.

It took ten minutes to refocus. I lost count of how
many times I tried the activity before I could really see the second candle
light with mine. With each time after that, the visualization was stronger.

“Hey, it’s working!” Darwin said excitedly.

“You can see the second one lit?”

“Yeah.” He waved his finger through my imaginary fire
and I saw it flickering the way I knew it should.

Remy was back at my side. “Good. Now, keep doing it,
except don’t pour your heat into your candle. With practice, the second candle
will light because you will visualize it, but it won’t be actual fire. With
practice, you can do it without actually making fire.”

I practiced for another half an hour before this
worked. I would focus on lighting the candle, but hold off on the actual
lighting of it, while simultaneously imagining the second one lighting. Of
course, I actually lit the second one with fire a couple of times, but that
wasn’t difficult to stop.

When I had it down, I opened a link between me and
Darwin so he could feel what I was doing. “
Do you want to try? You’ve used
my powers before.
”

“
In an emergency situation only. Besides, I was
using your powers through you, not doing it myself.
”

“
It’s not as powerful as the amulet, though. If
something goes wrong, I’d rather it go wrong here than with the amulet
,” I
reasoned. After a few minutes, he nodded. I slipped the mirror back into place.
I felt him trying to light the fire. Instead of using my memories of fire, he
somehow made it scientific and mathematical by recalling temperatures, chemical
reactions, and incidences involving acid.

Whereas I would imagine a child getting their finger
burned by a firework, he would imagine a man’s flesh melting off by
accidentally putting his hand down on the wrong spot in a lab. I imagined the
heat of a woman’s skin, while he imagined dissecting a lab rat.

The guy knew some really creepy shit.

The candle lit… and a loud explosion made me jump out
of my skin. Sparks and hot wax rained over everyone. I thought someone set off
a sparkler until the windows lightened and I could see what was going on.
Nathan’s candle had exploded, showering most of us with melted wax, and in the
candle’s place was sparkly silver confetti.

Most of the class laughed and cheered, but our
concentration was broken. Thankfully, Remy let us leave early. When everyone
was gone, I closed the door behind them and turned back to Remy. “Are you
okay?”

She gave me a half-hearted smile. “I’m always okay.”

*          *          *

I was heading to my next class when Addie found me.
“Dr. Martin is looking for you. He said it was important.”

“Thanks.”

“Has Henry said anything?” she asked before I got to
the end of the hall.

“About this being your last semester?” I asked. She
nodded. “Sorry. He hasn’t. Of course, he doesn’t like to talk about things that
upset him. That could be why.”

“I was thinking about asking Headmaster Hunt if he
needed another teacher.”

“Just because of Henry?” Again, she nodded. “Is he
worth sticking around for knowing what your relationship entails?”

“If he loves me, even if it’s only three days a
month, it’s better than not at all. If I leave, he’ll forget about me in a few
days. I need something from him, even a little hint that I’m not just a
convenience to him. Anything at all.”

“He chose you. That’s all I can tell you. He doesn’t
tell Darwin or me what’s on his mind any more than he tells you. I’ll see you
later.” I didn’t run into anyone else on the way to the infirmary, but I knew
as soon as I opened the door to the underground floor that I wasn’t going to
like what I found.

Dr. Martin was in the infirmary, looking through an
ancient microscope. Len, Kristen, and Conner, three wizards I had classes with,
were unconscious and sweating profusely. “What’s the verdict?” I asked.

He shook his head and turned to me. “Not good. The
eggs were contaminated, but it wasn’t with a poison. The five students who
fainted were the victims of a sleeping draft in the eggs. It was virtually
harmless and wore off in an hour. That was what Lenard had tried to say; he
hadn’t eaten the eggs. He hadn’t actually eaten anything because he woke up sick.
I also tested their blood and haven’t yet identified any virus or bacteria that
could be causing this.”

“Have you tried any treatments?”

“Potions. I’m not a medical doctor; more of a chemist
who knows potions and studied anatomy and physiology. They’re not developing
any new symptoms, but they are getting worse. The only thing that seems to be
wrong is extremely high fevers.”

“Do we need to call another doctor?”

“I’ve already tried. There are limited doctors in the
paranormal community who know anything more than me, and all of them are too
busy to help.”

“What about healing with magic?”

“There is no cure-all spell. Healing an injury or
poisoning is easy, but illnesses are an entirely different matter. Anything I
try could make them worse if I’m wrong, and the clues I’m getting are not
helping. None of their organs are getting singled out, which is odd. I had them
on oxygen and they actually got worse faster with it. I’ve sent for Logan; if
he doesn’t know what to do, he knows who will.

“Good.”

I helped Dr. Martin lay out ingredients for more
potions until the door opened and Hunt entered. Apparently, it had been his off
time, because he was wearing a business shirt and pants without his wizard
robes and his hair was slightly messed up, as if he had been napping. “Who was
first and what were the first symptoms?” he asked.

“Lenard was the first to get sick. He was nauseated,
sweating, shivering, and disorientated.”

Hunt put his hand on Len’s head and checked him over.
He may not have been a doctor, but he knew a racing heart and burning forehead
was bad. “And you tried calling in more doctors?” he asked, turning to Dr.
Martin, who nodded.

The doctor opened his mouth to speak at the same time
Len opened his eyes… and attacked. It wasn’t with a knife or magic, the guy
just lunged at the headmaster. Startled by the move, Hunt went down and Len’s
hands were on his throat before I could even get to them. I was able to pull
Len off, as he wasn’t a big guy, but he kicked and thrashed like his life
depended on it, all the while screaming something unintelligible. Just before I
lost my grip, Dr. Martin injected him with a sedative, which was effective
immediately.

Hunt stood and tried to get out of Dr. Martin’s way.
In doing so, he backed up to Kristen’s bed and didn’t see her sit up. Without
making a sound, she grabbed Hunt’s arm and bit him. Hunt jerked his arm away
from her, but he wasn’t willing to hurt his student even when she attacked him.
Dr. Martin gave her a sedative right as she was struggling to get off the bed.

Hunt motioned with his hand, she froze in midair
rather than collapsing on the floor, and then he picked her up and set her on
the bed.

“There you go; you have a new symptom,” I said to Dr.
Martin. For the second time, something small and bright red moved in the corner
of my eye, but it was gone by the time I turned my head.

“I need to clean that,” the doctor said, indicating
Hunt’s arm. Blood was seeping through his shirt.

“I can take care of it.”

“Whether this is airborne or not, you could have it
now. At the very least, you need to let me know if you feel sick at all.”

Hunt nodded. “I will. Their parents should be
informed, but do not send them home until we are sure this is not contagious
and that they will not attack their families. Also, keep a sedative handy.”

“I’m going to see if I can track down exactly where
they were, who they were with, and what they were doing when they got sick,” I
said. Hunt nodded and left.

*          *          *

I skipped my afternoon classes to retrace the
students’ steps. Len was sick when he woke, so I found one of his roommates.

“I just thought he was hung over,” Jake said. He was
irritated that I was interrupting his lunch, but was concerned enough about his
roommate to answer anyway. “He was out late Monday and Tuesday night
celebrating being back at the school.”

“Why was he celebrating being back? I thought Len
studied every chance he got and there really wasn’t a question.”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t gonna be able to come back. His
ma needed help around their shop. Hunt visited with him and hired his ma some
help out of his own pocket so that Len could come back. There was a dozen or so
of us chillin’ out at the pool on Monday and he suggested a bit of a party.”

“How long did this party last and when did it start?”

“We got an early dinner, so it probably started ‘bout
five-thirty. At eight or so, we all went in, but not Len.”

“That’s not a very late party.”

“No, but that was when someone dropped a bunch of dry
ice in the pool, so we left because we didn’t want to get blamed. I think Len
went with a chick. I mean, he said when he got back that he didn’t do anything,
but he was drunk so we didn’t believe him.”

“Did you see her?”

“Brown hair, average height, cute, but she was a
bloodsucker, so not my type. I figured she wanted a suck and he wanted a blow.”

“How did you know she was a vampire?”

“She had fangs. They left when the rest of us did,
but he didn’t come back ‘til about midnight. He was fine then, but still
drunk.”

“So he drank more?”

He shrugged. “He said he hadn’t, but he must have. He
didn’t even ‘member bein’ out that late.”

“Was there a party on Tuesday as well?”

“No, but he said he was going to the library, and we
assumed he was gettin’ more beer. We were asleep by the time he got back in and
he was sick when we woke up.