Alpha Academy: Misfit's Rise

Chapter Twenty-Four: Conversations

It was weird to walk through the halls without the usual whispers of "Rusty, Misfit, and freak," following after me. It was even weirder not to hear any insults in the halls. The feuding Alpha seniors had to settle for bumping each other as they passed in the hallways or glaring at each other from across the dining hall, but there were no incidents following Koya's announcement. It was like everyone had hit pause on their fights. Well, almost everyone.

Sedna continued to shout insults after passing students and laugh when they failed to retort, like nothing had changed. Gwen was never far behind her, her face red and her lip curling, but unless Sedna openly attacked someone, there wasn't much she could do. And now she had three sidekicks to worry about instead of two.

It seemed Artemis' actions at the festival had finally caught Sedna's attention. Artemis no longer trailed after her like a lost puppy, but stood between Daphne and Maeve, laughing and insulting everyone with them. The upside to this was she was so busy serving her new queen bee, she almost didn't have time to torture me. Almost. I'd stopped her from ripping Jumong's arms off, something I was under no obligation to do, considering Jumong had tried to strangle me twice. But Artemis got her wish, while I was about to lose everything I'd ever wanted. The irony was overwhelming.

I had a plan though, sort of. They'd given me a few weeks before they were officially sending me back. All I had to do was prove I was a worthwhile Mage before then, and they'd realize they'd made a mistake and let me stay. But improving my magic skills on my own was proving harder than I ever thought. Classes were no help; if the teachers were ignoring me before, they were completely denying my existence now. Practicing in public was useless too. Somehow word had gotten out that my days were numbered, which led to an absurd number of hecklers who surrounded me every time I tried to so much as high-five a plant.

It seemed my only option was to practice magic late at night, when no one was around. That was how I found myself wandering around the halls of Alpha at midnight, trying to find a room to practice in that wouldn't disturb anyone. Probably out of habit, I found myself outside the Persephone room. It was as good a place as any.

Lucian had always made me start each practice session with his own form of meditation. Without Lucian, there was no way I'd be able to focus for that long, so I'd come up with my own method. For whatever reason, my magic seemed to work best when there was adrenaline pumping through my veins, meaning all I had to do was get my heart pounding. Yesterday I had done it by letting a tarantula I'd stolen from the potions labs crawl all over my skin until I finally managed to flick him off with magic. Today, I was going to do it with fire.

It was a simple plan. I'd tie one end of the string around my palm and tie the other to a beam above my head. Then all I had to do was light one end with a lighter I'd stolen off the maintenance cart of the human servants, and make sure I put out the flame before I reached my palm.

Before I could psych myself out, I whipped out the lighter and lit that string up. I jumped as soon as it started, dropping the lighter. The flame was moving a lot faster than I expected.

I took a deep— though quick—breath, and tried to refocus. I'd never tried putting out a fire before—I was usually setting them—but I was hoping if I visualized enough, it would all work out. But no matter how much I visualized, that flame kept getting closer and closer. I could feel the heat dancing across my skin now.