Mirren Academy of Spells

Chapter 21: Retribution

Chapter 21: Retribution

I had no intention of going back to the assembly. I didn't want to go out of the dorm. I was having a hard time accepting the reality of Olivia's situation. I couldn't be her anymore. Was this why she didn't want to come back?

Alice was getting worried about my lack of intention to go back to the internship. She kept asking what was wrong, but how could I tell her? I no longer trusted the assembly.

"They might reprimand you, Olivia. They could send a note to the academy of your performance."

I didn't care. I just lost all the strength to care. How could I stay in a place that hurt people and acted like they did everyone a favor? How could they expect people to be okay?

On the third day of not showing up in the internship, it was Liam who showed up. The dorm keeper rang me in my room and told me Liam was waiting in the lobby.

"Olivia! Olivia Valencourt!"

I shoved the sheet over my head to avoid hearing her shrill, high voice. What was the point of talking to someone? Just let me be in the comfort of my room.

"Olivia!"

After full five minutes of hearing Olivia's name, I tossed the sheet out of my way and sat up in an aggravated burst. I stood up from the bed, pulled my messy hair quite forcefully into a ponytail, grabbed a coat hanging near the door and headed to the staircase at the end of the hallway, descending with heavy steps.

Liam was all warm and smiling, seated on the couch, waiting for me. I immediately regretted the annoyance I had felt. I sighed, calming my nerves before I approached him. Just like Alice, he wanted me to go back to the internship.

"Your father might hear of this anytime soon." Let him, I silently answered.

I stared at Liam standing right in front of me. "You're in the spell monitoring division, right?"

The question was so out of the blue it took Liam a moment to answer, "Yes."

"Why did you do it? Bakit n'yo sinunog ang alleyway kasama ang mga tao rito?"

His thick eyebrows drew together, pursing his lips in a tight line. "Those people are dangerous for the society, Olivia, and we only did it for the greater good."

"I don't see people in town being threatened by their existence." My voice became more sullen as the conversation dragged on. "No one decides except for the people in the assembly and they call it greater good?"

Liam's gaze strayed away from me before he heaved a deep, frustrated sigh. It was the first time I saw him with emotions other than kind or pleasant or understanding.

"That's the thing about you, Olivia. You give your heart to wrong places and people who'd do nothing but cause you harm. Those people are not as innocent as you think they are. They are criminals. They have records, offenses. They don't deserve to be part of a stable society like ours."

I shook my head, a bitter smile on my dry lips.

"You're beginning to sound like my father and you know how much I hate him."

I turned on my heel and headed to the stairs without looking back at him.

The next day, I decided to return to the assembly to inform them I would no longer be part of the internship program. But my resolution dissolved when I found out that father already gave my superiors a made-up reason for my disappearance.

"He told them you're sick," whispered Alice before we went to our respective towers.

Sick? Sick in the head, yes. This whole situation was emptying me! Why did I have to care so much about Olivia's life? I didn't have to see them again once it was all over...but...I wanted to help them while I was here.