The Five Elementals

Chapter 7 - POV Mitch

(A/N) Thank you so much everyone for the super nice comments and encouragement!! It means a lot :)

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I follow Professor Wren across campus, keeping my head down as if the people around me can tell  there's something wrong with me.

I feel...I feel many things. Confusion. Anger. Fear. Somewhere, deep down, I feel a shred of hope, because this all has to be some big mistake, right?

After a few minutes of walking across campus, weaving through and between buildings to avoid the quad as much as possible, I work up the courage to ask Professor Wren where we're going. She gives me a look, blue eyes kind, before turning her attention back to our path. Just when I don't think she's going to answer, she speaks two words:

"Headmaster's office."

No way. Maybe I heard that wrong, because I'm pretty sure I heard Headmaster  in there somewhere, and that doesn't happen. Nobody  sees the Headmaster, except the most powerful professors, and even they don't talk about him. Never before has he called in a student  to see him - I can only imagine what the rumor mill is going to do with this  story.

No one knows what the Headmaster of the Elemental Academy is like, so that very same rumor mill has often set to work crafting stories about him. For all I know, he could be the nicest, homeliest guy ever. For all I know, he could barbecue students and throw the scraps to the hydra in his closet.

I'm kidding, hydras don't exist.

Besides, I'm pretty sure Avi, and not a hydra, would be hanging out in that closet if it meant free barbecue. Even cannibalistic barbecue.

Seriously, though, I've heard many a tale of the Headmaster secretly using the students to create an army to take over the world. It's theoretically possible, although I'm not sure how our elemental abilities would stand up to the ordinary human's tanks and planes. I also have no idea why those with gifted blood would ever want  to take over the world; there aren't very many of us, at least compared to the vast amounts of ordinary humans out there. We live secret double lives, peacefully hidden and scattered sparsely across the globe. There aren't even enough of us to create multiple schools, so we're all just sent here, to the Academy. The campus is huge, mind, but the fact that it houses all  of those with gifted blood between the ages of ten and twenty-five ought to tell you how scarce we are in the grand scheme of things.

Not that I should really say "us" anymore, should I? I don't have gifted blood. I'm not an elemental. I shouldn't even be here...

"Mitchell? Are you paying attention?" A pair of slim fingers snaps in front of my face.

I blink, finding myself looking into Professor Wren's blue eyes. I've always had kind of a thing for blue eyes, and they calm me down slightly. I quickly glance around - we're standing at one of the hidden side entrances to the Castle.

When Wren sees signs of mental awareness on my face, she pulls something from her pocket - a strip of cloth - and moves closer to me.

"I'm sorry about this, Mitchell dear, but I have to blindfold you. The location of the Headmaster's office is and must remain a secret."

I just nod hollowly and let her tie the cloth over my eyes. I try to look through it anyway, but it's secure; I can't see a thing. Once she's satisfied, Professor Wren pulls open the wooden door and begins to lead me through the twisting and turning hallways of the castle.

I may not be the best at schoolwork, but I do pride myself in my knowledge of the ins and outs of the Castle. The building is huge, with at least seven floors and corridors that weave and meet at strange junctions, and I know most of it by heart. At first, I'm able to keep tabs on where we are, even blindfolded. After a while, though, Professor Wren starts to double back and take some of the more confusing halls. I think we're somewhere on the fifth floor when I give up trying to keep track of where we are and admit to myself that I've lost my bearings.