The Son of Ice and Dusk

Where I get a new best friend that I didn't ask for

At the end of every week, the Professor checked out our progress with our Mudras. One day, when Bill was failing spectacularly at his Mudra for making objects grow bigger, and Ohda was busy helping him, Raegan took the chance to storm out the room.

"Does anyone know what happened?" Alice asked.

"I'll go check on her," I replied. I was making progress, and I wanted Professor Winter to see it. Still, Raegan was more important.

When I followed her out of the room, I realised she was in the garden. If you think it's eerie to have a garden underground, you're not the only one. But it did wonders for all the nature-related spells and we could grow some fruit and vegetables. Raegan looked as if she was crying. Her light blue eyes were misty, and her golden hair was messier than usual. The rest of her body and her face were covered in mud.

I realised this at a closer look — while we didn't wear uniforms, the Academy gave clothes with its logo embroidered on it for the students. The colour was different for every kind of magic, and the Jurists had dark green and blue clothes, which fit nicely with my grunge style. At the moment, it was hard to see the stains of mud on Raegan's brown jacket, but they were there.

"Raegan..." Jeff whispered, appalled. I realised he had followed after us.

"Haven't you read the newspaper?" she asked calmly. "The Traditionalists decided to part ways. They aren't a clan anymore."

"Why?" Jeff asked, worried.

"Ultimately, I think it was because the leader of the Typhons was declared not to be Set," she said, keeping her cool. She shrugged. "I should have seen it. Humbert would have never led them through this crisis. But now, I don't have a home to come back to."

"We could be our home," I said, without even thinking about it. Raegan smiled. She looked like one of those masks that the Greeks used in the amphitheatres — I had seen one once during a school trip. But it was not a fake smile — it just was really expressive.

"Does this make us best friends?" Raegan asked, her voice terribly sad. I knew that 'us' was a word that included Jeff too.

"I'd never had best friends," I shrugged. "But yes. Right, Jeff?"

Jeff was looking at Raegan with a new expression — as if he now knew all her complexities. We both thought she would have laughed it off, and acted cocky.

Instead, Raegan added, "It's not easy, being kicked out of the tribe you founded. It's not easy to open up to new people either. Especially if you fear that no one will accept you."

"Why wouldn't we accept you?" Jeff asked, though we both knew why.

"I know that I'm not dangerous, that I've never threatened anyone in my whole life. But the television and the newspaper will tell you different things. Why should anyone be afraid of my mood swings, other than me?"

"And you have Alice," I said, thinking of Raegan's roommate.

"She's always with Jake," Raegan grimaced. "But I am grateful for the room, and for the furniture. It's the first time I slept on a bed — back with my parents, I used to sleep on the couch."

My throat felt dry. I was about to ask her whether I had heard correctly — did her parents make her sleep on the couch? But I couldn't find the words. For once, I felt grateful for the care home. It was crammed up with children, but there was a bed for every one.

"But your room," she added. "Has all those nice drawings pinned on the walls! I will ask Sean to draw something for me."

Last year, at the Academy, Sean shared his room with Jeff. Sean was an artist, with a brilliant mind and good with both paint and pencil. He wasn't so fixated on magic as the rest of us, but I'd often admired his skills.