He watched me for a moment and a half-smile grew on his face. That devilishly handsome smile—I hated. Why did my heart flutter faster when he looked at me like that? Why did he have to be so beautiful? Almost inhumanly beautiful but more like a demon disguised as an angel. I wondered if his magic stone made him more attractive. Some said that magic could perfect the user’s physical appearance. I wasn’t sure how true that was.
“What?” I asked. When he kept staring, I picked up my bent spoon, and inspected it to see if any other changes occurred.
“Nothing. I just like looking at you.”
I fumbled my spoon and it fell on my lap. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”
Eyebrows furrowing, he chuckled. “Did it sound like I was being sarcastic?”
I glared at him. “No but you’re always an ass so I assumed. And if you weren’t being sarcastic then you no doubt have an ulterior motive. I’m not going to help you with the spell. Figure it out yourself.”
With the tip of his finger, he pushed his spoon in circles. The sound of it scraping on the tabletop annoyed me. “We’re supposed to work together, Tessam’s orders.”
I peeked up at the professor who was still helping the students with the borrowed magic stones. Looking around the room none of the other students had even bent or changed their spoons at all. At least I was ahead.
“How do you expect me to help you?” I asked, closing my eyes again. This time I held the spoon in my hand and pictured my father’s ring.
“What are you thinking of?” he asked, breaking my concentration.
“A ring,” I snapped.
“A plain ring? A pretty ring? What kind?”
I clenched my jaw and looked over at him. “Why do you ask so many questions?”
“If you want it to work you have to picture it exactly. A detailed ring will be harder.”
I didn’t care what he thought or that he was right, I would change this into my father’s phoenix ring. “Don’t talk for a minute.”
His lips pursed; he didn’t like being told what to do. Neither did I.
“Please,” I added. “If I can focus, I can do it.”
Even with his silence, I found it hard to concentrate knowing he was watching me. But my magic surged, the hum of it buzzing beneath my skin, and my palm warmed where I felt the weight of the spoon. I willed that thing to change, willed it to take the form of my choosing. When I opened my eyes it slowly morphed as it floated above my palm. In seconds it was to the exact likeness of my father’s ring, minus the jewels.
In a flash my ring disappeared from my hand, and appeared in between Zyacus’s fingers. “I’m impressed yet again with your talents. But you could have chosen a better creature. This was predictable.”
It took a lot of self-control to not punch him and take my ring back. The phoenix was the symbol of my kingdom, my heritage. Like the magical bird, spell casters, though trodden and hunted, would always rise from the ashes. “At least I can do it.” I hated how childish the words were as they left my mouth. Still fighting the urge to take back my ring, I dug my fingernails into my palms. “Your turn.”
He flipped my ring to me as if it were a coin. I caught it and slipped it onto my middle finger. I admired it for a moment until he picked up his spoon. I wanted to watch his feeble attempt yet again so I could gloat.
Showing off, he spun the piece of silver on the tip of his finger and in a blink, as if he didn’t even have to try, it changed into a wolf pendant. “My wolf could eat your phoenix.”
I tried to hide my surprise but my mouth was agape. “You already knew how to do this spell,” I stated, wondering why he even pretended he couldn’t. He also knew the appearus spell and we hadn’t learned that at academy yet. Why did he know more than me at this point? A Hesstian, someone not even magic-born.
“Attention class,” Tessam called, moving toward us. “Princess Visteal and Prince Zyacus have done it.” She clapped and many of the students did so as well. “Would the two of you please go around to others and help where you can?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Zyacus said. He sounded like royalty, that’s for sure.
I stood. “I’d love to,” I said, which wasn’t how I felt but I couldn’t let the Hesstian prince look better than me.
We kept an eye on each other as we maneuvered around the room. It felt like a competition to see who could help the most. I explained the process over and over, and by the end of class only two of the people I assisted completed the spell. The others struggled with, I suspected, picturing the end piece. Some of them turned their spoons into disfigured animals. I guessed one girl tried to create an intricate swirling piece but it was a deformed pile of goop with holes. Others didn’t even morph theirs at all.
The trembling hands of the last student I stopped at, a Hesstian girl who appeared to be magic-born, made me nervous. She was unsure of herself that was obvious, even though I explained to her exactly how to do the spell. I wondered how many spells she’d done in her life. Would they allow her in this class if she was so inexperienced?
I smiled. “Go ahead, give it a try.”
When the glow in her palm grew brighter and brighter, so much that I couldn’t look directly at it, I took a step back. “Stop!”
A loud pop, a shriek that wasn’t from me, and I threw my arms up instinctively. I hissed through my teeth as the sting of tiny metal shards struck my arms and hands.
Professor Tessam ran over, looked at me then to the girl who fared much worse than I. Splinters of silver were all over half her face, neck, and shoulder. At least she’d turned away so they didn’t get in her eyes.
“Class dismissed,” she said, grabbing the crying girl under her arms to help her stand. “Let’s get you two to the infirmary.”
I inspected my arms; hundreds of metal pieces had created tiny pricks of blood droplets that now ran down my skin. Not knowing the location of the infirmary, I followed Tessam out of the door, and looked over when Zyacus appeared beside me.
“Your book,” he said. His eyes fell to my arms. “Ouch. She got you good. I’ll hold onto it for you.” Before I could even respond he was gone.
Chapter 9
Arriving at the infirmary and seeing several other injured students there, if only mildly, I knew this would be awhile. My class wasn’t the only one with an accident today. The sobbing girl who’d blown up the spoon drew much of the attention so I quietly sat in a chair in the corner. My arms throbbed as I picked at pieces of the metal. One thing I hadn’t focused on was healing. Sure I could make a potion and the salves but that was my mother’s area of expertise and so I’d always relied on her to do it for me. I’d make sure to select a healing class next semester.
Attempting to use my magic to extract the shards, instead brought a sharp pain surging through my arm as they vibrated but didn’t fall out.
So I sat there picking one at a time while I waited for someone to help. It felt like forever before someone said, “You’re Princess Visteal.”
I lifted my head to see a boy about my age wearing a Delhoon uniform with a red apron covering half his body.
“I am.”