I dropped my fork, the clank against the plate startling him into silence. “Training?” I choked on my mouthful of frittata and swallowed before continuing. “Did you say training?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. He opened his mouth, but I jumped in and kept going. “This isn’t a training, buddy. This isn’t even a partnership, regardless of what the Council is calling it. This is someone who’s famous for being this amazing opponent in controlled settings like competitions—that would be you—wanting to piggyback on someone who’s gone through an actual life-or-death battle—that would be me. You seem to like the spotlight. I, however, don’t. So if this is some attempt to elevate your status or improve your likes on social media, you made the trip for nothing.”
“But the Council said—”
“I don’t care what the Council said,” I snapped a little louder than I wanted, earning several head swivels. Lowering my voice, I went on. “I’m not doing this for fame and glory. I’m doing this because I’m powerful enough to take on the dark side and win. I didn’t seek out to be the prophecy. It chose me.”
As soon as I said it, I stilled and blinked. Holy shit on a cheeseball. Cressida hinted at it last year, but it wasn’t until this exact moment it finally sank in. Cressida Clearwater, the original prophecy, chose me to protect our world, just as she protected our school. Which meant I didn’t need this flawless perfection of a man following me around, learning from me.
Spencer stood with his tray full of food he’d barely touched. His expression now dejected, his shoulders down, he offered a single nod. “I understand completely.”
With that, he walked away, making me feel like a giant pile of steaming cow dung for lecturing him when all he wanted was to learn from someone who’d actually gone through a life-or-death battle and came out on the not-dead end.
Another go fucking me.
I dumped my tray and headed to 3C early. I was the TA, after all, so I should probably keep instructor hours, whatever those were. When I walked into the 3C building arranged like a giant amphitheater classroom, I was surprised to find it empty. Apparently, not all professors kept instructor hours.
“This is where the magic happens, ladies and gents.” I called air and danced it around the room, picking up chair desks and spinning them in a cyclone. A chairnado, I could handle. It was far better than the corpsenado I’d created last year that destroyed a college cadaver lab.
I broke into a terrible, off-key rendition of Eye of the Tiger, pretending to be Rocky after he reached the top of the stairs—my dad watched a lot of fighter movies—sending the chair desks bouncing to the famous guitar opening and having them dance around me.
“I. Make chairs dance. In the air. Just for funnnnnn.” I spun the chair desks in place as I held the last note. “I. Will take this. Over the. Corpsenadooooo.”
“What’s a corpsenado?” A bright voice sounded behind me. Startled, I dropped my call, and the chair desks came crashing down. When I spun around, I spotted the kid with the huge owlish glasses standing in the doorway, his eyes as wide as they were when he’d taken the field at his tribunal. He sported a green blazer, the color of his house and the brand of the earth elementals.
“Uh, nothing.” I rushed around the room and righted all the chair desks.
“Can I help?” He didn’t wait for an answer and eagerly reset all the chair desks in the front row. “I know who you are. You’re Katy Reed. You’re a quint, the first of our kind. I read all about you on Elepedia. Is it true you’re the one who does The Elements webcomic? That’s my favorite comic. I’ve been reading it since episode one, before Amethyst knew she had powers. I can’t believe it’s you. I love that Amethyst is like this elemental sleuth now. What’s her next case? Is she going to get together with Detective Nigel Brandt? What you did with the chairs was so cool! Can you teach me to do that?”
Oh my God. There was not enough caffeine in my system to deal with this kid and his hyperactive inquisition. “How about you land on one question?”
“Really?” He lit up like I’d just given him a pony. I’d humor him and answer one question, so long as it wasn’t—
“What’s a corpsenado?”
That one.
“Um…”
“Is it a tornado made of dead bodies?” He lit up again.
“Pretty much.”
“Cool!”
Yeah, real cool unless you created it to defend yourself from the dark elemental who trapped you in a freakin’ cadaver lab. “Class is about to start, so how about you find your seat.” God, that made me sound so instructor-y.
“Where are you sitting?”
Good question. Where did the TA sit? I caught sight of a chair off in the corner Professor Layden used when students refused to listen, like last year, when a fire elemental had kept setting his neighbor’s shirt on fire just to watch it burn. I really hoped the professor didn’t hold back the pyromaniac.
“Montana?”
I whipped around and grinned as Clay walked into the room, looking every bit as delicious as always. The yellow blazer hung beautifully on his lean shoulders and brightened his expression. He’d trimmed his beard, but not too much, knowing how much I loved his soft whiskers. He did the Bieber flip to send the hair out of his green gaze. He pulled me into his arms and stared at my mouth. “I love those lips.” He sucked my bottom lip between his teeth and playfully bit down.
I took his kiss and licked him from my lips. “What brings you by 3C?”
“We just got back from an extraction in Montana. I brought you a present.” He revealed a rock from behind his back and handed it to me.
“A rock?” I stared at it before swinging my confused gaze to him.
“It’s a piece of the motherland.”
I
