“I don’t know what I felt,” Rose told Bryan.
“You’ve felt it before. So have I.”
Felt what? What were they talking about? Did they feel the cold when they touched my hand? Did it rob them of all their warmth like it did me? I stared at the gash and shuddered. There was definitely something not right about it. First, Bryan’s reaction at the academy. Now, the fact both Rose and Bryan had felt whatever they felt before worried me, considering their family history.
What if this was the start of my descent to the dark side? There’d already been rumors of me going dark when I refused to choose a primary. Being so vocal about questioning the Council didn’t help me any. And I was so much like my mom. What if the rumors of her going dark were true?
I had to get away from Bryan and his mom before anyone else figured it out and grouped them in with me. They had a hard enough time battling the rumors as it was. I didn’t need to add fuel to that ignorant hate fire.
I needed to leave and fast. Concentrating on my air call, I focused on Clearwater and tried to teleport. It didn’t work. I tried again. And, again, it didn’t work. Awesome, without Bryan I’d have to Uber it back to the academy.
As quietly as possible, I snuck across the room and reached for the doorknob to leave. Once I was outside, I hurried away from the house and waited until I was at the road before bringing the phone to my ear. “Stace?”
“Oh, are you talking to me now?” She was annoyed. I was pretty sure the background noise I heard was the grinding of her teeth.
“Sorry. I was, um…interrupted. You were saying?” I put her on speaker as I ordered a ride and chewed on the inside of my lip. It had to take more than a weird cut on someone’s hand to turn them dark. I’d battled the grand poohbah of darkness. I didn’t even like the dark. I couldn’t be turning. I just couldn’t.
“While you were interrupted, I checked with Albert Stephens to confirm. Tomorrow, Spencer Dalton will be decreed the prophecy. You’ll be in Dean Carter’s office to officially relinquish the title in the morning. As a member of the Council, I’ll be there to bear witness. As your faculty advisor, I’ll be there to make sure you do.”
I took it off speaker and brought the phone to my ear. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I know you.”
“Hardly. We’ve known each other less than a year and spent one summer working together at a gym.” She was dangerously close to triggering my ginger. Stacey Layden might know me better than any of the other professors at the academy, but that did not make us BFFs. Who was she to claim to know me?
“You want to keep the prophecy.” She said it so sharp, so exact, it sliced right through my bullshit like a hot knife through warm butter. “I won’t allow it.”
And boom, there went my temper. She pushed the one button she knew would trigger my anger. I was almost twenty-two, for Christ’s sake. I didn’t need her permission.
“It’s my decision,” I said as a car turned down the street. Please let it be my ride. If not, please let it hit me and put me out of this torturous phone call with my overbearing professor.
“It’s the wrong one. Katy, you nearly died battling Alec last year. Just because you’re a quint doesn’t make you indestructible. Elementals bleed. Elementals die.”
“I’m aware of that.” I ended the call and waved the car over. As I climbed in and confirmed the address of Clearwater with the driver, I couldn’t shake what she’d said.
Elementals bleed. Elementals die.
11
I didn’t sleep as I thought about what it meant to turn over the prophecy to someone else. No more grueling lessons that never seemed to end. No more being forced to remain inside the protective walls of the academy since I’d also be turning over the neon target on my back to someone else. No more surprise attacks by some maniacal dark elemental hell bent on fulfilling the prophecy for Team Dark.
Bryan blew up my phone all night. Text after text, call after call, until he got the hint and stopped altogether. I’d have to face him and my bad decision to sneak away like a coward at some point, but that point wouldn’t be at two o’clock in the morning with my delightful roomie ten feet away.
At least Jess had removed the majority of pink in the room while I was stirring up a shit show with Bryan and his mom. Obnoxious pink curtains—gone. Pink bed sheets and comforter so bright it made your eyes bleed—gone. She even removed all the boy band posters. While I appreciated her making our room a little more tolerable and a little less Pepto Bismol, it wasn’t her style.
Now, as we sat with our backs to each other, the silence so thick you could cut it with a knife as we each got ready to face the day, I debated saying something. First, the makeup. Jess loved her makeup. Her blues and greens and, of course, pinks. She loved her unbearably happy bows and big earrings. And, boy, did that bitch love to bounce like she had springs in her shoes.
Until she met Spencer. His influence seemed to affect everyone differently. For me, he just irritated the crap out of me with his arrogance and haughty, stupidly awesome accent. With the guys, they all wanted to kill him. But Jess? He seemed to be muting her. As much as she annoyed me just as much as Vanessa had annoyed me last year, I wanted her to annoy me on her terms.
I stared at my reflection, at the little flecks of yellow that made my hazel eyes almost gold in certain light, at my auburn hair that’d gotten
