Leo rounded his eyes and tried to break free from Clay’s grasp. “No, I’ll just call for—”
In a pop, they disappeared. I was only alone for a few ticks before Professor Layden walked back into the room. “Katy, do you have a few minutes? I’d like to have a little chat.”
Yikes. The last time she wanted to have a little chat, she gave me a genealogy lesson and lectured me on skipping her class. I debated teleporting out, but I wouldn’t be able to avoid her forever, especially now that she was my faculty advisor. Reluctantly, I nodded.
“The Council raided a summit and took out a clan of dark elementals last night. It was the fourth one this month.” She crossed the room, grabbed the cleaning supplies, and got to work wiping down the equipment. “The battle destroyed a warehouse in Seattle. Thank God there’s always construction down there with them cleaning up the waterfront, so the explosions were blamed on someone hitting a gas line.”
She sprayed the sanitizer and spread it around a bench with a hand towel. “Luckily, it was a young clan. The dark elementals didn’t seem to know how to defend themselves against us.”
“Us?” I picked up on that very critical word. “You were part of the battle?”
“We need powerful callers on the frontlines. The raids are effective, but we need more. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you.”
Please don’t ask me to join the ranks. I had a hard enough time surviving my battle with Alec last year and didn’t want to seek out more dark elementals to fight. “I don’t think I’m ready to take on the whole hunter role just yet.”
She stopped wiping and glanced at me from over her petite shoulder. “I’m not asking you to. You’re too important to this world to put you into that role.”
Yet the Council had no problem painting a target on my head and pitting me against the darkest of dark elementals. Would that be irony? Or hypocrisy? “Then why tell me any of this?”
“For awareness. The dark elementals are beginning to come out of hiding. It’s only a matter of time before one takes Alec’s place and challenges you for supremacy.”
“And when that happens, I’ll be ready to accept that challenge.” I wasn’t happy with the news and even less happy I’d have to watch my back every time I stepped foot outside the warded grounds of the academy. I’d deal with it. I grabbed my gym bag and slung it over my shoulder to go upstairs. “Anything else?”
She went back to cleaning the equipment, making me feel bad. It should be me wiping down everything. I dropped my bag and gathered supplies of my own to get started on the opposite side of the room. Shoving my schedule into the pocket of my leggings, I moved to the row of free weights.
“Did you notice I moved 3C to the morning? I’m teaching a new class in the afternoons. You should have it on your schedule.”
As if being stuck in the same class again wasn’t bad enough, why not make it the first two hours of the day? I was so focused on being stuck back in 3C I hadn’t bothered reading any of my other classes. I pulled my schedule back out and reviewed it, shocked when I saw something other than shop. Did any of my requests make it onto my schedule?
“Arts & Crafts?” I looked at her. “You’re teaching a relief class?” And a dumb relief class, if you asked me. I didn’t need to know how to draw happy trees and had stopped gluing macaroni to pencil boxes when I’d graduated kindergarten.
“It’s only on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” she pointed out, like that made it any better. “Did you see your new room assignment?”
I scanned the schedule until I found it and smiled wide. The disappointment over my schedule melted away as I read the house name over and over. “I’m in Ventus?” That meant I no longer had to endure the torture of rooming with the meanest of the mean girls in Aquae. Since water was my weakest element, it never made sense for me to be stuck in that house. Air, I could handle. It was the one house where I could hang out with the guys since air was our common element. I’d made friends with several air elementals last year when they stepped up to help take down Alec.
Ventus for the win.
“Figured you’d appreciate that.”
“You did this?”
She shrugged and offered a modest nod. “I may have influenced a few room assignments this year.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t say anything to the guys about your new partner.” She moved to the next piece of equipment.
“My what?” I quickly scoured the paper. “There’s nothing here about a partner.”
“What are they calling him, then?” She took the schedule from me and checked it over.
“Him? Him who?”
“Spencer Dalton.” She said the name like it was supposed to mean something. When I didn’t react, she frowned. “Vanessa didn’t have his poster hanging in your room? I figured with all the boy bands your last roommate had pinned to the ceiling, there’d be at least one of the UK’s hottest elemental sensation.”
Dear God, please don’t let him actually be in a boy band. The world still hadn’t recovered from the Backstreet Boys. “Why would he come to Clearwater if he’s some big shot over there?”
“Apparently, he wants to team up with the one who brought down Alec von Leer.”
“I already have a team.” I gathered the towels and tossed them in the basket.
“He’s a quad.”
“I’m a quint,” I countered and grabbed the mop to clean the mats. “The myth-busting first of my kind and all that. The prophecy. Blah, blah, blah.” I dragged the mop across the mats in quick, jerky strokes, my irritation growing. I didn’t want a partner, especially some big hot shot from across the pond. “My schedule
