“This isn’t on you. You didn’t assign him as my handler.”
“I didn’t stop him either. I just blindly went along with it, ignoring all the signs.” She wrung her hands in front of her. “I’m afraid I make a terrible faculty advisor.”
“But you make a pretty fantastic mentor.”
She smiled her thanks.
“Professor, there’s something else.” I hesitated, unsure how she’d react to the news of my hand pulsing and glowing after she’d healed me. I had to tell someone, and since the guys would just freak out, insist on escorting me around twenty-four seven, this made more sense. At least it did to me. “My hand did this weird glowy thing when I pushed it through the barrier.”
Her smile wilted as her eyes rounded. “What kind of weird glowy thing?”
“Something pulses and glows under the skin where the cut used to be.”
“This only happens at the barrier?”
“No.” I stared at my palm, tracing where the gash used to be. “It happened when I was trapped in that fog too.”
“Why do you think that is?” As she asked the question, she gave me a knowing look, like the answer was so obvious, I was an idiot for not already making the connection.
I shrugged as my answer and dropped my focus back to my palm. If I admitted I had darkness inside me, would she expel me? Turn me over to the Council? Would I be sent to Carcerem to spend the rest of my life in dark elemental prison?
“It’s an element,” she finally answered, drawing my attention. She waited until our gazes locked before continuing. “Which one, is the question.”
“Light?” I asked hopefully.
“I think you already know the answer.”
Crap. I did know the answer, and now, so did she. “It’s darkness,” I admitted quietly.
“It’s not necessarily a bad thing, Katy. I’ve had my suspicion ever since that darkness nearly took over. As long as you learn to control it just as you’ve learned to control your other elements, you should be fine.”
Should be, being the opportune point. “Is it possible that Spencer turned me into more than a quint? That he magically enhanced me by forcing darkness into me?”
“Yes.” She said it so bluntly, so sharp and exact, that I cringed as if the word physically struck me. It felt like it had. “Which means you need to be extra diligent around dark magic. The pulsing is the darkness trying to get out. The glowing is the light stopping it from doing just that.”
And now I felt like an idiot for not making the connection.
“Professor Layden! Help!” Trevor came crashing through the double doors, his glasses practically sideways on his face, his blond hair all windblown, his cheeks red. He panted as he tried to catch his breath. “You have to help. I tried to help, but it didn’t help. Jessica Bailey is destroying the dining hall. She keeps asking for Spencer. Is he dark now? I heard a patrol was here earlier looking for him. I think I spotted him down by the training field. That’s bad, right? But what about Jess? Can you help?”
Man, this kid and his hyperactive inquisition. Stace and I exchanged worried looks. I leaned in to run. She simply teleported out. Rolling my eyes at how I missed that one, I followed suit and popped to the main dining hall, forced to duck and roll as a table came flying at me. It exploded against the wall and rained down on me.
“Jess, stop!”
Her answer was to send a rolling wave of tables right at me. I stood there, holding her gaze with mine. No way would I let a douche canoe like Spencer Dalton send her spiraling. Well, any more than she already had.
My air sliced through the wall of debris, parting it so it went around me. Jess lifted both hands and sent me flying into the wall behind me. I bit my tongue when my head smacked into the drywall, making a dent the shape of my skull.
I dropped to the linoleum floor and bounced twice before resting to a stop. Holy farknarking shit balls. That hurt. Pushing to my feet, I faced her, ready for the next round. It came in the form of all the pictures hanging on the walls raining down, glass shattering along the journey. I covered my head with my arms, hissing when shards sliced into my hands and legs.
Once the triangles of sharp glass shattered on impact with the floor and the latest attack had settled, I returned to my position of hands at my sides, nonthreatening, readying myself by widening my stance. I wouldn’t fight her. I wouldn’t stop her. But I would be here for her when she needed someone to catch her when she fell.
We danced several times, her throwing shit at me, me letting her. She didn’t bother with her uniform today, instead wearing a muted beige burlap-sack-looking thing and matching muted scrunchie. I had to admit, I missed the obnoxious colors and giant bows and layers of makeup. It was what made Jess…well…Jess.
“Go away, dilute!” She sucked in a breath and lifted her arms, bringing more chairs up with them. “I hate you.” A sob snuck up and out, forcing her shoulders forward. “I h-hate you.”
“Hate me,” I told her, not moving. “But don’t blame yourself. This is on him, not you.”
Her lower lip quivered as she blinked at me, tears streaming down her already soaked cheeks. “He left me. H-he promised. First she left. Th-then he did.”
Her shoulders started to shake as her call faded. I hurried to her and threw my arms around her. She struggled against me, but I refused to let her go. As painful as it was to hug this ungrateful Barbie, she needed it more than I needed to hate her at the moment.
“Noooo!” she howled and slumped against me, a heartbreaking sob imploding her. “He promised. Everyone I love leaves me.”
Her sobs consumed her as she collapsed
