“He requested to be placed in the same house as you.” Dean Carter moved across the office and opened the door. “We should go. Orientation starts in ten minutes.”
I was not going to be escorted to orientation by the headmaster. “I’ll see you there.”
He nodded and walked out. I relaxed and blew out a breath as I thought about the responsibility he’d just placed on my shoulders.
How the hell was I supposed to keep Jess from going dark?
3
“So that’s what’s new with me,” I told the statue of the academy’s founder, Cressida Clearwater. She’d been my confidante since the first day I arrived at the school. It used to feel weird talking to a ten-foot bronze statue, but when she manifested in the ruins last year, explaining how she’d become the academy to protect us from both the Nelem world and the dark elementals up to no good, I knew she heard me.
She turned a click, signaling the top of the hour. It was something she did as she watched over all the students, turning one click at the top of every hour so she had a full view of everything. Although I felt her presence the strongest inside the ruins by the cliff, I still felt her here at the statue.
After explaining the job Dean Carter put on me, on top of being saddled with a new partner the guys still hadn’t met, on top of being a TA for 3C, on top of the quad squad having to cut out of orientation for another extraction, I already dreaded this school year and wanted to crawl under the covers and sleep for a week.
“I don’t know how I’m going to do it all,” I said. Okay, I whined. “Actually, I don’t know how to do any of it. I’ve never been a TA, or an elemental partner, or an anti-dark life coach. I can’t talk to the guys since they aren’t back yet. It’s like I’m starting this year no better off than last year. Maybe even worse. Please tell me I’m overreacting, that things aren’t as bad as I’m making them out to be.”
A warmth embraced me. I drew in a deep breath and lost myself in the virtual hug, closing my eyes to listen for her advice. When nothing came, I sighed and slumped my shoulders. “I wish I could really talk to you. You’re about the closest thing I have to a mom.”
Open your eyes.
I darted my gaze in every direction. She’d said the exact same thing last year right before she manifested. Only seeing students walking around the grounds on this last day of freedom before classes started tomorrow, some basking in the warmth of the sun as they sprawled out on the lawn, I sagged back down. “Not cool, Cressida.”
“Katy?” Professor Layden approached, dressed in the black robes all professors wore. “Who are you talking to?”
I glanced up at the statue, not happy she tricked me into thinking she was about to manifest again. I wanted to talk to the woman I considered a surrogate mom, not a professor who’d taken me in over the summer. When it hit me that she meant for me to maybe see Stacey Layden in that role, I groaned inwardly as I glared at the statue. Totally not cool to sneak that one in. “No one.”
The cold washed over me as Cressida’s warmth dissipated. Now I felt even worse.
Professor Layden sat at the base of the statue next to me and folded her hands in her lap. She remained silent as she traced the grounds with her gaze. My shaggy-haired Abercrombie model of a partner walked out of Ventus with Jess, catching my attention. When did those two meet? How well did they know each other? I shouldn’t care—I didn’t care—but seeing him with my roomie bothered me, and I didn’t understand why.
“He’s really something, isn’t he?” Her lisp got the better of her with that question.
I played it down and pretended to find interest in the dirt under my nails. “Who?”
“Spencer Dalton.” She practically purred his name. “I guess I’m no longer the only quad in town. It’s nice to finally be able to say that.”
I took offense. I was a quad for, like, a whole three weeks before my fifth element hit me and morphed me into a quint. I refused to believe I was the only one in our world, regardless of what the legend said. Then again, I also refused to believe I’d been the prophecy until everything foretold actually came true.
“Are you ready for this?” she asked.
I looked at her, not sure what this she referred to. “Ready for what?”
“Have you ever heard of a TA in any of the classes here at Clearwater?”
Thinking about that, I finally shook my head. Then again, I was only in second-term classes last year since I arrived in…wait for it…the second term. “Are they that uncommon?”
“You’re the first.”
As if being the first quint of my kind didn’t make me enough of a freak. How about adding another title to the list? “Go me.”
“Well, I have to go. Lots of tribunals today.” She checked her phone and stood. “There are six scheduled today alone. Will I see you down there?”
I had no desire to watch poor elementals with no clue which elements they controlled go through a test like what I went through last year. “I’m going to pass.”
“I understand,” she said, far too warmly. “Yours wasn’t exactly a normal tribunal. I’ll see you later.” Instead of teleporting to the field, she hurried off.
She didn’t do small talk. Whenever she wanted a little chat, she never hesitated to drive in the nail right away. What the hell was that about?
I didn’t have time to answer my own question before Clay literally popped in next to me in his fancy-black-suit extraction uniform. I hated the outfit—it triggered bad memories of my dad and my own extraction—and Clay knew
