Maybe one of them knew why we were being herded to the training field.
4
As I walked out to the field, along with all the other students heading in the same direction, each with their own looks of confusion, I didn’t feel any better. The closer we all got to our destination, the more students appeared. Even those I knew left every weekend joined the rest of us with no life outside the academy.
“Montana! Wait up!”
I spun around and waited for both Clay and Leo to reach me before I asked, “What’s going on?”
“Emergency assembly,” Bryan explained as he joined us. We all sported our house colors, Clay and me in yellow, Bryan in green that pulled the same color out of his hazel eyes, and Leo in blue, matching the stunning color of his gaze. Together, we crested the rolling hill and paused at the sight. The training field had once again been transformed into an arena with huge bleachers on every side, oceans of yellow, red, green, and blue filling them as the students sat in their designated house seats. “I’ve only seen the academy do this one other time.”
“When?”
“When they announced the curfew. That wasn’t on a Saturday, though. I’ve never seen this or remembered having the headmaster suspend weekend leave.” He stopped at the corner of the field and turned to me. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“If this is about the quad squad disbanding and you looking to intern as an alchemist, I already know. Leo told me this morning.” I still hadn’t recovered from the news that Leo planned to enter his final tribunal on top of that.
Bryan kissed my cheek and squeezed my hand. “Never mind, then. We can talk more after the assembly.” He walked off toward the wave of green blazers sitting in the Terrae house bleachers, where I belonged and would be as soon as I moved out of Ventus.
“I’ll find you after the assembly, babe.” Leo kissed me before meeting up with two other guys from Aquae and disappearing in the sea of blue.
“Guess it’s just you and me, Montana.” Clay took my hand and led me to the wall of yellow that made up the bleachers for Ventus. There were twice as many as the other houses since there were twice as many air elementals. It made sense. Air was the easiest element to call, so even the weakest elemental had a place to call home if they had the power to summon the element. “At least until you desert me to go live with the dirt people.”
“Don’t be so overdramatic. Earth is my primary. It’s where I belong. Besides, when I wear yellow, I look like I have jaundice.”
“No argument there.”
“Hey!” I jerked my hand back.
He chuckled deep and low, turning to pull me into his arms and kiss the top of my nose and tickle my chin with his beard. “I’m just kidding. You look good no matter what you wear. Especially when it’s your birthday suit.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Wow, you waited almost ten minutes before your first sexual reference of the day. I’m impressed at your self-control.”
“I am too.” He pulled me into the stands and squeezed us in next to Amanda, an air elemental I met last year when she’d helped me check the wards before Alec had attacked. Clay slapped his thighs to whatever beat he had going in his head. How did he have this much energy after we’d been up most of the night? I had to concentrate just to open my eyes after blinking.
“What do you suppose the emergency will be this time? Making curfew earlier? Like that’d matter since most of us don’t bother following it anyways. Oh, maybe another one of Stephens’s hangnails. That turned out so well last time.”
“And why on a weekend?” I added.
“Probably something to do with the fact the dude they imported to train you turned out to be dark. Talk about a lapse in judgment. You warned them, and they ignored you. That’s got to sting.”
I fanned my face to create a breeze. It was the end of August, after all. Why didn’t they think to cover the bleachers? Those of us pigment-challenged like every ginger on the planet couldn’t be in the direct sunlight for too long before burning several layers of skin.
“Here, let me help you with that.” Clay called his primary. A gentle breeze washed over me, cooling me. I sighed in relief. “You know, with your talent to blend your calls, you could create your own AC with a little water and air.” He snapped his fingers as his expression lit up. “Hey, you should totally do that and charge to cool down the dorms. They’re like saunas right now. You’d think the academy would spring for AC.”
“We’d only use it two months out of the year, if that.”
“That’s two months I wouldn’t have to sweat my balls off waiting for fall to hit.”
I curled my lip at his description. “You’re disgusting.”
He laughed and planted a sloppy wet kiss on my cheek, forcing me to wipe at the residue with the back of my hand.
The crowd of students settled as the professors of Clearwater Academy took to the field in a single file of black-robed elementals, the headmaster at the helm. No one smiled. No one looked up into the stands. They all just stared straight ahead as they marched to the center of the arena, formed a circle, and faced out toward the students.
Dean Carter stepped forward. It surprised me to see him standing alone. Lulu was usually by his side. Then again, she wasn’t faculty, so that had to be it. I glanced around the stands.
“Where’s Lulu?”
Clay searched the stands as well. “I don’t see her.”
“If I
