I stared at the ugly wilting little bud, not seeing anything but an ugly wilting little bud. It’d eventually blossom if I put it back into the ground, watered it, and it fed from the earth. Sure, if it had everything it needed to survive, of course it’d blossom into what nature intended it to be.
I stiffened when it clicked. What if Leo’s weakened state had something to do with him blossoming into something else? I recalled how I became a quint. The pain. The fear. Maybe, just maybe, Leo was growing into something more than a duo.
Surely Syd would recognize the symptoms. Still, I couldn’t help but hope…
“Do you think,” I paused to collect my thoughts. “Do you think Leo could be growing into something more? That’s it, isn’t it?”
Cressida nodded slowly. “I believe so.”
I jumped to my feet, a newfound thrill racing through my system. “Leo’s powers are growing. He’s becoming a trio. Thank you, Cressida. Thank you! I’ve got to go. Oh, uh… Will you make sure the bud lives?”
“Of course. We protect life at any cost. Will you be back?” Although she smiled weakly, the fear in her eyes gave her away. She was scared. Frankly, seeing her like this, as if she herself had been infected by the virus and not just the barrier, worried me. Then again, she was the academy. What happened at Clearwater happened to her.
“I absolutely will, just as soon as I heal Leo.” I raced out of the ruins, past the dorms, past the main hall, and back to the infirmary. I’d never run this fast for this long my entire life. By the time I burst through the door to Leo’s room, I gasped to breathe, both from exertion and excitement. I really need to get in better shape.
Stace stood at the foot of the bed, Syd to her side. My mom had disappeared, which I’d started getting used to. Again. When I barged in, they both whipped around.
“Katy?” Stace gave me a once-over, concern swirling in her dark gaze. “What is it?”
“We’ve,” pant, “been looking,” pant, “at this,” pant, “all wrong.”
Syd blinked at me, surprise and shock in his expression. “What do you mean?”
“Leo isn’t sick,” I informed him with excitement. He looked at me skeptically.
I went on quickly. “He’s a duo. It’s been known to happen that duos grow into trios. I think he’s developing another power.”
Syd’s narrowed eyes darted to Stace, who mirrored the knowing expression. For several seconds, they just looked at each other in silence, having a complete eye conversation. Finally, Syd regarded me and shook his head, dismissing my rather brilliant idea.
My hope diminished, and my shoulders fell. “Why not?”
Stace answered. “I would have felt it at his tribunal. He’s only water and air. Nothing more.”
The room heated. I pulled in my fire before it got out of control. That was when I realized it wasn’t my fire turning the air in the room into a sauna. Syd couldn’t call fire, and Stace had too much control for her call to slip out like this.
I asked anyway. “Is that you?”
“No. You?”
I shook my head. We all turned to Leo. Could all the attacks on him this past year have given him fire? Could me attacking with my hellfire while remaining in contact with him have caused this? Or was this something else?
Syd rested his hand on Leo’s forehead. “He’s burning up again. I need to do something to get his fever down.”
“What if you don’t? What if you let it spike?” I thought about how my mom had used drugs to suppress my powers until my elements were too strong to be contained. If my powers had been allowed to grow when I was young, I wouldn’t be at such a disadvantage now as I struggled to learn everything I could about how to call, control, and conceal them.
“That could kill him, Katy. If you’re going to be a healer, you have to know when to take a risk and when to proceed with caution. Leo’s not developing fire.”
“Rob Emmett became a trio,” I pointed out, recalling the story he told me of when he first came to Clearwater. “He was a duo his first year and grew into a trio. He developed the ability to call water.”
“Which is why it took him three years to pass 3C.” Stace tapped her finger to her chin as she walked to the other side of the bed and glanced down at Leo. “And I sensed all three elements in him from day one.”
“When you tested him at his tribunal?”
She regarded me, frowning. “Yes.”
“Have you touched Leo recently, reconfirmed your original assessment?”
“What are you getting at?”
I regarded Syd. Did he know about Stace getting some of the primaries wrong? I didn’t want to out her, but I couldn’t think of any other way to say what I needed to say, so I outed myself first. “I can sense an elemental’s primary without touching them, without testing them. I can just sense it. That’s how I knew you got some of them wrong at the tribunals.”
She stiffened but didn’t deny it. “We already talked about the reasons behind those inaccurate placements. It’s the very reason the Council is here retesting the students instead of me. The dark magic pulsing through some of these kids is pushing elements to…the…surface…” She trailed off and dropped her attention to Leo.
With a deep breath, she placed her hands on his arm and closed her eyes. Her expression twisted right before she jerked her hands away and stumbled back. She shook her head as her mouth fell open. “Oh no.”
“What?” My heart was now firmly planted in my throat. “What is it?” When she continued to shake her head, I lost my shit. “Stace!”
She jumped at my outburst, but it worked and snapped her out of her trance. “Katy, I sense fire in him, but…” She glanced at Leo and then back at me. “Something’s not right. The fire… It’s not
