He drew the sword strapped to his side and transferred the flame to the blade, forcing it to burn hotter and brighter until the metal glowed red, hot enough to cut through rock. He swung it over his head and allowed himself to enter the familiar moves of the Sequence, feeling his thoughts still and his focus come together.
“Maybe you should be a little less extravagant.”
He turned at Gemma’s voice and abruptly cooled the blade allowing the energy to flow back into him. In an instant, the sword returned to cool, smooth metal.
“You’re starting to turn heads.” Gemma said, tilting her head to the left. He followed the motion and saw Rosalie and Jason watching them intently.
Jamie cracked the biggest, fakest smile he could muster and raised his hand to wave at them. Rosalie turned away as soon as she realized he’d noticed them, but Jason continued to stare with no embarrassment and just a touch of hostility.
Jamie turned back to Gemma and shrugged, “Let them look – I have no secrets.”
“Look – you seriously don’t want to draw their attention. Both of them believe there’s nothing more important than winning. And they’ll stop at nothing to do it.”
“What’s Rosalie’s story anyway?” He asked blithely. Rosalie hadn’t bothered with any attempt at friendship. From the minute he’d stepped into the dormitory, she’d treated him with nothing short of disgust, her perfect and porcelain, doll-like face twisted into an ugly scowl.
“Haven’t you seen the family resemblance?”
Looking at Rosalie, he realized there was something. He shook his head – he couldn’t quite figure it out.
“You’ve met her mother already.” Gemma said with an ironic smile. “You know – that fire-breathing monster who calls herself High Master of the Inferno College?”
“High Master Jameson?” Realization dawned – slower than he would have liked.
“That’s the one…” Gemma replied in a singsong voice.
“If her mother is the Fire High Master – shouldn’t Rosalie be competing at the Inferno College?”
“Do you really think someone as ambition as her mother, is content with just being the High Master of the Inferno College? She aspires to so much more. Since there are no Elementals around – she’s been eyeing out Marcus’ position for some time now. If Rosalie wins here – at the Elemental College – it will mean more prestige for her and secure her more support.”
“And if Jason or Eva wins…”
“Yes. If Marcus’ protégé or his lover wins – it’s more support for him. In case you haven’t figured it out yet – there’s much more at stake than just Allyra.”
Jamie nodded, tucking the information away. He just had to figure out how to turn it to his advantage.
Gemma gasped suddenly and he followed her gaze to Jason, who was nonchalantly allowing flickering flames to crawl up his arm. In an instant; flames had consumed Jason’s entire body. Soon, he was nothing more than a faint shadow in a wild roaring column of Fire.
Jamie blinked and the column of Fire disappeared. He spun around, his eyes searching the Arena. The perpetual wellspring of Fire in the Combat Arena hissed behind him, and Jamie turned to see it flare wildly as Jason stepped out of the inferno casually.
Silence fell unnaturally over the Arena as all activity came to an abrupt halt. The participants were all gaping, disbelief written comically over their faces. Jason ignored them all, turning to Jamie with a loathsome smirk and gave him a shallow, fake bow. The deliberate challenge was clear in his dark blue eyes. “Try topping that.” Jason said arrogantly before walking away.
“Well…” Gemma paused, seemingly at a loss for words. “That was new. I didn’t know he could do that.” Awe seeped into her voice.
It wasn’t misplaced. Jamie was more than a little annoyed by what had been a clear attempt to provoke him, but underneath it all, he was aware of a flicker of grudging respect.
Evanescence was a useful skill if you could master it, but it was extremely dangerous. Travel through your element meant forcing your very body to break down into individual molecules and transform into your element, enabling travel over long distances without effort. But nothing comes without a cost. The danger lay in losing yourself to the siren call of your element, to nature. To come back to your body required an extremely confident sense of self.
Evanescence was an essential skill for crossing into the Between. It was said that the moment of stepping through the Veil required the same sense of self. By the time Allyra came back to him, she would’ve had to master a skill he’d never been brave enough to attempt.
His mother had explained it, but she’d been reluctant to actually demonstrate it. Jamie had only seen it once before, it had fallen to Sam to actually show it to him and Emma.
Jason may have enjoyed his little exhibition, but it was just more information. Yes – Jason would be unpredictable and dangerous to face during the Trials, but now Jamie knew what to expect.
Chapter 14 – Allyra
It had gotten darker. Sometime over the last six odd weeks, the light had faded away. The transformation had been so gradual that it had mostly escaped Allyra’s notice. After all, grey was grey and the color of the sky in the Between never changed. But one morning, as she woke up on the soft grass carpet of Sanctuary Hill, she realized there was a general absence of light.
Allyra stood and stretched, then, out of habit,
