Page 72 of Class Studies

Fear tingled my spine.

He smiled. “Ten O’clock, don’t be late.”

I rocked on my heels, trying to make sense of what just happened.

“You can thank me later.” His gaze flicked down my body. “Do watch the rest of class.” He grinned, displaying his too-white teeth. “There’s a surprise at the end; you won’t want to miss it.”

He walked past me, and I took my first full breath. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I turned to find Ashe waving at me with a concerned look on his face. I waved back before stumbling to my seat. I sunk into it, both relieved and terrified at the same time.

I sent Ashe a quick text, letting him know I was fine, before folding my shaking hands on my lap. Fine wasn’t even close to the anger and frustration coursing through my veins, but there was nothing Ashe could do now. I settled in to observe Tederwinkle’s game.

I wasn’t the only student Alrick took cards from. Pretty soon, he held the majority of our team’s resources, including the ability to force people to trade items. He sent three students across the sound barrier; I assumed to fish for the bomb.

On the other side, everyone held two cards. Although Mercedes still did her best to control the flow of information, students still laughed and peeked at each other’s roles. In the end, her team sent over four, fishing for the same thing.

Ashe gave me a worried look, but I held up my cardless hands, thankfully not shaking anymore, and pointed to Alrick.

My beady-eyed tormentor grinned as a fourth student exchanged items with his stacked deck.

The double fog horn blared, silencing all of us.

Alrick thrust the bomb card into the air. “I’ve got it!”

Mist curled out of my gem, draining it of its color.

“What the fuck? What about my double rations?” Alrick hissed as his gem did the same.

Tederwinkle let out a belly laugh. “Your team lost, and your gem went to zero.” He folded his hands across his stomach. “Double of zero is still zero. How many enemies did you make? They’re all allies now, with a common enemy.” He cocked his head to the side. “Was it worth it?”

My entire team turned on him, and I stood and joined them. Alrick paled and shook like a leaf.

“There will be no way for them to figure out who messed you up if we all do one thing,” one of the young men he’d taken cards from said.

The students around me began to draw runes. I couldn’t participate, but I could smile and cheer as every non-lethal annoying spell my peers had come up with hit Alrick at once.

Chapter 14

Abe’s project on Power Conversion started with a review of the basics: how to transfer the magic inside a potion into a rune and vice versa. The dread I’d initially felt calmed.

Moving power no longer attached to a mage was no easy feat. I hadn’t experienced this, but Damon complained about it bitterly. It was why Saffron struggled to power his Golem, despite being the most powerful of my boyfriends.

Of my boyfriends.

I giggled. It echoed in the overly quiet alchemy lab, drawing eyes to me. My fingers smelled horrible from all the herbs I handled, but I kept my hand plastered across my lips until I regained control of my emotions.

Saffron wasn’t my boyfriend, though maybe he would be soon. I really was collecting mages, and I loved it.

Although Beryl wasn’t in Runes by choice, and Ashe was drooling on my workstation, fast asleep, it was still fun to have all of them here with me. I peeked at Tanwyn, who turned from his work to flash me a grin.

My face heated.

“Aphrodite, please focus,” Abe’s dry voice called out from the front. “The Institute’s aware of your proclivity for collecting men. Leave it for the halls.”

My already warm face caught fire, and I ducked.

Abe scowled. One of her knobby fingers pointed at the matching potion and rune I was supposed to be creating to ease my first attempt at moving power. However, I wouldn’t be able to do this anyway, so I didn’t know why I even had to try.

I pretended to work on it, my thoughts drifting to tonight. Against my better judgment, I accepted Tederwinkle’s ‘gift.’ I wanted this done. The back of Tanwyn’s head came into focus, and I touched my socket. Kissing him had warmed the technology in my hip. I had no idea what that meant, but I wanted to find out. Once I controlled my magic, I could focus on whatever I wanted.