Page 80 of Class Studies
“The infinity symbol?” Abe asked.
I glanced at her standing at the top of her little ladder, fully taking the latticework of white chalk now covering the floor in a perfect circle around the bowl.
My heart swelled. “It feels right.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “My magic does everything and nothing. The crystals I make are black but sparkle with rainbows.” I rubbed my chest. “It sounds stupid.”
Abe shook her head. “It doesn’t. It’s an astute observation.”
Her mouth twitched into one of her approving frowns. A smile pulled at my lips, and I bounced on the balls of my feet.
Tederwinkle came up on my other side. “Shall we see if this works?” His eyes gleamed with excitement.
I took a deep breath and forced down my discomfort. Not even the recruiter invading my life could destroy this moment. My independence was at my fingertips.
Abe handed me my two charged potions. I doused my stuffed turtle with one and dribbled the rest of it in the bowl, making a little pool at the bottom. This potion would connect the elements of my spell, my magic in the form of my scale, the life energy of the turtle, and my inanimate object—my stuffed turtle. I made extra sure a thick layer of the oily potion covered everything.
As I put the baby turtle down, it pulled into its shell again, and my gut twisted. This was a transfer of unequal power. The pages of failed experimentation I’d read ran through my head. But this had to work.
I refused to believe anything else.
“Is that your diamond dragon scale?” Tederwinkle asked, his voice knowing.
I didn’t look at him.
The little turtle peeked its head out before hiding in its shell again. My heart squeezed. I wasn’t killing it. My spell would give it a second life while creating an endless vessel for my magic. The turtle would have longevity and knowledge its kind had never known.
Careful not to smudge my chalk runes, I sat in front of the bowl. I set my hand on the part of the chain not already resting in the potion-filled vessel.
After eyeing the entire setup for anything I might have missed, I chugged the second potion before slamming my hand down on the chain. My mage trace hit me as the charged potion stoked the fires in my core. Magic surged on a wave of lust, pouring out of me before whipping back on itself with no physical body to rush into. Trying to direct it was like moving the wind. I moaned as heat searched along my limbs, curling in my joints, desperate to transfer.
Power edged toward the small chain between my palm and the floor. With a jolt, the wind solidified into thick molasses and slid across the silver links. My scale called to it, linking with the life force of the turtle.
“It’s working,” Tederwinkle yelled, his voice distant.
“Let her concentrate,” Abe hissed, sounding just as far away.
My clit pulsed, straining for something more. Pressure built in my sides and head. The moment magic wrapped around my dragon scale, a zing of energy shot through me. Suddenly, my magic wasn’t moving slowly anymore.
My magic thundered into the bowl a hundred times faster and more intense than I’d moved power through Ram. The air around me whipped. My braid pulled at my scalp, trying to fly toward the vessel holding the two turtles.
Lust and joy became my world.
I whooped as the two turtles glowed with the green of life and my rainbows. One of its tiny legs came out of its shell. An adorable squeak I didn’t know turtles could make burst out of its mouth—followed by a higher, longer, less cute squeak. The green pulsed as my rainbows frantically danced around us.
It was too much power. I tried to remove my hand from the chain, but my arm seized, stuck in place.
My stuffed turtle and the baby turtle swelled and shrank, once, twice. On the third, the baby turtle screamed. The pain in its drawn-out little cry brought tears to my eyes. But I couldn’t stop the spell.
The turtles swelled a fourth time before exploding in a mass of blood and stuffing. Every light bulb in the room shattered, leaving me in utter darkness. My magic released into the world with no vessel or purpose and whipped around me violently. The sound of tables groaning against the floor and glass shattering filled my ears.
Pain and pleasure mixed. A cut opened on my forehead, and something hit me hard in the back. I swayed, trying to understand what was going on.
A body hit mine and flattened me to the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, bright red flashed as a monster, vaguely shaped like a bear, rose out of the pitch dark. It glowed red and opened its gaping jaws. Although I couldn’t see the wind, I felt the monster sucking the air out of the room into his massive mouth.
The pressure plummeted before returning to normal. My ears popped painfully. Three balls of light winked into existence. The body on top of me went slack and groaned with a too familiar voice.
“Beryl,” I whispered, gripping whatever I could with my pinned hands.
Warm, sticky fluid ran down my shoulders and across my thighs. The sharp tang of blood hit my nose.