Blooming Life (Fate's Intent Book 10) (9 page)

Chapter 17

Zayden

We sat through an extremely quiet dinner with their mothers gone and only looked up from our food to say the occasional thing.

“So—” Seth began. “Is this how it always is when mother is away?”

“No.” Darius joked. “The place is full of women, dancing on the tables.”

“What?!” The boys shouted.

Darius and Troy laughed.

“He was kidding.” I said seriously. “And yes, it’s much like this. Not very glamorous, I know.”

“I kind of already miss her.”

“Me too.” Dirk sighed, picking at his plate. “I like her food better.”

“At least you have a salad fork.” Bryce joked.

Dirk laughed and picked it up. “Yeah, I suppose that’s true. Can I bring this with me to the Academy?”

“No.” Darius replied. “Do well in your upcoming task and maybe your next one can be the Academy’s dining habits.”

“We can only hope. The whole place needs to be updated.”

“Excuse me, your majesty?”

A messenger stood in the open door.

“Yes?”

“From the Royal Academy.”

“Must be your new classes.” Troy whispered.

“Thank you.” I said, taking the letter.

The messenger left and everyone looked towards me as I opened it.

“Okay, let’s see. Bryce—looks like you’ll be enjoying the fast pace action of Theatrical Performance.”

“Great.” He sighed.

“Seth, Creative Arts.”

“What’s that?”

“You make stuff.”

“Like weapons?”

“If that was your choice.”

“Of course you’re that lucky.” Bryce said. “You can make your own weapon.”

“No.” I cut in.

“What? I thought you said—”

“Not your main one at least. I already have that.”

Seth’s eyes widened slightly. “You do?”

“Family heirloom, Ashvangosha.”

“Grandfather’s sword?”

“It’s a symbol of Seni’s Royalty. He’d want you to have it.”

“Can I see it?”

“Not for another four years.”

Seth sighed.

“What about me?” Dirk asked.

I looked back down at the letter, skimming through to find Dirk’s alternative class. “Um—we may have to look into it. It might be a mistake.”

“What does it say?” Darius asked.

“It says he’ll be taking up Cuisine Study in place of the combat training class.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Dirk asked. “Food, right?”

“It’s a class for girls.” Darius answered.

Seth and Bryce shared a quick look and couldn’t help but laugh.

“So what? I don’t mind being in a class full of girls.”

“I’m sure you don’t.” I smiled. “But they’re taught this way to learn how to become a suitable wife that young men may be looking for.”

Seth and Bryce just continued to laugh.

“By basically learning how to properly prepare meals. I can already do that.”

“You can?” Darius wondered.

Dirk’s eyes rolled from Seth and Bryce’s constant laughing and he pushed them both over simultaneously as he answered. “I learned from the best. Adele taught me.”

“So, you really want to do this?” I asked.

“What better than for me to pass on Adele’s knowledge to the girls?”

“Just so we’re clear, you’ll be
taking
this class, not
teaching
it.”

“For now.”

“All right. Then you know your new classes. Wish for a better day tomorrow.”

“Okay but we should probably work on the plan some before bed.” Seth said. “Where’s Rift? Is he upstairs?”

“He’s actually at my feet.” I answered. “He’s been following me around since you’ve been gone.”

Seth looked under the table to see I was right. “Hey, buddy. How are you doing?”

Rift didn’t even lift his head and I didn’t want to bring it up but I did. “His age is making him lazy. I don’t know how much longer he has.”

“Don’t say that!” Seth snatched. “He’ll be fine. Jaylyn can take some years off when she gets home.”

“I know but that’s still a few weeks.”

“Come on, boy. Let’s go upstairs. We have things to do.” Seth wiped his mouth and patted at his leg for Rift to follow. He got up slowly and headed to the door with him. “Dirk! Bryce! You too!”

They jumped in their chairs from his voice and got right up to follow.

Chapter 18

Seth

We dressed in the uniforms for another day and I was really looking forward to getting them changed. I was up later than I wanted to be, working on some sketches and I folded them small enough so they could fit in my pocket.

The attendants were showing up to the Royal Academy as usual and on this day, we were able to bring our horses without the company of our fathers. They were placed safely in the stables for the day and we headed through the West Hall to the grounds.

The moment we stepped into the light, a group of boys rushed over.

“What happened to you?” One asked.

“When you didn’t come back we thought they kicked you out of the Academy.” Another said.

We were overwhelmed by the sudden attention but recognized the boys from the combat training class the day before.

“No. No.” I replied. “We weren’t. We just won’t be taking that class anymore.”

“That’s unfair. We were hoping to learn something from you. Master Stycoft is all about his way or no way.”

“Which is why he doesn’t want us there anymore. We already know too much and it’s not his way.”

“What are you going to do?”

“We have alternative classes to take but since we’ve got you all here, let me ask you. How do you feel about the uniforms?”

“You mean these ancient garbs?” One kid sighed.

Everyone laughed.

“Well, that answers it. We have a plan to change them.”

Their breaths halted from the laughs and they all gasped.

“What?”

“Change? This place?”

“Is that even possible?”

“My father believes so if we get enough supporters.”

“The King is for it?”

“What do you say? Can we count on you?”

The boys looked a little nervous while they looked around at each other.

“If I get thrown out, my parents will just—”

“Yeah. We could get into huge trouble.”

“Not if we do it right.” I explained.

They still looked unsure.

“Just think it over. I’ll never use force to make you.”

“I will.”

My eyes rolled. “Dirk. He was kidding. Just keep it in the back of your mind.”

I walked away with Dirk and Bryce following.

“Think they will?” Dirk whispered.

Bryce shrugged and took another look back. “They’re still staring at us.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I said. “We’ll get some. We’ve just got to get them to be brave and stand up for things they want.”

“Good luck.” Dirk muttered. “They all seem terrified when you mention change.”

“It will happen. It has to. I hate walking around in this.”

“Hey, guys.”

We stopped in the courtyard to a familiar smile.

“Hey, Janie.”

“Are you guys okay?”

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Dirk asked.

“Everyone’s talking about it. No one knew if you were coming back.”

“Don’t worry.” Bryce laughed. “It’s nothing like that.”

“I hope your fathers weren’t too angry.”

“We weren’t punished. They’re the only ones that understand.”

“I guess that makes you lucky but I’m glad. I thought I wouldn’t see you back here.”

Dirk smiled and went to her, hanging his arm around her shoulders. “It wouldn’t be that easy to get rid of us.”

The bells chimed.

“Time for class.” Janie smiled. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

She kissed his cheek and ran off towards her friends.

“She just kissed you.” Bryce muttered.

“I know.”

“Does that make her your girlfriend?”

Dirk shrugged. “I don’t know if it works that way.”

“Come on.” I laughed. “We’ll be late.”

I didn’t want to get into the whole kissing thing. It would only make me think of Cadence and my time here was supposed to be distracting me until next summer.

We filed behind the other kids to get into the East Hall and headed towards our first class with our advisor, Master Colbrid.

“All right, settle.” He said, trying to get the class to be still. “I have great news. The arrangements have been approved and the Royal Academy will once again be taking all you First Years on an exclusive tour of Seni’s Royal Palace.”

Everyone seemed excited, immediately expressing their joy for getting to go to the palace.

“Great.” I joked. “I’ve been wanting to know what it’s like.”

Dirk and Bryce tried to quiet their laughs.

“Now, I’m passing around messages explaining the tour. Bring them home tonight and have it signed by both your parents.”

The kids were passing down papers through the rows.

“Um, excuse me, Master Colbrid?”

“Yes, Seth?”

“Is it really necessary to have it signed by both parents? My mother is currently traveling a great distance away to kill someone and my father is the only one available.”

Dirk and Bryce did their best to hold back even a smile, hearing the humor in my voice and seeing the other kid’s expressions.

“No, Seth.” Master Colbrid sighed. “I wouldn’t think the three of you would need permission to visit your own home but thank you for clearing that up for us.”

I smiled with a nod.

“We could just stay home for this day.” Dirk said, looking over the sheet in front of him.

“Yeah.” Bryce agreed. “It’s in two days.”

“And that’s how long the rest of you have to get these back to me.” Master Colbrid explained. “Preferably tomorrow would be best just so we have them. Now, put them away safely and open your books.”

The class did what they were told and we began our daily routine.

Everything was seeming as normal as the day before. We would get the occasional question about what happened yesterday but we quickly became used to the attention and almost expected it.

Lunch came and we waited in the quiet line to get ours then sat at the same table.

“Well, you’re easy to find.”

“Hey, Janie.” Dirk smiled.

“I brought some friends. This is Becca Fye and Kari Shaffer.”

“Hi.” They smiled.

“May we join you?”

“Of course you can.”

They set their trays down and joined us, framing around us.

Becca sat next to me. She had light brown wavy hair with deep blue eyes and Kari sat next to Bryce. She had medium brown hair with hazel eyes.

“So, looking forward to getting a tour of your own place?” Janie joked. “You were told about it, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” I laughed. “It’ll be great fun.”

“We’ll actually just stay there and wait for the rest of you.” Dirk said.

“Is this mainly an educational tour?” Bryce asked.

“Mostly.” Kari answered. “History. Architecture. That kind of thing.”

“Boring, you mean.” I sighed. “I’m going to sleep through it so don’t bother me.”

“The tour shouldn’t go that far.” Dirk replied. “I think you’ll be safe but we should probably squeeze in some training since we won’t have to be here.”

“I guess because Master Stycoft forbids us from entering his class.”

“We heard you got kicked out.” Becca said. “Then it’s actually true?”

“Only because he basically doesn’t want us outdoing him. He didn’t seem to like that too much.”

“Wow.” Janie smiled. “Sorry we missed it. We don’t have him for anything but hear he’s pretty stern.”

“On his own ways.” Dirk replied. “If you were going to learn anything, I wouldn’t recommend it being from him.”

“Maybe you then?” Janie leaned in a little more with a growing smile.

“If you’d like.”

She laughed flirtatiously.

“Awe, look at this. They actually let you back in here.”

Everyone grew quiet and Janie’s smile faded. “Kent.”

“It’s okay, Janie. It shouldn’t be so surprising but it’s just a shame you won’t be taking the class anymore.”

“Only because we’re too good for it.” Dirk muttered.

“If you say so. I actually heard you’ll be taking the girls’ class in its place.”

Dirk’s brow clenched just by hearing Kent’s tone trying to banter him.

“Dirk.” I muttered.

“It is a little funny.” Kent went on, ignoring his behavior. “You know, since you already look like one.”

My eyes widened slightly when I saw what appeared to be steam coming off Dirk.

“You got your hair from your mother, right?”

“Dirk.” I said, trying to get his attention.

It wasn’t working. It was like he was in a trance and something was seriously wrong.

I could feel it and sprung to my feet with a loud voice. “Get down!”

I used my gift and cleared the area around Dirk, not worrying if I harmed anyone.

At the same time, Dirk looked up at Kent with red eyes and there was an explosion. Kids were blown back from the blast and screams echoed in my ears. Everyone was trying to run out of the South Hall through the emergency side doors but Bryce and I stayed behind, being shielded by the table that was ripped from the floor.

“What happened?!” Bryce asked through the rustling feet and terrified screams.

“I don’t know! I’ve never seen him this angry before!”

We both turned and looked over the table and Dirk was against the west wall with a few instructors around him.

He was on fire but didn’t act hurt, he seemed more scared.

“Nobody touch him.” Master Colbrid said. “Someone get the King and some clothes.”

Two of them left and it was just Master Colbrid, Dirk, Bryce and I left in the entire South Hall.

“Wait.” I got up with Bryce and we went over to Dirk, putting out the small fires along the way.

Burnt remnants of his clothes were around him and he was shaking, curled up with his eyes sealed shut.

“Don’t go near him.” Master Colbrid said, grabbing my arm.

“It’s okay. I know what to do. You should help calm everyone outside.”

Master Colbrid merely nodded and slowly backed away towards the door.

“Dirk.” I kneeled down a few feet away. “Dirk, can you hear me?”

He opened his eyes and looked at me through the fire. They were back to their original color but he was still flaming, just more calmly.

“It’s okay. It’s us. Let it go.”

Dirk’s breaths became calmer and the fire slowly died out.

“There you go. You okay?”

“I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t stop it.”

“It’s all right. We’ll fix it.”

“But now everyone knows. I’m so sorry.”

He was truly upset for what he had done and I didn’t know what we should do but stay with him.

We surely couldn’t leave. All eyes outside were in our direction and I needed my father’s guidance.

“Seth!”

Bryce and I got up to my father’s voice entering the empty South Hall.

“Father.”

“What happened?”

“We’re not really sure. It’s Dirk. He just—”

“Where is he?” Darius demanded.

I pointed towards the west wall.

Dirk was still sitting there, same position and same manner. He was scared and disappointed in himself.

“Dirk.” Darius knelt down to him while taking off his jacket and draped it around him. “Are you okay?”

Dirk’s voice was cracked, pulling the jacket around his shoulders. “No. I failed you, father. I’m sorry.”

“You did not fail. You just—”

“Exposed us. Now everyone knows.”

“How did all of this happen?” Father asked, looking around at the destruction.

“An older kid was teasing him about the alternative class he has to take.” Bryce explained. “And he—exploded with anger.”

“You made all this mess?”

“It wasn’t his fault, father.” I said. “He just caught fire. Everything happened way too fast to stop it.”

“What do you mean caught fire?” Troy wondered.

“He caught fire.” Bryce replied. “Literally. He was on fire but—it didn’t hurt him.”

“Is this true?” Darius asked Dirk.

He looked up and nodded.

“But how?”

“That’s what we’ve been unsure about.” I said.

“It was terrifying and thrilling all at the same time.” We all looked down at Dirk when he spoke. “I could feel the fire like wind around me but it wasn’t hot. It felt—cool, tranquil. I felt stronger than I ever have.”