The Nightmare Affair (22 page)

Not today though. He seemed distracted. He kept checking his watch and looking around as if he couldn’t wait for class to end.

A spell struck the barricade beside my head, and I leaped backward, almost falling. I straightened up in time to hear my attacker let off a jab jinx. I blocked it with a shield spell. It was a risky move. Shield spells took a lot of effort to conjure and usually couldn’t withstand more than one or two hits. The jinx struck the shield and rebounded. The girl let out a squeal of surprise as her own spell struck her in the chest. She fell back, suit aglow. I grinned at my luck.

A few minutes later, Selene’s watch started beeping, warning us that fifteen minutes had come and gone. I glanced at Coach Fritz. He was standing in the same place he had been, but one of the assistant coaches was crossing the room toward him.

“Uh-oh,” I said.

“Crap,” said Selene.

The assistant coach and Fritz exchanged a couple of words, ones I guessed were along the lines of “You’ve got a phone call,” or “The principal needs to see you,” or a hundred other things that might prompt Fritz to visit his office.

I looked behind them and saw the door opening. Eli peered out.

Selene screamed, making me jump. I turned in time to see her go down, suit lit from a critical hit. Lance appeared in the entrance. I cast a dazing curse at him but missed.

“Looks like it’s gonna be three to one,” he said.

He raised his wand, but before he could attack, I did the snatch-and-smack. A startled look crossed his face as his wand struck his helmet. I followed up with a jab. This time I didn’t miss.

“Two for two,” I shouted at him, gleeful as the lights on his suit turned on.

Then I remembered Eli, and I turned back to see Coach Fritz striding toward his office. Eli wasn’t in sight, and I knew he was still in there.

Frantic, I burst out from my hiding place, ran toward the perimeter of the game field, and cast the stumbler curse. “Caso.”

The magic flew from my fingers, passed through the safety spell surrounding the game field, and crashed right into Fritz’s back. It hit him hard enough to lift him off his feet and fling him forward. I gaped, honestly surprised it had worked at all. His face smacked against the gym floor with a loud crack like wood breaking.

The alarms began to blare as the game field went into emergency lockdown thanks to my rogue spell. All around me, people were dropping to the floor as safety spells pushed them down. Wands were ripped out of the hands of wizards and witches as the fingers of other kinds were forced into tight fists, arms pinioned to sides. Something tugged at me like an insistent toddler, and I realized I was the only one left standing. I hit the deck, but judging from the murmurs I heard around me I was too late to escape notice.

And judging from the way Coach Fritz was still lying facedown on the gym floor, I was in the worst trouble of my life.

17

Parental Units

“You knocked him
unconscious
. They’ve taken him to the infirmary. They’re talking about moving him to
Vejovis
.”

My mother had been doing the low, ominous, not-yelling thing at me for the past five minutes. I’d been doing a good job ignoring most of it, but the mention of the magickind hospital turned my insides into Jell-O.

“That can’t be! There’s no
way
he’s hurt that bad. It was just a stumbler.” I was horrified by what I’d done. Guilt tightened like an iron clamp around my chest.

Moira stopped her frantic pacing and turned her gaze on me, nostrils flaring. “It wasn’t the spell so much as the nosedive into the floor. What were you thinking?”

“It was an accident?”

Moira stared at me, eyes hard and all-knowing. “I don’t think there’s a single soul alive who’d believe that one. Why don’t you tell me what really happened?”

I resisted the urge to spill my guts. I felt bad about hurting Coach Fritz, but I hadn’t attacked a teacher to save Eli’s neck only to turn around and rat on him. This might be just my mother scolding me, but we were in the principal’s office, which meant Dr. Hendershaw could come in any second—or might be listening through the door.

“Well?” said Moira.

I decided it was time for a subject change. “Please tell me you’re exaggerating about the Vejovis thing.”

Mom folded her arms. “Probably. Not that it matters. This is assault we’re talking about, Destiny. Do you know how serious that is?”

“Expulsion serious?”

“Permanent criminal record serious. This could haunt you forever.”

“Well, you would know,” I said. I hoped I sounded less terrified than I felt.

Mom ignored the comment. “Unless, that is, you have a good reason for what you did. If you say it was because of the dream-seer stuff, they might let you off the hook.”

I shook my head. There was nothing I could say that wouldn’t involve telling them what Eli had been doing. As it stood now, he’d gotten out of the office unseen. Hopefully, he’d found something in there that would make this all worthwhile.

“You are so
stubborn,
” said Moira.

I flashed my most patronizing smile. “Just like you, Mom.”

The glare she fixed on me was so hot I expected flames to shoot from her eyes. At least she didn’t tell me how proud she was this time. Progress.

“I
will
get to the bottom of this,” she said. “You’re going to be seeing lots of me from here on out.”

I frowned, not liking the surety I detected in her voice. “Why?”

It was Moira’s turn to smile. “I’m your new psionics teacher.”

“
What?
You’re Mr. Ankil’s replacement?” The idea made my stomach somersault for all kinds of reasons—not the least of which was how utterly uncool it was to have your mom for one of your teachers.

“That’s right.”

“You’re not exactly liked around here, Mom, so why would the administration suddenly want to hire you?” I was worried there might be a pattern here, given the whole chaperoning bit.

Moira hesitated a moment before answering. “They didn’t have a choice. I’m here at the behest of the Magi Senate.”

I laughed out loud.

My mother scowled. “I’m serious.”

“What about your practice?”

She tapped her foot. “I’m going on sabbatical.”

“Typical. Always running out, aren’t you?”

Mom didn’t say anything, just marched to the door without a word. Seemed I’d hit a nerve.

I wondered if she’d been telling the truth. Given my suspicions about her, I decided it wasn’t good either way. Ulterior motive was my mother’s middle name.

Dr. Hendershaw came in a few minutes later and slammed the book she was carrying down on the desk. The computer gave a little frightened squeak. “Two weeks of detention and a month of Saturday school.”

I squeaked, too, sitting up straighter in my chair. I knew my punishment was going to be bad, but how was I ever going to get anything done with that much detention? And Saturday school? Shoot me now, please.

“That’s what I would give you,” said Hendershaw, “if I had my way.”

I blinked, not understanding.

“As it is, the senate has insisted you receive no
obvious
punishment in order to protect you from repercussions. The official story being spread among the students is that Coach Fritz tripped over his shoelaces and that the emergency lockdown sequence went off due to a coincidental malfunction in the programming.” She paused long enough to take a deep breath. “Consider yourself lucky that you are a dream-seer.”

I knew better than to say anything.

“However. Since I cannot give you a conventional punishment, I have decided on an
unconventional
one.”

Uh-oh.

Hendershaw pointed a short, pudgy finger at me. “Next Saturday night, while the rest of the student body is asleep or at a minimum confined to their dormitories for curfew,
you
will report to Ms. Hardwick.”

“Ms. Hardwick the head janitor? Ms. Hardwick the hag?” I fought back the urge to smile. There weren’t many schools where you could say something like that about a staff member and not get in trouble for it. It was true, after all.

An evil grin spread across Dr. Hendershaw’s face, her toady eyes gleeful behind her glasses. “Precisely.”

I shifted in my seat and braced for the worst. “What am I going to be doing?”

“Toilets.”

I groaned, catching her drift at once.

Hendershaw’s grin widened. “Oh, yes, I think that will do perfectly. You will be cleaning all the toilets in this building, the gymnasium, and every other building the students don’t have access to in the middle of the night. That way no one will
see
you being punished, but you will receive the full benefit nonetheless. Oh, and you will of course be prohibited from using magic to complete the task.”

Shocker.

Hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel, I asked, “Is there some kind of time limit? Because there’s no way I can do that much cleaning in one night by hand.”

“You’ll start at midnight and work until dawn as Ms. Hardwick prefers not to venture out in sunlight. You will continue with this Saturday duty until you have managed to clean all the toilets. So there’ll be no reason to slack off.”

I gritted my teeth. “Isn’t there some kind of child labor law against this sort of thing?”

“Oh, I think not. Not
here
.”

“Right.” I crossed my arms and leaned back, doing my best not to say anything snotty—well, snotti
er
.

“I think that’s quite enough attitude from you.” Hendershaw pointed a finger at me again. “Consider this your warning, Miss Everhart. You are on permanent academic probation. If you put so much as a toe out of line, if you so much as back talk a single teacher, including your own
mother,
I will give you
all
the punishment you so rightly deserve regardless of the senate’s wishes. Are we clear?”

“Oh, yeah. Crystal.”

“Good. Now get out of my office.”

I stood and bolted for the door. It seemed at least half of Hendershaw’s anger wasn’t because of me at all, but rather at my mother. I was just an easier target. I guess this meant my mother hadn’t been lying about being appointed to the teaching post by the senate.

I hurried past the secretary and into the hallway beyond. To my surprise, and unexpected delight, Paul was waiting for me. He greeted me with a quick kiss that left me thinking of blissful possibilities.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded, meaning it. With him here, that was.

“Come on.” Paul took my hand as we started walking. “Tell me what’s going on? I heard you hit Coach Fritz with a stumbler spell.”

So much for the shoelace story.

“How’d you manage it?”

I debated for a moment the wisdom of telling this boy I hardly knew the truth about me and Nightmares. But he was a halfkind, too. If anybody wouldn’t judge me for being different, it was him. Or maybe I was just a sucker for cute boys who liked to hold my hand and kiss me in public places.

So I told him what Marrow had told me. He didn’t say anything when I finished. I held my breath, counting the beat of our footsteps as we walked along. We’d opted to take the tunnels to avoid the crappy November weather outside.

I hadn’t wanted to come down here ever again after what happened to Mr. Ankil, but it wasn’t so bad with Paul beside me. That was until I’d been confronted with his silence. Our footsteps were too loud. The rush of the canal water running parallel to the walking path sounded eerie, like the moan of a tortured ghost.

“So,” I said, unable to stand it any longer, “you think I’m a freak, don’t you?”

Paul stopped and faced me. He cupped my chin with his hands. “You’re kidding, right?”

I shook my head as much as his hold on my face would allow. His grip was firm but not hard. He bent his head toward mine. When he kissed me, the dark dreariness of the tunnels disappeared in an onslaught of tingly heat that rushed through my body from head to toe. My mind emptied as physical sensation took over. I’d heard the expression “getting lost in a kiss” before, but I never knew what that meant until now.

It was by far the longest kiss we’d shared and still it didn’t last long enough. I sighed as he pulled away.

“No,” he said, and for a moment I had no idea what he was talking about. My brain had come unhinged from reality. “I don’t think you’re a freak.”

“Oh. Well, that’s good.”

“Besides,” he said as we started walking again. “I’m sure you’ve heard what
I
am by now.”

I flinched at the bitterness in his voice. “Halfkind.”

“That’s right.” He looked over at me. “Who told you?”

“Selene.”

“I figured. Her mom works as a secretary in my uncle’s office. Bit of a gossipmonger.”

I felt I ought to say something in defense of my best friend’s mother, but since I didn’t know Mrs. Rivers, I decided not to. I knew better than anybody how different from our parents we could be.
And how alike, sometimes
.

“They call me a
mule,
” Paul said. “Like I’m too stubborn to learn magic. Or too dumb.” He touched a finger to his brow and in a self-mocking voice said, “Or maybe I’m too smelly. Real mules stink, right?”

I let out a fake laugh. I knew he was trying to make light of it, but there was no disguising the resentment I sensed in his words.

Paul shrugged. “It’s all good. I may not be able to do magic, but I can do things with a computer most magickind couldn’t imagine.”

“That’s right, Mr. MIT bound.”

“
Hopefully
MIT bound.”

“I have faith.” I squeezed his hand. “And I don’t care that you can’t do magic.”

He squeezed back. “I know.”

We walked on for a few minutes in silence.

“Okay,” Paul said sometime later and in a voice considerably brighter. “I’d really like to help you with your investigation—be more involved. That is, if your partners don’t mind.”

I glanced up at him and saw a playful smile on his face. “I don’t know,” I said, teasing back. “We’re doing so well on our own
obviously
. What makes you think you’ll be much help?”