The froze at my smile, “Then you bastards hit me with spells to make me stop doing pretty much anything…so I decided that the walls in here don’t need to be doing anything either. You’re just lucky I didn’t let the same thing happen going up…and that I stopped it from spreading.”

  The teachers around me were horrified as I stopped talking. None of them said anything, and it took me nearly a minute to realize a few of the teachers had shifted at some point. That made me realize that Ms. Ahmed wasn’t here, either.

  “I’ll tell you all something for free…if you attack me in your shifted forms, every single thing you do to me will be copied onto every family member that you have. Every loved one. Every friend. Your neighbors. Everyone you have even the remotest relationship with…and then it’ll happen at a random hospital children’s ward just for spite. Every single person will know that you were the cause of it. Every one. So…come at me if you want to. It won’t be me paying for it. Or, if you’ve got the guts, challenge me.”

  Mom stepped through a portal that I’d created for her.

  The bell-like sound of her voice filled the huge expanse of the room, “What seems to be the problem here?”

  Headmaster Burnes stared at the beautiful woman in a business suit. “I’m sorry…who are…” he finally realized who she was and fell silent.

  She stepped closer, “Yes, I see that you recognize me now.” She looked across the teachers, “For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Rasphael. I am Ceri’s mother. I would like to know exactly what is happening right now. Why are your teachers arrayed against my daughter?”

  I concentrated for a few seconds and sent a little glowing orb to her, “Uhh, it’ll help you…” I waved at my skull.

  She studied me, then nodded, letting the ball hit her. When it did, her eyes rolled back in her head and I prepared to destroy some people if they moved against her.

  She began to laugh as she opened her eyes, but it wasn’t a happy laugh. “I see…I see. You decided to confront my daughter? Tell me, what were you going to say to her?” When no one spoke, she snapped her fingers, making everyone twitch, “Now, don’t make me have my daughter send out a spell to make everyone you know mute. I think by now she has proven just how long her reach is. Frankly, given the cruelty of the bone crushing spell that you tried to hit her with, I’m impressed that she didn’t just kill everyone. She gave them a fighting chance to survive. Now…someone speak, or get ready to learn sign language.”

  A teacher I didn’t recognize at all stood up, “Miss Rasphael…we were going to confront your daughter…Ceri.”

  Mom turned towards her, and I expected her to say something about her not being a Miss. “Confront her? In what way?”

  “We were…we were going to demand that she explain how she can do what she does. If she is a necromancer. And then…force her to…” She stopped talking.

  Mom laughed, letting some of her fill the room. It’s impressive. And scarring. “Don’t be silent at this point. Do you really want us to fill in the blanks? What we came up with could be so much worse than what the truth is.” She smiled, telling the others that it really would have been that much worse. Just out of spite.

  I can’t say that I disagree with her.

  The woman began crying, “We were going to force her to turn over her challenge forfeits.”

  My face hardened. They were going to force me to talk to them and then rob me? They were going to rob me?!

  Mom took a step back as I moved forward, magic playing across everyone there. As it touched the closest teachers, something felt…something felt off.

  With that, my magic really rolled out, hitting every teach again and again.

  I don’t feel it from the Headmaster or the two idiots that attacked me, but I feel it from the others.

  Mom joined me, “Daughter-mine, why do you stop?”

  No matter what I did, I couldn’t tell what I was feeling, “Something’s not right. Something here…they’re not right.”

  She put her hand on my shoulder, “What do you mean?”

  Something in her question had me cocking my head as I turned to her, leaving my magic out on the others, “You…you know what’s going on, don’t you?”

  Her face paled a little, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t happen much, “Whatever do you mean?”

  She frowned as I took a step back, breaking the connection, “Please don’t do that. Don’t pretend you don’t know. You know what’s going on, don’t you?”

  Her frown deepened as she shook her head, “No…I don’t. I just know this is another splitting. Another fork.”

  Magic shot into me without warning, sending blood flying as I tumbled to the ground, slamming up against a wall.

  A wall that’s at least 45 feet away from where I was.

  Mom was kneeling, holding her arm, as I stood, finding Headmaster Burnes pulling magical items out. Magical items that sent sparks to the two downed teachers that attacked me and then another huge avalanche of power at me.

  Even bracing myself, it wasn’t enough to stop it from hitting. From hitting and sending me through the wall behind me. I only realized it because I saw a jumble of furniture as I was slammed through everything. Including another wall. And another room. And then another wall…and then a small space before something big and thick hit me like the fist of God…before I found myself tumbling into the trees.

  He just hit me out of the building…and through the outer stone wall.

  I only know that because I can see it from where I’m laying half propped up against a tree. At least I think it’s a tree. I can’t move, so it’s not like I’m going to turn to verify that.

  My desperation grab at magic had a healing spell pouring across my skin just as the pain started to register.

  It still took too long to heal, even with the spell helping things along. No one inside came to look for me before I made it back through the hole. I’ll admit, I’m loaded for bear with magic, to the point that it’s crackling around me in a huge corona.

  Following the path of the damage that I left behind me isn’t difficult to do. What’s difficult is figuring out what happened back where I was first hit.

  To start, Mom’s standing, but barely. Then again, she’s decked out in armor and has her sword out, so no one is near her.

  She heals in a wash of power as I stalk forward, leaving melted footprints behind me that I only caught by accident.

  Neat.

  Teachers scream as my magic wraps them and lifts them and I prepare to have me a whole flock of zombie slave teachers.

  It isn’t until my magic wraps around the two downed teachers that I realize the headmaster is gone.

  He’s gone, and the two that attacked me are dead.

  And their souls are destroyed… What. The. Heck?

  The crushing power of the magic around the teachers eases, letting them fall back to the ground as I move past Mom to stare at the bodies.

  The headmaster is gone…he killed these two? Why would he do that?

  Nothing I did let my magic fill them and bring them back. Or, no, I could bring back their bodies, I just don’t need meat puppets. I need people with answers, and it won’t help if the answers are my own.

  The headmaster is gone. Gone, but he left these teachers here. Teachers that are, even now, gathering power.

  That, more than anything, makes me look at things again.

  Why?

  Because there’s no way these teachers would think this is a good idea.

  Even as the first set of spells hits me, I let it happen, feeling each of them sink inside as my powers latch onto them. Latch on and continue pulling power. I’m not looking to kill them, just keep them occupied with something other than attacking me.

  One by one, they were latched onto as their spells hit me, then they began to struggle against the sucking power of whatever it is that is inside of me.

  And I studied them.

  This isn’t right.

  These teachers…if I’ve learned anything in this screwed up supernatural world, it’s that people don’t mess with those stronger than they are. Not without a massive reason to. You don’t make a stand unless you’re willing to die. Or you hope and pray that you’ll pull out a win. Or you’re trying to stall for someone to get free or go for help. That’s partly why so many people have sex. Granted, we seem to be wired a bit stronger that way, but everyone I’ve talked to has had sex with someone they weren’t interested in, specifically so that they didn’t upset things and find them being attacked years later. They’ve even done it the other way…and thought nothing of it.

  That’s not the case here. At all. I can see it on their faces. They’re freaked out by what’s happening to them right now…but they should have been cowering or gone when and if I made it back through the wall. Actually, no, they should have been begging Mom not to kill them. They may not know that I can kill them, but they sure as hell know that Rasphael, the incredibly ancient and powerful fey, could and would kill them. Horrifically.

  There’s no way they’d stay for that unless they had something riding on it. Something huge.

  That, or they’re being forced.

  My magic bumped into the thing inside of each of them as I faced Mom. The Mom that wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  “They’re under a spell, aren’t they.” It wasn’t a question.

  She finally glanced my way, “What do you mean?”

  She looked back at the teachers as I waved to them, “They’re all under a spell. Someone is controlling them.” No answer. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  She finally looked back, “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “I know that something is wrong. I don’t know what, though.”

  I faced the teachers again and tried something different, sending the little voracious maw of sucking power from the thread of their power to the thing inside of them. They all jerked violently as the thing inside of them began to squirm and practically scream as it was torn to pieces.

  And then gone.

  Leaving me with a solid idea of what just happened.

  “They were under control. The headmaster’s control. He forced them all to do this. To be here and go after me.”

  She lowered her sword, “They were under his control?”

  Sighing didn’t clear anything up, “He controlled them. I’m not sure with what.” I kicked the bodies on the floor, “These two weren’t under his control. They wanted to be here. The others…they were forced.”

  She nodded and lifted her sword again, “Then let’s get with the retribution.” She pointed her sword at the closest teacher, “You attacked my daughter!”

  Her response stymied me for a second, then laughter bubbled out, freezing everyone with the bell sounds.

  “Oh Mom…I’m hoping I’m accepting the right path here. I’m not going to attack them. They were forced into this. Now, Burnes? These two? I’m okay with that, but for the rest of them? No…I won’t touch them.”

  Her sword disappeared and her smile came in wider and brighter. “I’m proud of you.”

  Huh, so I guessed right? Or, not guessed, but decided right? That’s good. Very good.

  Chapter 15

  I was gone two hours later. My little room was stripped bare of my things, and it was all back in my room at home. I can’t be there at school. I can’t. The headmaster set things in motion to do I don’t even know what. Something not good. Not even close. Mom already set in motion stripping the two dead teachers of anything even remotely resembling an asset. Beyond that? We didn’t think school would be safe enough for me to stay there. I did get to say good-bye to some of my classmates, but the rest were either gone somewhere or didn’t want to speak with me. I tried not to feel horrific about the ones that didn’t want to speak with me. Not that it worked, but I tried.

  We talked and talked and talked…and I felt much better by dinner.

  As we settled down on her massive back porch to stare into the forest, I put my drink down, “So what do I do about school now?”

  She sipped her drink and nodded, “You have three main options right now.”

  “Umm…okay, shoot? What are they?”

  “They’re simple and straightforward. To start, you can ignore it and we decide how you want to proceed.”

  “Umm, do you mean just leave school and not go back? Not get my diploma?”

  “Very much that. Like I said, the idea of high school is a foreign one to most my age. It simply didn’t exist for much of history from our perspective. Now it’s different, but it can be worked around. With enough power, people will not care that you don’t have a diploma.”

  “I guess…I just grew up thinking I should at least have one. If not college.”

  She nodded as I finished, “In that case then, you have two other options. The first is home schooling. Finish your junior and senior years here and then go to college. Or else you go to a different school and finish there.”

  Oh…not what I was thinking for some reason. “Home schooling?”

  “Yes.”

  “Like…here? With you?”

  She nodded again.

  “Don’t get me wrong, that sounds fantastic, but…that doesn’t feel right, either. Did you pick anything up in your future seeing? Is there something I should be doing? Should not be doing?”

  She smiled, “My magic can be…difficult at times. It requires a tremendous amount of interpretation in some cases. In this situation?” She gestured at me, “With the three main choices, they’re levels of good. If that makes sense. None are horrible ideas.”

  “Okay, which is the worst idea?”

  “Leaving school entirely.”

  “What happens if I do that?”

  “Happens? Nothing that I can say. It’s just not as good an outcome as the others.”

  Oookay. “Why am I thinking that home schooling is the next one up?”

  Her smile lit up the entire yard, or so it seemed, “You would be correct. Now, the last choice of going to school has two main possibilities. One would be another private school, heavy with supernaturals.”

  “And the other?” A private school without supernaturals? I can’t even guess. Or, I can, but I doubt it’s canine training school.

  “The local high school.”

  My throat constricted, “I’m sorry…what?”

  She nodded, “Just as I said? The local school system is phenomenal. One of the best in the country. There are a number of supernaturals in the area and in the school, but it’s mainly non-supernaturals.”

  “Uhh…how can I do that?”

  “Just like you would anything else? You don’t go to supernatural-only stores.”

  Okay, I guess that’s correct. “What…what should I do? Which is the better choice?”

  She shrugged, “The choice is yours. The larger choice that you have to make is what to do with your three friends?”

  Uuhh…huh? “What do you mean?”

  “You’re adorable, do you know that? Christine, Leticia, Rachel…they bonded with you. The bond is still new. There’s no way that they’ll want to be separated from you this much. If you go to the private school, you’ll need to see if they can all get in. It’s not a boarding school. Otherwise, they’ll need to live in the area to go to the same school that you go to.”

  “Why…dammit!” She laughed at my upset.

  I hadn’t thought about that. When I told them I was leaving I sort of had to rush along…and didn’t quite get into deep conversations with them. I hadn’t thought about that. Which made me realize that I’m getting pinged by them.

  Rachel’s please take me with you was heartbreaking.

  “They’re, umm, already asking me to bring them with me. Can I do that?”

  She shrugged, “Can you, as in will their parents allow it? Christine and Leticia are 16 right now. Rachel is 17. I think you would have issues getting permission for them to leave school to go somewhere else, but it’s possible.”

  “Where would they live?”

  She waved back at the house, “Here with us? It’s not like we don’t have the room.”

  “You’d do that?”

  She laughed softly, “Daughter-mine, I spend more than half my time living in the king’s castle. There is no privacy there. Three girls living here is nothing to me. In my lifetime I have spent more than 100 years living in tents on battlefields if you combine them together.”

  Sometimes hearing things about her life is just surreal. “Okay. So then…public or private? I’m not sure what to say about that. I almost think that I should try the public school. Maybe staying away from a huge number of supernaturals is a good idea?”

  “That’s a possibility. It could go either way. Then again, try the public and leave if you don’t like it? That’s a possibility. Or even the other way around. I can get or lead magical classes for the three of you. While the private school is mostly supernaturals, it’s not the same as the academy that way. It’s for the rich and powerful, just not in the same way.”

  “So, no classes on magical species?”

  “No more than what’s needed to teach the kids how to maneuver in the halls of power.”

  “Umm…what?”

  “It’s a school for rich and powerful families, especially those involved in business and politics. They need to know how to react to people no matter what they are.”

  Oh, huh, that makes sense to me.

  “When do I need to make my decision?”

  “No rush. Take a few days off if you want?”

 

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