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.”