Supernatural Academy: Year One (Supernatural Academy #1)(86)

All day though, there had been a dark cloud hanging over our heads, and I was looking forward to July 21 next year.

That Supernatural Day, Asher would be back with us.

I was determined.





34





“This patch won’t hold much longer,” Louis said as the heat under his hands increased. “You’re wearing yourself thin, not just with school, but with everything else you’re taking on.”

I barely answered him, my mood alternating between “angry” and “emotional wreck.” Another two months had passed since Supernatural Day, and we had dug out half of the demi-fey school, to no avail. I was starting to think the library was a figment of their imaginations and we had been wasting time.

“What if I don’t want it to hold?” I said. This wasn’t the first time I asked, but it was the first time I was going to really push. “I need my powers now. I need to be able to use them.”

Louis tilted back so he could see my face clearly. “Are you having trouble in class?”

I shook my head. “No,” I said, my tone monotonous. “Classes are pretty easy. I’ve had a lot of time to study.”

I was actually topping two classes, Sword and Sorcery and Race Morphology, which was a first for me, but I couldn’t even be excited about it.

“I need to go after Asher. I can’t live like this any longer.”

Louis knew bits and pieces, and he had promised me that he would check out the situation, but there was stuff going on back in America that was taking up a lot of his time, events that could affect all supes on a global scale, and I understood why that had to take precedence.

“I understand your need, Maddi, I really do. But we know Asher is still relatively unharmed and moving around. So I would ask for you to hold out a little longer.” My heart sank. “I will make the time for you, I promise. But your powers … this is not going to be a quick twenty-minute lesson. It could take months to teach you how to contain that energy.”

I swallowed roughly. Months. “We need to find the library. Asher was so sure that the answers to my power would be there.”

Louis pushed a hand through his blond hair. “I traced Asher’s power and I found their home base, but there was no one there. They’re always under the water.”

I nodded. “It’s Atlantis,” I said softly. “They’re trying to bring it back, help it rise, but … Asher must not be able to give them what they want.”

Or he was deliberately not giving it to them. But how long could he stall them for? Time had to be running out for him.

“What happens if Atlantis rises?” I asked softly, one of the many questions keeping me awake at night.

Louis took his time to answer. “No one knows for sure,” he said. “Those that believe Sonaris, in a fit of anger, sank Atlantis as a way to punish his people also believe he used so much of his power to topple the great nation that he also trapped himself. Those supes believe that if they rise again, so will Sonaris.”

“And he will destroy us all?”

Louis shrugged. “Powerful gods are unpredictable. We have no idea what he will do, but for now it’s best we don’t find out.”

“Am I his daughter?” That question wouldn’t leave me, no matter how much I laughed about it in my head.

Louis’s lips pressed into a firm line, his eyes soft. “I don’t know,” he admitted, sounding like that bothered him. “Your blood … your energy, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen or felt in this world. But I don’t know any gods and can’t give you a definite answer. Maybe when your power is fully released I will know more.”

“Is that part of the real reason you’re holding back on releasing it? Because of these unknowns?”

He nodded. “Ever since you told me what the Arterian said, I’ve been worried that maybe even I won’t be able to contain your power. Not once it’s fully released. When it burst with Asher, that was just a small hole that grew larger as more power poured from it, but I got there before it was completely free.”

If Louis couldn’t control it, then no one could. He was the strongest of all magic users in the world.

“I will figure out the best location to take you when I release it. I will help you, even if I have to bring in a few of my friends. Or Tee, my mate. She’s very powerful as well, and she really wants to meet you.”

I smiled, having heard a lot about his true mate. She sounded amazing. “I’d love to meet her.”

Louis nodded. “I’ll make it happen. For now, I have to go back and deal with America’s dramas. You keep an eye on Asher’s energy, search for the library, and if either of those things change, contact me.”

I nodded, accepting that was my only option.

The rest of the week, exams took my focus; I studied every night with Axl. When it was over, I felt relieved and excited … and broken.

“Are you sleeping?” Jesse asked me as I flopped onto the couch with him. “Because—and please don’t take this the wrong way—you look like crap.”

“Smokin’ hot crap,” Calen said, entering the room, bottles of beer and wine in his hands. “You’re always hot, Maddi, it’s just that the circles under your eyes have circles now.”