Braving the Elements (Darkness #2)(2)

I suddenly felt like kicking something.

“What class is first on the agenda?” I asked, nearing the back entrance of the busy mansion. Tall and graceful people sauntered about their business, mostly attractive and all slightly sensuous. These people had an extremely loose view of sexual relations, which was putting it mildly.

“We only have one for a few months. Elements. The most basic freaking class of magic workers. And I have to be seen taking it again like some flunky.” Charles released a noisy breath and steered me to the left.

I patted his meaty shoulder. “Yes, but what would I do without you? You aren’t a flunky, you are an important and necessary element to a human fitting in. You’re like, the top of your class because you were chosen. Right?”

“Think you’re awfully important, don’t you…” Charles answered dryly. I could see the quirk of his lips, though. The pep talk seemed to help a little.

As we entered a dimly-lit hallway, my shoulder blades tingled from the stares. This had been happening since I started living here. People glanced at me because I was short and different, and then did a double-take, their eyes either stalling in confusion, suspicion, or like I had a ghost sitting on my shoulder rattling chains.

“Are you sure they’re staring because I’m human?” I asked in a hush as a heavy, unyielding hand steered me around a corner. “Because I’ve occasionally seen a human or two—even though they were all dazed out by pheromones—and no one stared at them.”

“You’re different than them. You’re unbalanced in the head.”

“Why are you so grumpy? So you have to learn about these elements again, so what? You’re still getting paid.”

“Sasha, I like to kill stuff. I like to stab things with my sword. And yes, you can take that with a double meaning. If I’m sitting in a stuffy classroom, I can’t do what I like. You could at least rectify one of those problems, but you refuse since you’re a prude. Where exactly does that leave me?”

“I didn’t know you knew words like ‘rectify’…”

His eyebrows crawled down his nose as the corners of his mouth curled upwards. He wanted to hate me at the moment, but he did love to banter.

Conundrum. “I might start beating you to take the edge off.”

I snickered as we climbed the stairs and turned right. Then another right.

Then a left. The place was massive! Eventually we strolled through an area that housed people who apparently didn’t keep normal business hours.

“I feel like an ant in here.” My gaze took in more than one naked person.

“An overdressed ant.”

“Well, you look like a jackass.”

I rolled my eyes in Charles’s general direction.

“Oh, Charles!” A man wearing a hat and a boner stopped us. “Is this your new pet? She is simply divine! Might I borrow her?”

“She bites sensitive areas,” Charles replied in a dry tone as he steered me around the man and down the wide corridor.

“A red ant, then,” I amended.

We scaled a grand staircase to the third floor and took a right.

“In you go.” Charles opened the door and shoved me in front of him. I’d never seen him in such a bad mood.

After a second, I knew why.

A crowd of teens stood in the middle of a ballroom—all turned toward me, gawking. All different shapes and sizes, like human adolescents, they awkwardly stood, still growing into their bodies.

“They’re all kids!” I exclaimed to Charles in a frantic whisper. “Isn’t there a class my own age?”

“They are your age.”

My gaze swept the room again. Baby fat in plenty, the girls stooped awkwardly, often taller than their male counterpart. The boys bounced and jostled each other, a few steps behind in maturity and none the wiser. They were definitely going through puberty, one and all.

I had lived on the other side of puberty for a great many years. These kids were not my age. I said as much.

“They’ve had the same number of trips around the sun, then. We just age differently. We live way longer. They’re basically considered adults now, since their magic is coming in.”

“They’re still kids, though, Charles. Are there any other classes?”

“Magic hits at puberty, even in humans, though you seem too dimwitted to realize it—“

I elbowed him in the side. My arm bounced off muscle.

“I’m twenty-two, Charles. Way past puberty…”

“These children are here to develop their magic. I have already developed my magic. You have not. You belong here. I do not. I blame you for this.”

“You burnt my house down! You owe me one.”

His bushy eyebrows made a shelf over his eyes and his bottom lip protruded slightly. “Touché.”

Point in my column.

“Hello, hello!” A man with a tall red hat and a cheery disposition strolled into the room. His smile would’ve been twinkling if this had been T.V.

“Welcome everyone! I am your instructor, Master Hilbert. You can call me Master Bert. I will be helping you develop that very special little gift inside each and every one of you. Do you know what that gift is called? Mmm?”

“Magic!” an enthused student in the front row yelled.