The great thing about having low-level magic is that you can have any career you want. If you’re doing great in your other studies, you can have any university education, any qualification, or any internship after you leave the Academy. You don’t need to worry about having strong earth magic if you want to be a baker.
It’s not that my friends and I aren’t good at magic. We’re just not very powerful.
Another great thing about having poor magic? The instructors don’t concentrate on you so much – which means you can get away with a lot more.
Which is exactly how the four of us got into this mess.
The cushion was warm against my back. I tried not to look at the scenery surrounding me and focused instead on the huge book resting against my knees.
A light breeze ruffled the pages. But we were indoors; there shouldn’t be a…
“Lucas!” I groaned as the words flashed before my eyes.
Laughing, Lucas du Barry walked right up to me. “Thought I’d find you here.”
“We’re here too,” a familiar voice called from the next room.
As well as a massive library, Elemental Academy had several reading nooks, each one designed by a fae. My favourite one had a real waterfall and pillars crafted out of moss; it was a water elemental’s dream.
The best part? I didn’t even need to reserve it. Almost everyone else had gone home for the holiday.
Lucas’s grin faded as he came to sit next to me. “He’s still in a mood, isn’t he?”
I sighed. “Yeah. I know why, but I don’t know what to say to him. It’s almost like he wants to be miserable.”
Lucas shrugged. “Maybe he does.” Then he smiled again. “Come on. I know something that’ll cheer us all up.”
Out of all the students at Elemental Academy, only four were staying for the holiday: me, my best friend Nadia Chang, Lucas, and Mathias Drake. One for each of the elements: I was water, Nadia earth, Lucas air and Mathias fire. Nadia couldn’t go home, and Matti didn’t want to, so Lucas and I decided to keep them company. We were almost completely unsupervised – there were only a couple of staff who volunteered to stay and look after anyone who stayed at the Academy, including a cook.
We were perfectly safe. A protection spell was channelled through four small stone pillars known as the Four Corners to form a shield around the Academy. Anything or anyone with malevolent intentions couldn’t pass through the shield. The shield also had the effect of weakening fae magic in the Academy grounds.
“What’s up?” Lucas asked as we left the reading nook.
Matti sat at the closest table, in front of a sea of books that stretched out across the library. Nadia was at the other end of the table, her hair shielding her face as she studied her open book.
Matti’s phone lit up, humming insistently. He looked at the screen, rolled his eyes and rejected the call.
“Still not talking to him?”
“That was Serena on the phone, and yes, I’m still not talking to Dad.”
“You’re going to have to start talking to him at some point, Matti,” I pointed out. “And it wasn’t Serena’s idea for you to come here.”
Matti huffed. “Yeah, but she’ll still tell me to get over myself and give him a call. That’s what Henry did. I don’t even know why they’re on his side. They know I shouldn’t be here just as much as I do.”
The sad thing was, Matti wasn’t wrong.
Attendance at Elemental Academy was mandatory for anyone whose power level was Three or higher. Nadia, Lucas and I are all Threes, which means we’re expected to focus on our other studies instead of our magic. If your level is Seven or higher, magic’s your career whether you want it to be or not.
Matti’s siblings, Henry and Serena, are Eight and Nine respectively, but Matti’s only a Two. He shouldn’t be at the Academy at all, but his dad managed to pull some strings and get him in here. He said he wanted Matti to have the same opportunities as his brother and sister; Matti’s been pleading with his dad to pull him out and he’s always been refused.
A lot of the other students don’t like Matti being here. I think the only reason they haven’t made his life here a living hell is because his dad – and Henry and Serena – could make their futures very difficult if they wanted.
“Fancy a walk in the woods?” Lucas’s blue eyes were gleaming impishly.
All of us looked at Lucas and grinned. Sneaking past the sentries and into the forest – especially when it was past curfew – was one of our favourite things to do. We could spend ages there before creeping back inside, and we’d never been caught once.
“There aren’t so many sentries now,” Nadia said.
“Doesn’t mean it won’t be fun. Let’s go!”
To be continued…