The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy
Chapter 0485

Jesse and Rafe blink and stare around, confused.

But Alvez claps his hands together, breaking the tension and ignoring Tony's question. "Let's move on. I'd like an update, please, regarding the status of your magic and if there has been any progress over the break. Davis, I'm assuming by your rather irritable protest regarding my teaching methods that you've had no progress on your abilities?"

"No, I've made no progress on my fully formed abilities, which I'd say is unsurprising," Tony says, dry. "What do you want me to do, take deeper breaths underwater?"

I laugh a little, unable to help it, and he shoots a smirk my way.

Alvez ignores it, turning to Jesse and Rafe, who report that they have not.

When the professor turns his eyes to me, I bite my lip a bit, torn about what to say. Alvez's eyes shine. "I'm sensing, Clark," he murmurs. "That you do have an update."

And then, even though I don't trust him, I decide to spill. Mostly because this is the only place we can really talk about magic as a group, where we can keep it a secret.

"I can light stuff on fire," I say, giving a casual shrug.

"What!?" Rafe bursts out, sitting up straight and staring at me.

"You didn't know?" I ask, turning to frown at him.

"Ari!" he sputters, Jesse looking around him at me likewise shocked, "No! I didn't know! What are you talking about!?"

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you," I say, grimacing a little. "I mean, Midwinter was really busy!"

Jesse and Rafe burst out at once, shouting at me for not telling them and demanding to know more information - what I can do, what I lit on fire, how I did it. But Alvez claps his hands together, again drawing attention back to him. "Details, please, Clark," he says, slow and curious.

I glance at Jackson, who gives me a little encouraging push down the bond, and then I quickly tell the story of accessing my magic, and concentrating on the wood in the fireplace, and drawing on my magic to heat the wood to the point where it burst into flames. I'm quite careful to keep Jackson out of the story, though, implying that I was alone by the fireplace.

"So is your power fire?" Alvez asks, raising an eyebrow at me. "Or heat?"

I turn my head to the side, curious as I consider the question. "Heat, I suppose," I say eventually, remembering how Jackson, Seraphina and I spent the majority of the morning experimenting with how fast I can melt chocolate and candy, licking both off our fingers courtesy of my magic. None of it burst into flames, though - it melted before it got to a flashpoint.

"Fascinating," Alvez says, reaching for a notebook on his desk and tearing out a page, crumpling it up into a ball. "And would you mind providing a demonstration?"

"Um, okay," I murmur, sitting up straight.

"At your leisure, Cadet," Alvez says lazily, putting the crumpled paper on the desk and looking down at it. Almost as one, everyone else in the room leans forward to stare at it, almost as if they're afraid they'll miss it.

My stomach squirms a little under the sudden pressure, but I suddenly hear Jackson's voice in my head.

You've got this, Princess, he murmurs, proud. Don't let him shake your confidence.

I send a quick pulse of happiness and thanks down our bond and then exhale slowly, concentrating on the paper, reaching for that well of magic that I accessed so easily on Midwinter mourning.

But even when I find it, I discover that it's...well, it's kind of...tiny.

I blink in surprise at myself as my wolf walks over to the little pool, both of us wondering where the hell it went. Because on Midwinter - god, it felt like an ocean.

Still, I pull on it, drawing from its strength and its power, and I feel the heat start to build within me, concentrating it on the little ball of paper.

But god it's...it's nothing like what it was. About a minute into the process, I realize that it's just not going to work - that the paper is, at best, going to get warm. That I just don't have enough power within me to make it happen. I scowl, slumping back in my seat, frustrated - because where the hell did it go?