Page 6 of Overwhelmed By Magic

“As you all well know 95 marks or better are required to graduate from Astral Academy. Marks that you three were unable to attain. As such, you will be forced to attend Grimrose Academy to continue training your essence. Professors and counselors are there specifically to help you find your element and designation.”

I weather my expression, swallowing down my anger. I need Dmitri to turn and look me in the eye, to publicly condemn me, his own flesh and blood. He won’t. He’s a coward in everything he does—the one reason he feels the need to stuff us all away from the public view is to pretend that the current rules of essence do fuck all to encase Mother Nature’s original attention. She is free and chaotic and unpredictable. Why would her gift not be the same?

The nymph stands as well, his frown deepening as he focuses on each student, his gaze finally falling on me. “Each of you were assigned an element upon entering the academy, an element you were to train in and discover your designation from. Kalia, in your last year here, you were assigned Earth, Versipellis. However, you still have not been able to form a full shift and your aura is nonexistent. Do you have anything to say?”

No one warned me about this part. The part where we must defend our failure or succumb to it and confirm the council’s suspicions that we are defective in some way.

Kalia hangs her head.

“And Beck, you were assigned, fire elemental but you have not been able to bring forth your fire at will. When it does appear, it shows as blue rather than orange. You were then assigned as a mage type, however, you have not been able to produce any other abilities with your lackluster essence. Do you have anything to say?”

Each word from the nymph's mouth is coated in vitriol. Beck hangs his head and then it becomes my turn. I quirk my head to the side, wondering what the nymph will list for me. The list of my transgressions is long. I went out of my way to become a problem because it excited me and my essence strengthened every time someone suffered at my hand. Whether it was tripping over stones in the corridor or finding themselves disoriented after a rather impressive display of my wings.

The nymph clears his throat when a smile slides onto my lips. “You have no respect for the essence given to you, defective as it is. You have been given every chance at the behest of your uncle but you have thrown away any and all help. Your essence is dangerous and unruly. It can not be tamed and for that, you will attend Grimrose Academy.”

I snort. “I don’t get to say anything like the other two?”

“Do you have something that would make a difference?”

“Just that I would have loved it if my uncle wasn’t such a coward and delivered this speech to my face. You two are here to inflate his ego, not because he needs you. He just doesn’t want to look me in the eyes and accept that my essence is more powerful than his. That what he doesn’t understand is something he’s terrified of.”

I find myself plastered against the wall, Dmitri’s fangs extended and inches from my face. My wings have appeared, beating at my side, our aura tangling in this terrifying red and gold mist, our essence rising to the surface. Dmitri could kill me at this moment but he won’t. He wants control and that won’t exist if I’m dead.

“You’re alive because I let you be, Rumi. Remember that.” He hisses, spittle landing on my cheek. He releases me, waving his hand for us to be immediately placed on a bus to Grimrose but I need the last word. My essence craves it and the absolute disgust on each of the council members’ faces as I say my piece warms my cold dead heart.

“And you are in that seat, not because you’ve earned it, but because no one has dared take it from you. That won’t always be the case, uncle. One day someone will determine that Mother Nature’s agenda doesn’t align with yours and that will be the day the council will find that they have been disrespecting the gift she gave us.”

I fling the door open to Silas standing there, his hands clasped in front of him, his head bowed in respect but there’s a hint of smile on his lips. His approval is all that I need.

This year will be no different. There will be failures, demeaned by my uncle, and then discarded here with the hope that one day they’ll succeed in finding their place. There is no place for us, not until those archaic rules are demolished. Worse, the few things the professors here have uncovered make it harder to believe there is any end to this separation.

Many of us have discovered that our essence is rooted in something we’ve decided to call Magila-adjacent. Our nature is still rooted in the same seven elements but with differences that give us wildly different designations. Kalia never shifted in all the time she was here but she could mimic any sound she heard. Her voice could shift. Beck was definitely a fire elemental but his essence ran hotter and more dangerous than any other elemental I had come across.

His fire wasn’t just hot. It was deadly. An immediate death. There was no pain, no screams, just from existence in one moment and none in the next.

I have never figured out my designation or my element, mostly because I have exceeded the lifespan of so many Magila. Versipellis live to one or two hundred, Kalia having passed away just last year. Magila that only hold an element and do not have a creature form generally only live a few years past the human life expectancy. Beck barely made it to 75. I’ve watched friends and acquaintances come and go, age and deteriorate, lose hope, and wail at the broken system.

Meanwhile, I sit here, with the same face and body I’ve had for the last hundred years.

I step to the right, facing the man in the mirror who has greeted me every single morning at Grimrose Academy. The pale sweatsuit I don, paired with the amber earrings that hang low from my ears match the pure white of my hair. They stand in contrast with my dark skin, an amber tone that shimmers just beneath the surface and matches my eyes.

One day, I’ll find out what I am.

Today is not that day.

4

SKYE

I shovel hashbrowns into my mouth like they’re going out of style, ignoring the occasional odd stare from other students. Everyone knows me as the kid whose parents contributed enough money to have a building named after them. The Bardot Arena is where graduation is taking place and a location my parents are currently enjoying, waiting for my sorry ass to show up.

The ceremony is this afternoon which gives me just enough time to attend Astral Academy’s and then my own. Unfortunately, my parents aren’t on board with anything less than excellence. My phone buzzes at the side of my plate and I swipe the ‘end call’ button to hang up on them for the third time. Potatoes are more important than appeasing family members.

When my phone buzzes again, Harlow answers it for me. The bastard solidifies long enough to press the green button and then goes back into that spirit phase so that no one around us can see him. I narrow my gaze at him and he just shoots me that stupid smile while mouthing ‘You’re welcome’. We both know that fielding my mother’s calls will eventually end in disaster.

“Skye Leigh Bardot! Where are you?” My mother sounds exasperated, panicking for reasons that are probably too dumb to list. It doesn’t help that my stepfather enables her erratic behavior and has even gone so far as to disown his own son—Harlow. “Skye? You’re not with that boy, are you? I put sage all over your room last night so you’d sleep peacefully.”

Sage does nothing but piss Harlow off. It doesn’t even burn his form when he touches it—which just further cements that he’s not a spirit.

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