Page 53 of Fallen Heirs

I snapped out of it as Professor Dominique Targus of theFoundations of Spell Castingclass started handing back our assignments.

I waited patiently—a big deal for me—as she made her way through the rest of the students and to the back of the class where I was at.

Fortunately, the class was actually halved at the moment because a bunch of students hadn’t returned from the break. There was basically a boycott going on right now that the Academy was trying to combat, as they fought to reassure the students’ families that the army aspect had been disbanded and the students wouldn’t be taking part in anything of the sort going forward.

“Excellent work,” Professor Targus spoke as she reached me and handed me back my paper.

I started in surprise. “Really?”

I wasn’t exactly known for getting the best grades. My GPA was average at best.

But as I took the paper from her and saw theAwritten in the top corner, it was undeniable. I’d done a great job. Nah, more than that, I’d kicked some major ass.

Wow, I guess when I focused up, I could really pull off something spectacular.

There hadn’t been that much else to focus on during the last few weeks of being away from the Academy. Sure, we’d been fucking and spending time together, but then everyone had had their moments of doing their own things too. Ore atExemplarand tending to his garden, Alena going through her mom’s grimoires and trying to find things in order to understand and know her better, then X with his writing—apparently, he was right at the end of his novel now—and the two of them doing all that hunting training too.

“I’m framing this,” I told the professor.

“You absolutely should. Think of it as a turning point. If you can achieve this once, who knows what greatness you’re really capable of, Talon?”

I beamed out at her. “Thank you.”

She smiled back. “Keep up the impressive work,” she told me, before moving on to the next student a couple of desks away from me.

I guess with everything that had happened lately, it had calmed me, and brought about a seriousness toward my studies that I hadn’t really had before. I’d been more focused on the social aspect with X and Ore, then Alena too. But after almost losing the Academy and the life I’d been building here, I guess it had brought it home to me just how lucky I was to be able to carry on and get back to it.

Especially knowing that Ore wouldn’t be here to ground me anymore.

It had me recognizing that I needed to take on the responsibility myself, instead of leaning on him to help me get to remain here even with my abysmal grades and all that.

Maybe us not being joined at the hip actually had an upside then.

Class let out and I slid my assignment proudly into my black messenger bag, then headed on out into the corridor. It was time to meet X and Alena for lunch in the quad. Then I had my favorite Pyrokinesis class right afterward, something I was looking forward to now that I’d been able to turn a corner with my control, thanks to Constantine’s mistake that night, actually. And now that the traitor, Callum Cornwell, was no longer teaching the class. I was excited to show the professor and the other students what I’d learned, what I could do now without bad consequences.

As I made my way down the not-so-crowded hallways because of the fewer students around now, one of the up-and-coming sorcerers, Roland Weir, who was obsessed with X’s father, came right for me. He gave me a chin lift right before he bumped into me, his thick dark curly hair brushing across my face in the process, a moment before I felt a piece of paper being pushed into my hand.

“My bad,” he spoke briefly, before carrying on down the corridor like nothing had happened.

I crumpled the paper in my hand to hide it, mindful of the new cameras that the Academy had put up in the corridors and outside the chambers, in the quad, a whole lot of areas. It had been ordered after everything that had gone down, one of the protocols the dean had put in place to try to show that Electi Academy was safe to return to again.

There were some blind spots, though, something X had used a discreet spell to identify for us.

So, as I pushed through the main doors and out into the quad, I snuck under an alcove where the cameras didn’t reach and opened the folded piece of paper, taking in the note inside. It was how we’d done things asObsidianwhen we’d first started it up. Word of mouth had replaced it later on, along with set routines and procedures that the students had become familiar with. But word of mouth wouldn’t really work now with so many students missing. There were too many breaks in the chain. Usually, we would go to the heads of the little factions and cliques here who would then spread word to their particular groups.

I leaned against the alcove wall as I took in the message Roland had passed to me.

Obsidian,

We’re still with you. The army is necessary and we’re ready and willing to fight at any point. Not victims, but soldiers. Trust in that like we trust in you.

Remaining Student Body.

I smiled as I singed it to ashes with my phoenix fire just to be safe.

Then I sent a quick message to Ore via my IC Watch.

He needed to be aware of this.

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