Page 11 of Ulune's Daughter

“Right. Put the cardboard in the container while I get my tools.” I level another mom-look at them. “I expect both of you to be here when I get back.”

They nod earnestly, but when I retrieve my toolbox from my office, only the girl’s still waiting for me on the dock.

“What happened to Gene?” I ask, although I’m pretty sure I know already.

“He, uh, remembered something important and, um?—”

“Legged it?” I ask, using one of my friend Teddy’s Britishisms.

The girl nods.

“Hmm. I’ll deal with him tomorrow. Come on, let’s get this thing upright and see how bad it is.”

“Can the two of us do it without help?” the girl asks hesitantly.

“Of course we can.” I can do it by myself, but I don’t want to let her off the hook. There would be academic and financial consequences for Aubrey and Gene if I turned them in to campus security. Something I know because of the times I was turned in to campus security. Jane was the one who, after catching me doing something I seriously shouldn’t have been, helped me put it right and taught me to ask for help instead of running from my mistakes.

It takes a push of Air to help get the cart back on its four, well, three, wheels. I wrap a skein of Air around it once it is upright to hold it in place. Aubrey gamely rolls the tire over to me. As she does, I notice she’s a little unsteady. I twirl my finger to bring her breath to me on the soft, evening breeze. The stink of beer nearly knocks me over. Chuckling, I steady myself against the cart.

“Let me guess, truth or dare in the basement of Bodeman C?” I ask, referring to an infamous basement in one of the dorms.

Aubrey frowns. “Uh, no, Freshers Treasure Hunt.”

“Oh, I see. A little advice from someone who was a freshman here a decade ago? Leave the drinking games to the big sport jocks. They get a lot of leeway freshman year and their coaches will go to bat for them until they become a serious problem. Take your own bottled water and drink that at parties until the end of Winter Study at the earliest. Things settle down second term.”

Aubrey flushes. “I know better. There was a lot of drinking at my high school. I steered clear there. I don’t know why this seemed like a good idea.”

I shrug. “It’s easy to get caught up in the craziness of first semester freshman year.” I smile wistfully at my own stupidity that year. I’m lucky I only ended up with a bruised heart and academic probation. “And I really wish what I’m about to say wasn’t true, but it’s still not safe to be a girl drinking alone at parties. Make sure you’re with other girls and don’t go off with a guy you don’t know to do anything, particularly not something stupid like stealing school property.”

Aubrey hangs her blonde head. “I’m really embarrassed. I know that, too. The juniors running the Treasure Hunt assigned partners. I should have asked for a girl.”

I nod. “Sorry. Like I said, I wish you didn’t have to be careful. But you do. Be smart.”

She nods. “I’m so sorry, Professor Wyndham.”

“It’s okay. Let’s see what’s what, hmm?” I flick my fingers so the skein of Air raises the cart to eye-height and I can see what’s happened to the wheel. It’s not as bad as it could be. The axel’s not broken. Some straightening, clanging, and a little application of magic to fix the bolts that sheared off in the crash and the wheel is back on. I move around the cart to look at the bumper.

“Um, Professor Wyndham, could you teach me what you’re doing? I’d like to be able to do that, too,” Aubrey says hesitantly.

It’s my turn to flush. Some teacher I am. “Of course.”

I teach her the three spells I’ve used, going over the chants and hand gestures and loaning her one of my bracelets for the gems she needs. Her Element’s Fire rather than Air, but fusing metals is even easier for pyros than it is for windies. She picks it up quickly and I let her do the second set of broken brackets for the bumper by herself.

I lower the cart to the ground, start it up with a flick of my will and my faculty electronic fob and let Aubrey drive it over to where the juniors are holding the treasure hunt. After making sure Aubrey wins, I collar the show runners and give them a stern warning not to include school property in future hunts or send out girls on their own. After they’re appropriately chastised, I drive the cart back to Old Chapel.

As I’m levitating the cart back onto the dock, a man walks up behind me. I turn slightly to keep him in my peripheral vision and drop a skein of Air between us. When the cart settles onto the dock with a sigh of metal and rubber, I turn to the man. He holds up his hands and moves around to lean against the dock.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Then he probably shouldn’t have walked up behind me.

“Uh-huh. Can I do something for you?”

He holds out his hand. “Rhodes.”

I shake. “Kellan.”

He grins, a blinding flash in a handsome face. Carved cheekbones. Ruddy cheeks. Ridiculously sharp, angled jaw. Dimples and thick, rumpled, dark hair and deep-set eyes.

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