Page 44 of The Tribes of Magic
“You don’t have to tell me. The Watchers dragged me to the Black Obelisk last night for an impromptu tête-à-tête with the Iron Wolf.”
“So that’s what you were doing in the Black Obelisk last night,” Dante said. “I was kind of surprised to see you there.”
“You were there?”
“My whole team was. That was our assignment yesterday: cataloging and cleaning all of the Watchers’ equipment. Altair tried to convince us that playing cleanup has something to do with Alchemist magic training, but I think the Watchers just needed someone to clean their boots. I would have said hi, Savi, but we weren’t supposed to talk while we worked, and Rhett Wilson is a total tattletale.”
“I’m glad you didn’t get yourself into trouble on my account.”
Dante flashed me a grin. “It’s cute that you think I need your help to get in trouble.”
“Indeed. Thankfully, the General likes you a lot better than he likes me.”
“It must be my charm. And my ability to do pushups. I can do a lot of pushups, Sav. The General’s a military man. They like that sort of thing.”
I chuckled. “I often envy your uncomplicated outlook on life, Dante.”
“Sometimes simple is better, Sav. It sure makes it easier to deal with people like the General.”
“What did the General say to you last night anyway?” Nevada asked me.
“With your powers, your mistakes could have catastrophic consequences,” I quoted. “So get a handle on your magic and get it quick, Miss Winters. Because if you don’t, you will have far greater problems than where your name sits on the Scoreboard.”
“That’s not a bad impression of the General,” Nevada said.
“Let’s just say he was not impressed by my performance at the conference center yesterday.”
“Which part?”
“Basically everything from the moment I stepped foot in the building—but especially the part where I accidentally enslaved the minds of everyone on the Many Realms Court.”
Dante’s brows peaked. “That was an accident?”
“Yes. And you know what? The General’s right. I made a total mess of the situation. I feel like I’ve opened the floodgates of my magic, and now it’s running wild. It comes when I don’t mean for it to come. It doesn’t come when I want it to come. And it’s alternately too powerful and not powerful enough. I have to learn to control my magic, and I have to learn it fast.”
Nevada set her hand on my shoulder. “You’re being awfully hard on yourself, Savannah.”
“I have to be hard on myself, Nevada. Because the next time I lose control over my magic, someone might actually get hurt.” I held in the sigh. “Ok, enough about me. What training do you guys have today?”
“Dante’s team and my team are working together today to see if any of us are Elves.”
“A total waste of time, if you ask me. I’m clearly a Metamorph.”
I cracked a smile. “Oh, did you finally master superhuman speed, Dante?”
“Of course.”
“Are you sure? Because I seem to remember your claiming you had superhuman speed that time we all had to clean the bathrooms together in the conference center.” My smile stretched wider. “And yet all you did was splash water all over the floor.”
Nevada and I laughed.
“There is more than one kind of Metamorph magic,” Dante said.
I met my brother’s blushing face and grinned at him. “Personally, I think you need to ask Jareth to show you how to turn into a bull. You’d be good at that, Dante. You’ve always been very thick-headed. And whenever I draw pictures of our family, I always draw you with horns,” I added with a smirk.
“Very cute, Savannah.”
There was a calculating twinkle in his eyes, like he was already plotting a way to get back at me. I’d been surviving Dante’s counterattacks for years, so I wasn’t worried. Or at least notthatworried.
