Page 53 of Validus Vale Academy 1
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Professor Feniks didn’t expect me to show, but a fierce need to prove I’m not broken had filled me.
There was no way Manu Hale’s cruelty was going to stop me from becoming stronger.
And because of that resolve, I find myself almost puking on the gym floor—again.
“What happened with Manu?” I whisper, my voice raw from the morning’s exertion as Professor Feniks removes the ankle weights.
“Manu Hale has withdrawn from Validus Vale,” he answers. “You don’t have to think about him ever again.”
“How did you manage that?”
“I asked a contact to offer him an enticing internship with the Magicheskiy Soyuz in Moscow.” He gives a wicked grin. “The Russian Magic Alliance will keep him extremely busy for the foreseeable future. And it’s not going to be the luxury gig that he’s expecting…I persuaded the contact to assign him to Siberia.”
If my heart wasn’t already a tangled mess of longing for Wes and Donovan, I might come down with a little case of the crushes on Professor Feniks. Luckily, that moment of infatuation fadesquickly as he pushes me into another cool-down jog around the track.
I’ve showered and put on clean gym clothes when Duncan and Willow come bouncing down the Defectivum stairs. “Morning,” Duncan says cheerily, as I clutch the newel post of the staircase. “You look a little rough around the edges.”
A coherent reply feels almost impossible. “Pancakes,” I croak. “Need pancakes. Now.”
“Then let’s not dally, eh?” Duncan says, linking his arm through mine with a flourish. “Pancakes await, m’lady—and bacon, and coffee, the holy trinity of sustenance.” —food, glorious, food—
“Love you,” I slur as Duncan drags me along.
“Are you really doing OK?” Willow says softly, as I concentrate on putting one aching foot in front of the other. —poor thing looks like hell—
I nod and give a tired smile. “I am, Wills. Just hungry and utterly beat-up. My extra training was at six this morning. Apparently, Professor Feniks believes in starting the day in the most torturous manner possible.”
“Gym at six in the morning, and it’s not even detention?” Willow shrieks. “Add that to the fact we’ve got physical fitness first period, and it’s positively evil.” She almost looks as nauseated as I feel. “Simply not humane.”
Duncan also shudders. “Even pancakes might not be able to fix you.”—I like all kinds of fixings on pancakes/pancakes can be breakfast or dessert/Could they be lunch?/Do savory pancakes exist, oh yes, of course they do/Or is that a crepe? I’d like to go to France—
I smile to myself as I tune Duncan out.
“At least Professor Feniks changed Fateball to swimming this morning,” Willow says encouragingly. “That’ll be way more pleasant on your body than running more laps.”
“Swimming? He did?” Why hadn’t he mentioned anything earlier?
“You didn’t see the notice?” Willow asks. “He sent it out like an hour ago, our class has ninety glorious minutes in a heated pool today—wahoo!”
I grind to a sudden halt on the gravel driveway outside the dining hall. “Shit. Willow? Do you have your bathing suit with you?”
“Yeah?” Her smile falters a fraction, seeing the look on my face. “Crap. I can run back and get yours if you like? You are in no state to hustle.”
“No,” I sigh. “I’ll do it, I don’t want you to miss breakfast.”
“There are spares in the locker room,” Duncan quickly pipes up, saving my bacon—literally. “My group went swimming a couple of days ago. Loads of us hadn’t seen the memo, so we used the spares, don’t sweat it. And the pool is completely awesome—olympic-sized, though I have to say I’m a ‘size doesn’t matter kinda guy.”
Willow and I giggle. “Er, can you guys, like, swim?” I ask them both.
Willow looks at Duncan and then at me. “Well, yes, of course.” She bites her lip, a flicker of awkwardness crossing her features. “What about you, Theo?”
I could doggie-paddle, at a push. “Hmm? Sort of a beginner,” I tell her, forcing an optimism I definitely don’t feel. “But I can stay afloat, at least.”
My mind flashes back almost a year, to when my lovely, lovely guys had tried to teach me to swim. It had been an unseasonablywarm October, and on our third date, the guys had taken me for another picnic by the lake.
Donovan had decided to cool off. First kicking off his Fateball shorts, then pulling off his tee-shirt. I’d blushed, my stomach swooping at his gorgeousness. Wes caught me staring, his deep gray eyes meeting mine. “Dono loves to flaunt himself, so don’t disappoint him by looking away.”
