Chapter Five

Duh, of course I didn't die. I knew that because before I even opened my eyes, I heard Principal Edgerton's muffled voice ranting about water, stupidity, and phones. When I opened my eyes and her voice was still kind of muffled, I realized there was water in my ears. Muddy pond water. Ew. I shook my head a little to get the water out. When I did, immediately the principal's voice increased in volume and I winced as my head was hit by this ginormous headache.

"Kids these days!" she cried. "You're not following your friends to jump off cliffs, but you'll do it if your phone takes a dive off the cliff. I've always hated that technology. I should ban cell phones once and for all including the internet..."

Blah, blah. I stopped listening to her and took in my surroundings. I was in the infirmary. Carter stood on the door, looking more like a statue than an actual guy, but Luke was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Luke?" I asked no one in particular. A dread settled onto my stomach. It had been my fault that the boat turned over and drowned us in. I knew Luke could hold his breath for thirty-four minutes, but if he had panicked like me, he wouldn't have survived either. I'd never live down killing Lucas Island in Asphodel Academy.

"Mr. Island," Principal Edgerton snapped, "was the only person among the two of you with enough common sense. He pulled you out of the water along with our mage over there." Luke saved me? Scratch the bit about killing him. I'd never live down his smugness over saving my life. "I have to say, Miss Williams, I'm disappointed to have a student such as you..."

I tuned out again and looked at the nurse with what I hoped resembled a pleading look. "I'm getting a headache," I said. "Aren't you supposed to protect your patients and make sure they recuperate to their full strength before feeding them to the wolves?"

"Miss Williams!" the principal barked at me. "I swear, if there's any parent I could call right now, you'd be toasted—" Wow. Principal Edgerton said toasted. "—and in fact, I think it's time you're with a guardian. I can't handle you any longer."

What? "I'm seventeen!" I protested. "I don't need any guardian."

But instead of changing her mind, Principal Edgerton looked only more determined that she had come to the right decision. "Yes, yes," she said, nodding to herself. "I think it's time. You're not my responsibility to begin with."

That hurt, actually. Hearing that.

She patted me on the shoulder, gentle all of the sudden. "You'll soon be where you belong, Riley."

She called me Riley. That was a bad, bad news.

After getting released from the infirmary, I couldn't stop thinking about what the principal said. If I was right, she was talking about sending me away. Possibly expelling me from the academy. I couldn't believe she would do that to me. She knew I had nowhere else to go. I even spent my holidays here, with the exception for last summer, where I went to live with Amy's family. Asphodel Academy had always been my home. And I only had one year left here. Yeah, I hadn't been the best student, but I actually loved learning things. The academy was the one good thing that had ever happened in my life.

Positively depressed, I stayed in my room to keep warm all day. Saturday was a class-free day, except for the sports and music electives. I wasn't feeling up to Archery or Swimming after what happened last night, so I stayed in bed with all the covers up, feeling exactly the way I felt the first time I came to Asphodel. I had been worried that the school was too good to be true, that they would kick me out any day because I didn't have a paying parent. I never really remembered what exactly happened, but they must have found me a benefactor to give me a scholarship. That was what they did with other students who weren't capable of paying their tuition or living costs.

I never met my benefactor and I guessed some people just threw money away to feel better because they'd done something good, but they never really took time to see how things go with their money. In other words, my benefactor didn't give a damn about me—I was just a charity case.

And I was fine with that. I didn't need any parental figure in my life. The ones I had before coming to the academy were not good people. I never asked for any guardian, and so far, the principal had been the one I came to whenever there was trouble around—and I rarely even did that, because usually the trouble was caused by me.

My life in the academy had been so good and I had taken it for granted. Now I was being kicked out to live with some foster parents again. They probably wouldn't be witches or warlocks, either. I'd have to go back to that life, being a freak among normal humans.

Amy came back from her fencing class in the afternoon and saw me sulking. "What's up now? You didn't come back last night."

"I was in the infirmary."

"What? What happened? Who is it this time?"

The fact that my roommate immediately assumed I was in the infirmary for landing someone in there was saying a lot. "Me. I fell into the backyard pond and drowned. Because I was trying to catch my phone. Luke pulled me out. Principal Edgerton is expelling me."

"Whoa, slow down. Start from the beginning."

I did. I told her about cleaning the trash, and then getting on first-name-basis with the mage, and finally about Principal Edgerton finding me a guardian and sending me off to where I belonged. When I was done, Amy looked a lot less depressed than I expected. I guess she meant much more to me than I meant to her. Doubly sad now, I turned away from her and lay my head on the pillow.

"Oh, cut that out," she said. "Edgerton was probably not serious. I'm sure you're taking it all wrong. From what you've told me, it sounds like she's assigning you a guardian that you already have to begin with. That's why she said 'where you belong'. If she wanted to expel you, she'd have just said, "Get out, Miss Williams, and never step a foot on my school again!" She's got that dramatic flair, you know."

I turned back to look at her. "Uh, what do you mean?"

Amy looked exasperated. "I mean, dummy, you've always had a guardian. I knew it was strange when you first told me you don't have one. Every student registered at the school must have one. That's why she said she's putting you into your guardian's responsibility, the way she should have done from the start."

"I don't have a guardian," I insisted. "I'd know if I had one."

Amy sighed. "Whatever it is, you're not getting expelled because of something that's not even your fault, Riley. Falling into the water is an accident. But your affinity for trouble must be tiring, and that's why Edgerton wants you to be with your guardian."

"I don't have a guardian," I repeated.

"We'll see," Amy said mysteriously. She looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Can you do my hair? I think there are a few gray strands above my neck."

It wouldn't be the first time Amy actually appreciated my spell this way, and she usually did it only to cheer me up. She knew how much I loved hair spells. I snapped my fingers and muttered the hair color spell absently, still thinking about expulsion and living on the streets.

"Riley? They're still there."

I looked up and squinted. She was right. I snapped my fingers and muttered the spell again, but it didn't work. Alarmed, I sat up and tried to turn on the lights with our usual basic spell. It didn't work either.

"Amy—" I said, panicking.

"You drank the pond water, didn't you!" she exclaimed, cutting me off.

I did, when I drowned. I remembered vaguely reading about losing the ability to do magic for a few days after drinking water from the Lake of Nullification, which was the other name for our backyard pond. The water was why no one could do magic inside it. And now the water was in my body.

"It'll wear off in a few days," Amy said, trying to placate me.

Why everything bad had to happen to me all at once?

"Now, are you skipping Fire Dance or not? I'm re-watching Supernatural Season 1 and it's too scary to watch without company."

Of course, as the good friend I had always been, I skipped the Saturday afternoon class and watched the TV show with Amy until the end of the day, hoping she was right about everything but the bit about guardian. I didn't want to have any parental figure. That principle stood.

On Sunday morning. Amy went to the church. Despite the pagan accusations witches and warlocks constantly got, religion was something the school kept with a far distinction from education. Still, they provided us with small and separate buildings for our 'religious needs'. Unlike Amy, I stayed at the dorm because I was never comfortable when faced with the existence of a God. Most students at school didn't even had any particular religion—some, like Dee, who grew up with family members who'd always worked for the Council, actually still believed in the existence of ancient Greek gods.

I took a stroll around the academy, admiring the lush garden and the tall statues. After the possibility of getting expelled, I thought it was time I finally appreciated the academy architecture more. I said once that the academy was beautiful, and I wasn't being sarcastic about it. I had never seen another magical schools like Asphodel, but so far in life, Asphodel Academy was probably one of the most beautiful places I had seen in the world.

In History class, we were taught that our academy's name referred to the ancient Greek Asphodel Meadows, an underworld where ordinary souls got to live on after their deaths. In other words, the non-heroes and non-villains—just the so-so people without an epic life. Mr. Ortiz once interpreted Asphodel as a safe haven for people who was content to be normal people without tragic endings or wicked living. We went here for one reason: to understand what it meant to be a witch or a warlock and learn to control ourselves so that we didn't hurt anyone.

Mr. Ortiz said there were other schools out there who actually taught their students to use their magic as a weapon and motivated them to be some kind of elite mages. Every academy had their own thing.

As I thought about this, I saw the guards standing on watch at every corner of the buildings I passed by. Some of them were solid, but some of them were projections. I could tell it better now in daylight. I wondered if they thought their job was boring—there was nothing to fight so far, and they actually had to stay on guard on Sundays, too. They didn't get a holiday. I mean, when we didn't get a weekend leave, that's normal because we went to a boarding school, on tight security at the present nonetheless. These mages must have their own lives, but they dedicated their life to their job instead.

When I turned over the church building to peek in if the service had finished, I saw someone familiar guarding at the front. Carter. Without thinking, I waved at him.

He barely nodded at me, probably embarrassed in front of his mage buddies that he knew me. When I got closer, I realized he was only a projection. "Where's your body?" I asked, only realizing too late how strange that question sounded.

Instead of pretending he didn't hear me, he actually said, "In the lunch hall. Eating."

Eating was such a normal thing that I couldn't even imagine him doing that and being here, talking to me at the same time. I waved bye at his projection and went to find his actual solid form in the lunch hall. True to his word, he was there, sitting apart from other guards, eating something that looked like corn soup. I didn't think we ever had corn soup in the menu before.

I sat down in front of him and boldly took a taste with his soup spoon. I set back the spoon back into the bowl. "Not bad," I said, and then I widened my eyes dramatically. "Oh no, I've put my germs into your soup. You can't eat it now or else you'll get a pox. I'm sorry, but this soup is mine now. Believe me when I say I'm eating this for your own safety."

Carter quirked a smile. Maybe because he wasn't actually on guard here, he looked much more relaxed than I had ever seen him. "Finish it. I don't mind."

I never refused food, not even one I had sabotaged, so I ate the corn soup gratefully. "So why are you sitting apart from other mages? Are you an outcast because you're the youngest here?" I asked bluntly.

"Kind of," he said. "Or maybe I just like my private time."

"Which is it then? Are you an outcast by choice or not?"

"Both, I guess."

I made a thoughtful noise as I downed the soup. "You know, I lost my magic."

"It's temporary. The water in the pond was diluted to begin with. You'll probably have it back tomorrow."

"Did you drown, too?"

"I can swim," he said dryly, which somehow sounded so insulting to me.

"And you think I can't?" I demanded. "Do you know how many times I've won the underwater contests for this year alone? Four! Maybe it's only second place, but it's still proof that I'm capable of swimming, thank you very much. I just..." Panicked.

"I know. I watched your contests."

I frowned. "How?" The contests were never properly documented.

"I used to go here, too."

"So you, like, know me?"

"Who doesn't? Your reputation precedes you, Riley."

Which reputation? The QB or the recent slut label? "But I've never heard of you."

"That's not a surprise. I graduated two years ago."

He was twenty, then. Definitely looking younger than his age. Baby Face had been the right name. Carter. Carter, seniors... Wait. "What's your last name?"

With a smile, he said, "Reston."

No. Way. Carter Reston. Everyone knew Carter Reston, even when I was still in secondary school. He often won the underwater contests long before I was old enough to join. He had been a legend. How could I forget the name Carter before? I remembered him as a tall guy with a charming smile, mostly by the pictures—he looked so different now, with darker skin and broader body. The smile, though, was still the same. How could I have been so stupid?

And those arrogant words I said about my swimming skills? While I had won four trophies, he had won seven to eight back in his days.

I practically boasted in front of the legend himself.

What had I done?

Humiliated, I muttered something about having to go to the bathroom and left the lunch hall. To my surprise and further embarrassment, he followed me.

"I didn't mean to upset you."

I turned and yelled, "You are not upsetting me!" Realizing how hypocritical that sounded, I sighed, sounding totally like Amy. "I'm sorry. Everyone says I have a really big head. I guess I'm tasting my own poison now."

"What do you mean?"

"You're a legend," I said through gritted teeth.

"The swimming thing? That was a long time ago. You, on the other hand, are one of the most promising witch I had ever seen."

"You don't have to say that to make me feel better."

"I'm not saying that to make you feel better. I did watch your early games. I've been watching you for a longer time than you think I have."

Right. The ones I had won before Lucas Island came and destroyed everything. "I don't want to talk about that. Can we just forget I ever say anything about swimming?" His last sentence, though, had made me blush. A little. It wasn't every day a girl was told by her attractive senior that he had been noticing her.

"Sure, if that's what you want."

I turned to leave again, but he caught my wrist. The skin contact was brief because he released me soon after, but my wrist still felt like it was burning with a brand. A Carter Reston brand. Honestly I was starting to sound like one of those girls who idolized Luke. "What?" I asked.

"You haven't finished your corn soup. It's got your germs and no one wants it now."

Amy must be wrong about me smiling only when I won contests, because right at that moment, a wide grin stretched my lips and settled there for the next hour while we talked.