He had always called me “Julie the carrier pigeon” because I had been the involuntary class president and therefore also the personal message bearer for our class teacher at that time. Alone he had been harmless, almost quiet, but as soon as his guys had kept him company, he had chosen Grace and me as the victims of his verbal attacks.

“Keep your arrogant brother in check, or I’ll talk to the student council of this institution,” Vivienna hissed, snapping me out of my unpleasant high school memories.

Emely glared back angrily, then turned and walked past us to the front door, only to disappear with a loud crash.

That the door hadn’t fallen out of its nails yet was nothing short of a miracle.

“Come we go. We don’t have to put up with this any longer,” Vivienna pressed out, visibly annoyed, turned around and marched up the stairs with her vain escort, without even giving us another glance.

Silence reigned until Larissa started laughing.

“What was that about?” She grinned broadly at all of us.

Then Grace laughed, too.

Bay’s smile, on the other hand, faded from her face again as she headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Larissa asked.

“To talk to Emely.”

Abruptly, we fell silent.

“Why?” Grace laughed nervously, apparently realizing this wasn’t a good idea either. Not with what Emely was. She would rip Bayla to shreds, as in a rage as she must be at the moment....

“Because she didn’t deserve that.”

And with those words, she went on her way, leaving us speechless.

Deep down, I knew she was right, however that didn’t change the fact that Bayla didn’t know the whole truth.

“To each his own,” was all Grace said, and she went to the kitchen corner to heave a large pot out of the sink and then fill it with water.

Grace wouldn’t go out there and stop Bayla, because if anyone followed the rules even more strictly than I did, it was her. I didn’t know anyone who was more honorable to the contracts than Grace was.

Larissa disappeared upstairs because she had something to prepare for a seminar. Surely it had something to do with the pictures on her camera that she had been taking non-stop today. I had been envious when she had demonstrated her talent to us this morning. Everyone was good at something. Just everyone was creative. And then there was me.

Good grades in school, especially in programming and science, which had been with me since I could remember, had been my plus points in my application for my field of study. But what mattered in my cold life was elemental magic, and in that I was a pure disappointment to the Circle and the Councils.

Thoughtfully, I turned to the cell phone in my hand. I would have to get it fixed. Preferably by my aunt. She controlled the element earth and could therefore also influence any material without it returning to its broken original form in half-life, as with Grace’s earth magic.

To see if it at least still worked, I touched the display.

A new message.

I had forgotten all about Erik.

I quickly opened our chat history again, and his last message stood out to me. It gave me goosebumps.

Chapter 23

Bayla

I needed to stop putting myself in stressful situations over and over again. I probably just attracted all kinds of problems like a stupid magnet. There was no other way I could explain how everything around me was always blowing up.

It had only been a week since we lived in Blairville, and already life here was an absolute disaster.

First, Mady’s ex-boyfriend had gotten into a fight with a billionaire at the bar. Mady had stormed out and disappeared without a trace, and since then, none of us had spoken to her, and now Emely again, reacting more and more aggressively to everyone.

It couldn’t get any worse.

I hurried along the trail where I had last seen Emely. But now she had disappeared, and I had no clue where she had gone.

God, how fast was she?

Completely out of breath and about to fall down, because that was my absolute strength, I quickened my sprint one last time. But it didn’t help.

Emely was nowhere to be seen. Not even behind the next path branching, where I came to a halt too slowly, overlooked a root, and landed straight on the ground.

That’s exactly what would have happened if two strong hands hadn’t grabbed my arms. I was familiar with that pressure. As soon as I stood upright again, I turned around.

There he was, just like the first time. Only this time, there was something else in his face besides the cheeky grin. Worry.

I quickly looked around, but other than the trees, the path, and a few birds, I couldn’t see anything of concern.

“Balance isn’t one of your strengths, is it?”

He grinned. And for once, he was right.

“Very funny, Julian...”, I murmured, playfully annoyed, because I really wasn’t this time.

I still had to find Emely, who obviously didn’t want to be found. But where had she gone? Really into the forest? Of course, it was nice here, but somehow it was also a bit creepy to be out here alone like this. Especially after what the Blairville Daily reported.

“Why are you out here alone?”

As if he could read my mind...

But Julian just looked at me in a haunting way, and I got goosebumps. The grin that had adorned his face until just now slowly receded. And what remained was worry.

“You should be careful. There are dark creatures roaming around here.”

“Dark creatures?”

Did he mean wild wolves? I’d never encountered one before, and I definitely wasn’t planning to. So, if he was trying to convince me to get out of here, he had just succeeded.

Once again, I looked around. This time I paid attention to the various sounds that made the forest more peaceful than scary. Many different bird songs mingled in the distance. And the evening sun was also climbing through the treetops of the leafy trees.