Senseque and Quatura in one house. A mistake by the university director.
Emely stepped closer to Vivienna until there were only three feet between them.
“I was just sitting here on the couch.... Nothing more,” she said sharply and at the same time as if Vivienna’s opinion didn’t interest her in the slightest, which was certainly the case.
“You guys are completely disturbed creatures,” Vivienna hissed snappishly, taking a step back.
“If I were you, I’d watch what you say. This is not your territory!” Emely sounded more tense now, and slowly all good feelings had faded from me.
Emely looked at Grace and me, then at the other Quatura.
“And don’t you get any stupid ideas. My brother, unlike me, has no qualms about tearing you apart.”
Kelly swallowed, and a slight shiver went down my spine as well.
Nash was the kind of guy you didn't want to mess with. He’d been like that in high school. A good-looking blonde with blue eyes and muscles he dared to use when it came to everything.
In my opinion, he was an asshole who pushed weaker people around, liked to provoke fights, and was candidate number one when it came to showing off.
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.
