Page 12 of Beastkin
I stared at the crystals, feeling oddly drawn to them despite my skepticism. “So what, you think I can shoot fireballs or something?”
Professor Blackwood actually laughed at that, a warm sound I wouldn’t have expected from her. “Perhaps not fireballs, no. But there might be other abilities waiting to be discovered.” She selected a reddish-orange crystal and held it out to me. “Would you humor me for a moment?”
I hesitated, then took the crystal. It was warm to the touch, almost uncomfortably so, but not burning. As I held it, the warmth seemed to spread up my arm.
“What am I supposed to be doing with this?” I asked, turning the crystal in my palm.
“Just hold it and tell me what you feel.”
I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the sensation. The crystal’s heat pulsed in rhythm with my heartbeat, growing slightly warmer with each second.
“It’s getting hotter,” I murmured. When I opened my eyes, I nearly dropped the crystal in shock. It was glowing, a soft orange light emanating from within. “What the hell?”
Professor Blackwood’s eyes widened slightly. “Interesting. That’s a fire resonance crystal. It only reacts that strongly to those with fire elemental potential.”
“That’s impossible,” I said, though the evidence was literally glowing in my hand. “Beastkin don’t have elemental magic.”
“Most don’t,” she agreed. “But you, Karrick, are not most Beastkin.” She took the crystal back, placing it carefully in the box. “Have you ever experienced unexplained heat when you’re emotional?Objects warming near you? Fires burning longer or brighter than they should?”
I thought back to countless campfires with my family that never seemed to die out when I was sitting nearby. The way my skin would feel feverish when I was angry, even beyond normal Beastkin rage responses. I’d always attributed it to my beast nature, never considering it might be something else.
“Maybe,” I admitted reluctantly. “But that doesn’t mean?—”
“It means you have potential that deserves exploration,” she interrupted gently. “I’m not asking you to become a witch or abandon your identity as a Beastkin. I’m simply suggesting that there might be more to you than you’ve been led to believe.” She reached in the box, pulling out another crystal, this time a dark green. “Try this one.”
I took the dark green crystal from her hand, surprised by its weight. Unlike the fire crystal, this one felt cool against my palm, almost like holding a smooth river stone that had been sitting in shade all day.
“Nothing’s happening,” I said after a moment, turning it over in my hand. The crystal remained dull, no glow, no warmth, nothing. “See? Maybe the first one was a fluke.”
But then the crystal began to glow softly, and I felt a tightness, like a vine squeezing gently around my hand.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Fascinating,” Professor Blackwood said, taking the crystal. Then she handed me a blue one. “Try this one.”
The blue crystal felt different from the other two. Not warm like the fire crystal or cool like the earth one, but somehow alive in a way that made my skin prickle. I held it for several seconds, waiting for something to happen.
“This one feels weird,” I said, rolling it between my fingers. “Like it’s... moving? It feels like jelly.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, the crystal began to pulse with a soft blue light, and I swear I could feel moisture gathering inthe air around my hand. The sensation was so unexpected that I nearly dropped it.
“Water affinity as well,” Professor Blackwood murmured, making notes on a piece of parchment. “This is highly unusual, Karrick. Most elemental practitioners have an affinity for only one element, maybe two if they’re exceptionally gifted.”
I handed the crystal back to her, my mind reeling. “I don’t understand what’s happening here. This has to be some kind of mistake.”
She placed the blue crystal carefully back in the box and selected a pale yellow one. “One more, if you don’t mind.”
I took it reluctantly, half-expecting it to explode in my hand at this point. The yellow crystal felt light, almost weightless, and as I held it, I felt a strange sensation like a breeze moving through my mind.
The crystal began to glow with a soft golden light, and suddenly I felt like I could sense the air currents in the room, feel the way they moved around objects and through the space between us. It was disorienting and exhilarating at the same time. When I looked down again, the crystal was no longer touching my hand but floating an inch or two above it.
“Air,” Professor Blackwood said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Four elements, Karrick. You have resonance with all four primary elements.”
I snatched the crystal and slapped it down on her desk more forcefully than necessary. “Look, I don’t know what kind of game this is, but I’m not buying it. Maybe your crystals are broken or something.”
“These crystals have been tested on hundreds of students over the years,” she said firmly. “They don’t lie, and they don’t make mistakes.” She closed the box and looked at me directly. “What you’ve just demonstrated is extraordinarily rare. I’ve never seen anyone, witch or otherwise, resonate with all four elements.”
The weight of what she was saying settled over me like a heavy blanket. I’d come to Widdershins to play football and get my degree.I’d already survived one attack that nearly killed me. The last thing I needed was to discover I was some kind of magical freak on top of being a Beastkin. It was all too fucking much.