Page 38 of Is It Wrong to Escape My Fate? (Dealing With Fate #1)
“There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Derrick’s voice broke me out of my internal panic, and I opened my eyes to my three professors watching me expectantly. I unclenched my glowing green hands.
Green. I was normal! With an Earth affinity!
My gaze found Winston off at the side, and despite his gentle smile, his royal purple eyes felt like slicing into me with how intense he observed me. Like he was scrutinizing every movement I made.
“Now that we’ve determined your affinity, the glow will stay for about an hour.
Please line up to get your affinity recorded,” Samuel announced as he gestured to the senior mages, tables set out for each of them, ready to take down information.
The students began to form lines, and I was about to follow Dahlia when Derrick grasped my wrist.
“You were panicking and didn’t tell us,” he revealed as he let me go, just as the Prince stood next to them three. “Why? I was waiting for you to say it first.”
Damn it. I thought I got away with it.
“Not used to probing magic,” I hedged, my eyes traveling between them.
“It’s a diagnostic, not a probe,” Uriel pointed out.
“Isn’t it the same thing?”
“Trust your brattiness to think you know better than your professors,” Samuel scoffed as I glared at him.
Folding my arms over my chest, I scoffed back. “Well, I’m very sorry. Are you going to punish me, professor?”
Samuel suddenly coughed as Uriel stared at him in disbelief, with Derrick in a blush and Winston’s lips pulling down just the tiniest bit. Satisfying . I prepared to head for Dahlia when I was stopped again, this time by Winston’s hand on my shoulder.
“Bea, you’re very good at dodging questions,” he muttered in a mix of amazement and annoyance. “But it won’t work on us. Why didn’t you tell us?”
They really wouldn’t stop asking if the interrogation the other day was anything to go by. Mixed with the truth, then. “I'm scared the spell won’t work again, putting me in a precarious spot. And I don’t know what I’ll do if that’s the case.”
Uriel nodded. “Truthfully, if a diagnostic spell doesn’t work on you, it’s going to be unprecedented.”
Winston followed up with, “Never had a case like that before. Everyone had at least a little mana in them.” He paused as if remembering something. “Except, there is one case after all.”
Samuel shook his head, chuckling. “Oh yeah, there is one all right.” He smirked at me. “The Demon Lord.”
Oh.
“A mage platoon got close enough to cast the spell on him to know his strengths and potential weaknesses,” he continued, watching me.
“Either he resisted the spell multiple times, he had a way to counteract it entirely, or it wasn’t really him they were casting a spell on, maybe an illusion; either way, it wasn’t successful on him. ”
Maybe the Demon Lord was more like me than I ever thought.
This was taking longer than I needed. “I have to fall in line with the other students.”
“Not like you need to,” Samuel retorted, gesturing to the whole of me. “You have an Earth affinity, same as mine. I’ll never forget that. I’ll jot it down in your student file myself.”
“I can’t get special treatment like this. I’m already overstaying here by conversing with three professors and the Prince. A baron’s daughter! I don’t want any more rumors.”
“You’re the Caregiver,” Winston smiled, standing straighter. “Best be reminded of that. In fact, make sure everyone is reminded of that.”
Not again. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind when a staff member approached our group. “I am very sorry to interrupt, Your Highness. The Champions’ attention is swiftly needed.”
Winston glanced at the man briefly. “Speak, professor.”
But the man, who I now knew as one of the many professors, looked at me pointedly and nudged his head, in a gesture meant to make me leave. A little rude, but I was waiting for this chance.
Of course Samuel held my upper arm this time. “Stay.” Read like a fucking book. Ugh.
“Go on,” Winston urged the man, who kept glancing between me and Samuel, gulping as he did so.
He eventually conceded. Dammit. “The Priestesses, Prince. They need the Champions right now. They’re having a new Vision was their message.”
“Prepare our portal then,” Winston coolly replied as the man bowed and left. He fixed the cuffs of his tunic and his collar, and if I wasn’t mistaken, the Prince was actually nervous . I had never thought he was capable. “Claude!”
The Hero appeared almost in an instant as Elias trailed after him. “Yes, boss?”
“I told you not to call me that,” Winston sighed just as Claude placed his chin on my shoulder. “The Oracles are waiting for us. You, Samuel. With me.”
“The entire gang has to go when there’s a Vision, huh?” I jeered, not really feeling great with these men hanging out with a bunch of priestesses. Yes, I know , that was very hypocritical and annoyingly territorial and utterly ridiculous, but I was just a normal girl with normal feelings.
“You’re actually jealous,” Claude exclaimed in disbelief, stepping in front of me with a huge grin on his face as I struggled to form words at his conclusion. “Heavens above, Bea’s jealous!”
“I’m not,” I lied, hands on my hips, but I knew it was futile since my face gave everything away.
A glance at Winston confirmed it; there was that smug pleasure hiding behind his gentle smile. Couldn’t hide that twitching of his lips though, as if he wanted to smile even wider.
Definitely smug.
“We’ll be gone for the rest of the day, so don’t wait for us,” he informed the other men around us. “In the meantime, you’ll be pleased to know, princess, that we have found the bastard. Confession and all.”
My heart sped up at the information. “Thank you.” But I was unsure if I wanted to know more. I knew I didn’t need more complications, and if that bastard somehow knew something about me bad enough to have me kidnapped, it would make things even worse.
“Let’s deal with it later,” Elias whispered to me, placing a hand on my lower back. “Don’t stress over it for now.”
“You’re right.” Swallowing my nerves, I turned to the Champions, smiling. “Let’s talk about the bastard later. Focus on your mission as Champions.”
“Good girl,” Samuel smirked, before discussing this class’s lesson plan with Uriel and Derrick.
I hated how that simple phrase affected me regardless of context.
He didn’t mean anything by it, but it had that effect on me regardless.
I bit my lip to fight the imminent blush.
Eli’s hand pressed harder against my back as he inhaled deeply.
Uriel’s eyes suddenly turned to Eli, even as Samuel talked to him.
Oh, my god. Uriel Strom was reading Elias’s mind, and I knew, as he was a dragon shifter, that Eli could smell my arousal. Confirming my suspicion was Uriel’s gaze traveling down my body, my heart speeding up again.
“Calm down,” Eli whispered, pinching me a little. My surprised whine caught the men’s attention, like it wasn’t enough that Uriel was already suspicious of my current … state.
“Fuck, Bea,” Claude groaned, turning his whole body away from me. “Don’t make that sound in public. It’s very hard to hide a boner in these pants. I need to have my armor on.”
I wanted to laugh at this crudeness, but I was still a noble daughter. “Don’t be crass,” I chastised him, pretending to be offended.
“We have to go now, or the heavens might smite us for ignoring the call of the Priestesses,” Winston exclaimed with some bitterness mixed in. “Bea, don’t ever forget — you’re as much of a Champion as the rest of us.” He finished the statement by walking off with Samuel and Claude.
Not enough of a Champion to be brought to the Priestesses’ Vision though.
“We’ll resume the class,” Derrick informed me and Elias, and I was just glad I was back to some form of normalcy.
Which was the wrong thing to think about, because this wasn’t my normal. It wasn’t supposed to be.
By the time class ended, the Champions hadn’t returned yet, and I refused to think about the Lord bastard that had me kidnapped without them around. I decided to visit my brother to distract myself. It had been almost two weeks since I last saw him, after all.
Even though he was only my pseudo-brother, I felt a sense of obligation to attend to him, if only for his genuine care for his younger sister.
As he requested, I sent mail to his dorm that I’d be visiting him in an hour. He replied an affirmative. I let Mia and my knights know of my intent.
“Alec could never know about my fuzzy memory,” I told them as we made our way to his dorm. “He’ll definitely tell our mother and father. I don’t want them to worry.”
Reuben frowned but nodded. “I don’t agree with your decision, my lady, but I will uphold it for you. As promised, you will be held accountable for your decisions.”
Mia’s eyes widened at Reuben’s boldness, but I nodded too. “Yes. If it ruins things for me, let it be my fault.”
“I should stay by you at all times, my lady,” Mia suggested as we neared the building. “If Lord Alec says something you don’t remember, I’ll be there to remind you.”
“That’s a great idea. Let’s do that.”
Upon arrival, Alec’s personal knight Milo opened the door for us, bowing at me and smiling at his sister. “He’ll be out in a minute, my lady. He’s tidying up the place.”
“Please, I’m already used to his messy bedroom,” I teased. My confidence rose when Mia nodded at my statement. “What could make it a mess, anyway?”
“Lots and lots of books and papers,” Alec appeared from behind Milo, all disheveled but happy.
“Come in, baby sister.” Both he and Milo stepped aside so we could enter his dorm.
Sure enough, there were mountains of papers everywhere, but they were also stacked in neat columns against the walls. Not a mess at all.
Alec sat on a couch and gestured for me to do the same, so I sat across from him with Mia standing by my side. “Did you have dinner yet? We can get food delivered here from the dining hall.”