Page 34 of Stormbringer (Tracthesian Academy #1)

W ave was in a good mood when she greeted Mrs. Riverson. Her classes were interesting, she was keeping up with the workload, and no one had thrown any comments at her face the whole day. So, a good day.

On top of all that, her natural healing was kicking in at full force. She should be back to normal by the evening. The only problem with that was what she could tell the others. Her healing was way too fast for a mere storm spirit.

Maybe if no one asked, she could ignore it all?

“Wayla, dear, how are you doing?”

Well, there went that plan up in the ashes. Wave smiled at Mrs. Riverson. “I’m fine.”

“I heard about the party. Are you sure there were no adverse effects from Ms. Flameward’s attack?”

Flameward? Oh, she meant Elena. “I’m all taken care of,” she tried to reassure the woman. “I can work, as long as you don’t need me to wrangle the slippery ones in place today.”

“Oh, I didn’t even think that,” Mrs. Riverson said. “Of course, you don’t need to exert yourself. Why don’t you go over the request list and start locating those books? There shouldn’t be anything too difficult listed.”

“Sure, I can do that,” Wave said and picked up the list from the desk. “I’ll get right on that.”

Wave was halfway through the requests, neat piles with labels waited for pick up in the back room, when a cool breeze prickled her skin.

“Hello, morsel,” Irishen greeted her with a smile that was somehow softer than the smiles he had given her before. Wave gave him a cursory bow and then a glare.

“No ID, no entry.”

Irishen’s smile widened, and he pulled out a card and waved it out of Wave’s reach. She refused to reach out and just lifted a brow.

“You are no fun, morsel,” Irishen said.

“I’m not interested in your games, Risha.”

“It’s your highness to you, morsel.”

“It’s going to be my boot in your ass soon to you, Risha,” Wave replied evenly. She could see irritation flicker over his face as he slammed the card on the desk. Wave picked it up and looked it over. It looked legit, but she wouldn’t put forgery past Irishen.

“Just a second.” She paged for Mrs. Riverson, who soon hurried out of the stacks. Wave held up the card. “Any way to verify this is legit?”

Mrs. Riverson’s eyes widened slightly, but she kept herself under control. “Let me see.”

“Are you accusing me of lying, morsel?”

“I’m just doing my job, your highness.”

“Now, morsel—”

“It’s real,” Mrs. Riverson hurried to say and handed the card back to Irishen. “You are free to enter Prince Sleethill. Please bear the library rules in mind.”

“Of course, Mrs. Riverson.” He then turned to look at Wave. “Care to accompany me, morsel? Purely to make sure I follow said rules.”

“I’m sure you can conduct yourself accordingly, your highness.”

Irishen’s jaw flexed, and the white of his eyes deepened to ashy grey.

“Why are you so antagonistic towards me, Wayla? I haven’t done anything to you,” he finally said. It sounded genuine enough that Wave blinked.

“Nothing, except you tried to bully your way inside the library and blasted me with ice.”

“I blocked Elena’s power from hitting you,” he hurried to defend.

“And that should make me fall for you?”

“Most would at least thank me,” he grumbled.

“Thank you,” Wave said. She almost meant it. Irishen sighed, but left the desk and headed toward the history section. What was he really playing at? And what had happened between him and Diana?

Wave frowned. There was some bad blood between him and the Powerhouses too. All things that she would like to know, but didn’t know how to ask without inviting questions about her own situation.

She had been hiding in plain sight most of her life. She’d had so many fake names, she didn’t even remember them all. She had played at being a human girl for a few years here and there. She had lived on deserted islands when Father had told her and Mother to hide.

There was always something. Some part of her, big or small, that she had to hide. It was getting exhausting. She couldn’t make any real connections or friends that way. She shouldn’t be making them here either, but a big part of her felt starved.

Chrissy, Ginny, and Diana were the closest thing to a friend group she had ever had. Salis was her best friend. She had kept as close to the truth with them as she could. Then there were the three male specimens that she couldn’t avoid. She didn’t want to avoid them.

Maybe she should contact Mother. She would talk her out of this nonsense in seconds.

A minor inconvenience was that she didn’t know where she was or how to reach her.

But even thinking about Mother and the deal they’d made of no contact for five years and finding out all she could about Father did help. At least a little.

Here she was wasting her time with friends and dating, instead of training and working her ass off. She didn’t have any way to find out more about her father’s death, Mother had been right about that, too. Her best weapon to ferret out secrets was useless if she wanted to stay alive.

All the unsung notes burned in Wave’s throat and made her swallow bile. She forced herself to breathe in deep, nod at Mrs. Riverson, pick another list, and go back to work. She would figure something out. Eventually.

W ave was certain that some deity somewhere was taking offense to the number of orgasms she was getting and was extracting payback.

While her work in the library was going smoothly despite Risha’s visits, and he made a point of looking her up every single time, the rest of her campus life was under fire. Quite literally.

Ginny had warded their apartment against all sorts of things, most lately fire spells that Elena and her minions loved throwing at the place. She had tried to start rumors, break Wave off from her non-boyfriends and friends, and cause trouble with her teachers.

Mostly, it had fallen on deaf ears, most of the students either ignored their little spat or limited their involvement to whispers behind her back. Nothing that would really rattle Wave, but when one week turned to two and then three, she was starting to lose her patience.

The bitch just couldn’t swallow that Wave wasn’t interested in Irishen. Or maybe it had nothing to do with her interest and all to do with his.

Diana had finally told her some of what had happened. Mainly, it had made Wave mad at Elena. Irishen had dropped Diana for Elena and her apparently better status. From the way Diana told it, Irishen had been a cold, callous, and uncaring asshole.

His only saving grace had been that he hadn’t actually hurt Diana physically, but he hadn’t stepped in and stopped Elena when she made Diana’s life hell. Not like he was stepping in now, shielding Wave, who didn’t need it like Diana had.

It wasn’t the whole story, but Wave’s urge to shove a lava dildo up his ass had lessened. Elena, on the other hand, could definitely use one in hers. Wave wasn’t about to discriminate according to gender. Although something with permafrost probably suited her better.

“You are late,” Dr. Kelsey sneered when Wave hurried through the door to her fire theory class. She wasn’t, there were several other students filing in after her without a word. However, where most teachers courteously bowed out of student disputes, Dr. Kelsey was in Elena’s pocket.

“My apologies,” Wave said quietly and took her seat. She wasn’t going to needle him any further. This class was the only one on fire-related elements available for her this semester and Wave wanted to shore up her weak point. She could suck it up for two hours every week.

“Right,” Dr. Kelsey called the class to attention. “We’ve been talking about theory for a few weeks now. I think it’s time for a little live demonstration today.” His black horns gleamed in time with the mean glint in his black eyes.

Cold dread filled Wave’s stomach. He was a powerful fire demon and didn’t care to mask it. They shouldn’t have any hands-on exercises in this class. It should be focused purely on the theory of fire variations. Wave didn’t need to turn her head to see who had asked for the change.

“Ms. Flameward, would you care to show the class in practice what we’ve been discussing?”

“Of course, Dr. Kelsey.” Elena rose from her seat. “I’d be delighted.” She walked to the front of the room.

She easily demonstrated flames in different temperatures while Dr. Kelsey explained their properties and best usage.

None of that fooled Wave. She kept her shields up and cursed her inability to properly internally shield against flames, flickers, and the rest. She couldn’t pull massive ice or water walls up in the classroom.

“And now we are going to try catching flickers,” Dr. Kelsey said. “If you manage that, Elena will send you flames.”

Wave bit down her groan. This was going to be a long hour. And she wasn’t wrong. When Dr. Kelsey finally called the class to an end, Wave had burns all over her arms. At least he hadn’t let Elena shoot flames at her when she failed to catch a single flicker.

Disgusted, Wave looked down at herself. Her shirt was ruined, and she had tiny red splotches all over her skin.

Splendid. She would have to get back to the dorm and change before anyone realized she was healing from those too fast for a storm spirit.

With her natural healing unimpeded by a power-buildup-fuck-fest, these injuries would be gone in an hour or so.

Totally fine for someone powerful, but for a storm spirit, they should take at least a day.

Glancing at the clock, Wave cursed. Shit. She was due at work in half an hour. She couldn’t show up looking like this. And it was Thursday. She had shielding practice with Jarred and Marc after that. She absolutely, no way, could show up at the house with a burned shirt.

Time to beg for yet another favor. Wave dug out her phone and called Chrissy.

She desperately needed a change of clothes, and she was her fairy godmother in all things fabric-related.

Even if her evil sorceress side made an appearance and put Wave in a dress, it was a risk she was willing to take now.