The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 93

Rafe smiles at me, nodding, letting me know I’ve done well. I smile back.

“My situation is the same,” Jackson chimes in, tense. “Surprised to be here. No magical family line to speak of. Are you sure I’m in the right place?”

“Oh, I’m sure, McClintock,” Alvez says, leaning forward to smile at him. And, is it just me? Or does that smile look almost…greedy? “Your reading was particularly vivid.”

Jackson scowls, looking at the floor.

“So, what do we do?” Tony says, his arms still crossed as he slumps in his chair. “Like what is this class about? I already know how to use my magic – what am I supposed to learn? Are there like, textbooks…”

“No texts,” Alvez quips, stretching his arms over his head. “Instead, we will spend our time nurturing each of your gifts where they are. For those whose magics have yet to manifest, we’ll spend some time attempting to coax them forward. For you, Davis, we’ll work to push your gift to explore its extremes, see if any other details reveal themselves. Then, in future months or years – assuming that you pass the Examination –“ he pauses a moment, looking significantly around at all of us, “we will begin to consider how to use your magic on a battlefield or in other ways to aid the nation.”

I take a moment to smack Rafe on the arm, mouthing “Examination!?” to him and knitting my brows to show my displeasure that he didn’t tell me about this. Rafe just flaps a hand at me, dismissing my concern for now.

“All right!” Alvez says, clapping his hands together and hopping down from the desk. “Step one for this program is getting your magics to manifest themselves, and in my previous experience directing this program I have found that magic does indeed call to magic. As such, we will now pair off in a trust exercise to see if anything…stirs. As you three,” he says, turning to us, “have been around each other for years with no results, let’s try engagement with someone new.”

Rafe sends an anxious glance my way but I just roll my eyes at him, willing him to stop hovering over me like a mother hen. As he turns away, though, I realize that his anxiety is not misplaced – because Jackson and I, we have been having physical reactions to each other that I now consider might be a result of our both having magic.

That pulse that moves through the air whenever I touch him with my hands? Is that…something?

“Let’s have Rafe with Tony, please?” Alvez says, interrupting my train of thought and gesturing for Rafe to cross the room to stand with Tony, who rises from his chair.

“And Jackson with Jesse?” Alvez says next. My heart sinks a little because I’m alone – the odd “man” out. Do I not get to experiment today?

“I’ll pair with you, Clark,” Alvez says as he takes three marbles out of his pocket and places one on a desk in front of Rafe and Tony and then another before Jesse and Jackson. Anxiety twists in my stomach as Alvez slowly approaches me, because…something in the way that he walks, he smiles at me.

I’m again reminded of a cat, and not the sweet kittenish type.

No, an eager, hungry cat who has just found a mouse he wants to play with.

Alvez stops in front of me, placing a marble against our desk in front of us. “You should each find a form of physical contact you feel comfortable with – skin to skin is best. And then, together, you should attempt to access your magics, using it together to attempt to move the marble – either floating it in the air, pushing it from the desk or…I don’t know. Exploding it. Whatever feels natural.”

“This isn’t going to work for me,” Tony says immediately, glaring a little. “I can’t take the marble under water and breathe it in.”

“Humor me, Davis,” Alvez says, stepping close to my side. “Your goal today is to help Rafe Sinclair discover his magics. Be a pal. You’re a team, after all.”

The four others in the room hesitate for a moment, but then turn to each other, beginning to discuss – I guess – what it is they want to do.

“Hand to hand?” Alvez says, turning to me and speaking softly, almost intimately in my ear.

“Um, sure?” I say, anxiety racing through me as he raises his hand.

My wolf shifts from paw to paw, wary, as I raise my own hand and press the back of it to the back of the professor’s hand. I don’t trust him, she murmurs to me, anxious.

Me neither, I murmur back.

But there’s no time to think on it now.

“Oh, come on,” Alvez says, smiling wickedly at me and turning his hand to grasp mine, interlacing our fingers. “After all, it’s not every day a man gets a chance to take the hand of a princess, is it?”

Every drop of blood drains from my face.