I beat my wings powerfully, shooting myself upwards. I had spent no more than a few minutes last night cutting holes in the backs of my T-Shirts and school shirts so that I could fly whilst clothed. The sun was just rising, and it was a little past 7:30. Every time I flew, it shocked me how large my wings were, even though I was used to it. A twelve-foot wingspan. Twelve feet!
I was excited for my second day of school. I was excited to see Josh and Peter again, and from this high up, I could see school below me. With its large buildings somewhat close to the middle of the Valley and its pure white roof, it wasn’t necessarily hard to find.
I had had a dreamless night last night, but despite this, I had woken up three separate times, which, by my standards, wasn’t too bad. It was bad for a dreamless night, however.
I kept thinking back to those strange visions that I had painfully received. The one in Form, where I had seen a huge giant hurling rocks towards me. The one where I had seen that girl lying next to me, a deep gash across her chest, as a dark figure stood over me poising a sword at my heart.
It took immense effort to not think about things like that recently, yet they mentally crushed me. All I ever saw were horrible events; people dying, me dying. Why couldn’t I ever see the good things that were going to happen?
Whilst flying horizontally, I could easily keep at a steady seventy-five miles per hour, yet this time I tried to slow myself down, and enjoy my time up here. I managed to keep myself around sixty. My lungs also had special air sacs attached, so that even this high up, and at such high speeds, I had no trouble breathing.
Smirking to myself, I thought that there would be no harm flying in the forest, right? I ramped up my speed and flew southwards. Flying now somewhere near eighty miles per hour, I beamed at…everything. The sun shone brightly on the left side of my face, and my hair was flying wildly in the wind. It had flown backwards, exposing my forehead to the few other birds flying this high.
I soared over the edge of the Valley and was shocked at the change it made. Whilst flying over the Valley, it felt like I was king of the world, soaring one hundred and twenty metres above the ground, but here, I was no more than ten metres up. I angled my wings ever so slightly as to boost my altitude, bumping myself up to about twenty-five metres up.
There were a few houses up here, only about one or two neighbourhoods, and once I cleared through them, it was open ground until the forest. I saw some animals grazing in the fields and then realised that I had to be careful I didn’t fly into a tree.
Looking up, I quickly titled my body so that I was perpendicular to the ground, so as to not hit a tree. Expertly weaving through the trees, I laughed. A full, hearty laugh. Flapping my wings perfectly in time, I dipped above and below the leaves of the trees.
I came to a clearing in the forest and saw a deer grazing. It gazed up at me in wonder. My friends had done so in fear. Beaming, I angled my wings in slightly and zoomed in a circle around the clearing, and the deer watched me with glistening eyes. I was now almost at ninety miles per hour. My speed just kept increasing, and my laugh was getting louder.
Suddenly snapping my wings out, I darted in a random direction, not feeling even the slightest bit dizzy. And I kept that up for nearly an hour. It was only at about twenty-five past eight that I thought I should head to school. I zoomed back out of the forest, and nearly whimpered with excitement at the thought of gliding along the side of the Valley.
The suburbs at the edge were mere blurs, and I pointed myself parallel to the edge of the Valley, tucked my wings in, and dived. I hit well over one hundred and ten miles per hour. It took literally two seconds for me to reach the streets below, and I skillfully expanded my wings and soared through the streets. I heard people shout up at me, but their voices were lost in the wind. I saw school up ahead and angled my feathers in such a way that would make landing child’s play.
It was then that I noticed my friends standing outside the front of the school gates, they hadn’t even gone onto the playground without me. Speaking of the playground, at least half of the people there seemed to be gawking at me soaring above. Angling my wings ever so slightly once more, I glided down towards my friends, who were now staring up at me, wide-mouthed. I expertly landed, coming to a running stop just in front of my friends.
‘Hey, guys,’ I said as though nothing had happened.
‘Hey,’ Maltor said glumly. I could tell that he wished he had joined me in the flight.
Ethan outstretched a shaky hand; he was holding my blazer. Admittedly, I had forgotten it at The Tower. I was not going to cut holes in it as I did with my shirts, because I wouldn’t be able to hide holes in my blazer as I did with them. Plus, it would restrict me from just flying whenever I felt like it.
‘Oh, yeah, thanks,’ I said sheepishly, taking the blazer and putting it on.
That’s when Jay spoke the words that everybody had been thinking. ‘Your wings are huge.’
I glanced at Maltor and smirked. He had that familiar gleam in his eyes, he was amused.
‘Yeah, it’s a twelve-foot wingspan I’m pretty sure,’ I said, looking down at the ground.
‘Twelve feet?!’ both Asbel and Jay exclaimed.
‘Your hair’s really messy,’ Quinn said. Always one to point out the bad things about the situation.
‘Oh, dammit,’ I said, running my hand through my hair in an attempt to make it look naturally messy rather than bird messy.
‘Don’t worry,’ Natasha said, looking at me in wonder, ‘it kinda suits you.’
I felt flushed all of a sudden. ‘Uh, thanks.’
I left my hair as it was.
We quickly walked through the gates, so that we would not be late, and I had to deal with a barrage of questions from both Jay and Asbel.
‘How quick can you fly?’ was Asbel’s first question. Upon hearing that I could keep a steady speed of seventy-five miles per hour, his jaw dropped, and it resulted in a request from Ethan, asking if I could show them that speed at some point. I awkwardly agreed.
Jay asked how high I could fly. When I said I hadn’t tested it a horrible smirk grew on his face, and I hoped to the Gods that he didn’t toss me into the sky with a catapult to see if I’d survive.
In Form, all I was doing was sitting with Ethan and Natasha, just having a casual conversation, whilst we waited for everybody to come in. And Josh dashed over to me, overcome with joy.
‘Was that you flying up there?!’
‘Oh, Gods, who else saw?’ I groaned, wishing that I was anywhere else.
‘I don’t know if everyone on the playground saw, but me and Emma and a few other people definitely saw,’ he said, bouncing on his heels in excitement.
‘Oh, boys, I don’t want a repeat of yesterday,’ Miss Thomas said, looking over at us from her desk.
‘You won’t, don’t worry, Miss,’ Ethan called over.
Then the second bell rang and Natasha sat in her seat next to Louise on the row behind, and Ethan, Josh, and I all sat next to each other once more.
‘You gonna bring out the spooky yellow lightning tod-WAIT.’
A few people looked over. Miss Thomas gave Josh an appropriate dirty look.
‘Sorry, Miss,’ he said awkwardly, as she continued with what she was talking about. Something about drugs and things again?
‘Wait,’ Josh said, back to whispering, ‘does that yellow lightning let you fly?’
‘No,’ I said sincerely. ‘They’re different things entirely.’
‘So you know what the yellow lightning is?’
Dammit.
‘Not really, but I know it’s not what lets me fly,’ I lied as easily as breathing.
‘So what lets you fly, then?’ He just didn’t stop.
‘His wings, idiot,’ Ethan joined in.
I snorted back a laugh. ‘Yeah, idiot, it definitely has something to do with the wings.’
I then thought about what would happen if my friends did know the backstory behind my wings. Evidently, they were fine with me having wings, and they seemed to find it quite cool. But the way I got them was definitely not cool. They would certainly question things.
Josh continued to pelter me with questions, but I swatted them away with either jokes or straight lies. Lying may feel wrong or difficult for most people, but to me, it came as naturally as blinking.
Ethan informed me that we had English first, which I was thoroughly excited about. I had it with all of my friends, besides Quinn. And I had it with Peter and his obsession with spelling inappropriate words with the Periodic Table.
We headed to Room 25 with Natasha and unfortunately Louise, and met Jay, Asbel, and Peter outside the door. Maltor was already inside, staring absent-mindedly at the table.
I took my place in between Peter and Asbel, and Peter immediately said, ‘Periodic Table word.’
I smirked. ‘Is that all you wanna talk about?’
He nodded, smiling.
Mr Lloyd droned on and on about how to write effective speeches, and then put on a video of Winston Churchill's speech for the war: ‘We Shall Fight on the Beeches’. I honestly thought it was a good speech, and couldn’t help but get goosebumps every time I heard it, but what Mr Lloyd said was shocking.
‘As most of you will most likely know,’ he said as though there was absolutely nothing wrong with what he was about to say, ‘Winston Churchill was a son of Athena, which would in fact make him a brother of mine.’
‘Man, what the f-’ Asbel began before he was cut off by Jay screaming.
‘WHAT?!’
Everyone laughed, including Mr Lloyd. ‘Yes, Jay, I am a son of Athena.’
Mr Lloyd seemed to be in a good mood after that. He was seemingly smirking the entire time.
‘Did you know that he was a son of Athena?’ I asked Peter, assuming that his answer would be ‘yes’.
It was not.
‘I mean I probably coulda guessed it, but, nah, I didn’t know. He kept speaking about his ‘Godly mother’ at the beginning of the year, though.’
‘This man really bragging about being a nerd,’ Asbel said, smirking.
‘Yeah,’ I said, joining in, ‘every day he wakes up thinking: ‘Wow, I can’t wait to brag to my students that I will forever be smarter than them.’.’
‘He wakes up and does a bit of riddles to start his day,’ Peter added.
‘Maybe a crossword if he’s feeling cheeky,’ Asbel said, pausing between nearly every other word to contain his laugh.
‘A word search if he’s feeling quizzical,’ was Peter’s input.
‘A Rubik's cube if he’s feeling ambitious,’ I said, really smiling now.
‘Ok, lads,’ Mr Lloyd said, ruining the fun, right as Asbel looked as though he was about to burst a vein from the sheer effort of not laughing, ‘keep it down.’
He said that with a smirk on his face, I should add.
English didn’t really hold anything else of importance. Then I discovered that I had Science in Period 2. Upon arriving, I was informed that my seat had not changed. My friends and I were still sitting at the front under the watchful eye of Mr Fowler.
‘He really must not like you,’ Peter whispered as we walked past Mr Fowler, who stood at the doorway, giving us a furious look as we passed.
‘Yeah, I don’t know what his problem is,’ I whispered in response. ‘This is my second day and neither of us can handle the other.’
Mr Fowler then shut the door quite hard and walked purposefully to his spot at the front of the classroom, two feet in front of me.
‘Next lesson we will be doing a practical,’ he said in his low voice. ‘We’ll be removing the salt from saltwater.’
‘Whoopee,’ I heard Asbel grumble. ‘I’ve always wanted to-’
‘That’s a warning, Mr Jacobs, do not speak over me in future, understood?’
‘Yes, sir,’ Asbel grumbled, somehow even more annoyed.
‘That will be our experiment whether you like it or not, now answer the questions from the textbook, in silence.’
I whispered to Natasha, who sat on my left. ‘This man doesn’t know any volume other than silence or hatred-towards-the-new-kids.’
She smirked. ‘Maybe your great-great-great-grandfather did something to upset him.’
‘Probably, he does look quite ol-’
‘Acclere, Santrrer, that’s a warning for you two as well, and there’s no point sulking, Santrrer, I’m not changing it.’
I cut him a dirty look. Oh, no, not a warning! A-Anything other than a warning!
As usual, Asbel and I were the first to finish, about forty minutes in.
‘Then you shall read a book in silence. And if you don’t have a book then you can sit in silence.’
I didn’t care. Throughout the rest of the lesson, I was whispering very quietly to Natasha to help her with the questions, and I could just about hear Asbel doing the same to Jay. I could tell that Mr Fowler could hear us, whenever Asbel or I spoke his face darkened.
However, I too was getting a bad feeling about today. Like something was going to go very wrong, in every way possible. Even Natasha and Jay asked why I was getting so jumpy. I blamed it on post-flight excitement. They, of course, didn’t know much about the whole flight ordeal, so they believed me. It was not post-flight excitement.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
When the end of the lesson came, Mr Fowler made quite a comment.
‘Santrrer, do you not have a bag?’
I wanted the ground to swallow me. Everyone was leaving silently, as he had requested, so they could all hear him say that. I even heard one kid snicker.
‘No, sir, I need to buy a new one this weekend,’ I replied, embarrassed.
‘New one? What happened to the old one?’
No, I was not about to tell him it got torn to shreds when I got thrown in a bush whilst risking my life against two six-foot bodyguards.
‘Spilled a load of water on it, sir,’ I said, staring at the ground, wishing it would just swallow me. ‘I’ll have a bag for the next lesson, sir.’
‘Mmm, it would do you good to have one.’
I felt like growling. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and balled my fists, feeling my nails cut against my palm. My friends and I left quite quickly after that.
Maltor, Quinn, and Ethan were all waiting for us outside of the room. Quinn and Peter also seemed to get on really well, which was good, because Peter was the kinda guy I wanted to stick around.
Once we were outside, and the usual banter began, Maltor stood close to me and whispered, ‘You should be more discrete with your wings, loads of people have been talking about it.’
‘I know, I’m sorry, but you know how fun it is to fly,’ I murmured defensively.
‘Yeah, it’s hard to resist sometimes, but just be more careful next time,’ he said. ‘And invite me. We can zip around the forest together.’
‘Some deer live there, they were watching me.’
‘So you went into the forest, without me?’ Maltor said, sarcastically appalled.
‘Oh, forgive me, Gods, I shan’t ever do such a thing again!’ I said, and the two of us laughed. It felt like the first time we had laughed together in a while. After all the things we had been through together, it was quite sad that the two of us barely laughed with one another.
‘No, no,’ Peter rushed over, beaming from the story he was about to tell us, ‘you know Josh? The one in your form?’
‘Yeah?’ Ethan and I said, wondering where he was going with this.
‘He went my primary, right, and we went on a trip to this restaurant place and when he sat down he-’ Peter choked back a laugh, ‘he broke the chair.’
Ethan’s face went red as I tightened my gut to prevent myself from laughing. Jay buried his head in my shoulder, and I could hear the muffled sniffles as he tried to contain himself. I took deep breaths.
‘He doesn’t even look that big, man,’ I said with a few pauses.
‘I know!’ Peter said, genuinely choking with laughter. ‘That’s why it’s so-’
He was interrupted by an alarm. That didn’t stop us. Maltor and Asbel were still howling with laughter, as Natasha, Jay, and I tried to contain ourselves. Quinn, Ethan, and Peter all looked around as the alarm continued to blare at a deafening volume.
‘Inside! All students inside!’ came a familiar voice.
Looking up, I saw Mr Fowler standing near the doors to the main building. He pulled a wand from his pocket and shot a red flare into the air. It exploded like a firework.
‘All students head back to your Form rooms!’ he shouted.
‘I-Is that smoke?’ Quinn murmured, pointing towards the far side of the building.
Although we couldn’t see the front of the building from the playground, we could certainly see the plume of dark grey smoke streaming into the sky.
‘What the-’ I began, but Asbel grabbed my arm and tugged me towards the door. Everyone else was right behind us. ‘What are you doing?’
He had realised something that I hadn’t. ‘If Amy wants you, who do you think this attack is for?’
I stopped so abruptly that Asbel couldn’t hold on. His hand separated from my arm.
‘Albert!’ Peter shouted. A throng of people ran past me. Dozens of shoulders barged into me, rocking me from side to side. The building was shaking horrifically, as though we were experiencing an earthquake.
This attack was for me. This was my fault. This whole thing was because of me. If anyone were to die or be injured in this attack, who’s fault would that be? Who’s fault but my own? I felt my hands begin to tremble.
Peter finally reached me. He grabbed my tie and dragged me through the swarm of people. He was alarmingly strong. His body seemed to be alive, smoking almost. We managed to make our way through dozens of people. At some point, Asbel veered down another corridor, and Jay went into his Form room. Peter’s Form room was only two doors away from mine, Ethan’s, and Natasha’s, and Maltor followed us, even though he was in the same Form as Jay.
‘Get to your Form!’ I begged him. ‘Get yourself to safety!’
‘I’m making sure you get there first, idiot!’ he shouted back.
We were almost there, I promise. We were just three doors away from my Form when it happened, I swear. We couldn’t have done anything to stop it.
A window on our right smashed. Something that looked like a whirling cloud of black smoke came in at tremendous speeds, darting around, and it seemed to slow in front of me and my friends, but that could have been my imagination. Regardless of whether I imagined it or not, that’s when it happened.
A jet of orange flew from the cloud at a horrific speed. I watched it happen as time itself seemed to slow. The orange jet, presumably a spell, flew through the air and struck Maltor’s side.
My throat closed and my heart seemed to stop. I screamed his name.
His body bent at an awkward angle as the spell expanded into a flaming storm, like a bomb. Peter and I were hurled back from the force, and I lost Natasha and Ethan in the flames. Maltor’s body was absorbed in an expanding red mass. My entire body heated up, and immeasurable amounts of pain rocketed through my veins. I couldn’t breathe.
I could feel Peter’s hand pressing hard into my arm, and I grabbed his wrist so there was no chance of us separating. The two of us hit the ground, hard. Pain rushed through my wings and I winced so hard my face hurt. It was either the wincing or the burning.
I shook my arm free from Peter’s grasp and shakily stood up. Most of the main building was gone. I stood in a burning landscape, and piles of rubble sat in erratic positions all around me. Numerous fires danced upwards into the air, making the sky grey with smoke and ash.
Peter groaned and stood up next to me, using me as support. His uniform was either charred or tainted with blood. I looked at his face and saw that blood coated the left side so much that he had to close his eye.
‘What was that?’ he said weakly. ‘I can’t feel my body.’
‘You’ll be fine,’ I said, taking off my blazer. If I had to fly, I’d fly.
Up ahead, I saw a crumpled heap. Its blackness was a stark contrast to the flames surrounding it. I ran forwards towards it, but Peter tugged at my arm.
‘Are you stupid?’ he shrieked. ‘You’re not making it over that rubble and through those fires alive!’
‘Oh, I am,’ I said sternly. ‘Are you coming?’
Before even giving him a chance to respond, I darted forwards, tightening my gut. The flames responded. They parted like the Red Sea and Peter and I ran right through, straight up to the heap.
My heart stopped once more. Maltor’s face looked up at me and his eyes were lifeless. An entire chunk was missing out from his right side, and he was also lacking a piece of his bottom jaw.
His words were barely understandable. ‘The-the air…breathed fire…’
I kneeled next to him and grabbed his shoulders, watching blood ooze through my fingers. ‘You’re gonna live! You can heal yourself! No Goddamn chance you’re dying on me!’
All he did was blink. ‘Thi-This is the…day, huh? The…day I…die…for you…’
‘Like hell it is! You’re not dying here, not dying now!’
‘So, this is the boy that has been causing all of this trouble, huh?’ came a deep voice from above me.
‘Wh-’
I didn’t even have a chance to finish the first word. My body was tossed into the air by an invisible force and flung backwards. I heard Peter yell my name as I hit the ground for the second time that day, but I didn’t care. I stood up and ran. I ran straight towards Maltor.
I saw who it was that had flung me backwards, the man that had done this. He was tall, at least six foot five, and he had long black hair that fell over his face and shoulders like silk. His eyes were an electric blue, and they watched me scornfully. He wore attire similar to Amy: a black cloak, shirt, and trousers.
He raised an eyebrow suddenly, as though intrigued by the fact that I had not fallen over. In fairness, I wasn’t too sure how I was still going. But I was a good fighter, an unnaturally good one. Whatever he threw at me, I was sure I could counter.
He raised his wand once more and aimed it directly at me. A stream of blue light came at me lightning fast. I put all of my weight into my legs and dived forwards into a roll. As I came up I unfolded my wings. The momentum combined with the feathers allowed me to gracefully soar upwards. I glided towards this man at speeds no less than fifty miles per hour, but it did not last long.
A sharp jab of pain erupted in my right wing and I collapsed onto the floor in front of Maltor. I slowly looked up at the man. He looked down at me with a sickening smile on his face, which I now noticed was decorated with a thin moustache.
‘I suppose I should introduce myself,’ he said, still smiling. He pointed his wand at me again, and my movements followed his arm. He slowly bought it up, and along with it came my weak body. He put me on my feet and lowered his wand. ‘Robert Hansen, and I already know who you are.’
I glared at him.
‘Y-You did this, didn’t you?’ I growled.
His smile grew. ‘I’ll let you figure that one out.’
Peter limped over and stood next to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder, and I could have sworn I heard the faint crackle of electricity running through his fingers.
Robert flicked his wand up, but I was just as fast. A jet of black came towards my face, and I bought my hand up to block it. Unfortunately, this cost me my left hand. I screamed in pain, trying to process the fact that my hand was gone. It hadn’t even fallen off, it had been vaporised. I was lucky it wasn’t my face.
I clutched my wrist and screamed to no end. Blood dripped onto the floor and I felt sick to my stomach. Pain rocketed throughout my entire body, and I felt like I would never recover from this. I shakily raised my head and glowered at Robert. He was still smiling.
He pointed his wand at me and the same black beam flew toward me. I ducked and ran for him. The spell soared over my shoulder as a look of horror replaced Robert’s sickening smile. A strange warmth grew over my right hand, and I raised it, ready to punch Robert. My fist flew forwards, striking Robert in the stomach, and I noticed that it seemed to be covered in flames.
Ignore it…a voice seemed to whisper in my head. Ignore the pain…Just keep fighting.
Robert leapt back, and another invisible force expanded from his wand and sent me spiralling backwards into Peter, knocking the two of us over. Peter had dragged Maltor’s limp body to a spot behind a pile of rubble whilst Robert had been tormenting me. I gave Peter a slight nod, my arm still oozing thick crimson blood.
Looking over at Maltor’s body again I noticed that he was steaming. That was good; it meant he was healing. I just prayed that he’d heal in time.
Robert tutted. ‘Now, now, boy, haven’t you learned to respect your elders?’
‘I’ll respect elders who don’t vaporise my hand,’ I gargled.
Robert snickered. ‘Thinking you can fight me, just who do you think you are? And with punches? You’ll soon learn.’
Steam rose from the end of my left arm, somewhat affecting my vision, but not enough to hinder my aim, should I intend to keep fighting.
‘Boy, you’re hand…it’s steaming,’ Robert spoke in disbelief. ‘Are you one of the Six?’
I dismissed his question. ‘One of the Six’? Was that what my power was? ‘One of the Six’?
Robert smirked even more. ‘It matters not, you’ll die all the same.’
Peter put his left foot in front of me, almost as though he was protecting me. I didn’t need his protection. I appreciated the sentiment, but I didn’t want to lose another friend.
‘I have no idea what the ‘Six’ are, but they’re clearly something important, something we can’t lose, right?’ he whispered.
‘I dunno what they are either, but don’t protect me, I don’t ne-’
Another orange jet flew, this time coming straight for Peter. All in one instant, the sky turned dark and thunder rumbled. The spell was getting closer. Right as it was supposed to hit Peter, lightning shot down from the sky, acting as a shield. Peter and I flew about three feet backwards, dazed.
‘What just happened?’ Peter murmured, standing weakly. ‘That all happened too quick.’
That’s when I noticed something floating above Peter’s head, a hologram-looking thing. I leapt back. Was this Peter’s Claiming? The one he’d been waiting for all this time? A look of shock also seemed to coat Robert’s face as he stared at us, seemingly further away than before. The lightning must have shot him back also.
‘What? Why are you both staring at me like that?’ Peter yelled, looking from me to Robert again and again.
I pointed at the translucent lightning bolt above Peter’s head. Peter looked up and his eyes widened.
‘I-I’ve been Claimed?’ he whispered so quietly, I don’t even think Robert could hear him.
But Robert didn’t even hesitate. A stream of green light erupted from the end of his wand, straight towards Peter. But then a huge slab of concrete flew in the way. Looking over at where it had come from, I saw someone running over, wand raised. Mr Fowler.
‘Boys! Get to safety!’ he screamed at us, but Peter and I didn’t move. Peter seemed to be frozen in disbelief and I wanted to see this.
Mr Fowler and Robert immediately went at each other. Streams of light erupted from both of their wands and their arms were moving faster than I could comprehend. Robert’s eyes were suddenly alive with rage, and Mr Fowler was definitely not holding back. Blue, red, green, yellow; just about every colour on the spectrum flew from their wands, and the spells clashed in the air and set off bangs like fireworks.
‘Ahh, Fowler!’ Robert yelled over the chorus of noise. ‘It’s been so long since we’ve fought like this! Feels like nothing’s changed!’
Mr Fowler remained silent. He didn’t seem to care about what Robert had to say, it just seemed like he was intent on killing. Pure flames seemed to fly from his wand, yet Robert extinguished them as though they were nothing.
My hand was almost done healing, but the process drained me. A stump of flesh now sat at the end of my arm, all I had to wait for was my fingers to return, and then I’d be back in the game.
But I didn’t have to wait for my fingers, right? The familiar feeling had re-entered my wings, so they were fixed, right? I put all of my weight into my legs again, and leapt into the air, spreading my powerful black wings once more. They seemed to be fine, but I was tired. Very, very tired. My muscles ached and I wasn’t sure how long I could stay up.
I knew Robert had noticed me, but a small child flying was nowhere near as large of a threat as Mr Fowler’s spells. I gently flew over to a pile of rubble and picked up one of the largest pieces I could find, it was almost bigger than my hand.
I beat my wings powerfully and soared over to the duel between Mr Fowler and Robert. A stray spell ricocheted, and I had to roll in the air to keep myself safe. I flew upwards until I was nearly fifteen feet in the air, and then I hurled the rock at Robert as hard as I could. It hit his right shoulder, hard. He yelped in pain and dived to his left. I had just put him in severe danger, injuring the shoulder of his wand hand, but I didn’t care.
I found another rock and glided over to a new position. Robert was cowering behind a pile of rubble, and Mr Fowler had found him. Waving his wand in an arc over his head, Mr Fowler raised the pile into the air. Chunks of concrete and brick flew wildly in the air in a circle about ten feet upwards from Mr Fowler. I zigzagged through a storm of building materials to the centre of the circle, directly above Mr Fowler.
‘Santrrer! What in the Gods’ names are you doing?’ he shouted.
‘Helping!’ I shouted back.
I darted back through the wall of rock and hovered above Robert.
‘Oh, come on!’ he screamed. ‘How is this fair?’
He swapped his wand hand, I had clearly ruined his right arm. He flicked his left arm, and a spell flew at me. It was weaker than his other spells, but it hit my stomach and pain soared through my body as I was tossed about two feet higher than I was beforehand.
Ignore it. I flung the rock downwards towards Robert’s head. He quickly rolled left, yelping at the strain this put on his right arm. But now he was right where Mr Fowler wanted him.
Mr Fowler pointed his wand straight at Robert, and the tornado of building supplies flew at Robert at horrifying speeds. I darted away upon realising that this put me in danger too.
Robert screamed angrily, waving his wand in an arc in front of him. A white translucent shield formed about two feet in front of Robert, but it immediately began to crack under the force of the rocks.
But then two figures charged at Robert from behind. One of them stabbed him in the small of the back with a particularly sharp piece of rubble. Robert screamed in pure anger, waving his right hand back angrily and striking the attacker in the jaw, sending him to the ground. This, however, caused Robert’s scream to become fuelled by pain.
Upon discovering that my left hand had now completely regenerated, I dived toward Robert, solely fixated on strangling him. But I had forgotten about the second figure, who chose that moment to strike.
The sky turned somehow even darker, and I heard the familiar rumble of thunder. The second figure was now lit up with electricity, and I discovered that it was Peter. Clearly, he had become accustomed to his newfound power.
Peter raised his right fist over his head and bought it down on Robert’s head with terrific power. Lightning flashed down from the sky, joining with Peter’s fist and Robert’s body became limp and spiralled wildly forwards, about five feet away from Mr Fowler.
I dived down towards Peter and the other person. I also noticed that a few students had gathered in a wide circle to watch this scene. Some were seemingly even searching for wands of their own. Robert was definitely not safe.
I landed next to Peter, who crumpled to his knees. ‘I’m not doing that again any time soon.’ he said weakly.
Looking down, I noticed who had stabbed him.
‘Ethan!’ I shrieked, grabbing his shoulders and sitting him upright. The left side of his face was stained with blood, and his hair was much darker, signalling that he was bleeding almost everywhere. ‘That was great!’
‘Thank the lightning,’ he said somehow both jokingly and faintly. ‘I wouldn’t have known where you were if it weren’t for that.’
‘Don’t forget you, though,’ Peter said, looking at me with his right eye. ‘Flying around throwing rocks like that, you’ve put in as much effort as Mr Fowler. And you punched him!’
I smirked. ‘It felt right.’
The three of us looked over to where Robert’s body had been tossed. We now saw him standing, his right arm bent at an odd angle. He and Mr Fowler were glaring at each other with such intensity, I felt the burn radiate all over my body.
Then it began. This time with more intensity than the last. Mr Fowler grunted and the spells flew. The noise was almost deafening.
‘Die, die, die!’ Robert screamed every time he shot a spell.
Mr Fowler was unfazed, he wasn’t even blinking. Their spells collided in the air, and Peter, Ethan, and I had to occasionally duck to avoid the strays. Fear soared through my veins. Mr Fowler may have been a bit rude, but I certainly didn’t want him to lose this fight.
Robert was now just screaming. A scream that was pure rage. A scream that was scaring even me. His left arm was moving wildly, so quickly that it was almost a blur. But he was disadvantaged. He was being forced to use his non-dominant hand.
Ethan rose and began to slowly limp towards Robert. He paused when he got to my blazer, crouching over it and beginning to search through its pockets. After a few seconds, he pulled out my knife. Its blade glistened due to the light coming from the numerous fires.
He resumed his limp and I beamed. I put Peter’s arm around my shoulder, and the two of us began to slowly follow Ethan. Once we got within ten feet of the duel, the entire atmosphere changed, it felt almost like we were trespassing. It felt like we were in danger.
Ethan was now a foot behind Robert, but he hesitated.
Peter shouted at the top of his lungs so that he could be heard over the bangs of the spells. ‘Give him Tartarus, Ethan!’
The knife drove into the back of Robert’s left shoulder. He screamed in pain, but now he was unable to defend himself. A red jet of light hit him square in the chest and he fell to his knees, seemingly defeated.
‘I’m not…dying…here…’ I could hear him faintly murmuring as Peter and I got closer. ‘Not…because of…you…Fowler…’
A crack reverberated through the air and Robert disappeared in a whirling flash of grey.
The clouds lightened suddenly. They went from a dark grey to a pure white. The sun faintly glistened through them, landing on Ethan like a spotlight. That’s when it happened. A translucent orb floated above Ethan’s head, and numerous students gasped. Ethan looked up, and his brow furrowed.
Mr Fowler walked over and bowed his head.
‘Thank you for your help, Ethan Brown, Son of Titan.’