”I said, what are y-!” Brandon asked.

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” Reina roared, slamming her fist into the table. It crumbled to bits and Brandon wisely kept his mouth close. Good, so the idiot jerk could listen, he only needed commands.

And if commands wouldn’t work, there were always more aggressive methods. Aware of the fact everybody was watching her now, Reina reined in a bit of her rage. It wouldn’t do to unleash everything she had in a classroom full of innocent people.

Mosley innocent people. She’d spotted Brandon’s lackeys and buddies having a chummy good time harassing other students. She was going to talk with them too, it seems.

“You know this?” She held up the vail to his face until he became cross-eyed trying to look at it. “This thing will blow the flesh right off your bones if I shake it hard enough. Do you want that to happen?” Reina asked in a sickly sweet voice.

Brandon blanched. “No, of course not! Why do you have that!? You must have made a mist-“

Reina slammed her foot down onto Brandon and he howled in agony. Tossing his head back, he scrambled for his leg, attempting to pry it out. Reina scoffed. Good luck, like she was going to let him go without her letting loose a little bit. She bent down and grabbed his collar, pulling him back up to her eye level.

“The reason this thing is so volatile is that it’s not complete. If you look around, you’ll find most of the others are done. Do you want to know why? I’ll give you a guess.” Reina offered.

Brandon sneered or at least tried to. It simply made him appear even more hideous than usual and that was saying something. Oh, he wasn’t bad on the eyes but his personality sucked.

“Look, I don’t have to explain myself to you!” Brandon shouted.

Reina shrugged. “You don’t. But by the same logic, it shouldn’t matter to me if I desire to toss you out of that open window. We’re three floors up, aren’t we? I’m sure you can handle it, right Brandon?”

“You crazy girl!” Brandon growled, yanking at her hand. Reina rolled her eyes.

“Yes, yes, I’m crazy. We all know that. But it’s really pitiful watching you try so hard to escape. Let me tell you, you won’t. You can’t escape. We have two choices. One, you work with me and get this done. Two, I haul your ungrateful butt out the window and watch you scream your way down. And if you use your Art, I will toss this desk onto you as well.”

Brandon’s eyes darted to the mess on the floor which had once been our desk. He let out a wary chuckle. “I don’t think I have to worry about that.”

Reina’s smile grew larger. “I wasn’t talking about our desk. I was talking about his.” She nodded toward the impressive mahogany piece of work Sir Neptune was working on. It was larger than two of the student’s desks combined and Reina would be really sad to see it go. However, justice required heavy sacrifices from both sides.

“I don’t have all day!” Reina yelled. “Give me an answer or it’s bye-bye time!”

Brandon did one last pathetic attempt at wriggling his way free before going slack. “All right, you won. I’ll help you do the work.”

“Actually, I changed my mind. You do the rest.”

“What?!” Brandon glared at her.

“It’s practically already done, you’re only going to be adding the finishing touches. Do be careful though, I heard this is the part where it’s most likely to go boom.”

It was funny but Reina had never taken the time to marvel at a person’s ability to change colors so many times. Here she was thinking Brandon couldn’t get any paler and yet he did! Guess he wasn’t a total failure after all.

“Okay, okay! Now let me go!” Brandon snapped. Reina sooo wanted to carry him to the nearest bathroom and dunk his head into the toilet water but that was probably a step too far.

“Fine, no need to get your underwater in a twist.” Reina dropped Brandon like he was a sack of rocks and the moment his feet touched the ground, he punched.

Reina casually bent her head to touch her left shoulder, dodging the strike. Then because her neck actually hurt a bit, she cracked it to the right side as well. Brandon pulled back his arm for another strike but Reina was faster. Her hit landed on his nose and he stumbled backward, catching himself on another partner’s desk.

“Nothing to see here, folks!” Reina gave them her most charming smile but none of them seemed any less on guard. Guess her first impression shouldn’t have been humiliating Brandon but come on! This guy was a bully!

Ignoring her friend’s disbelieving stares and Angel’s curious one, Reina hauled Brandon to his feet. He seemed a bit out of it, mumbling a lot and his eyes weren’t focusing but who cared? She shoved him onto the floor and slid the instructions over to him. “Follow it.”

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He blabbered and Reina smacked her forehead. “Dude, I didn’t even hit you that hard! You’re just exaggerating!”

Eventually, Brandon regained his thoughts and after a glare from Reina, hopped to work. When some time had passed and Reina was sure he wouldn’t do anything stupid, Reina directed her focus on the class.

She’d gotten too distracted, vulnerable. How could she not discern it before? There was an ominous stench in the air and it smelled of death. Did that mean somebody was dead? Was somebody going to die in the near future? Dang it, she didn’t have precognition. She was only skilled in reading the aura so if she wanted to find the answers to her questions, she would need to go out and search for them herself.

She would love to bring her friends along; maybe understand each other a little better, and explain a few things, but how could she? She’d never talked about this to anybody, everybody who knew had learned of this by watching. And for Avery, Reina had never felt the urge to tell her because it wasn’t going to happen.

Reina groaned. Another thing this stupid Academy did. Why had she come here again? Sis had encouraged her to take up the chance to reunite with her old life and begrudgingly, Reina had accepted. She regretted it so much now.

Reina glowered at Sir Neptune. He’d been there. Watching, like all the others. Wasn’t it a teacher's job to instruct and help their students? How many times had he cracked a joke for her sake? Did he even care anymore?

All good questions but none Reina had an answer to. It seemed like that was happening a lot these days. She had so many questions they were practically bursting out of her but lacked any definite answer. Just like the night long ago. . .

Reina bit her lips in concentration. If there was an aura of death in the Academy, that meant there was danger here. Could it be him? Was he here?

Reina’s nails dug into her palm, creating a sharp indent. If he was here, she swore she would not let him go! She wouldn’t turn him over to the authorities or even worse, the so-called heroes who had too much ego. He would have broken out within weeks. And there was no way she would request aid from them.

That only left one option and it was one Reina didn't find herself minding all too much. After all, what was the life of a bastard murderer to the daughter of murdered parents?

Absolutely nothing.

The smell of smoke reached her and Reina pursed her lips. Taking a deep intake, Reina confirmed it. It was smoke.

And it was coming from her vail. Groaning, Reina shoved Brandon away. “What did you do?” she asked. People who had never really gotten back to work were now staring at them again. Freaking wonderful.

“I may have messed up a few things,” Brandon stated with his head held up. It would have been more impressive if his nose wasn’t crooked and he had a thin trail of blood running down his face.

“Fix it,” Reina ordered. Wasn’t it obvious?

“I’m not going anywhere near that thing!” he exclaimed, jabbing at the tonic. Reina looked and instinctively took a step back. Yep, she could definitely see why Brandon didn’t want to get close.

The glass was cracking and a deadly-looking foam was rising. At the rate it’s going, it would leave the vail in seconds. That wasn’t to mention the bubbles going haywire, indicating this whole thing was about to blow fairly quickly.

“You have one job. One!” Reina snarled. Brandon was already gone, hurrying over to Sir Neptune.

“Please, Sir! You need to help us! Something went wrong with the juice and it’s going to explode!” Brandon yelled.

Sir Neptune stood up and followed Brandon, though it appeared more like Brandon was following him. “This seems important. Ah, Reina, fancy meeting you here.”

“Stuff it. As much as I hate to admit it, you are the better one at this. Do your stuff and leave. I don’t want to be around you.” Reina grumped.

The twinkle in his eyes seemed to have dimmed a little as he got to work but Reina neglected it. If he felt guilty, then good. He should feel guilty. They all should.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Reina caught the flash of orange hair. She turned and for a split second, she saw an achingly beautiful face. Before it could register, she was gone.

Reina blinked. She’d vanished. Not invisible but simply vanished. One didn’t vanish from Reina unless they were exceptionally skilled. Her interest in this mystery figure grew. It didn’t hurt that she was gorgeous, from what little Reina could see.

“There you go! Nice and tight, this should be fine. Remember not to open it or else there’s going to be a very high chance of an explosion but who cares about that? I think you get an A+!” Sir Neptune clapped and very gingerly, the rest of the class followed his lead.

Brandon merely looked relieved the entire ordeal was over while Reina was still mulling over things. The death aura. The killer. The victim. The girl.

The swirling typhoon of thoughts may contribute to the reason why Reina didn’t see what was coming. The pressure in the bottle grew and grew until it was too much for the stopper, which flew out like a rocket and embedded itself into the roof.

It zipped by so fast that almost nobody noticed it before Angel said, “I think you need to check again, Sir Neptune.”

“Hm?” Sir Neptune turned around and yelped. “My oh my, this is a serious problem! This room isn’t very flammable, you know!”

Reina reacted quickly, kicking the smoking veil over to the front of the room. Everybody got done underneath their desks right as Reina and Brandon’s science project blew up.

The wave of heat, Reina enjoyed with relish. It was the force and the debris which resulted from the explosion she hated. As she stared deep into the midst of the fire, she could spot many different colors, all combing together. A rainbow flame? Whatever it was, it was beautiful. Reina stood up almost without thinking and let the fire wash over her. For a brief moment, she wasn’t afraid. Afraid that a rogue chunk of plaster was going to knock her out, or about the death looming around the place.

For one glorious second, Reina was brought back to the first time she called upon flames, and how she felt safe. Warm. Comforted by touch, knowing the flame understood her in every way, a unique intimacy, and still, it would never waver or doubt her.

Then the flames died down and Reina was pulled back down to harsh, horrible reality. The classroom was in disarray, with a hole where the front had been. The roof creaked, threatening us it could fall at any moment. And of course, the mahogany desk was turned to ash.

Sir Neptune raised to his feet; face black, covered with soot, hair an absolute mess, and clothes a tattered mess. “Well, as illuminating as that was, I think the only course of action we can take is to give both of you a detention.”

Fudge.