After what Professor Stephens said I was expecting to be dragged before the Mate Mage next, but I guess they don’t have one of those on staff, or at least not readily avaible. Instead, Dean Summers walked behind me silently as a guard pulled me by the arm to the dean’s office. We march passed the assistant and into a room with floor to ceiling bookshelves on every wall.

  I looked around the room, while Dean Summers got settled behind his desk and gestured to the chair in front of his desk, indicating I needed to sit. Trying to avoid his eyes, I continued to look everywhere but at him. My eyes nding on the picture of a little girl turned just enough so I could see it. She was probably two from the looks of it, light blonde curls were pulled into a little ponytail on top of her head, (I think, through my darkened goggles it’s hard to tell, but I am used to wearing sungsses more often than not) hazel eyes sparkling. I heard a throat clear and I finally looked up to meet his matching green eyes.

  His lips turned into a ft line as his brow furrowed, he was broad and handsome in a deliciously untouchable way. His features were sharp and from the way his eyes cut at me he had a personality to match. “I suppose I shouldn’t expect any more respect than this for someone who has been on the run for at least four years.” I’m sure he was indicating the darkened goggles still perched on my face, I looked in his direction and then waved at him from my still cuffed hands behind my back. “Ah. Yes.” He said, walking over to me and bracing himself on his desk in front of me, before I could stop him, he whipped my goggles off and looked into my eyes. Goddamn it.

  Mom screamed and ran towards the door, covering it with her body, “Don’t do it, don’t take my baby from me!” This had happened before, but this time felt different. “I promise, I’ll be better. I’ll get better. You don’t have to do this Dalton!” My other dad stood in front of her, “Connie, it’s been years. You never stay on your meds. How are we supposed to continue like this?” He held up the hand I held so tight, “We’ve helped you with so many things, Connie, even things that weren’t necessarily OUR problem.” He shook my hand, me. I’m the problem.

  Mom started to cry even harder at that, “I tried, Dalton. You know how hard it’s been since Shay died…you guys have Camille, but she never took to me like she did to you... How am I supposed to handle that? You don’t know what it’s like!” She ran her hands through her hair and pulled hard before she started screaming, she grabbed a knife from the knife block, “You never understood! You never even tried!”

  I was pushed from Dean Summers head and my goggles were smmed back over my head. A migraine was already settling in, the flecks of light dancing in front of my eyes as I groaned and leaned over, retching, “I would have warned you if you’d given me a chance.” He stared at me in disgust. “As if that wasn’t the pn.” He sneered at me, his anger seeping from his pores. Yes, it was my pn to have a fucking awful migraine for the next twenty-four hours to make room for the memories that didn’t belong to me is what I wanted to say. But I said nothing as I writhed in my chair.

  “Look, you’ve evaded us for years but you’re here now. You’ll start in year one even though if you had started properly, you would be in year three or done. You’ll learn to use your gifts and powers, and you’ll pay for it afterwards by working for the republic for the four years post-graduation just like every other gifted that can’t afford to pay outright.” I snorted and saw that he was raising a brow at me, “You’re forcing me to go to a school I don’t want to go to and then forcing me to pay for it afterwards?” He stared at me for a few minutes before he hit me back with, “You just invaded my mind and if I’m to believe you it was completely against your will as well. It appears you need this training to live a functional life, Marie.” Couldn’t deny he had a point there, even if it did make me feel superior that he was using my never-used middle name to make it.

  Leaning against his desk, our knees were almost touching as he said, “Here is the deal, Miss Darcy. This academy owns you for the next two years. You will attend every css; you will not cause anyone any problems. You will learn to control yourself. You are obviously a little…feral. We will instruct that out of you. You will meet your essentials. With the power that radiates off you, I don’t need to tell you that at twenty-three it is imperative that we find them Make no mistake. And if two years isn’t enough, we can make you stay until you can control yourself and get you linked up with essentials surrogates, so you don’t go on an accidental rampage.” The corners of his mouth remained turned down as he finished, as if he couldn’t contain his disappointment in me.

  I sat back and took a deep breath in. People didn’t talk to me like a child when I was a child, I don’t think I’m going to handle it well if this condescension continues. Powering through the migraine that was trying to make my brain escape through my ears, I took a deep breath and leaned into the training I had used for my bckmail jobs.

  I tilted my head, “So…you’ll be instructing me, Professor?” My voice came out husky and breathy, just as I had meant it to. He tucked a stray hair behind my ear before leaning close enough to my ear that I could almost feel his lips against my skin, “Don’t try me, Miss Darcy. You not only will not win, but you will get the instruction of a lifetime.” I clenched my thighs together as that pn had massively backfired.

  I was dragged out to the dorms by the same guards, before they could shove me in what I assumed was my new room I dug my heels in. “Do you pn to leave me hand cuffed for the rest of my attendance or….?” The guard rolled his eyes but unlocked my cuffs before shoving me through the door, almost causing me to fall in the floor.

  My migraine and previous sleep deprivation days meant I was weaker than usual as I nded hard on my knees in the room. I looked up and saw two pairs of eyes staring back at me. A small girl ran over to me, “Oh my gosh, are you ok?” I waved her away and stood up. “I guess you’re ok, I’m Isadora, call me Dory.” She had a huge smile on her face; it made me want to vomit. How was I supposed to live in a room with two other people? I couldn’t think about that right now as I stumbled towards the clearly unoccupied bed across the room from the bunk beds the two others had been in when I had come in the room. “I’m Jesse!” I heard from the bottom bunk as I slid into the twin bed, before I shoved my hand down my pants to help with my migraine, my weakness, my aches, I was able to get out, “I’m Marie. You guys might want to leave the room for a few hours, in fact, you might want to go ask someone if I can be transferred out of this room.” I turned towards the wall to try to block the worst of it but I heard the door open and shut not long afterwards.