I try not to let my stunned expression last too long. “Thanks, again.” I grab the pencil. “Sharpened, too. Nice touch.”
Suddenly, I catch a glimpse of something bright out of the corner of my eye and I look up just in time to see a massive fireball flying toward me.
Screaming, I slide out of the chair so quickly, I land on the ground, knocking the whole chair and desk over with me. They land on top of me, pinning me to the ground.
Hot guy reaches up and catches the fire ball. In a matter of seconds, it’s nothing but steam in his large hand.
The class is laughing again. At me, again.
Aching and bruised, I manage to dig myself out from under the furniture. It makes awful scraping and clunking noises as I right it and get it set back up. The laughter dissolves into awkward silence and I look up at the teacher.
“Ms. Love, that was a warning,” she says. “Talk during my class again and I’ll be forced to silence you, permanently. And I do not want to do that. If you die today, Mr. Hawthorne wins and I do not want that pandering asshat to winagain.”
I sit down in my desk quickly. “Yes, sorry, it won’t happen again.” I want to tell her it wasn’t my fault. It was the dude in front of me talking. But at least now I knew why they both fell into line when she started class. They could have warned me.
I don’t dare risk a glance at either of them for the rest of the class. Professor Lee is explaining the contraption she built on the desk and all of her words are flying right over my head.
“Once you’ve added the ingredients and set up the drip system, the potion will continue to work through,” Professor Lee says.
I’m watching and I’m listening but she never even said what kind of potion she was making. With each passing second, worry grows. My stomach is in knots. If I want a chance at getting out of here, I have to learn this. But from this lesson, I can tell I’m already way behind.
“There it is!” She exclaims as she lifts up a tiny vial of blue liquid. “Now, who wants to test it?”
Nobody raises a hand.
“Remember, the potion won’t work without the correct spell so whoever takes it must say the words correctly,” she says. “Or all that time was wasted.”
“Give it to the new girl,” someone says.
My eyes widen and I look up at Professor Lee. She catches my eye and grins. My palms are damp and I silently curse myself for not following Sadie’s advice.Never make eye contact.
Professor Lee walks toward me and then stops in front of my desk. “Ms. Love?”
I lift my hand. “Oh, no thank you.”
“Don’t you know that it’s rude to decline something offered by a faerie?” she says.
“A what?” I am not up on the latest slang apparently. Or maybe she means a literal faerie. Because there are demons and angels and other creatures. Why not, right?
“Go on,” she says, holding the vial in front of me. “I already told you I have no interest in seeing you die today.”
The room is so silent I can hear my own heart beating in my chest. It’s as if everyone is holding their breath.
“Decline and you’ll fail my class,” she says.
Shit.I know that’s the one thing I don’t want to do. “What will it do?”
“It depends,” she says. “Go on.”
Shit.Feeling like I don’t have a choice, I take the vial. “Just drink it?”
She nods.
I take a deep breath and look at the blue liquid. It’s less than you’d have in a shot glass and it’s the same color as the blue slushy they sell at the gas station by my apartment. But this isn’t anywhere near my apartment. My old home is likely a crime scene that I’ll never see again even if I do get out of here.
With that pleasant thought dragging me under, I throw back the vial.
At first, nothing happens. Then it’s like the whole room is swaying. Or maybe I’m swaying. And maybe I’m floating? But I can still feel the chair under me.