GABRIEL GRABBED FORT AND PROPPED him up as the room chose that moment to start spinning. “Whoa, are you okay, kid?” his roommate asked, looking worried.
“I’m fine,” Fort said, his teeth beginning to chatter as it felt like the temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees. “Must have… eaten something bad.”
Gabriel narrowed his eyes. “I’m going to get help. You look like you’re about to pass out.” He put Fort’s arm over his shoulder and slowly led him to the theater stage, helping him sit down.
“Fitzgerald, are you kidding me?” Dr. Ambrose said, looking up as she packed her papers. “Did you already give yourself a disease? Class barely started!”
“It was that one,” Gabriel said, pointing at Sebastian, who waved back at them with a smile. “He did it.”
“Oh,” Dr. Ambrose said, then shrugged. “Sounds like it’s part of the lesson, then. Carry on.”
“You can’t just leave him like this!” Gabriel said. “Is there something I can do to help him?”
“Have you mastered Heal Minor Wounds yet?” Dr. Ambrose asked.
“I’ve got literally no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then no, you’re useless for now,” she said. “You won’t learn Cure Disease until your second spell. Sounds like you need an older student.”
“Jia,” Fort croaked, his mouth weirdly dry as all the moisture in his body sweated out his skin. “She’ll help. She… did last time.”
“Forget that,” Gabriel said, and helped Fort lie back on the stage, then turned away. As Fort stared in wonder at how the ceiling was breathing in and out, he heard shouting a little ways away. Dr. Ambrose said something, then someone yelped in pain, and Fort began to wonder if this was all the ceiling’s fault.
And then Sebastian appeared above him, looking even more annoyed than before, if that was possible. “You’re so lucky he’s got special treatment,” he whispered to Fort as he laid a glowing hand on his forehead, then pulled it away, disgusted. “Ugh, you’re so sweaty!”
Instantly his fever disappeared, and Fort sat up with a clear head, though Sebastian was right, he was covered in sweat. He found Gabriel standing behind Sebastian with a firm grip on Sebastian’s arm, in what looked like an uncomfortable position behind his back. “You fixed him?” Gabriel asked.
“Do you know who my mother is?” Sebastian said, looking over his shoulder. “She runs this place, and— OW!”
“I do know her, actually,” Gabriel said, so quietly that Fort almost couldn’t hear. “I also know she wasn’t going to let you come back here, not after the attack at the last school. That when she finally gave in, she told you that if there’s even the slightest hint of trouble, she’s going to yank you back home quicker than you can say ‘please stop hurting me.’ So I’m guessing this is the last I’ll be hearing about this. Am I right?”
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “You’re still lucky that you’re— OW FINE OKAY, you’re right!”
Gabriel released Sebastian’s arm, then patted him on the shoulder. “Glad we understand each other,” he said to the other boy.
“Who are you?” Fort asked, staring at Gabriel in astonishment as Sebastian began yelling at the rest of the class for staring. “How did you know that about Sebastian and his mom?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Gabriel said. “Now what are you supposed to be teaching me?”
“No, I’m going to worry about it,” Fort told him. “Why am I tutoring you? Why did Colonel Charles put me in a room with you? I’m only at this school because someone tried something like this before, and it didn’t lead anywhere good.”
Gabriel stared at him blankly for a moment. “I assume it’s a trick for learning healing magic, right?” he said, completely ignoring Fort. “From what I hear, it takes about a week to master each one, so if you can help me get done here faster so I can find a way out of all of this, that’d be great.”
Fort glared at him. “I just told you something personal at breakfast. You’re really going to hold out on me?”
Gabriel shrugged. “Guess I’m better at keeping secrets.”
Fort almost laughed. Was he serious? The whole stealing-a-book-of-magic thing had distracted him at first, but now that he’d be here for at least another week, the mystery of Gabriel was suddenly becoming a lot more important.
If Colonel Charles wanted Gabriel to become another savior like Damian, learning each kind of magic, that was going to be a problem, considering the book of Mind magic was now ashes.
But no, Gabriel wasn’t born on Discovery Day. That meant he wouldn’t be as talented at magic as those kids were. So what set him apart? Sure, he’d just intimidated Sebastian, which was amazing, but knowing how to pin an arm behind someone’s back didn’t really suggest magical savior.
Whatever was happening, clearly Gabriel wouldn’t be sharing. Fine, let him be secretive. That’d just give Fort more time to master teleportation, move on to the next Summoning spell, hopefully open a portal, and finally rescue his father.
“Okay,” he said to Gabriel. “I’ll teach you some of the tricks that I was taught, quicker ways to learn healing magic. But I don’t like not knowing what’s going on.”
“Like anyone does,” Gabriel said with a snort. “Let’s get moving. What’s the first trick?”
As Sebastian began lecturing the other students on proper use of the book of Healing, rubbing his shoulder, Fort found a pack of needles up on Dr. Ambrose’s desk. He grabbed two and brought Gabriel over to the book, which was sitting on the podium, open to the first spell, Heal Minor Wounds.
Like Jia had shown him back at the old school, Fort walked Gabriel through sticking the needle into his finger just enough to draw a drop of blood, then cast the spell to heal it, repeating until he’d mastered the spell.
“That’s it? That’s the trick?” Gabriel didn’t seem too impressed, but he did as he was told and was quickly running through the spell at the same rate Fort was.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last long, as Sebastian finished his lecture and the other students began lining up at the book for their turn. That was the problem with just having one book of magic.
“This is going to take forever this way,” Gabriel told him as they moved to the back of the line for another shot at learning Heal Minor Wounds. “Are you sure we can’t write the words down and take them with us or something?”
“Doesn’t work, they’ve tried it,” Fort said. “But Colonel Charles said you could use the book after class, so we can try then. They’re really strict about who can get access to it—”
“Oh, Gabriel has permission,” Dr. Ambrose said from the side of the stage. “Golden boy here has permission to do almost anything he wants, as long as he’s studying. Lucky, huh?” She gave Gabriel a cold look. “I’d tell Colonel Charles about you assaulting my assistant, but I have a feeling he’d take your side.”
Gabriel just shrugged at her. “If we can’t get access to the book now, it doesn’t make sense to wait around here. Let’s just come back when it’s not being used.”
Without waiting to see if Fort agreed, Gabriel turned and walked out of the room.
“Ugh, you kids,” Dr. Ambrose told him, and for once she seemed annoyed at someone other than Fort. “Be careful around that one, Fitzgerald. There’s a lot you don’t know about him.” She gave Fort a quick look. “Remember how you were when you first got to the school? He’s even worse. And look what damage you caused.”