Chapter Text
Quinn
It looked like she was getting detention. Look. She had a valid reason. Stina was insulting Dex and Sophie behind their backs in the locker room. All she did was stand up for them. And maybe call Stina a giraffe. Among other things.
Okay so Quinn punched her in the nose.
At least it was only lunch detention. And at least Sophie had it too. She’d apparently read Lady Galvin’s mind to get the midterm.
Quinn had been shocked. Sophie never seemed the type to cheat. And that’s in the 5 years that Quinn had known her.
She was also shocked that Sophie wasn’t giving her the midterm.
“Where are you two going?” Dex asked as her and Sophie tried to sneak away. So much for their plan of slipping away unnoticed.
Sophie stared at her feet. Quinn cleared her throat. “We can’t sit with you guys today. We have detention.”
“Detention?” they all repeated, loud enough to turn a few heads.
“How long do you have it for?” Dex asked.
“Till the end of midterms,” Sophie mumbled.
“The end of midterms!”
Jensi whistled. “Dude. What’d you do?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She gave a small smile and bolted before they could ask more questions, leaving Quinn alone.
“How about you?” Marella asked her.
“Uhh called Stina a few names.” Quinn said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “I got it for about two weeks because I may or may not have punched her in the nose.”
Dex let out a cheer. “Excellent.”
The detention hall was in the glass pyramid, one floor beneath Dame Alina’s office. The ceiling was low and the windows blocked more light than they let in, giving the room a gloomy atmosphere.
Quinn and Sophie tried to sneak in without being seen by the twenty or so other kids, but Sir Conley recognized her from their elementalism sessions. “Welcome, Miss Parker, Miss Foster.” he announced, and every head turned her way.
He brushed a hand across his long dark hair and waved toward the rows of uncomfortable desks. “Take a seat and settle in. I have quite a treat for everyone today.”
She ignored the stares as she sank into the first empty chair. She caught Keefe’s eye from a desk in the corner. He grinned and gave her a thumbs-up. She rolled her eyes.
“Ready for more siren songs?” Sir Conley asked.
Everyone groaned. “You have no appreciation for art or nature,” he grumbled, clapping his hands.
An earsplittingly shrill whine—part whale song, part nails on a chalkboard, with just the right amount of screaming toddler—reverberated through the room.
“Uncover those ears—I am broadening your horizons, and you will listen to every note!” Everyone glared at him as they lowered their hands.
“What are you in for?” Keefe asked with a crooked smile. Somehow he’d slipped into the empty desk behind her and Sophie.
“None of your business,” Sophie whispered.
He laughed. “You keep claiming you’re not mysterious, but who are you kidding?”
Sophie sighed. “What are you doing here?”
“Remember the reekrod someone put in Dame Alina’s office a few months ago?”
“That was you?” Quinn cut in.
“Of course. Took her long enough to trace it back to me.” He laughed, not even a little repentant. “Will you at least tell me how long I’ll get to enjoy your company here?”
Quinn watched out of the corner of her eye as Sophie bit her lip. “Till the beginning of midterms.”
“Sounds like Miss Foster did something very bad. In the future you should leave the mischief making to me. What about you Quinn?”
“I didn’t do much, but Vika Heks hates me so…” Quinn cringed as a shrill whine rang through the air. “Is it always this loud?”
“Oh, no. That’s just Sir Conley. Tomorrow it’s Lady Belva.”
“What’s her brand of torture?”
“You’ll see.”
“Oh goody.”
Ballroom dancing—that was Lady Belva’s idea of punishment. Given the choice, Quinn would have taken the screeching sirens any day.
The desks were shoved aside so the dances could be done in a line, like at old Edwardian balls. Keefe tried to grab Sophie as his partner, but Lady Belva claimed him for herself, paired Sophie with a Valin, one of Jensi’s greasy, ponytailed friends, and paired Quinn with a blonde named Daxton.
His palms were cold and sticky and it took everything in her not to vomit right then and there on the floor.
Keefe snickered every time it was her turn to promenade through the other dancers on Daxton’s sweaty arm.
Sophie got it worse though.
Keefe was having a field day with the fact that Valin had a semi-permanent blob of spit on his lower lip.
She’d never been so happy to hear the bells chime at the end of lunch. Sophie and her were speed walking their way to ‘remedial studies’ as quickly as possible.
“I hope you know Valin is in love with you now, Sophie.” Keefe teased when he caught up with her in the hall.
“And you would know that because . . . ?” Sophie huffed.
“Please. You could see the stars in his eyes all the way across the room.”
Sophie and Quinn burst into laughter.
“You’re terrible.” Sophie replied after a moment.
“I know.” He grinned wickedly. “But I’m serious. I bumped his arm on my way out the door, and he was crushing hard. The Sophie Foster Fan Club has a sweaty new member.”
Quinn opened her mouth to agree when she caught what he’d said.
“Wait—are you an Empath?” Quinn could feel the teasing undertone in his feelings, but layered on top of that was curiosity. Too bad she couldn’t tell him that she was an Empath too.
He winked, reaching for her hand. “Want me to tell you what you’re feeling?”
She jerked away. “Thanks, I’ll pass.”
“Too bad I can read what you’re feeling even without physical contact. Sophie too.” His voice shifted up a few octaves as he fanned the air. “I hope Keefe’s right about Valin liking me. He is so cute.”
“Will you keep your voice down?” Sophie hissed, glancing around to make sure no one was within earshot. Keefe laughed. He fanned the air again.
“Hmm. Now I can tell you’re embarrassed. And a tiny bit irritated.”
“You’re wrong. I’m just irritated.”
“Nah. You’re flattered.” He scooted away before she could shove him. The three of them walked in silence for a few minutes.
“Could you really feel that she was irritated or were you guessing?” Sophie asked after a moment.
“You look worried—you wouldn’t have something to hide, would you? A secret crush, maybe?”
She glared at him. “Yeah right.”
Quinn cracked up.
“It’s almost too easy to annoy you, you know that?” Keefe winked.
Sophie sighed.
“Oh, all right. If you must know, yes, your emotions are a little stronger than others, but so are Miss Quinn’s. I can’t really understand what they are, but I can feel them—and no, I don’t know why, in case you’re going to ask. Scored me major points with my Empathy Mentor when I told him, though.”
Neither of the two of them were quite sure what to say to that, so they walked in silence until the hallway forked and they went left at the same time Keefe turned right. “See you tomorrow in detention,” he said with a smirk. “It’s Lady Galvin. Hope you’re good at ironing. It probably wouldn’t be good to burn more holes in her capes.”
He was gone before she could ask him if he was joking.
Keefe was not joking.
Lady Galvin brought an enormous stack of capes for the detained prodigies to iron and hang as their punishment.
Quinn and Sophie were forced to sit in the back corner, with Keefe winking at them, and Valin staring unashamedly.
Quinn wasn’t sure which was worse.
She spent most of the time glaring at the level on her nexus, which still hadn’t increased, despite practicing leaps with Tiergan.
Quinn smiled at the thought of her new family, but then Keefe winked at her again.
Tiergan kept telling her to give her brain time to get used to it—she was learning an entirely different way of making her mind work—but it was still annoying.
Someone cleared his throat.
Quinn locked eyes with Keefe. She turned away when he raised one eyebrow. It was a coincidence, she told herself. There was no way he could feel what she was feeling from all the way across the room. No Empaths were that powerful. Not even her.
Still, she kept her mind on mundane things until the bells chimed.
“Oh, Miss Foster,” Lady Galvin called when she was halfway out the door. “How’s your studying going?”
Quinn took off to wait outside the door. The last thing she wanted was to purposely talk to her evil alchemy mentor.
Sophie ran into Quinn after her conversation with Lady Galvin. She was incredulous.
“Uh.. Soph what happened?” Quinn asked. Sophie was practically shaking.
“N-Nothing.” Sophie said. Quinn raised an eyebrow. She knew her best friend too well. Also, as an Empath, Quinn could tell Sophie was definitely lying.
“Mhm, sureee.” Quinn teased.
“Really. Quinn. It’s nothing.” Sophie said firmly.
“If you insist.”
They walked in silence to their lockers.
“How was detention?” Dex asked them when they met up.
“Good.” Quinn said, still trying to figure out why Sophie was so…weirded out.
“Hey, Dex?” Sophie asked suddenly.
“Yeah?”
“Do you think you can help me practice iron purification this weekend?”
