🎧 Favorite by Isabel LaRosa
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The instant I regained my consciousness, my entire body ached, and as my fuzzy memories of what happened came back, I mentally cursed my lack of control. I shouldn't have lost it like that, it doesn't matter how long I stayed with the anti-magic shackles or how angry my magic was, it doesn't explain how I lost control so magnificently pathetically like that. Something else must have happened to me.
And when I tried to open my eyes, and the light hit me, I cried, "It hurts, turn it off, turn it off."
"Are you a night-breed?" A soft female voice asked me.
"Yes," I groaned, feeling my head hurting just for thinking.
There was a click and then she said, "You can open it now."
I listened to her and opened my eyes again, my sight feeling way more comfortable now that only the night-light was on. "Thank you."
"Can you see me clearly, Davina?" The woman asked.
"Yes," I breathed, feeling thirsty. "Do you have some water?"
Nodding, she grabbed a straw black bottle that was close to her and handed me, "You will need to drink a lot of water, you're dehydrated."
I only spoke after I refreshed myself with the cold liquid that's I've been craving for a long time, "Gods, I missed cold water like this," I cried, feeling my eyes teary, "it's been almost 10 years since I last had it. None of the orphanages in here have water, and the one they have isn't this clean, or this natural for our body." Finishing all the water in the huge 3 litter bottle, I took a deep breath and turned to her, "I imagine I would need water."
She took the bottle from my hands softly and put them aside, "Not just water, you will need to follow a severe diet to get your body to the right weight, you're underweight, undergrown, and undernourished. It's a lot."
"I'm an orphan," I rolled my shoulders.
"No, Davina," she said more seriously, "that's not normal, none of the orphans we ever took in here were ever in a situation like yours. Your body should have been shattered to pieces with that magnificent frightening explosion of power of yours back in the coliseum. We don't know how you are even still standing, this may not be able to kill a fae, but it's enough to put you very close from dying. Still, you're here."
"Ah, so, there's something wrong with me?" I feigned confusion.
"That's an understatement, child," she chuckled anxiously.
"Oh, speaking of the Choosing, did I pass?"
Her jaw dropped, "Is that what you're worried about?"
"Yes? It was my only chance to get in here, I need to be in here."
She gasped, "You're not worried about the mess you made?"
"Wasn't the school build to withstand all of our power? I don't see why I should be worried about any mess. I'm sure the fund of the Academy is deep and full of gold, so it won't be a problem to rebuild anything if I did break any structure. I mean, I didn't kill any innocents, did I?" I hope not.
"Thanks to that walking menace who contained you until Dove was done teleporting everyone out of the coliseum, no, nobody died," she said.
I blinked, "It wasn't a feverous dream?"
"Oh, no, sweetheart, it was not a feverous dream, it was very real. You lost control and you turned the coliseum to dust, nothing left but a big cloud of dusty particles of it. And you would have hurt yourself in the fall, had the walking menace not caught you on time, again," she added the last word with sarcasm.
It took me a second, "By walking menace you means the arrogant,"
"The arrogant and disrespectful bastard who is dangerously pretty and has an intimidating air, and who listens to no one but himself? Yes, that would be him, the one you mocked back then, the one who caught you when you jumped off that beast to catch your friend. The one and only."
Fuck, "He saved me again?" I groaned.
"I'm as shocked as you," she mocked. "Yes, he did."
"What a nightmare, I don't want to owe that bastard anything," as I looked around, I finally realized I was in a med wing, a magical healing bubble surrounding me, and there was only me and her in here. Groaning in pain as I moved and I felt an acute pinch in my heart, I turned to her, "That was disrespectful of me, I didn't even greet you, sorry. I'm Davina."
She took my hand softly, "I'm Catalina Santa, but everybody here calls me Cat, so, feel free to do it as a new student."
I blinked, "I'm a student? I got into WIA?" I nearly screamed.
"You got the black stone, kid, you did the impossible, we have no idea how, but it happened, we follow the book, so, you are now part of our students. It's been seventeen days since the Choosing, the other students were all accepted too, you were the first, the others followed the tests. There was just no one who could beat that power of yours," she sounds anxious. "And at the moment, we need someone strong like you, even if you have a… peculiar personality."
"You mean the fact that I don't bow to anyone and I do not agree with how you are all just going forward with the Usurpers, and how I'm not afraid to speak my mind, even if I get punished?"
Her cheeks blushed, "Yes. And in all truth," she lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned into me as if to share a secret, "I agree with you, but things are complicated," then she leaned back, "and unfortunately, the past cannot be undone."
Sigh, "Unfortunately," I passed my hands through my hair, feeling it clean like I haven't in ages. "Oh!" I clapped my hands, something in my mind. "Did Greg pass? Gregory, the boy I jumped from the demonic dragon to save? You know? The one who was by my side the whole time. Did he get into it? Did he make the cut?"
"Gregory Mitsumi?"
Oh? Is that his last name? I never knew his surname, if it was in the human world, it would be a Japanese last name, and he does look Japanese-ish, as much as possible for a fae. Rose did too. "Yes, him."
A nod, "Yes, he made the cut. He actually surprised the headmaster as he was the strongest 18-year-old, and there were 3 fallen nobles against him, all made the cut, but still, very surprising. He's been worried for you."
Well, that's comforting.