Chapter 13: Everybody Wanted Another Demonstration

Anika covered the tablet’s speaker as the footsteps stopped beside Jett’s bed, leaving Dante staring at the blanket filling the picture. Iris held her phone nearby to record, and nobody in room 314 spoke while a woman asked Jett why he had moved the screen.

"The light was in my eyes, so I turned it down," he answered, sounding almost bored until the woman asked him to straighten his arm. His breath caught, the picture swung toward a ceiling pipe, and the call ended.

Anika reached for the return button before stopping with her finger above it. Calling back would make the bedside screen ring, and Dante put his good hand over hers when she lowered the tablet, wishing he had something more useful to offer.

Mrs Han returned with security, admitting the responders while Iris sent Miss Vale the recording. Anika handed over the threatening message and her failed calls, making them promise they wouldn’t announce Jett’s trick to whoever answered at the trust.

The officer checking the call found that it had come through the scholarship trust’s phone system. That told the search team which organization to question, but not which building or room held Jett. Iris then set Anika’s phone to receive calls sent to the tablet, so Anika could carry both without missing him.

Rhea arrived with instructions from Miss Vale to keep everyone inside residence, then stayed with Anika while Dante walked Posey to her door. Posey caught his hand before going in, and he waited until she let go instead of pretending he knew how to fix this.

In bed, Dante kept hearing Jett pretend he could not feel the pain. He did not know the guy, but he knew what it felt like to make yourself smaller and hope someone would leave you alone. He wanted to help Anika get her brother back, even if the only useful thing he could do tonight was answer his phone.

By Sunday morning, the message on his phone still said that security was searching. Posey waited downstairs with coffee whose foam dragon bit his spoon, explaining that the cafe charged extra for a friendly one and she had refused on principle.

Dante managed a laugh at the coffee dragon, then noticed how tired Posey looked. They walked to the practice court for the supervised check Artemis had arranged yesterday. Vale wanted to watch his copied spells beside the sealed test liquid and see whether it reacted again. It was a check on what was happening to him, not another audition.

Artemis put the sealed dish inside a protective case. Bell would lead the two spell exercises while the nurse watched Dante’s hand. Vale was in charge, and Rhea waited to help if needed. Lucan stood by the painted floor markings, his pale pink hair tied back; he was there to demonstrate the spells, not compete with Dante.

"I’m assisting with the warding, before you ask why I’ve come to admire you," Lucan said as the nurse called Dante over to examine his burned fingers.

She changed his dressing and allowed short demonstrations, provided he stopped at any pain. Artemis reminded him that refusing would not cost him his place, and he agreed after she described the two exercises.

Posey put his water beside the bench and promised they could still have lunch if he did nothing impressive. He wanted to ask whether that included the sofa afterward, but Bell approached with two wooden balls before Dante could embarrass himself.

Lucan traced a hooked line above his ball, closed its small loop and spoke the Korean phrase. The completed drawing faded as the ball rose, traveled to the painted circle and settled without bouncing. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

Dante pictured that movement, feeling warmth gather in his fingertips before his own ball followed the same path. He hadn’t said anything or lifted his hand, but it waited inside the circle as neatly as Lucan’s.

Anika arrived carrying Jett’s tablet as Bell allowed a return movement, and Dante copied that too. Through the glass, a passing woman stopped to watch him, ignoring the friend tugging her sleeve.

"You’ve done this before," Lucan said, studying the empty air above Dante’s ball, and Dante admitted that his experience mostly involved imagining better things during math class.

"He copied it without drawing or speaking again," Artemis told Bell, noting the time. Dante said the warmth in his hand had faded. He liked the way she watched him after each success and caught himself hoping the next spell would look more impressive than moving a wooden ball.

Lucan drew a broad curve and spoke until a clear shield stood between him and the ball. Bell had him hold it for three seconds, then dismiss it before Dante tried.

Dante pictured the same barrier, and warmth returned as white light filled the curve in front of him. A woman outside pressed closer to the glass, prompting Rhea to clear the corridor while Posey watched him with open delight.

"We could try something bigger if that would help," he offered, discovering how quickly several interested women could improve his opinion of a medical appointment.

"What would help is following the agreed limits," Bell replied, making him dismiss it before allowing another discussion. "You’re being assessed, Dante, not auditioning for people in the corridor."

Anika’s phone rang before he could answer, displaying the forwarded tablet call. She put it on speaker, and Jett asked whether the white light had stopped, barely leaving enough breath between his words.

"He’s gone to fetch someone, so I’ve turned the check-in screen back," Jett whispered when she asked how he was calling. "Something pressed across my chest, and they kept writing things down instead of taking it off."

Bell stopped all casting. He asked Anika when Jett’s chest pain had started, then checked that time against the moment Dante made the shield. Lucan checked the court equipment, and Rhea called for a technician. They needed to know whether the two events were linked, rather than asking Dante to try again and risk more pain.

The nurse guided him back to the marked bench and checked his pulse while Anika waited for her brother’s answer. His fingers felt normal, which suddenly seemed like something he should apologize for rather than feel relieved about.

Artemis opened the dish inside its protective case, undoing her own lid spell before lifting the lid. Red lines were pulsing in the liquid again. She watched them while Bell compared the times with Jett’s call. The dish was showing another strange reaction, but it could not tell them why Jett was hurting.

"I only copied the shield you showed me," Dante told Posey. "I wasn’t thinking about Jett at all." She stayed beside him, but he no longer wanted to hear how impressive the spell had looked. He wanted to know whether doing it had hurt someone else.

Anika asked whether Jett could move his free hand, and he managed to tilt the screen enough to show a white curve across his chest. When he asked who had been speaking, she gave him Dante’s name and promised they were helping.

"They said the new boy would make it easier, so was that you doing the white one?" Jett asked, struggling for another breath while Dante sat untouched beside the nurse. "Because that one made it worse."