With her father's memory failing and her mother gone, Soraya Thenayu enrolls in distant Darkwood Academy and immediately becomes enemies with the richest kid at school. Between hiding her father's gift of illegally harvested magic, befriending socia...
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The rest of Soraya's first week of school flew by fast. She studied hard in all of her classes and avoided being near Jacquelle as much as possible. The girl became worried, however, when the gym teacher discovered the dead trees and grass she had accidentally killed. Mr. Levi even scheduled a botanist to inspect it the following week.
They won't know it was you. There's no way they would ever know... Unless the botanist has Earth Magic and talks to the other plants that had seen everything...
Soraya wasn't sure what to do, so she distracted herself as much as possible by studying and secretly forming a plan.
Maybe, I can find a way of healing those plants using my Water Magic, and then the botanist won't have to come out and look at them...
Every night, after dinner, Soraya practiced her violalin in the orchestra room with Rhys.
"If something is too difficult, slow down the tempo and use a metronome," the Shadelkin instructed like a teacher. "Understanding how to play the notes and rhythm correctly is the key. Once you have that down, then you can speed up the pace and try playing it faster."
"Okay!" Soraya nodded while looking back over her sheet music. She was determined to learn how to read it and play her parts correctly.
"Hey," Rhys interrupted. "I have a surprise for you, but we have to leave now for you to get it."
"Oh?" Soraya said, hurrying to put away her beautiful cherry red violalin and bow before following the boy curiously out of the amphitheater.
It was Astros Diem, the sixth day of the week. Soraya had a sneaking suspicion of what Rhys was planning and grinned up at him while they walked towards the front gate of Darkwood Academy.
"Are we going to Matumi Beach now?" she asked giddily, bouncing excitedly with each step forward she took. All of her fears melted away when she looked up into the Casmerahn boy's wine colored eyes.
"Jai achi null," Rhys winked.
"What do you mean, yes and no?" Soraya laughed.
"We're going to the beach, jai..." Rhys swung open a small door on the side of the wall just next to the closed gate and held it open for his friend.
"But not Matumi Beach. That one's for tourists. We're going to the best beach in town, a cove tucked away and hidden behind huge cliffs. It's also a wildlife preserve, and if we get there soon, we can see a grand sunset, dolphins jumping out of the water, and maybe even some seals."
"That sounds so amazing!" gasped Soraya. "Do the teachers need to know where we're going? Can we just leave the campus?"
"I already told them ahead of time," the boy said proudly before digging into his pocket and holding up two signed permission slips. "We just have to call and do a check in every hour and be back before midnight, or they'll hunt us down and drag us back to school. If that happens, we won't be allowed to leave again unless we have a chaperone."
