Magelore Book 1: Smoke and Fire

Chapter 11

Akira

No. No, no, no...
What have I done?
Those were the only two things my brain could process as I lay in bed, unable to fall asleep. An air mage in my art class, Arran Zephyr, had filtered the air like Calypso had done in Raven's music class. He'd saved everyone in the class, but doing so had almost killed him. It turned out he had asthma, which would have been an unfortunate way to die for an air mage.
Anyway, when I'd woken up, I'd run down the corridor to find Raven, uh... I didn't know what she was doing. What she was thinking. But what I saw was a girl punching Kijo Trix in the face. And her hands were on fire. And for some reason, the first thought that came to my mind was, That's not Raven. It can't be.
But it was. And when she'd seen me, something... changed. She stopped, looked up at me, and the fire went out. She ran to hug Oliver, and then we walked back to the dorm. But then... it happened. Fine, I'll say it, I almost kissed her.
I still couldn't believe it had happened, and I didn't know why I'd even thought of doing it. It just seemed... natural, almost, like a reflex. Like it was supposed to happen. And the strangest thing was, Raven had felt the same way. I could've sworn I'd seen it in her eyes when it had happened.
Somehow, I finally fell asleep. When I woke up, Raven was getting ready for class.
"Morning," I mumbled.
Raven whirled around and looked me dead in the eye.
"We will never ever mention what happened yesterday, you understand? Never."
"Of course," I agreed.
"Good, because if you do, I will literally murder you."
"Yeah, I saw what you did to Kijo, so—"
"Are you kidding me?! I just told you not to talk about it!"
"Oh, that's what you were talking about— Shit!" I clapped my hand over my mouth. If she didn't want to talk about Kijo, she definitely didn't want to talk about us almost kissing.
Raven turned red.
"Th-that too," she said, and exited the room before I could apologize.