The Touch Reader (#1 of the Elemental Originals Series)

Chapter Twelve

I sat quietly in the Headmaster's office, still in shock. I could feel vomit coming up my throat before it suddenly went back down, leaving me with an itchy throat and a grumbling stomach.

The door opened, causing me to look up right as someone with unruly red hair and blue eyes tackled me with a hug.

"Nixie! You're okay! Oh god, I was so worried!" Her voice made me wince a bit with how high pitched it was, but I knew she was just concerned so I hugged her back, leaning away afterward with a faint smile. Ignis chirped at Clara who chittered back at him, probably reassuring her brother.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Can't say that for the rest, though." Flamma and Leo, who must have come in afterward, winced at the thought. Glacies made a hissing sound at the thought. I was still trying to process what I saw. 

When David and I had opened the door to go in, we saw that Mrs. Flay, Mrs. Penningsworth, and a bunch of other students that I didn't know but had to assume were there because of something to do with what they were meeting about. Which was more than likely me.

Lady Callie wasn't among the casualties. Even though it was her classroom, she had gone out to get some snacks for everyone because they apparently hadn't had lunch yet. She came about ten minutes after we found them, when the Headmaster had came after we called him frantically.

She was horrified at the sight and threw up the moment she saw them all dead, and rightfully so. I was just frozen until the Headmaster whisked us away to his office, releasing David and Lady Callie but asking me to stay for something.

"They've already cleaned up the bodies and sent them to their respective families. I can't even imagine how gruesome the seen was, Nix," Leo said quietly, his wide brown eyes filled with horror.

"It was. . . Not pretty." Immediately my mind flashed with the images of my teachers and the students strewn across the class, their limbs thrown about. Mrs. Penningsworth's head staring up at me and David, her blue eyes blank and dark.

The door opened again, causing the three of us plus our dragons look at the door that Jayden and the Headmaster were walking through.

"Literally the only time that I leave you alone and you find a way to be the first one on the scene of a serial murder, so typical," Jayden grumbled as he marched straight to me, sitting down and almost protectively leaned forward in front of me.

I rolled my eyes. "I feel personally attacked."

"Well, now I will personally attaching myself to you so that this never happens again."

I looked at the Headmaster with wide eyes. "Save me from this!"

The Headmaster laughed heartily. "Unfortunately, I must agree with Mister Cardinal here. While you are definitely very powerful and have a startling amount of control, your groupmate here is more experienced than you in this, which means that he should look after one of his own."

"One of his own?" Flamma asked, her face twisted in confusion.

"Yes. Mister Cardinal here is a Triple Element Rider."

Flamma looked flabbergasted while Leo looked startled but not surprised. "Oh, was this something that was hidden? I knew it from the moment I met him," Leo said, a bit puzzled.

"Wait, you figured it out, too?" Jayden asked in disbelief.

"Too?"

"Yeah, Vera figured it out as well. She told me that it was because of the colors in my hair that she did."

Leo shrugged. "I mean, that makes sense, but I wasn't really thinking about the colors at all. I just figured that anyone who dared to be so blatantly disrespectful to a Triple Element Rider either had to be one themselves, be clouded by fear or anger, or have something up their sleeves that no one knew. What the Headmaster said just confirmed it."