The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 45
“Oh, god, Rafe,” I sigh. shaking my head up at him and glancing down the hall.
“Do we have to do this now? My schedule says we have ten minutes for lunch
before. our next mystery class —"
“Here,” Rafe says, dropping a wrapped power bar and a bottle of water on top of
my books. “Academy isn't big on hot lunch — just a snack before a big dinner. Eat
while you walk, talk while you eat.” He puts a firm hand between my shoulder
blades and urges me forward, making me keep pace with his quick stride.
“How do you even know where we're going.” I murmur, struggling with the
wrapper of my lunch with one hand. Rafe sighs, taking the food back and
unwrapping it for me before slipping it into my hand.
“I looked at the map, obviously, and don't try to change the subject,” he says.
“What was going on with Luca this morning? He was staring at you, completely
freaked out, and Jesse almost had a conniption he was laughing so hard.”
“How the hell should I know!?" I ask, blatantly lying and talking with my mouth.
full.
“Ari!” Rafe sighs, glaring at me. “I know you're lying — I've known you since you
were born
“You were just a baby,” I mutter, even though he’s right.
“Fine!” he snaps, moving on, “pressing subject number two! Why the hell did you
invite Jackson to have breakfast with us yesterday?”
I stare up at him for a second, forgetting to chew in my surprise, even though he
keeps me moving. “What?” I ask, swallowing hard. “Rafe, that was like, a million
years ago —"
“That was twenty—four hours ago,” he says, giving me a withering stare.
“Well a lot has happened in the meantime!”
“A lot that you were hoping would make me forget!” he counters, pointing ahead
to a door that I understand from his body language is our destination.
1 grin up a him, because...yup. He's got me there.
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Chapter 45
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Rafe stops, grabbing my arm, making me stop with him. “Ari, we had a deal —
that guy tried to kill you, and you promised never to speak to him again, and all of
a sudden he's at our breakfast table? What the hell!?”
“Rafe,” I sigh, glancing towards the door, knowing that we've only got a few
minutes to get in there and I really, really hate being late for school. “I promise I'll
tell you, all right? Jackson — he saved me in the obstacle course —"
“What?” Rafe asks, leaning closer, shock all over his face. “He what?”
“He is the only reason I made a better time- and considering that I was the 90(th)
candidate let in? If he hadn't, I wouldn't be here. We owe Jackson — and I
promise that I will tell you all about it, but can we just get to class? None of this is
pressing right now, right? We have time.”
Rafe scowls, glancing between the classroom door and me.
“Fine,” he says, tugging me forward by the arm before I wrench it from his grasp,
not wanting whatever professor is in this classroom to see my big brother
dragging me around. “But you and I are taking a long moment tonight to have a
chat about Jackson McClint..."
Rafe doesn't finish his word, though, because as soon as we round the corner
into
the room...
We come face—to—face with the man in question.
Or, at least I do. Rafe has to look down at him. But seated at the desk in the front
row, Jesse lounging in the seat behind him? Jackson's just about eye—to—eye
with
1. me.
Rafe doesn’t even bother to hide his groan as he walks into the room, shoving
me in front of him and heading for the desk next to Jesse. When I hesitate, Rafe
barks my name, pointing to the desk next to him.
I blush, glancing around and realizing that not only Jackson is witnessing Rafe
boss me around like a little kid, but so is another dark-haired cadet and the
professor — who is, of course, the handsome professor who handed us all the
weird orb yesterday, his dark hair tied back low at the base of his neck. He grins
at me, amused, but I sigh and do as my brother says, taking the desk next to
him.
“Well,” says the professor, nodding to all of us and moving to the door, pulling it
12:51 Sun, 10 Mar
Chapter 45
shut. “Now that we're all here, we can begin.”
I look curiously around the room now, confused.
Seriously, a class of five people?
What the hell is going on here?
“My name is Professor Alves. The five of you have been gathered here because
out of the 96 cadets admitted to the program, only the five of you showed a
particular aptitude for my teaching specialty. Unlike the rest of your peers, you
will be enrolled in this class for the entirety of your time at the Academy. There
will be no examinations and no cuts made. Instead, the time will be spent
learning your own particular affinity and cultivating your...talent.”
He go
goes quiet now, smiling around at each of us in turn, I think enjoying the fact that
each of us are completely confused. Silence reigns in the room and he just lets it
hang there.
Jackson is the first to break it, frustration in his every word. “I'm sorry,” he says,
though he certainly doesn’t sound it, “I don’t understand. What are these
affinities. you're talking about?”
“Each of you,” Alves says softly, moving to the book satchel perched on the edge
of the desk and pulling from it the black orb, “demonstrated an affinity for magic. I
will be here, over the course of the next several months and years, to see
whether or not your particular skills can be honed for the battle field or otherwise
in service of the nation.”
My eyebrows go up almost to my hairline.
I mean, our moms told the three of us when we turned sixteen that the Goddess
has given each of us a particular magical gift. But that is a BIG family secret, and
none of us have spilled a word of it to anyone.
hint of it, I'm also pretty damn sure that none of the three of us have shown any
either. Which mom and Aunt Cora said not to worry about — they didn’t find out
about their own gifts until later in their lives either.
So...how the hell did the Academy find out? My eyes dart immediately to the
black ball.
“Yes,” the professor says, perhaps seeing the direction of my gaze and probably
12:51 Sun, 10 Mar
Chapter 45
67%
everyone else's as well. “The sphere measures magical aptitude — one of my
own inventions, very useful. And while it does allow us to identify candidates who
have an affinity for magic, it does not at all tell us what kind of magic that person
wields.
So!”
He deftly tucks the ball back into his satchel, smiling around at the five of us.
“Does anyone know what they can do?”
The five of us sit in absolute silence, staring at him.
I mean.
He just very, very casually told us that we're all magic, and that he's going to train
us in battle magic —
And even if that is maybe the coolest thing I've ever heard...
It is definitely a surprise.
“Oh come on,” Alvez says, coming around the desk and shocking me by casually
sitting on it, tucking his leg in beneath him. “Surely one of you is aware of what
you can do? Sinclair?” he says, his eyes moving immediately to Rafe.
Rafe just stares back at him, unreadable.
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“pr ) »
I'm aware of your mother's talents,
Alvez says with a casual shrug, which
)
makes Rafe’s eyes narrow. I feel
mine doing the same. Mom — her
. oo
healing magic isn't precisely a secret,
)
but she’s been very careful to never
“pe ? Sh
specifically confirm it. “She and your
» 7 5
mother,” he shifts his eyes to Jesse
“ J :
now, “were instrumental in the
formation of this department! They
5 9D 5
designed it!" The content is on
bignovels.com! Read the latest
chapter there!
My lips part in shock now. What!?
Rafe sits back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, glaring at the
professor a little bit. And I realize that the professor is trying to get us to casually
confess our mothers magical affinities, which we have long sworn to never do.
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« »
Oh come on,” the professor says,
looking around at all of us and
: « ) :
laughing casually. “We're going to
have to learn how to trust each other
. ) a
a little more. After all, we're going to
be spending a great deal of time
together. In the spirit of trust and full
disclosure...how about a little
5 ) s
demonstration.” The content is on
bignovels.com! Read the latest
chapter there!
1 look over at Rafe and Jesse, who look between each other and at me. Together,
we
12:51 Sun, 10 Mar
Chapter 45
nod.
67%
“All right,” Rafe says, speaking for us and no bothering to consult with Jackson or
the other boy, who I see scowling at the other side of our line of desks,
displeased to be left out. “You demonstrate first, then we'll...have a
conversation.”
The Professor smiles at him and then pulls a large piece of candy out of his
pocket — a jawbreaker, I think. “Me first,” he says, his voice low with pleasure,
and then he tosses the candy into the air towards the center of the room.
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We all turn to stare at it and I gasp
when, suddenly — almost from the
bottom up- the jawbreaker stops
falling and instead just...disintegrates
in the air. The very miniscule pieces
of it float through the air to the
ground in a fine pile of pink dust. The
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the latest chapter there!
“Whoa,” I breathe, shocked and impressed.
“Disintegration,” the professor says with a casual shrug. “My affinity also allows
me to rust things, though it's a longer process that mostly yields the same
results.”
“How do we know it's not a trick?” Jackson asks, clearly more suspicious than
me. “That the candy wasn’t going to fall apart as soon as you threw it?”
“Give me something else,” the professor says, looking around at us. “I'm an open
book in this classroom we all have to be. I promise, I'm not lying to you about my
skills or what the class is for, though it might sound unbelievable now.”
“Here,” I say, ripping a blank page from the back of my chemistry notebook and
balling it up in my hand. “Can I just... toss it?"
He nods to me and so I do, lobbing it high into the air.
Like the jawbreaker, the paper likewise just falls apart into microscopic pieces
that drift down through the air.
“Holy shit,” Jesse whispers, watching it. “That is...incredibly cool.”
“So,” Alvez says, smiling around at us, his voice a little self-pleased. “Does
anyone know what they can do?”
But we all just look around at each other, completely silent.Until the dark-haired
boy on the far side of the room heaves a sigh and raises his hand.