Killer Magic Academy

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Emma gasped and sat upright. "Alyssa. No. No. No. Nile, I couldn't do it. I tried but now-" her voice broke off and she started crying. "I had one job. One job and I couldn't do it." She kept shaking her head and I was afraid she was going to give herself whiplash.

"Emma, calm down. We don't know that for sure," I told her.

"I can't feel her anymore!" she shouted. "She's gone." She looked around the room. "We have to get out of here. We have to get back and figure out a new plan."

I shook my head. "I lost a lot of power in our earlier fight and you are in no condition to do anything."

Emma looked at me. "I believe in you. We don't have to destroy anyone. We just have to get back to the other room. It's not that far."

I sighed. Then I shook my head again. "I can't risk it. I can't let anything happen to you."

"Why not?" Emma demanded. Then she looked at the mask on the dresser. "Please tell me you didn't talk to her."

I was confused. "Why is that a problem?"

Emma sucked in her top lip for a second before she responded, "She doesn't work well with people."

"Yeah, and she's a liar," I added.

"What did she say?"

"It's a long story. Pretty much she was going to kill me, but then she left instead and left someone else in charge of finishing me off. Luckily that guy failed. I don't even think he tried."

"How do you know it's a guy?"

"She said so. And I'll believe her for that much. And I also believe her when she said that she would kill me if anything went wrong and you got hurt."

Emma laughed. "I'm not going to get hurt. At least, not any worse than what I have going on right now. Is there any way Hayden can help us from the outside?"

I shook my head. "Not that I can think of right now. But if we can come up with something, I'll have you talk to her."

Emma nodded. "Ok."

Then there was a knock on the door. I walked over and opened it. Dylan was standing in the doorway holding Alyssa and dragging Octavian. I helped him into the room.

"Oh my God. She really is dead," I said as I looked at the giant bloodstain covering Alyssa's lifeless body. "And you carried her body here?"

I lifted Octavian onto the other bed and Dylan collapsed into one of the chairs. "I couldn't leave her. It was hard to get them both up here."

"Do you know what happened?" I asked as I looked over Alyssa's body. "This wasn't a powered attack. It looks like a stab wound."

"That would explain why I couldn't heal her fast enough," Emma added. "Burns or suffocation or anything like that I could've taken care of, but if a lung or her heart or another vital organ was hit just right, she would die before I could do anything."

"I think that's what happened," I told her.

"Nile, I brought them here because I couldn't face everyone else. I figured you would be close by, but I had to get Octavian somewhere safe until he wakes up," Dylan said.

"Then why did you knock?" Emma asked as she shivered and pulled up a blanket over herself.

"In case someone was in here. I didn't want to barge in and get attacked."

"What do you mean you couldn't face everyone else?" I asked him.

Dylan pulled a knife out of his pocket. I recognized it as the one he cut the arena net with. It was covered in dried blood.

"Why?" I asked.

Emma gasped. "I had my guess, but I didn't want to say anything. How did you switch back?"

I looked at Emma. "What?"

"Dylan started getting really distant. I figured it was because Alyssa and I were spending more time with you, but then I started to get a feeling like I did with Hayden when she became a Searcher. I obviously couldn't tell Dylan that, so I kept my distance. They say that once a Searcher starts to turn, there's no way for them to come back. But Hayden did. And so did Dylan."

"After I-" Dylan paused a second. "Killed Alyssa, I got a terrible feeling in my gut. I've been feeling what other people have been feeling for a while now. It's not just knowing what they feel, like oh hey, you're happy today, but I get really happy too. As Alyssa saw me stab her, I could feel her fear and disappointment and that she didn't understand why, and I realized what I was doing and my desire to kill the most powerful people stopped. Octavian was unconscious, and I brought them both here because I couldn't get to the gym, and I wasn't sure if you all would let me in."

Emma looked at me like she didn't know how to react. "You can't blame him for becoming a Searcher. That just happens to some people."

"Can you feel other people's feelings now?"

Dylan shook his head. "Alyssa was the last one. Now I just feel, empty."

"Like Sasha," I mumbled.

"Who?" Emma asked.

"There was a girl who got held back because of her lack of development and progress, but we think she actually switched powers. She came to Erin one day and said she was feeling empty and her powers weren't working anymore."

"What was she?" Emma asked.

I shrugged. "She never told anyone. I think she was really powerful, but not an elemental. It happened right after one of the teachers died. Sasha was really close with her, and the emotional shock might have switched her powers. She was a water after that."

Emma sat up. "What if she was a healer? Powerful enough, but not as much as an elemental. If she tried to bring the teacher back to life, maybe her powers got overloaded and they stopped working. That happened with Tenya and maybe Dylan got too much emotion from Alyssa and his powers stopped working. Since being a Searcher is linked to your power, when he lost his power, he lost his Searcher-ness."

It took me a second to process what all she said, but it made sense. "I think you might be right."

"And that means there's a possibility that Dylan and Tenya will get new powers," Emma added. "Because Sasha didn't lose her powers forever."

I shook my head. "But we can't depend on that. We can't base a plan off of the fact that they might get their powers back, or new powers. And they would have no time to learn how to use their powers. Also, what if when Dylan gets his news powers, if he does, then he goes back to being a Searcher? There's too many possibilities to be creating a plan built on guesses."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Dylan asked.

"We rest here, and then head back to the gym once we are all ready."