runs over to him, going to her knees beside him and putting her hands on his chest. He’s still panting and twitching, crying in pain.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Cam murmurs hoarsely. “What the fuck?’
“Tom.” Professor Tamlin looks rattled for the first time since I’ve met her. She takes the guy into her arms like he’s a child even though he’s bigger than she is, shaking him gently. “Tom, talk to me. What’s going on? What happened? Tom!”
“It… it’s gone,” he moans, clearly still in pain. His red hair is damp with sweat, and I can see his body trembling from here. “My—it was just… oh, God, it hurts so fucking bad… help—help me… it’s gone.”
“What’s gone?” Tamlin asks, but Tom just keeps groaning, muttering half-formed sentences. She looks up, eyes wide, dark skin a little ashen. “Kendal, get the medics.”
Kendal nods and rushes out the door.
Dmitri helps me to my feet. His arm goes protectively around my shoulders, and for once, I don’t try to push him away or question what it means. We’re both still staring at the man in our professor’s arms, shocked and wary.
“Tom,” Tamlin repeats, smoothing his hair back from his face. Her tone is calm but commanding, and if I hadn’t had her as a teacher all last year, I might not notice the slight panic underlying her words now. “What’s wrong? Help is coming, but you have to tell me what’s wrong.”
“My magic,” Tom groans, his voice rising with each word. “It’s my magic. It’s… it’s been taken. It’s gone… My magic. My magic’s gone!”
My heart skips a beat, and Dmitri’s arm tightens on my shoulder as I turn to look up at him, our horrified gazes meeting.
What the actual fuck?
Chapter 7
Kendal rushes back a few moments later, healers right behind her.
“Everyone stand back,” Cam says, gently moving people out of the way. Dmitri tugs me to the side as the healers hurry to Tom.
“I don’t understand,” Tamlin says, her voice shaking a little as she stands back to let them work.
I’ve never known Tamlin to be anything other than put together and sophisticated. Now, she looks like she’s seen a ghost, her face tense and eyes wide, the tips of her fingers trembling minutely.
Tom is whimpering in agony and terror, and it’s awful.
I remember when Maddy was little, one time Mom and I stayed up and watched Nightmare on Elm Street, and Mads woke up and crept downstairs and saw some of it. She was terrified for ages, and she cried and whimpered in fear the exact same way Tom is now. It tugs at my heart and scares the shit out of me at the same time, because he’s a twenty-one-year-old man.
If he’s scared like a five-year-old, whimpering inarticulately like a child, then how bad is this? How horrific must losing his magic be to reduce him to this state of fear?
The healers are trying to get him to calm down, but he’s not responding, just repeating what he told Tamlin over and over again.
“Holy shit,” one medic says softly. “His aura is—it’s gone. It’s really gone.”
“We’ll have to sedate him,” another man says, holding Tom’s shoulders while the first speaker grabs some medicine out of a kit.
Tom finally passes out as they inject him, and when he stops jerking and shaking, they get him onto a stretcher. Once he’s strapped into place, it rises up to float about three feet off the floor, and they carry him out toward the infirmary. Everyone around me is shaking, even Alyssa. I’ve never seen her look anything but smug or pissed off, but right now, she looks like she might lose her breakfast.
Even those of us who hate being Unpredictable would rather be that than have no magic at all.
Tamlin clears her throat and pats her hair, making sure nothing’s fallen out of place. It hasn’t, because she’s Tamlin. Even in the midst of chaos, she’s one of the most poised, elegant people I’ve ever met. She’s already gathering her wits about her, doing a better job of recovering from the shock than I am. I’m still trying to decide if I should throw up or cry first.
“Well. I think in light of that, we should end class a little early, don’t you?” She gives us a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes at all. “Good work today, everyone. Remember, we have a test next Friday.”
Everyone immediately books it for the door. Half of them—Alyssa for one—are talking, blurting out theories and opinions. The other