Blazing Academy: Semester One (Academy For All Things Scorching #1) - Avery Song Page 0,70

place of learning and disapprove of anyone who tries to bring others down, including students. I'm no different and sometimes get requested to check in on certain courses or afterschool activities to ensure students and professors are behaving. Seeing as we have classes together, no one is going to be doing anything to make you feel inadequate. If they do, I'll just beat them up."

"Aren't you supposed to not condone violence?"

"Yes, unless someone pisses me off and thinks it’s amusing to bully my friends and those around me. If I see it, there's no way I'm going to ignore it. I'd like to call those who ignore obvious acts of belittlement cowards, but not everyone carries enough power or confidence to take down a bully. However, if you boast around the halls that you're invincible, but allow another to be beaten down and ridiculed, you're no different than a weakling who talks the talk."

"Noble of you to say." I was grinning from ear to ear.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"I can see why people say you're rough around the edges but kind."

"Who said rubbish like that?" he muttered, looking away and returning to eating his dessert. He couldn't hide hid red cheeks, and that made me even happier as I worked on finishing my own dessert.

When we finished, we both got up to quietly wash the dishes; Gabriel washing them and handing them over to me to dry.

"About the book with excess magic," I began, lowering my eyes to my neck to see the golden chain that held the tiny brown leather book with red and gold symbols engraved on the front and back. "It'll remain in this form until I need to use it or learn how to use it?"

"Yes." Gabriel closed the tap and looked my way. "It's a part of you now and will give you power once you learn the basics of summoning your flames as well as begin to figure out what type of flame is your strongest. Once you figure that out, you can start playing around with shifter magic."

"Does that mean I can eventually turn into an owl? Or a wolf? Wait. Does that mean Westley is a peacock?"

"You ask so many questions at once," he said with a sigh.

"I'm curious and hungry for knowledge."

"Guess it's better than being hungry for other things." He seemed to have directed that to himself, but I blushed at the dirty thought that flickered in my mind.

"Don't say that when you're around other students," I suggested.

"Why?"

"I never got my answer," I changed the subject.

"Why can't I comment...ugh." He let out a gruff, "You have such a dirty mind!"

"I'm sixteen and have to be able to catch onto both good and dirty aspects of words," I defended. "Never know when you're going to suddenly flip the coin and refer to a 'dirty' cover-up answer."

"You leave me to wonder whether you've dated before." He shook his head and answered, "You can change in to almost anything you want, animal-wise. There are no limits to one's imagination, but there are limits to power."

Drying his hands, he let out a yawn and pulled his glasses off to place them on top of his head. "I'm heading to bed. You should do the same. We thankfully have a late start today, but don't get used to staying up so late."

"Yes, Dad." I teased.

He gave me a look of pure annoyance and leaned in until his face was inches from mine. "Unless you're going to be calling me Daddy in bed, I'd try not to tease me in that manner."

My jaw fell open, and the smile of amusement that morphed on his lips had me lifting my leg to unleash my secret move. His body suddenly vanished like a flicker of light and my lifted leg went through tiny golden balls of fire.

My confusion was short-lived as those same golden orbs moved in unison, wrapping around me until I felt a presence behind me.

I looked up to see Gabriel's smug smile while his wings continued to manifest into physical form - the golden orbs blazing into feathers.

"That's not fair!" I huffed.

"Life's not fair, but you don't see me complaining." He lightly karate chopped my head.

"Ow."

"If you score extremely high on midterms, I'll teach you how to do that."

"Really?!" My momentary anger dispersed into pure delight.

"Ya." He moved away from my back to head to the stairs. "Now go to sleep. I don't want to hear you complain about being tired in the morning.