because it's not my job to help you make something of yourself."
Sometimes I felt kinda bad about the relationship I had with my sister. Her mom had forced her into rivalry with me from the moment she was born, always showering her with more love and praise than me, comparing us and finding me wanting, making comments about the way Ellis was a more natural leader just to rile me up. But I knew the real reason for all of that didn't have anything to do with my so-called mother's low opinion of her son. It was all about the fact that she wasn't my birth mother, and it ate her up that her own kid wasn't going to be the one in power after my father retired from his spot on the Council.
There had been a time when that had worried me a lot, that I'd been genuinely concerned about Ellis being stronger than me even though we both would have inherited our power from our father as he was the strongest of our parents. But not anymore - especially since she only had water magic. The idea of her taking my place now was practically laughable.
"Don't walk away from me, Max," Ellis snarled as I turned to do exactly that.
I chuckled just to piss her off and kept walking. But as the water around my ankles was drawn away and I felt her anger crashing against my senses, I threw up an air shield at my back.
A tidal wave crashed over my shield as she screeched in anger and threw all of her power at me in an unrestrained, wild act of fury which made my blood boil.
Who the fuck did she think she was to be attacking me in public like that?
"Do you really wanna play this game with me, Ellis?" I asked, turning back to face her with a taunting grin plastered in place as pretty much everyone in the lagoon turned to look our way.
In reply, the cocky little brat swept her hands through the water and flung another huge wave at me like she seriously thought she could take me on.
I widened my smile, flicking my fingers and parting her wave as I walked right through the centre of it with my feet stepping on the surface of the water.
Ellis shrieked at me as she threw more unshaped water at me with nothing but brute force and I laughed as I slapped it aside with a casual gesture then dunked a torrent of ice cold water over her head.
I would have left it at that, but she ran at me, screaming furiously and making the water all around me rise up like she intended to drown me with it.
With a twist of my wrist, I lassoed the back of her swimsuit in a rope made of water and lifted her up by it so that the material was pulled right up her ass, giving her a mega wedgie as I carried her over to the sandy beach.
Ellis kicked and flailed wildly, looking like an octopus on killblaze as she tried to fight her way free. But I just dropped her face first onto the beach, using my magic to force her head beneath the sand so that she was left there with her ass in the air for everyone to see like a turtle set to lay its eggs.
The sound of laughter tore out all around me and I caught sight of a couple of girls filming from just outside the changing rooms, where I guessed they'd run back to grab their Atlases when our fight started. Maybe that had been a dick move, but it had also been a necessary one. The only people in Solaria powerful enough to face me were the Vegas, the Heirs and their siblings.
The spares weren't likely to pose much threat with their lack of training, but they had just as much magic in their veins as us and if they wanted to claim our spots then they only had to challenge us and win to take them. It didn't happen often, but it had been done more than once in the history of the Council and I wasn't going to allow so much as a whisper of a rumour to get out suggesting that Ellis might be able to match me one day.
The bell rang to signal the end of class and I turned and strode out of the lagoon, leaving my little sister to scramble back