Killer Magic Academy

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"I'm not sure if this is the best idea," Dylan said as we stood in the janitor closet.

"Sure it is. If anything goes wrong, I'm right here," I told him. Then I opened the door and pushed him out into the hallway.

"Wait," he said. "What if it doesn't work?"

I smiled. "I believe in you." Then I closed and locked the door.

How did Alyssa discover her powers? She was forced to stand in front of flowing lava. Tenya was stressing out that should wouldn't have enough time to finish her year 6 final report, and then she froze time and got it done. Griffin was attacked in the middle of the night and controlled the shadows to protect himself. Even Emma was in a tight situation when she first showed her healing powers.

And me?

Well, that's not important right now. My point is, pressure makes diamonds, and I needed to put a little pressure on Dylan. He wasn't a huge fan of being thrown into a hallway of Searchers, but hopefully he would come out with a whole ton of new powers.

I created a wave of air that showed me what was going on in the hallway. Dylan didn't seem to know how to control his powers, but whenever someone came close to hitting him, he took away their powers. He didn't use them to fight back, but I could tell because the Searchers all took a step back and looked around in surprise.

He was stopping them from being Searchers. He was doing it.

Our plan was working.

After a few more minutes, I walked out and clapped. "You did it!"

He looked around and smiled. Dylan was breathing really heavily, which wasn't surprising. "Yeah. I did."

"So how do you feel?" I asked.

"Hungry."

"That's good. Let's go back."

He nodded. "As long as I get food."

~~~

Once we made it back to the gym, I told everyone what happened.

"Does that mean we can move on to the next part of the plan?" Erin asked.

I nodded. "Once Dylan is back up to steam, we'll start."

Emma was quiet for a second. "But what do we do once we take everyone's powers? Then we're just stuck in here?"

Then the door opened and Tenya and Griffin walked back in. "Did we miss anything?" Tenya asked.

I was shocked. I looked around to make sure everyone else was here. "Where were you guys?" I demanded.

Griffin held up his hands in surrender. "Out checking something. Erin had a theory that if you didn't have powers you would be able to get out of here. Tenya and I went to check it out."

"And?" I asked.

Tenya nodded. "I could move in and out however I pleased, but Griffin was stuck inside."

"Which means that once we take everyone's powers, we can evacuate them," Erin said.

"And then what?" Emma asked. "We can't leave the dragon in here. There's still people out there with powers, and if a few of them get through, they can release him."

"One of us is going to have to fight him," Tessa said.

"Why one of us?" Ace asked.

"Well, I was being general, but it has to be Nile," Tessa said.

"No," I replied. "I'm not doing that."

"Nile, just hear me out."

"No," I told her again.

"But-"

"No, I'm not fighting him."

"This isn't really up for discussion," Griffin said.

"I'm not doing that."

"Nile, look-" he said.

"I'm not looking; I'm not fighting."

"But why?"

"No!" I yelled. "How many times do I have to tell you no?"

"Six," Emma replied quietly. "It has to be you now."

"Why?" I asked her.

"Twice challenged three time," Emma answered. "It wasn't Alyssa being attacked six times. It was Tessa and Griffin challenging your decision."

"The prophecy," Octavian said. "Jeez, I almost forgot about that entirely."

"What is it again?" Dylan asked.

Tessa closed her eyes. "Twice challenged three times, the following read the signs of the strength from beyond. Trouble comes, the master respond and the following had vision. Their world or the world is the decision," she recited, and then she opened her eyes. They were glowing white, and then returned to normal.

"Ok. I don't know if most of the has happened or not, but we need to keep going with the plan. Dylan will take away everyone's powers, besides Nile's. If he can weaken the dragon, all the better, but that's not our focus," Griffin said.

"And then you all evacuate everyone while I go and fight the dragon," I filled in.

"Can I have a minute with Dylan?" Emma asked.

"Why?" Erin asked.

"If I can heal him a little, or a lot, we can get this going faster and reduce the risk of the dragon getting out before Nile can fight him. I don't know what exactly will happen if he gets out, but I know it's going to be really bad," she replied.

I nodded. "I'll open one of the side rooms and you guys can go in there. If you need anything, let us know."

She nodded, and the two of them walked to the other room. I noticed Emma was carrying her sister's mask very tightly in her hand down at her side, but I didn't question it.

"Do you really think this is going to work?" Tessa said. "Because if it doesn't, we don't exactly have a backup."

I nodded. "I think we have a pretty good chance of this working. The only person at risk is me. The rest of you will be fine. You'll be without your powers, but you'll be fine."

My team didn't seem convinced, but I didn't want to think about what we would do or what would happen if they were right.