Academy

Chapter Three : Gasoline

‘Are you deranged like me? Are you strange like me?

Lighting matches just to swallow up the flame like me?

Do you call yourself a f*****g hurricane like me?

Pointing fingers cause you'll never take the blame like me?’

Halsey, Gasoline

Blending into the shadows came naturally to her, it was where she belonged. The shadows were always there to comfort her, they protected her.

The shadows bent to her will. They belonged to her.

Everyone else, everyone around her, they constantly clambered toward the light. They clawed and dragged their way over each other to get there and they didn't dare look back at those they trampled.

Not her.

She trampled people to get away from the light. She hid in the shadows so as not to be exposed.

There were too many lights at the start of year festival. Too many lights, too much noise, too many curious eyes.

Raven had opted for a hoodie - dark, dark grey rather than black, for the colourful nature of the festival of course - leaving her cloak back in her dorm room for the sake of blending in. She kept the hood drawn as far forward as it would go, she kept her chin down and she let her dark hair fall around her face. The same old routine.

She knew people had seen her face before, her whole face, but she still liked to keep it as covered as possible. She didn't need them staring any more than they already were. Couldn't stand the questions that followed the stares. The judgment in their eyes.

It was easier to hide. Easier if they didn't look, didn't question, didn't know.

The Festival was filled with students bubbling with contagious excitement, bouncing to the music immersed in the tents and stalls.

Raven stood at the far side of the Festival, near the tree line. She leaned against a tent pole furthest from the light, arms folded over her chest. People often thought she missed everything going on around her, because there was always something over her eyes - her hair or her hood, whatever it was it was in her line of sight, it blocked out the world around her. Only it didn't.

Half Raven's problem was that her senses were so attuned to the world that she didn't miss a thing. Assuming she could see through the mess of stimulation that is. Of course, she had a history of missing things, important things, and paying a great price for doing so.

The problem with sensing everything was that it made it quite difficult to sift through what was important, what was potent and what was loud. This festival, it was loud. The rush of people, the laughter and chatter, the sheer volume. The crackling of energy, Spirit in the air. It was sheer torture and this was her third year of sufferance. Her least favourite day of the year.

At least she was certain there would be some kind of entertainment this time.

Her new squad, mystery that it was, had yet to be involved with each other.

Raven knew of Gabriella Jaro and Connor Daryen, they were on the team that came in second to her last year. They were good for sure. They were loud personalities no doubt.

Max Marcomb was notorious in his own way, he had a reputation amongst the school, the kind of gossip Raven didn't involve in but was exposed to just living amongst students. He was known as a charmer, confident, a player, not someone to be taken seriously.

Rowan Camden, he had no reputation. Uncommon for Ashbourne, a school of only six hundred. Everyone was known for something, especially by their fourth year - Rowan's year. But Raven couldn't recall ever having heard of him before.

Then again, he gave off an asocial vibe in the transport pod. Perhaps, like Raven herself, he didn't like the spotlight. Maybe, just maybe, he wasn't so fond of the light as most people were.

Speaking of light - the little one. The first year. If ever a person belonged in the light it was Pandora Read. Raven didn't know a damned thing about the kid, other than Abrahim's assurance that she belonged in Jupiter, belonged by Raven's side. From her picture, and the glimpse of a sighting she'd had before the sea of students had swallowed her, Pandora was the kind of bubbly only innocence and youth provided. With cropped white hair and eyes that practically glowed, it was almost as if she radiated light in a very literal way. Beyond that she had a heart shaped face, rosy cheeks and the look of someone who was permanently smiling. Light.

As weary as she was to be working, training and learning with such a random assortment of people, Raven was somewhat excited for the sure collision of powers. Like two poles repelling each other is the way Raven imagined this squad butting heads for the first time. She found a sick sort pleasure in that anticipation. If only because such a catastrophic falling out would surely prove that Abrahim wasn't the genius, mastermind that he thought he was.

He'd told her, before the Placement Ceremony. He'd told her when he'd rescued her a month ago that this year was going to be different, that he had something planned that he was certain she wouldn't appreciate.

"A Squad to define a generation" he had claimed. "Six students I've no doubt will soon be the best of the best."

"I don't care," Raven had responded sullenly. She'd ground her teeth and glared at him from beneath her hood. "I'm not going back."

He arched an eyebrow, peering over wiry glasses. "Oh?" The mocking in his tone only served to sharpen her anger. "And where will you go? What will you do if not return to the Academy to complete your training?"

She spun away and strode toward their transport, silently fuming. She had no response. No plan. No nothing. Not that that mattered. "I'm not going back," she repeated, her voice shakier this time, her conviction no less.

"You're not yet 18 Raven," Abrahim had reminded her calmly, following her into the glass dome. "The decision is mine. You will return to Ashbourne, this is the last year I can force this upon you. If I haven't convinced you to stay after this year, you're free to go wherever, to waste your life as you see fit."

Raven rolled her eyes. It was the same old promises, the same threats and the same haughty claims. "You're so predictable old man," she drawled, sinking into a seat by the window.

Abrahim sat in the seat across from her, between them stood a glass table with a chess set made of glass. She leaned over and moved on of her pawns. He didn't even bother to look before making a move of his own.

"As are you," he smiled behind his glasses.

It was the same old routine. But not.

It had been a long time since Raven had felt the floor disappear beneath her - metaphorically speaking, literally speaking it happened all the time. This particular return to the Academy was tainted, ruined and neither of them would address that. They never addressed the loss or the pain - Raven often wondered if that was because he couldn't handle it or because he didn't think that she could.

Not that it mattered, there was nothing to discuss.

Raven was a beacon for death and disaster, tragedy had followed her all her life. She was born an omen of bad luck. It was the darkness rooted in her soul, like something had died there and the longer it festered the more flies it drew in.

As the transport lifted off the ground, taking Raven to her third year at Ashbourne Academy, her body felt almost too heavy to be lifted. Surely the transport would break beneath the weight of her? Gravity was desperate to keep her on that ground. Because this place had been her home for the past eleven years and this was likely the last time she'd see it - what was left of it anyway.

It wasn't the kind of home in which one had a family, nor the kind of place a child was normally raised. But Raven wasn't normal. Even as a child she was quiet and reserved. The Pelupaan Temple was the perfect escape, after the death of her aunt. It saved her, they saved her.

And now it was nothing but rubble.

Perhaps becoming a Guardian really was the only future for her - after all, it was rare for Guardians to settle into one town or city, they were often on the move, going where the fight was. Staying in place for too long, historically, led to her past catching up with her and Raven wasn't sure she could handle another loss.

Besides, as far as she knew, there was nowhere in Arcadia that was safer than Ashbourne Academy.

For all the skeletons in her closet, Raven knew trouble when she saw it. Jupiter Squad had trouble written all over it.

As did the jackass stalking toward her now: Landon Emerton, resident jerk.

That dark, dangerous thing in her core writhed when Landon's hazel eyes narrowed on Raven's shadowed figure.

If anyone else had been striding toward her with that kind of impossible swagger, with teeth bared in a feral grin, Raven would have been instantly defensive. As it was, she was exhausted just anticipating this crash landing. How would she have known she was back at Ashbourne if she wasn't being tormented by Landon Emerton.

"Raven," He purred, stepping up to the tent pole she leant against. He was too close, so close that she was about eye level with his nose, so close she could smell and feel his hot breath on her face. So close that she felt the sharp spark of his Spirit radiating from him. "How was your holiday?"

At least he didn't know what had happened over her holiday. Even Landon wouldn't joke about that sort of thing. But the reminder sent a knife through her gut anyway. She might have recoiled, even just slightly, because his smirk only grew.

"You must be so excited to be back amongst all your brainless worshippers, I imagine the real world is rather dull when you're not constantly surrounded by the praise and adoration of novices no?"

Dull? Not quite how she'd describe the world she lived in. His insufferable arrogance was like fuel on the fire of her anger - there was nothing dull about the holiday she'd come from. Nothing.

That evil beast in her belly was stirring in response. The temptation to release it, to let it swallow him whole, was sounding sweeter with every passing second. So sweet in fact that the beast began to slip through the cracks of her control. It drained the air and the energy around them until it was cold and dark. But the more she released the more Raven felt her control slipping. Like being a balloon, despite the tear that was leaking, the balloon was still inflating and inflating, ready to burst at any moment.

Landon raised an eyebrow. "Trying to scare me with parlour tricks Elex?" he sneered, leaning into her face. "You don't frighten me."

Her jaw was clenched so hard it was aching. Every nerve in her body was buzzing, like live electrical wire.

Ironically enough if she'd lost control like this at the Temple then - … but that was hardly the point.

Like that the balloon deflated. It fell flat and all that darkness, that draining abyss that had been expanding within her was sucked back inside and locked up tight. Raven slumped against the tent pole and folded her arms over her chest.

"Of course not," she whispered, lifting her chin to glance as plainly at him as she dared. "That's why you're playing games, trying to intimidate me. You're not frightened - you're threatened."

His eyes were pinned to the side of her face, she knew he was staring at the ghost of a shadow of the scar that sat there. She hoped he was wondering about that scar, about the skeletons she kept hidden. "Enjoy the festival Landon, and I do hope you have better luck this year. Or, by some miracle, fundamental improvement."

She pushed off the tent pole and brushed his shoulder when she passed him, stalking into the crowd.

She walked in a shadows, to the world around her she was a blurry vision of darkness wafting amongst the light. It was kinda like her defence mechanism. It kept people from approaching her and it kept the blinding light from ever touching her. Most importantly it shielded her from the full impact of the Spirit energy in the air.

One of the reasons people were always staring and whispering about Raven Elex was the mass of shadows that followed wherever she went. People were awed by what they saw as her complete control over her Spirit. They were also afraid of her because of her darkness, her Spirit manifestation, which was so rare and so obscure. No one knew anything about Raven's Spirit manifestation, no one knew what is was, where it came from or what it was capable of. All they knew was that it was clearly strong.

Even in the bustle of the Festival, with lights and musicians, performers, guests and students, everywhere Raven went the crowd parted around her. Light rearing from the darkness.

"That's her," whispered a first year. "Raven Elex."

"What's with the hood?" Asked another.

An older girl nudged them, "Raven Elex never shows her face - apparently it's so badly scarred it's horrifying to look upon."

"I heard," another student piped in, "That the Scorpian Monks force every member of the temple to hide their faces. Something about seeing the soul and not the shell."

"Weird," Scoffed another.

Raven huffed a laugh beneath her hood.

Ashbourne was always abound with rumours. Each one that reached her ears seemed more far fetched than the last.

"Whoa," Breathed a girl, as Raven walked past. "That's her."

The boy beside her, Jax Hirsche, was someone Raven knew from the competition. Even he edged around her in passed.

"Don't stare," he hissed. "Landon won't like you if you gawk over Raven Elex." the girl immediately followed his advice and Raven paused, curious to hear the conversation. "You're unlucky enough that your sister's on her squad, that's one strike against you in Landon's books. We're not allowed to associate with Elex."

"I can't even believe my sister made such a good Squad," The girl grumbled. Belladonna, Raven realised, this was Belladonna Read. "She's just a kid."

"Are you sure she's not some protégée?" Jax laughed.

Belladonna shook her head. "No she's definitely not. Our uncle was. He was accepted to Ashbourne two years early. Pan's got a long way to go before she can even compare to Uncle Emmett."

"Huh," Raven whispered.

Jax and Belladonna continued out of her hearing, but Raven had gleaned enough. How she hadn't made the connection was beyond her. Pandora Read was related to the Royal Guard Captain Emmett Read. The youngest student Ashbourne Academy ever recruited, the youngest Squad member to ever win the Royal Tournament, the youngest Guard Captain to ever work for the Queen. Emmett Read had broken so many records in his time, he was famous, legendary. It was astounding to Raven that she'd never heard of his nieces before. Surely anyone related to Guardian Read was just born with the same incredible talent. And yet, from what Raven had heard amongst the crowds, Belladonna Read and her Squad had come in fourteenth last year.

Read was the kind of name you expected in the top three.

Then again, if anyone knew that a legacy like that meant little to nothing it was Raven Elex. The gods knew that people had plenty of expectations for Raven Elex. She likely didn't live up to any of them.

Raven passed a crowd of first and second years surrounding Professor Axyl as he told the tale of his most recent daring Sharr hunt. Professor Axyl was the young, stylish Guardian who taught the Specialty Weaponry class for broad swords, hammers and maces. Students loved him, teachers were exasperated by him, Raven found him dull and predictable.

"Raven!" called a face amongst the crowd.

She startled, hands curling into fists. No one ever spoke to her in a place like this.

Maximus Marcomb, her new teammate, extricated himself from Professor Axyl's audience. A fifth year engrossed in Axyl's tired tales was almost sad and yet Raven felt the buzz in Max's aura that indicated amusement.

He bounded over to her and heads swivelled to watch the exchange.

"Howdy teammate," He grinned, all teeth and dimples. "Haven't seen you since the transport over. How're you finding the festival?"

For a moment just stared, blinking and lost. No one spoke to Raven without having been spoken to. Not unless they were a teacher and even then too many of the Academy's professors were too intimidated to speak to her anyway.

"Uhm," She tilted her head beneath hood and hair. "It's loud."

Max laughed, loud and hearty. "Yeah it is," he chuckled. "But the good kind of loud, the kind where everyone's enjoying themselves."

Raven grunted in dismissive agreement and began walking again. Unfortunately Max Marcomb did not take the hint. He walked, practically bouncing, along beside her.

"You disappeared pretty quickly after we reached our dorm," He noted jovially. Raven could hardly him over the noise of his Spirit, the whistle of wind under pressure battering into her darkness. "I guess we've got all year together but it'd be nice to like bond, or whatever, as a team before exams begin."

Raven exhaled heavily, releasing just a few more shadows to shield her from the extreme energy of Max's Spirit beside hers. "I don't bond," she whispered. "Bonds are temporary and fragile - a waste of my time and energy." she sounded spiteful and snappy. The comment took her by surprise if only because she hadn't meant to reply.

The temple flashed through her memory; a burned mass of rubble and death.

And another memory, another home destroyed.

She shuddered. "Sorry," She whispered, drawing her sleeves over her hands.

Max was regarding her careful, a grin still plastered to his face but his energy shifted. As was reflected in his eyes the sheer energy and excitement in him was dissipating, morphing into something more tame, something solemn. His hazel eyes darkened, like burnt gold, the longer he regarded her. "Don't be sorry," He replied with the same chipper, his façade unchanged. "You're completely right! Bonding is lame - but training effectively requires us all to understand each other on some base level. So… at some 'team acquainting' should be scheduled in." He shot her a wink but seemed to rethink the elbow he lifted to nudge her with, instead he started to swing his arms in time with the bounce in his step.

Raven almost smiled. Beneath her hood the corner's of her mouth twitched unwillingly. It wasn't often that people joked around her. It wasn’t often that people hung around long after she proved to be hostile company.

"I will take your silence as agreement," He declared proudly before he paused his bouncing just long enough to wink at a group of girls who had parted wide to let them through.

The girls practically squeaked. Raven scoffed.

Maybe Max just didn't realise the way people avoided her, maybe he didn't care. Either way, he wasn't likely to have much luck flirting with anyone while standing next to her.

Of course, the attention he focused on those girls was gone as quickly as it had come. "Look," He called, "It's Connor and Gabby! We've almost got the whole team out." Waving vigorously Max drew the duo over.

Though both Connor and Gabby were far more weary of approaching the no-man's land that surrounded Raven, they were drawn in close by Max's prodding.

"Team acquainting time, right Raven?" He winked at her again.

She rolled her eyes, exasperated by his relentless energy.

The approach of Gabby and Connor was like a punch to the gut in Raven's shield of shadows. While Connor's wind definitely had some kick when it paired with Max's, he wasn't too much to handle. Gabby's Spirit, however, was like torture. She could feel the heat burning holes in her defences and scorching her skin beneath her clothing. In the light that seemed to burn out of Gabby, Raven felt her Spirit shrinking back, pulling in tight to her body, creating a dense shield of darkness to protect herself.

Gabriella Jaro was like an open flame licking at the edges of Raven's essence. She was bright and hot, intense.

Or, her Spirit was.

Gabby as a person, bubbly and sweet as she seemed, was far more reserved than the energy of her Spirit.

"Hi Raven," She said carefully, displaying a measure smile of pearly white teeth and sparkly green eyes.

Raven blinked and gone was the girl, in her place was a swirling mass of flame, sparking and spitting and weaving and winding. It was struggling to form a shape, to manifest itself, but each time it became almost discernable it shattered as if Gabby herself was picking it apart. As if she was afraid to let it form.

"Okay," Max chirped in. "Raven's not too chatty tonight then!"

He laughed to fill the awkward silence Raven had left. Blinking back to stare at Gabby, the tall girl with golden hair and emerald eyes, Raven winced to realise she'd been staring.

"Sorry," She muttered. "I'm a little… distracted." even as she spoke her voice was trailing off, the vision of the fierce flame bleeding into reality where Gabby's skin seemed to burn with it.

Gabby frowned slightly, blushing dark pink under Raven's unabashed stare. It was rude, Raven knew, but she couldn't look away. She might not like to be touch by the light, that didn't mean she didn't appreciate it's brilliance. And Gabriella Jaro's flame was just that, brilliant.

"Anyway…" Max drawled, trying to reignite conversation. "Anyone know where that Rowan kid is?"

He glanced around them but it seemed no one knew.

Max shrugged. "That kid's harder to get to know than you are Elex," he joked, this time he really did nudge her with his elbow.

Raven felt his wind hit her shadows, a sweet reprieve from the heat of Gabby's flame. In the face of such strong Spirits Raven's sense were dulled, as if the world around them had dropped away. All she could feel was the bombardment of their energies.

"What about the first year? Anyone met Pandora Read yet?" Connor asked.

Raven c****d her head aside. The three of them shook their heads at each other and Raven found it almost peculiar. She herself had avoided the dorm since landing. Being stuck in the transport pod with that much energy had been torture enough for her, cramming herself into a dorm room and making small talk was likely to drive her mad. But Pandora Read didn't seem like the reclusive type.

She'd travelled in Headmaster Abrahim's pod but surely she would have run into the others in the dorm room. The fact that everyone had yet to lay eyes on her was somewhat unsettling. Truth be told Raven was anxious to meet the girl, weary of what she might find there. Whatever Abrahim had seen in Pandora Read it must have been unique for him to have taken such an interest. It was his interest in her that made Raven almost afraid of Pandora Read.