Chapter 182 Floating

Chapter 182 Floating


Zarek’s POV

You have got to be kidding me. That stupid instructor actually thought this was a good idea. Partner assignments. With her. Out of every student in this classroom, he had paired me with the one person guaranteed to cause problems.
The academy hadn’t even been open two full days. Already I was questioning every life choice that had brought me here.
I pushed away from my desk and headed toward the door. Nope. Not happening.
“Excuse me.” The instructor’s voice stopped me halfway across the room. But I kept walking. Big mistake. “If you walk out that door, you can continue walking all the way back to where you came from.”
My boots froze against the floor. The entire classroom went silent. Slowly, I turned around. “No fucking way.” The words slipped out before I could stop them. “On what grounds?” My temper was already rising.
The instructor didn’t even look surprised. Apparently he dealt with difficult students regularly.
He folded his arms across his chest. “On the grounds that every student is required to attend each assigned class.” He pointed toward the packet sitting on my desk. “It’s in the handbook.” Nobody read the handbook. Nobody. “Failure to attend results in dismissal from the academy. You’ll restart the enrollment process from the beginning.”
My stomach dropped. Fuck. That was complete bullshit. I stalked back toward my desk while giving him a death glare powerful enough to melt stone. Unfortunately, he seemed immune.
“Excellent.” The instructor clapped his hands together. “Now that we’ve settled that issue, everyone stand and face your partners.”
A chorus of chairs scraped across the floor. I stood. Reluctantly. Arabella rose from her seat and folded her arms across her chest. The look she gave me suggested she’d rather be paired with a rabid animal. The feeling was mutual.
The instructor moved toward the center of the room. “Today’s lesson isn’t about power.” His gaze swept across the classroom. “It’s about control.”
A groan nearly escaped me. Of course it was.
“Every bloodline represented in this room possesses abilities capable of causing serious damage if left unchecked.” His attention landed briefly on me. “Power is easy. Discipline is difficult.”
Then came the lecture. Something about clearing your thoughts. Controlling emotions. Focusing intention. Blah. Blah. Blah. I’d heard versions of this speech my entire life. Being a Dragon Prince meant spending years learning how not to accidentally set important things on fire. Castles. Furniture. Family members. The usual.
My dragon had always been strong. Sometimes stronger than my patience. The trick wasn’t accessing the power. The trick was controlling it.
The instructor eventually demonstrated a simple exercise before sending us off to practice.
I looked toward Arabella. She looked far too pleased with herself. That immediately made me suspicious. I raised an eyebrow. “Princess.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What?”
“You want to start?” I raised my brow and stared right at her. 
A slow smile appeared on her face. The kind that should’ve been illegal. “Whatever.” The second she lifted her hand, I knew I’d made a mistake. A very large mistake. My boots left the floor.
“What the hell?” I screamed. 
The classroom erupted into laughter. I floated upward. Not an inch. Not a foot. But several feet. Straight toward the ceiling. “Put me down.” My voice echoed through the room.
Arabella tilted her head. “I’m practicing control.” The innocence in her expression was completely fake. We both knew it. “Look.” She pointed proudly. “I can float you higher.”
The ceiling suddenly looked much closer. “Princess.”
“Oh.” Her smile widened. “I can move you too.”
The next thing I knew, I was drifting backward across the classroom. Several students moved out of the way. Adrian nearly fell out of his chair laughing. Miranda looked delighted. Even Bernice appeared entertained.
“Put me down.” I wasn’t asking anymore. I was demanding.
“Oh. I can do that too.” She said in a sing song voice. 
Arabella lowered her hand. Gravity immediately reclaimed ownership of my body. I hit the floor. Hard. The impact rattled my bones. A growl ripped from my throat. “Damn it.”
Arabella winced. “Oops.” The word sounded suspiciously unconvincing. “I guess I still need to work on control.”
Another round of laughter echoed through the room. Adrian was practically crying at this point.
I climbed to my feet and pointed directly at her. “Now it’s my turn.”
The instructor immediately appeared between us. Probably a very smart move. If he didn’t I would have set the bitch on fire.
“What I meant by control isn’t what either of you are doing,” he rolled his eyes and shook his head. 
I opened my mouth to speak but he held up a finger. “No.” Then he pointed at me. “Take yourself for example.”
I frowned immediately.  “What about me?”
“You’re angry,” he stated the obvious. 
“No shit Sherlock,” I said in an annoyance.
Several students snorted. The instructor ignored them. “Your emotions are controlling your power.”
I rolled my eyes. Then noticed his gaze shift toward my neck. Uh oh.
“Your scales are surfacing,” he pointed out. 
My hand immediately moved upward. The rough texture beneath my fingertips confirmed it. Damn. He wasn’t wrong. Whenever my temper got out of hand, my dragon responded. The scales appeared first. Then the heat. Then came the fire. The stone floor beneath my boots suddenly felt very warm. Smoke drifted from the corner of my mouth.
Across the room, Miranda’s eyes widened. “That’s so cool.”
“It really isn’t,” Bernice muttered.
The instructor pointed toward the floor. “See?”
I looked down at the floor. The stone beneath my feet had darkened. Heat radiated outward in visible waves. Fantastic. Apparently I was becoming a safety hazard.
The instructor pinched two fingers together. “Control.”
Arabella immediately copied the gesture. “Control.” The mock seriousness in her voice made Adrian lose whatever composure he had left.
I glared at her. “So you’re telling me she can launch me across the room…”
“I floated you,” she corrected me. 
“You dropped me.”
“Minor detail.” She rolled her eyes. 
“And I have to control my anger?” A small burst of flame escaped my mouth.
The instructor sighed heavily. “No. You need to control your reaction.” His gaze remained steady. “You can be angry. I would be angry too,” he said in a softer tone.  He motioned toward Arabella. “Honestly, I’d probably be furious.”
Several students nodded in agreement.
“But being angry isn’t the problem.” His finger pointed toward the floor. “The problem is setting the academy on fire because you’re angry.”
Fair point. Unfortunately. I closed my eyes. Slowly inhaled. Then released the breath. The heat faded first. The scales followed. Moments later the stone floor returned to normal.
Silence settled over the room. The instructor smiled. “Good.”
I opened my eyes. The class looked impressed. But I wasn’t. I shook my head.
“Good job my ass.”
Laughter echoed through the room. My gaze shifted toward Arabella. She was still smiling. Still amused. Still entirely too pleased with herself.
Fine. Let her enjoy the victory. Class would end eventually. And when it did… Princess was absolutely going to pay for that landing.