Chapter 24


    Chapter 24


    Everyone was ounted for; I checked myself, no one was left out.


    “Who did not take part?” Miss Phillis asks.


    His eyes suddenly connect with mine, and I hold my breath.


    My lips part when he begins to walk towards me. I look around me to see who he could


    possibly be approaching, but to my surprise, there is no one here that hasn’t been tested except me, of


    course. But Miss Phillis did say that it wouldn’t make sense for me to participate


    in the festival. I also don’t expect Adam to suggest for me to be tested. I must be missing something; he


    can’t being towards me.


    Needless to say, I’m in shock when he stops in front of me; the surprise is still there when he ces his


    hand out to me, e with me… Amiera.”


    I swallow. Did he purposely say my name? He knows now that it makes me happy when he says it. I


    stare at his hand, I don’t know how to exin it, but somehow, I know that I must hold onto it. I gently


    ce my hand in his, and he grips it in a tight hold. Adam walks with me towards our professors with his


    head held high; there was this determined look on his face


    that I hadn’t seen before. Why did it seem like he knew what was about to happen?


    “Amiera is the only student that does not know how to create fire; how can we even consider her for this


    test?” Sir Williams asks.


    “Everyone of age that belongs to the fire whisperers must be tested; those are your exact words. Are


    they not?” Adam demands, his eyes cool but zing at the same time. How was


    that even possible?


    “Y–yes but,”


    “But, nothing.” He growls. “It’s your own rules, and you will be breaking it if she isn’t given a chance to be


    tested. There is not a single rule that goes against her taking part today. It’s only fair that she gets this


    chance; none of you have nothing to lose from letting her at least try.”


    The professors each give each other skeptical looks. They know that Adam was right;


    there is no rule against me taking part today. They would, in fact, be breaking the rules by not


    letting me participate. Adam takes their silence as a win in this battle, or maybe he doesn’t


    even care to wait for their permission.


    “Unzip the back of your dress,” he tells me. My eyes widen, unzip my dress? In front of all


    these people?


    “Give me the de,” hemands as he holds his hands out towards Sir Williams. The


    My eyes widen when he rips the back of my dress using the de without any warning


    whatsoever.


    “What the hell is wrong with you?” I hiss as I tried to hide my body from everyone looking at the stage


    with curious eyes. I can see that I’m not the only one surprised by his actions.


    Content bel0ngs to N?vel(D)r/a/ma.Org.


    “You were taking too long,” he whispers smoothly behind me. I gasp when he moves my hair forward,


    he’s a little too close for myfort, so close that I can feel him breathing on my


    neck.


    Igasp when he rubs his hand over my back. I don’t want my parents to see my reaction to


    him touching me, so I try my best to hide how much this turns me on.


    He leans into me, and I feel his hot breath against my ear, “this will hurt a little.” I don’t have time to


    prepare myself when I feel the sacred de against my back. He’s


    drawing some kind of symbol, but I don’t care about that; I can’t when I’m in so much pain.


    I scream as the pain leaves my back and travels throughout my entire body. I feel like my body is on fire;


    it’s much worse than when I touched the golden candle in his home.


    “Adam!” I scream his name, knowing that he’s the only one that helped mest time. “It


    burns!”


    “Shhh,” he whispers. “I’ll make it all better, I promise.”


    Before I can say anything, he spins me around to face him. Our gazes connect, and I can’t exin the


    rush of emotions I feel from just looking into his eyes. It’s powerful; it’s blinding, and it has me losing my


    f*****g mind.


    gasp when he points his hands towards me, and two ck holes appear out of nowhere. I’m rmed


    when they join together and create a whirlpool around me. My eyes widen, and I ce my arms in front


    of me to protect my face from the gushing winds. It’s too powerful; it shouldn’t be this strong. But it was


    Adam; this was only a little glimpse of his true power. I continue to brace against the winds when I feel


    them growing more robust.


    Was he trying to suck me into that thing? I was scared that I would lose my life to this


    thing; that was how powerful it indeed was.


    To my surprise, it does the exact opposite of harming me, however. The fire inside of my veins begins to


    die down slowly until the pain is entirely bearable. I blink once, then twice, and


    I’m in shock that the darkness was able to help me instead of harming me. How was that even


    possible? Darkness was supposed to hurt; that was all it was suitable for, at least that’s what


    When the ckness around me begins to fade, there are gasps from everyone in the crowd. I’m


    confused by their reactions, and I don’t know what could have caused it. It was the first time that I could


    really see the reactions from everyone looking at us. The pain wasn’t distracting me anymore, and the


    giant whirlpool was finallypletely gone.


    Even Adam looks like he’s enchanted by something. Why are they all looking at me?


    Something in the mirror in front of me catches my attention. At first, I can’t seem to


    breathe as I continue to stare in astonishment.


    My hand moves to cover my mouth, and I walk closer to the mirror, drawn by what is no doubt right in


    front of me. There are two zing red wings behind my back, and I didn’t think


    that anything on this earth could be this breathtaking. But that’s not all; my eyes are zing


    just as bright as the wings behind my back.


    Sir Williams has a look of disbelief as he approaches me hesitantly. “O our ming


    whisperer.” He stutters.


    All of my teachers are lining up behind me, every one of them with a look of skepticism on their faces. No


    one expected the one person who couldn’t create fire to be the legendary ming whisperer, even I had


    no idea. In fact, for a while, I thought that the prophecy would


    nevere true.


    What did this mean? If the ming whisperer is, in fact real, and turned out to be me, were we all really in


    danger from the dark whisperers? My gaze immediately goes to the group of dark whisperers that are all


    now looking at me with new interest in their eyes. I feel a shiver down my spine; Adam was also a dark


    whisperer. Was I supposed to be his enemy? That couldn’t be; the prophecy had to be a lie. There has to


    be a mistake somewhere.


    “It’s real,” Miss Phillis says as she takes a closer look, bringing my attention back to everyone here in


    front of me. More people are joining the stage, trying to get a closer look at me, or my wings, or maybe


    both.


    The crowd of people holds their breath as they wait for more confirmation that it’s me.


    “She’s right; it’s just as the legend says. Everything. The ming whisperer is finally amongst us. She’s


    finally blessed us with her presence.” Sir Maxwell exims.


    They are speaking about me like I’m apletely different person. I’m the same Amiera that I’ve always


    been, just with zing wings. It’s funny how a title could change people’s


    reactions towards you.


    My gaze goes towards Adam; why does it seem like he already knew this all along? He


    how did he perform a different ritual than what everyone had to do before? No one had to rip their shirts


    or have a symbol drawn on their backs. So why did he choose that method with


    me?


    He catches me looking at him, and my cheeks immediately turn bright red.


    I don’t have time to ask him any questions when hundreds of people surround me. They were all praising


    me and saying things that I’d never once heard before in my life.


    I should be enjoying this, but I’m not by any means. I knew that most of these people were the same


    ones insulting me just minutes before my status was revealed to them. It feels fake and forced. These


    people don’t care about me; they care about the ming whisperer in me. They want to get close to me


    only because of that.


    I don’t want fake friends; I’ve had enough of that already. I want people in my life that I can


    trust, people who believe in me, people who wouldn’t hurt me the first chance they get.


    Everyone is looking at my wings with excitement and awe; I couldn’t disagree with them;


    these wings were incredible-the most beautiful pair.


    After about an hour of peopleing up to me and asking questions, reintroducing themselves, and


    trying to be my friend, I’m finally ready to leave.


    I’m not sure how to exactly make the wings disappear, but I know that I don’t want to be


    walking around them with me everywhere.


    “Can you even disappear?” I whisper to them.


    To my surprise, they do just that. Was it that easy, or would they pop out again from


    nowhere?


    When they’re gone, I’m reminded that my dress is torn, and I try to hide my exposed back from my new


    admirers.


    Adam approaches me just then; it’s the first time he’s shown himself to me since thest


    time we gazed at each other.


    There are sighs and screams throughout the crowd when he takes off his white hoodie in


    front of us, leaving his chestpletely bare. I suddenly remember the night inside of his shower and my


    cheeks turn red; I swallow the need I feel deep in my belly.


    What was he doing?


    I don’t have time to react when he pulls me towards him. My eyes widen when he shoves


    the hoodie over my head.