Killer Magic Academy

Sequel Excerpt

Hayden

I see everything.

Not exactly. I feel everything. I feel the potential of gravity, the heat from a candle in the hotel room three floors below ours, the photosynthesis of the succulent Phoebe insisted on bringing with us.

I feel it all, but I'm not strong enough to control it. It's hard when you know exactly how far you can reach when you can so clearly see that the world has so much more beyond that. When I slide on my mask, that changes. Everything changes. I feel stronger. I am stronger.

I looked around the room where the three other people slept. I couldn't sleep tonight. I had been getting better since the day Nile saved the world, but sometimes I woke up and looked over and saw Emma and felt something totally unlike the energy I felt every moment of every day and attempted to control.

My sister had died.

She was stronger than me, I could feel it clear as day. She brought herself back to life, with some help from Nile and an outrageous idea from Phoebe, which I'm shocked even worked. I knew exactly how far my powers could stretch, what they could do, and what my limited options were to make myself stronger. I knew exactly how far Emma's powers could stretch as well.

Limitless.

I could never tell her that. Knowing that would be a gift and a burden, and it was something she needed to discover on her own. Maybe this quest would help her learn that, but did I really want her to know?

I sighed softly, careful not to wake anyone, and looked at the other side of the hotel room. Phoebe and Anthony were splitting the king sized bed, as they always did, but Phoebe made it very clear that if Anthony tried anything he would drown.

I had no idea what to think of Phoebe. Her powers were insanely strong, much stronger than anyone I had ever met, except for Emma. We had been on her mystery quest for the past two weeks, and basically no progress had been made. Sometimes I wondered if Phoebe even knew what we were doing here.

Sometimes I wondered why I stayed.

Emma

I heard Hayden sigh softly. I knew she was awake. She hadn't been sleeping much in the past two weeks, and although I feel exactly how much delta sleep she needed in order to not be tired, it was a different sense that told me her insomnia was related to me.

I couldn't tell her I was going through the same thing.

This is your fault.

It was almost like she was there. Like I would roll over and be back in my room at Aptitude Academy and see my roommate on the other side.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, staring at me with nothing but hatred in her eyes.

At least when I was stabbed, it could be inspiration for your master plan to sacrifice yourself and be a hero. Something good came out of my death I suppose.

I opened my eyes to make her face go away. But that didn't make the voice go away.

You had the chance to save me, and you didn't.

I couldn't make her go away, and I could never get these thoughts out of my head.

Because Alyssa was right, and I couldn't do anything to change it.

Could I?

~~~~

Thanks for reading this special update!  I'm not going to really start writing the sequel to KMA until I finish Hero in a Bottle, but I want to get this little sneak peak out there.

The story is going to center around Emma as she deals with the aftermath of Alyssa death, since it didn't have a lot of time to sink in while she was at school, Hayden as she tries to be the sister to Emma that she could never be while she was a Searcher, Phoebe as she leads this mystery quest (and copes with being alive again and the fate of her friends, which will be revealed later in Hero in a Bottle), and Anthony as he joins the quest (more of his arc will be a surprise).

Phoebe doesn't have a narrative in this chapter because I don't want to spoil Hero in a Bottle, and I don't want to have chapters in Anthony's perspective until later in the story.