Chapter 26

       I was getting really tired of being forced to spar in the training room. Even though Dirk and a lot of his team members were captured, Martha was still very adamant on all of us training as hard as we could, especially me since I wasn't the strongest Protector.

       At least I got to choose who I sparred against, so every single time, I chose Jerome. Sure, he was way too competitive and didn't even try giving me a chance, but at least he wouldn't be complaining that I was horrible at sparring like my siblings did whenever I went against them.

       During today's training, I thought I would have been fine not winning but for some reason, I was just getting really frustrated whenever Jerome beat me.

       After the fourth time today, I groaned in frustration, throwing the sword onto the ground.

       "Nolan, it's fine," Jerome said.

       "No, it's not," I said. "No matter who I go up against how many times, I can never win. I'm on the ground in a matter of seconds. You know the longest I've ever latest before losing? Thirty seconds."

       "That's because you've trained with a bow your whole life," Jerome said. "If anything, Martha shouldn't be forcing you to spar with any other weapon. You don't see other Protectors who trained with anything else being forced to use a bow. She's just biased."

       "That doesn't make me feel better," I said, picking up the sword and heading to the weapon stand to put it away.

       "You're done for the day?" Jerome asked. "I promise this time, I won't actually go as hard as I can. I'll actually help you know how to use a sword."

       "No thanks," I said. "I am done with this stupid sword and I am done with any other weapon. The only weapon I need is my bow."

       "Come on, just one more time?" Jerome asked.

       "Jerome, I'm not sparring again for the rest of my life," I said. "I don't care what Martha says or wants. I'm not touching a sword or a spear or katana or anything else."

       "You can't just go against Martha, no matter how much I want you to," Jerome said. "You know she's going to be here any minute to check on your progress and she's going to get mad if she finds up you're ending this sparring session early. Just one more time."

       "I said no!" I said, throwing my arm for emphasis and right as I did, some sort of yellow energy flying out of my hand and soaring towards Jerome. He was quick to block it with his magic, the yellow energy disintegrating.

       "Nolan..." Jerome said slowly.

       "What... What was that?" I asked. "Please tell me I imagined that."

       "I wouldn't have blocked it if you were only imagining it," Jerome said. "How did you do that?"

       "I didn't do anything," I said. "I just moved my arms and--" I mimicked the movement I made earlier and the exact same thing happened; the yellow energy burst out of my hand but this time, it soared to the right of me and hit the wall there. "Okay, what is that?"

       "That's magic," Jerome said. "That's one-hundred percent magic."

       "No, it's not," I said. "I-I don't have magic. I'm a Protector. The only thing I can do is turn invisible and run away from my problems."

       "Nolan, I know magic when I see it," Jerome said. "That really was magic that shot out of your hands."

       I didn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. No Protector had ever gained the ability to use magic, especially out of the blue. There was no way I could use magic. I didn't want to use magic. Sure, I may had wanted to in the past, but that was only because I was lazy and liked taking the easy way out.

       I knew it was a huge responsibility having magic, one that I wasn't sure I could handle. Not when I always found it so hard to adjust to new situations. And this one was definitely new.

       I didn't even bother replying to Jerome as I walked out of the training room. He quickly followed, asking, "Where are you going?"

       "My room," I said. "This is a dream. This is just a dream. I am going to sleep and wake up and everything will be fine."

       "You can't keep denying it," Jerome said as he continued to follow me.

       "I can deny it all I want," I said.

       "Nolan, will you just..." He grabbed my arm to stop me from walking. "Will you just stop, take a breath, and look at me?"

       I did exactly that and as soon as I looked at Jerome, I said, "This is your fault."

       "My fault?" Jerome asked. "How is it my fault?"

       "How else could I get it?" I asked. "People don't just randomly have magic running through their veins!"

       "Nolan, seriously, calm down," Jerome said. "You're too stressed out over this."

       "Have you met me?" I asked. "I'm stressed all the time and this... This just made me a lot more stressed. I don't want magic."

       Jerome raised an eyebrow. "You literally said yesterday that you wanted to be a sorcerer."

       "I didn't mean it," I said. "I just thought it would be a great way to be lazy even more. I won't be able to handle having magic in me. Take it back."

       "How can I take it back if I'm not even sure I gave it to you?" Jerome asked. "Or how? How is the bigger question... Wait a second. Yesterday. When you were helping my magic get stronger against Dirk, but the energy was powerful enough that it knocked us to the ground too. It could have been then."

       "Great, now that we know, take it back," I said.

       "I can't just take it back," Jerome said. "I don't know how. Someone else getting magic is unheard of. Taking it back is pretty much impossible and even if I do know how, it might hurt you. I don't want to hurt you."

       "Maybe I don't even have magic," I said, only because I was trying to think of anything that could explain whatever was going on. "Maybe... Maybe it was just the light reflecting off of the weapons since I was right by the weapon stand."

      Jerome sighed. "Nolan, you and I both know it wasn't the light or your imagination or anything like that. It was magic. I know someone getting magic is unheard of but... We are part of a prophecy. It said that we're meant to get more and more powerful every day. Maybe that's how."

       "Me getting magic is how?" I asked. "Why couldn't the prophecy come with some kind of instruction manual? Life would be a lot easier, especially because I have no clue how the heck I'm supposed to control something so... so... I'm so frustrated, my vocabulary is fading."

       "Uh, yeah, I could see you're frustrated," Jerome said. "Because, you know, you haven't realized that you do have someone who can teach you everything there is to know about having magic. Someone who just so happens to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world."

       "For once, can you keep your ego in check?" I asked.

       "Nope," Jerome said. "The point is I'm not going to let you go through this alone. I am going to show you exactly how to use your magic to the best of your ability. And we'll take it slow. We don't even have to start for a few days until you wrap your head around it."

       Which would probably never happen.

       I still couldn't believe it.

       I had magic.

____________________

i want magic. i want to be able to portal wherever i want so i can wake up as late as i could and still make it to places on time. and so i can travel without flying because flying suuuuuucks.

anyway i'm hungry but my food drawer is empty :( and i can't go buy some more for a whole week because i'm going somewhere next monday and i want to save my money for it. :(

BUT IN OTHER NEWS, i am sooooooo close to convincing myself to actually make a youtube channel :) a lot of you said you'll watch my videos and i reallllllly want to do it.