Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

Chapter 9

10:55 AM September 13th 2026

New York Preparatory Academy, New York, NY

After three hours sitting in the office Anna's butt was getting sore. She'd tried to get up and stretch her legs, but the Assistant Dean had snatched up a yardstick from next to his desk, and menacingly smacked it on the edge of his desk before pointing at her threateningly then back at her just vacated seat. Geez, that guy was so over the top. He might as well have been pointing two fingers at his eyes and then at her to indicate that he was watching her.

Where did he get that stick from anyways? From her position, she should have been able to see the object. Yet when she observed him putting it away, the thing just kind of disappeared. As if it had been subsumed into the material of his desk. Maybe it was a warlock pact item from his patron –

Did he have a patron? Was he a warlock? She didn't know. Until this morning Anna had never spent this much time with the school's administration. She wasn't even sure if she'd ever been in the office. Sure, she'd walked past it literally hundreds of times. But inside?

And now she'd been here for hours.

Hours!

So many hours!

Hours, and hours, and hours, and hours.

Next to the stuck-up, spoiled little shit-for-brains, cunty bitches – No. Stop. She had to stop. If she got riled up, she might start oozing cold. Once she got too upset, she was going to become a hazard to others. So...calm. She had to be calm.

While sitting on this hard, hard, wooden torture device of a chair. Seriously! Who still uses wooden chairs in schools? It wasn't even enchanted for comfort. Nor was it one of those creepy ones carved into the ergonomic shape of an ass for, you know, comfort.

Over the course of the three hours since she'd gotten the worst grilling of her life, two of the girls had been picked up. Their parents had sent chauffeurs and family limos for them. Ironically, Sara's parents couldn't be inconvenienced to even notify the help to get their daughter early. Anna might, might have gotten caught sniggering when she overheard that conversation. She'd received stern looks of disapproval from both the Dean and Assistant Dean. But the glares of hatred from Sara and her cronies? Priceless!

She fidgeted uncomfortably. There was something seriously wrong with her chair. From the corner of her awareness, she noticed that Sara and her two remaining cohorts were fidgeting also. They seemed to be experiencing the same discomfort that she was. The young cryomancer was almost of the opinion that it wasn't possible to make a more uncomfortable chair even if it had been enchanted...

Wait a minute! Anna straightened in sudden suspicion. Everywhere else in this hoity-toity school is filled with state-of-the-art ergonomic bliss. But in the school's office, the chairs where students had to sit were the epitome of gluteus abuse? Now that she thought it out, it was clear that this was a subtle form of punishment.

Her eyes narrowed and her expression turned flat. Of course. That was the kind of thing mister I've-got-a-magic-stick man over there would do. For the first time since she had been filed in here with the other fighters, Anna turned her ire on the administration. Then she sighed and forced herself to relax.

She'd done the crime and now she was doing the time. Things would only get worse if she lost the strict control she had to keep over her magic, and her 'cool' ended up being even the slightest bit noticeable by someone else. The only thing for it was to accept it and remain calm. Besides, it wasn't all bad.

There was television. It had been on the twenty-four-hour news channel the whole time. But still...good and proper brain rot to zone out on and distract her from her desire to cause other people serious bodily harm. Anna leaned her head back against the wall behind her in resignation and returned her focus to the droning of the news anchor.