Ronan left me in David's office, in his chair. I was tired, and he assured me that he'd check on the girl before bringing everyone back here. I could hear the approaching sirens of a fire engine outside, and could hear the chatter of all the students outside. I had Ronan open the window, although it didn't do much. The ice continued to keep my body cold, as if it was worried I might let the other flames back in. Still, I welcomed it.
About ten minutes later, Ronan appeared, alone.
"Where is everyone?" I asked.
"David and Irina had to stay to talk to the fire department." He said. "I don't know what excuse David's gonna give them."
"And the girl?" I asked.
Ronan looked at the floor. "She ran off."
"Ran off?" I asked. "Where? How?"
"I don't know." Ronan said. "David told me that after we disappeared, he was walking downstairs with her and she ran off. Neither Irina or David saw where she went, and they couldn't do anything because there were people about."
"Damn it." I muttered. By anything, Ronan had meant the Argent kind of thing. This girl was undoubtedly connected to whatever shit was going down in Greenwich at the moment. She could have all the answers, and all this drama could be over very quickly if we'd had a few minutes with her. She had to go to this university though, and had to study some kind of computing degree or she wouldn't have been in the lab toilets.
Ronan and I waited for David and Irina to come back- after all, they'd want to know what happened, and I couldn't be bothered to explain things twice.
About twenty minutes later, the chatter outside seemed to die down and I could hear people walking through the corridors again. Then, the door opened, and in walked David and Irina.
Irina immediately rubbed her bare arms, and I noticed her breath came out in a cloud of fog. "It's cold in here." She said, frowning. I then noticed the bandage on her hand, and wondered what she'd done.
I was pretty certain the coldness in the room was my fault.
"Well." David announced, ignoring the cold and taking a seat. "What the bloody hell just happened?"
He was looking at me, but I didn't have any more information than he did. What he'd seen is what I'd seen. Same went for Irina.
I shrugged. "I don't think I know any more than you guys."
"Except you experienced whatever she had running through her." Ronan pointed out.
"Yeah, that wasn't fun." I said firmly. "It's certainly not something I want to do again."
"Did it hurt?" Irina asked.
I nodded. "Yes. I mean, when I touched her it didn't, but when I started to take the fire from her... it all felt wrong."
"In what way?" David asked.
"Like it was... I don't know." I was trying to think of the word. "Like it was contaminated or something. Not clean. It felt heavy and sticky, whereas my fire feels light and tingly. It's hard to explain."
Everyone was frowning in thought.
"What happened to your hand?" I asked Irina.
She held it up, looking at the bandage there. "In the bathroom, when I touched you, you burned me."
"I did?" I asked, a little shocked.
"Yeah, you were scorching to the touch." She said.
"Oh. Sorry." I said, feeling bad.
She waved her bandaged hand. "Don't worry, it's nothing. It wasn't your fault."
I pursed my lips, not liking that I'd burned her, even if it was by accident.
"What happened after you vanished?" David asked.
"She exploded." Ronan said, not giving me a chance to answer.
"Uh-" I began, not quite sure how I could put it any better.
"She what?" Irina asked.
"Exploded." Ronan repeated. "But I think that's what the girl would have done eventually, so it was lucky Millie could take it away from the university."
I wasn't sure what to say. I felt a warm breeze brush over my arms and face then, and looked up at Irina. "Are you doing that?" I asked.
She shrugged. "It's cold in here."
"I thought your element was air, not fire?"
"It is." She said, as if it were obvious. "I can control the temperature of the air, to warm it up a bit in here." She frowned then, seemingly confused about something.
"Oh." I said. "That's pretty neat."
I wondered if I could do that.
"So what about this girl?" David said, interrupting my thoughts. "How was she able to manipulate fire?"
"I don't think she was." I said. "Not exactly, anyway."
All eyes were on me.
"Her fire wasn't like Argent fire- it was all wrong." I continued. "And this girl, she had no idea how to control it or anything. These stabbings, like Ronan suggested before- I think they're what's gone wrong. They were stabbed with the fake Prometheum, and then their body didn't accept whatever change was going to happen. But I think there were ones that didn't go wrong, and that girl was a prime example of that. Her body took the fake Prometheum, and as a result, she has some weird fire powers."
"But she couldn't control them." Ronan said. "I know it's hard for new Argents to control their element at first, but not to that degree." He paused. "No pun intended."
"Why is it so cold in here?" Irina asked, mentioning the cold not for the first time. "Is no one else wondering that?"
David and Ronan both looked at me, and then Irina did.
"My bad." I said. "I think my ice is worried the fire might come back."
Once again, Irina frowned. "What was your element again, Millie?" She asked. "I thought it was fire?"
I looked at David and Ronan. "Did you not tell her?" I asked.
"Tell me what?" Irina asked.
"You know what happened with Haydn last year, right?" Ronan said.
"Of course." She said. "The news spread like wildfire."
"Did you hear about the Argent who defeated him?" David asked.
I sat awkwardly in my chair.
"Well, yes..." she then looked over at me. "That was you?"
I smiled.
Irina laughed. "I did not know that." She said, amused. "Are the rumours true, then? That you can control all seven elements?"
I nodded, still smiling and still feeling a little awkward now that all attention was on me again.
Irina's eyebrows went up. "Oh, so that's how you opened the bathroom door?"
"Yeah." I said, wondering if she'd noticed it.
"Oh." She said. "After you nearly exploded I thought maybe you'd melted it or something."
I laughed. "No."
"Wait." Ronan said. "Did you control the metal?"
"Yeah." I said, and then it occurred to me that I hadn't yet told Ronan about my overcoming of the mental block I had. "Oh. Sorry, I forgot to tell you."
Ronan seemed baffled by this. "How did you forget to tell me?"
I shrugged, trying to stifle a smile. "A lot has been going on."
"Jheez, Millie, only you could forget something like that." He laughed. "How did you do it?"
"A little like before, I guess." I said. "I had a nightmare and confronted it."
Ronan nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Well, congratulations. Hopefully that'll be the last of your mental blocks for now."
"Hopefully." I agreed.
Irina seemed a little confused, not knowing exactly what we were talking about, but she didn't ask. I was kind of glad- sometimes it got tedious having to explain all the difficulties I'd faced when it came to being an Argent over and over again. Even though I was said to be 'one of a kind', what with being able to control all the elements, I still felt as though I was somewhat lagging behind the average Argent. It didn't help that I was late in becoming one to begin with, so I was behind when it came to training at the best of times, but then my brain always seemed to hit me with something else.
Still, I hoped Ronan was right. I hoped that I wouldn't have to face anymore nightmares or mind blocks or anything like that.
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