All Chapters of The Academy’s Most Underestimated Student: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The wolf that had been Ronan Kade moved like nothing I'd seen from him before, low and fast and utterly silent across the sand, and Nolan barely got his arm up in time to catch the first strike, claws raking across the hardened surface of his forearm with a shriek of sound that set my teeth on edge."Everyone back!" the referee screamed, wings snapping wide as she herded the front rows away from the railing, faculty converging from every direction now, robes and coats flapping as they ran.The wolf didn't care.It drove forward again, jaws snapping shut inches from Nolan's shoulder, and Nolan twisted aside at the last possible second, driving his palm into the beast's ribs hard enough that I heard a crack.It didn't slow him down at all.The wolf's tail lashed sideways, catching one of the stone pillars marking the Arena's edge, and the pillar shattered outright, chunks of rock exploding outward in a spray that sent the nearest students scrambling over each other to get clear."He's g

The courtyard outside Vale House had been transformed overnight, and I mean that literally, since nothing about the tents and banners and floating signboards had existed the evening before. Yesterday there had been nothing but flagstones and a few scattered benches; now there was an entire world crammed into that same space, humming with noise and color and the electric energy of hundreds of students who all seemed to know exactly where they were going. "Move faster," Sandra said, already three steps ahead of me, weaving through the crowd like she'd done this every year of her life. "The good clubs run out of space fast. Last year the Alchemy table got so crowded they had to cap sign-ups by noon." "What counts as a good club?" "Depends who you ask. Ask me, it's anything that doesn't involve homework disguised as fun." The courtyard stretched further than I remembered it looking, tents in every direction, some simple canvas, others clearly held up by something other than poles, flo

Ember had fallen asleep curled against my knee by the time I noticed the enclosure had gone quieter around me, most of the other first years drifting toward the tent's exit as the afternoon light through the canvas roof shifted gold, and I stayed where I was, half out of exhaustion, half because moving felt like it might wake her.Instructor Fenn passed twice, glancing our way each time with an expression I still couldn't fully read, somewhere between approval and something more guarded, before finally disappearing toward the back of the tent to deal with whatever the feed schedule required of her.I didn't hear Lucian arrive until his shadow fell across the enclosure floor."So the rumors are true."I didn't have to look up to know who it was. Nobody else at this school sounded quite that pleased with themselves over nothing in particular."What rumors?""That the school's favorite mystery human tamed the single most bad-tempered creature in Fenn's entire collection." Lucian crouched

The morning of the exhibition, Sandra woke me up by throwing a pillow at my head."Up. Now. You've got four hours and you're wasting them sleeping.""It's not until this afternoon.""Which means we have exactly enough time to make sure you don't look like someone who's been panicking about this for two days straight." She was already rifling through my closet, tossing things onto the bed with the brisk efficiency of someone who took personal offense at my complete lack of a fashion sense. "Also I brought breakfast. Eat first. You get dramatic when you're hungry.""I'm not dramatic.""You cried during the chimera thing.""That was a near-death experience.""Details." She held up two shirts, considered them both, and threw the less interesting one back into the closet. "This one. Trust me."I ate the breakfast, mostly to avoid the argument, and let Sandra fuss over my hair longer than strictly necessary, her violet fingers quick and surprisingly gentle as she worked, humming something u

The knock on my door came before I'd even finished getting dressed, two rapid raps followed immediately by Theo's voice through the wood, too loud for how early it still was."Mia! Did you check your compact yet?""Give me a second."I found it exactly where I'd left it the night before, screen dark, and by the time I'd tapped it awake, Theo and Bree had let themselves in without waiting for an actual invitation, Sandra groaning from her bed at the sudden intrusion of morning energy into a room that hadn't earned it yet."There's a memo," Bree said, already pulling up her own compact to show me. "Academy sent it out an hour ago. They're assigning homerooms.""We don't already have those?""Apparently not officially. Whatever we had before was just orientation groupings. This is the real thing." Theo leaned over my shoulder, scrolling through his own screen. "There's a link. You tap it, it assigns you randomly. No picking, no requesting, nothing. Board's very proud of how fair that is,