Chapter 19 : Magic Surge
The classroom smelled like wet chalk, burnt mana, and the lingering despair of a dozen children trying to learn magic before lunchtime.
Elias had warned the teacher—twice—that enrolling Rhea in a "Beginner's Practical Magic" class came with a few... complications. Specifically, that Rhea was (a) magically overpowered, (b) emotionally unpredictable, and (c) technically a former demon queen. He might've skipped that last one on the paperwork, though. Forms didn't have a checkbox for "ex-monarch of a hell realm currently residing in a six-year-old body."
At any rate, her official school name was "Rhea Cindersky," which had a nice, harmless ring to it, and nobody had questioned it yet.
Until today.
Until the ceiling exploded.
It all began innocently enough.
"Okay, class!" said Miss Allera, a plump woman with rose-tinted spectacles and the energy of someone who desperately wanted this day to be over. "Let's go over wandless channeling. Remember! No one should be using more than a trickle of mana. Safety first!"
Elias, sitting outside by the classroom window, gave Rhea a double thumbs-up from behind the glass.
She squinted at him. "What does two thumbs mean again?"
He mouthed, "You got this."
She whispered, "But do I?"