The Alchemists Academy Book 2: Elemental Explosions by Kailin Gow Read Free Book Online

standing up to him, Wirt. He could make things very difficult.”
                “For you.”
                “For me and for Alana,” Spencer countered. “He has more than enough influence at the school to cause problems for her, even if she is friends with Priscilla.”
                The slightly scatterbrained princess chose that moment to relocate from the table Alana was sharing with Roland to the one that Spencer and Wirt were on.
                “Honestly! I don’t know what’s gotten into Alana!”
                “What is it, Priscilla?” Wirt asked.
                “She… she actually asked me to go and sit somewhere else. She can’t do that. I’m a princess!”
                “What were you doing at the time?” Wirt asked.
                “I was just telling her all about the latest thing that’s happened with my… um, problem.”
                Wirt sighed. Priscilla’s main problem, as far as he could see, was that she didn’t think enough about the people around her before doing things. The problem that had earned itself a significant pause, however, was her unfortunate tendency to attract fairytales.
                “What is it now?” Wirt asked. “People showing up to official balls in glass slippers? Aunts trying to lock you up in towers? Wolves dressing up as your grandmother?”
                “You can laugh if you want,” Priscilla said, “but some of it is frightening . You don’t know what these things can be like, Wirt. My brother tried to climb in my window the other day and almost blinded himself falling into some rose bushes.”
                Actually, Wirt suspected that he was probably being a little cruel to the princess. After all, the original fairytales were dark and grim. Stories that no one would want to be caught up in. And it sounded like Robert had nearly been seriously hurt.
                “Alana always understood,” Priscilla said. “And now she doesn’t even want to hear.”
                “She’s probably too busy drooling over Roland Black,” Spencer muttered.
                “Oh, is that it?” Priscilla said. “Well, so long as she hasn’t forgotten about me, that’s all right then.”
                Spencer shook his head. “No it’s not.” He looked over at Wirt. “Wirt, I’m really worried about Alana. Especially with Roland around. She needs to do well this year. Could you… you know… look out for her?”
                Wirt was about to tell Spencer that he should stop being stupid and do it himself, but he didn’t. For one thing, he cared enough about Alana to want to agree. For another, he couldn’t help sharing just a few of Spencer’s doubts about Roland.
                “I’ll do my best,” Wirt promised.
     
     

 
    Chapter 6
     
    T he next day brought a new lesson for Wirt. It was down on his timetable as “magical animal husbandry”, and was accompanied by a note for all students taking the class to be down at the front of the tree bright and early in clothes they didn’t mind getting muddy. Which meant, in Wirt’s case, his normal clothes. Not having to worry about clothes getting dirty was one of the major advantages of a magical wardrobe.
                Several other students were already there by the time Wirt arrived, Alana among them. She was dressed practically, with wellington boots over her jeans and a dark sweater that presumably wouldn’t show the mud. Even in that, Wirt couldn’t help thinking how stunning she looked. Then he remembered what he had promised Spencer, and squashed the thought. There were some situations he didn’t want to get in the middle of.
                At the front of the class stood a rather elderly man, wearing ancient-looking plate armor interspersed with fragments of camouflage cloth. The