Free Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) by Rain Oxford Page A

or…”
    “I understand you were Professor Langril’s top
student for two semesters in a row and this might be unusual for you. However,
Professor Watson took over scheduling this semester and he thought you would be
better suited to my advanced class.”
    I studied the students entering for a moment. All ten
of them were students I recognized and liked working with. Also, it was no
mystery that Langril was insane and often had us doing extremely dangerous and
often pointless tasks, so I knew Professor Barton’s class would be safer.
    “With all due respect, Professor, I would prefer to
transfer back to Langril’s class.”
    His eyes widened. “Really? What for?”
    “I like that class.”
    He nodded. “You will have to get his permission, but
it’s fine with me.” I nodded and left. It only took a minute to reach Langril’s
class. I knocked and entered. Everyone turned and Mack dropped the cauldron in
his hands.
    Professor Langril had eight classes a week from
beginning potions to advanced. His classes were often small, as most students
wanted other professors like Professor Barton or Mali, who were both
respectable and taught a range of regular and advanced classes. The students
who did take Langril’s classes, however, usually wanted to remain in them, so
each of his classes tended to stay together throughout their required potions
classes. For this reason, I saw the same five classmates I had my first two
semesters… with one edition.
    “Hey, Devon,” Jackson said, uncharacteristically
polite.
    “What are you doing here?” I asked him.
    “I’m Professor Langril’s assistant.”
    “I’ve never seen anyone escape the nuthouse and then
voluntarily return,” Becky said.
    “It’s Stockholm Syndrome,” Andi told her.
    “That doesn’t work on cops.”
    “I’m not a cop,” I said. They both rolled their eyes
in disbelief.
    “Welcome back, Devon,” Professor Langril said as he
entered the classroom. “I thought you had escaped. Mack, clean that up. We
don’t need another shoe-melting incident on the first day of class.”
    There were still stains of melted rubber, burns, and
blood all over the stone floor from previous spills, the majority of which were
Mack’s doing. Students in Langril’s other classes thought we routinely
performed blood sacrifices in here. Of course, we played along by checking out
creepy books from the libraries or leaving weird equipment in the classroom
that we found in storage.
    At the end of class, everyone else left quickly,
including Jackson.
    “Why did you choose to come back to my class?” the
professor asked when we were alone.
    I shrugged. “Because I think I have a lot to learn from
you.” Not necessarily potions, though.
    “Do you trust me?”
    “Not at all.” I gathered up my stuff and started to
leave.
    “I need my books back. It is your responsibility to
take care of something you borrow without permission.”
    I recalled the time during the previous semester when
Darwin, Henry, and I went into the professor’s secret library and found books
on the castle and the original founders. I would have felt guilty for breaking
into the wizard’s room if it weren’t for what we found in the books, which was
evidence that Langril was much more than a professor of potions.
    Although I knew instinctively that Darwin was correct
in the fact that Keigan Langril was Leara Kingling, who worked with Heinrich
Baldauf on building the castle, we had no proof. Ghost took the books, which
probably made getting proof more difficult, but I wasn’t concerned. At the
moment, I had no reason to call Langril out on his past. Langril already said
he didn’t think I was ready— for something— so I didn’t think he would tell me
about the tower just because I knew who he was.
    Besides, I was pretty sure Hunt and my uncle already
knew, and there was most likely going to be a chance where I could use the
information to get them to tell me about the tower.
    “Well, Ghost