Back to Atlantis

was talking about was carved in the shape of a crown, with strawberries in the shape of rubies. It looked good. “And it’s not even the season!” She tried some. It literally melted on her tongue.
“Wow,” Mitchel said, coming over. “You look amazing, Yasmin.” She glanced enviously at Yasmin’s dress. “I love purple.”
They had given Mitchel a puffy pink dress that was a size too small. Yasmin couldn’t help but feel a bit angry. Was this on purpose? To make the orphans feel like outsiders? Well, it was working. Most of the orphans’ just wanted to leave.
Yasmin let go of Lucas’s hand to grab a plate and fill it with food. She added bread too, remembering which her favorite was. Humming in content, she hardly noticed when a noble came up behind her.
“Watch out!” Lucas cried, but his voice was cut short by a gasp of surprise.
Yasmin turned to see a dark-skinned noble holding an empty wineglass, and Mitchel looking at her gown with growing horror. Her pink gown was becoming stained with a dark red liquid, like blood.
Mitchel looked more shocked than anything, but that quickly changed into hurt. She looked like she was trying very hard not to burst into tears.
Of course she would feel this way, Yasmin thought with growing horror. She’s had this dream for years, to be a princess, and it was shattered right in front of her. That would make anyone this hurt.
“What did you do?” she shouted at the noble, who was snickering to herself, clearly pleased. “What is wrong with you?”
The noble looked at her the way someone might look at dirt. “It slipped,” she said with a delicate shrug. “And besides, misses. Just because you are the mage doesn’t mean you can order everyone around. This is the way things are done. These people are lucky to have been invited at all. I’m just showing them that they don’t belong here.”
Yasmin felt every rational instinct inside of her disappear. She knew that Mitchel would be hurt for life because of that noble, and she couldn’t bear it. It wasn’t okay to act all high and mighty to people, who in reality, were no better or worse than you!
She felt as if someone else was Yasmin for a moment, and she was watching from the outside. Grabbing her plate, she walked up to the noble and shoved it on her dress. The delicate fruits, bursting with juice, were now dripping off the noble’s cream colored dress.
The noble’s eyes turned to sharp lasers. “How dare you do this to me?” she screamed, her voice radiating all across the ballroom.
Yasmin smiled sweetly. “I slipped.” She could hear Mitchel and Lucas snickering beside her. Yasmin shrugged, the height of innocence. “Oops?”
“You’re going to pay for this!” The noble raised a hand to slap Yasmin, but she moved aside.
Yasmin narrowed her eyes. “The orphans here are under my protection,” she said, her voice echoing across the ballroom. “They are kind people, and if you do anything to harm them, I will do to you what you did to them.” She glared at all of the nobles. “Is that clear?”
Most of the nobles had been here for the last two balls, and they remembered Yasmin’s power. So they fell silent, glaring at her instead.
Yasmin smiled grimly. “Good.” She turned to see Lucas and Mitchel staring at her with awe on their faces, and her anger evaporated.
“You’re the mage?” Lucas asked, looking confused. “How?”
Yasmin looked down. “I’ve been training as the mage here in Atlantis for months now,” she admitted. “I didn’t tell you because I was sick of people looking scared of me because of my magic. I kind of lost my temper the first night I was here and everyone has avoided me since. When I was with you guys, you liked me for me.” She hugged herself. “It’s been a while since someone didn’t care about my magic. It felt good.”
Lucas took her hand and smiled at her. “We don’t care about your magic, not unless you’ve been brainwashing us to like you this whole time.” He squinted suspiciously. “You haven’t, have you?”
Yasmin giggled, a weight lifted from her shoulders. She felt lighter than she had in a while. “No, I haven’t learned how to brainwash people… yet.”
“Good,” Mitchel said, taking her other hand. “Because what you did to that noble was so funny!” She started laughing again. “Did you see her face?”
Yasmin giggled again. “It was priceless!” Everything felt fixed again. She was going to stop keeping secrets from them.
“Are you the mage?” Yasmin turned and saw a middle-aged man looking at her curiously.
“Sadly.”
“Princess Amanda requested I meet with you to discuss…” He hesitated, looking around him. “Personal business.”
Yasmin’s heart leaped. Could this be a representative of the rouge army? “Sure.” She calmly detached herself from both Mitchel and Lucas, who looked confused. “Would you like to go to the library? It is very quiet there.”
The man nodded, his black hair gleaming in the chandeliers. He was wearing glasses, and was slightly stooped, like he was carrying a large weight on his shoulders. “Of course.”
“After me,” Yasmin said, eager to leave the ball and all of its drama behind.
She smiled reassuringly at Lucas and Mitchel, who looked confused. “See you later,” she told them, then left for the library, with the strange man behind her.
All the way to the library, Yasmin’s heart was thumping fast. The entire evening had gone by so fast, it seemed like a blur. As the hallway flashed past her, all she could think about was the look on David’s face when he saw her, and the way Lucas held her hand, as if everything was simple.
And maybe it was, with Lucas. He was simple, a steady heartbeat there for her whenever she was losing faith. Her time with David had never been simple. It had been excitement and first love, fire, and pain. David had opened her up to so much more, all so he could save his country.
And