Page 64 of Bound By Fate
She paused. A look of horror crossed her face as the spell caught her too.
"YODEL-AY-HEE-HOO!" Mrs. Pince shrank back, horrified.
"I'm so sorry!" the freshman yodeled.
"It's not my fault!" Mrs. Pince yodeled back, in a beautiful, soaring falsetto.
Within ten minutes, the library sounded like a Swiss mountain range during mating season. Students were yodeling their study questions. Professors were yodeling their lectures.
"Is that... Beethoven?" Rhett asked, tilting his head.
"I think the History Department is yodeling the Fifth Symphony," I agreed.
It was chaos. It was noisy. And it was impossible to be afraid of a Dean when you were busy yodeling your lunch order.
Speaking of lunch.
Dining Hall A. 1:00 PM.
The mood was grim. Marrow hadn't been lying. The serving line contained exactly one option: Oatmeal.
Giant, industrial vats of gray, lumpy sludge. It smelled like wet cardboard and sadness.
"This is a war crime," a werewolf linebacker grumbled, poking the sludge with a spoon. "I need protein. This is... wallpaper paste."
"Eat up," a kitchen thrall droned. "Dean's orders. nutrients are sufficient."
I nudged Kai. "You're up, Green Thumb."
Kai walked into the cafeteria. He didn't look like a rebel. He looked like a guy who just wanted a snack.
He walked up to the main vat.
"Is this organic?" he asked the thrall.
"Nutrients are sufficient," the thrall repeated. "Eat."
Kai smiled. He rested his hand on the side of the metal vat.
"I think it needs a garnish," he whispered.
Bloom.
He pushed his magic into the oats. He found the tiny, dormant seeds of life within the grain—the memory of the field, the sun, the rain.
The oatmeal shuddered.
Then, it erupted.
Vibrant, neon-colored wildflowers burst from the gray sludge. Poppies, daisies, snapdragons. They grew impossibly fast, spilling over the sides of the vat, cascading onto the floor.
But these weren't normal flowers.
"Is that... chocolate?" a student asked, sniffing the air.
Kai grabbed a snapdragon and took a bite. "Semisweet," he confirmed. "The daisies are vanilla."
"Edible flowers!" the linebacker shouted.
