Page 138 of Every Shade of Shadow

‘Stood my ground’ would be the obvious answer, but the way this looks…I’ve gone too far. All I see are frightened faces.

Some shake their heads, others moving in to help Cassandra.

Lily’s staring at me from the doorway like I’m a complete stranger.

“I didn’t mean to,” I start to stutter.

Cassandra keeps her finger raised at me, voice croaky. “Dark…magic,” she repeats, coughing.

“I didn’t…I don’t…”

I have no idea what to say.

I rush past her, rush back all the way to the safety of my room.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

I’m not surprised to be sitting in the Headmistress’s office, but I am surprised to see Darkwood here. He’s leaning beside the window behind Isadora’s desk with a wry smile on his lips. He almost looks pleased I’m about to be reamed out.

Isadora herself doesn’t look so cordial. She appraises me for a moment before standing and pacing around her desk. “This castle has a bloody history. Some five-hundred years ago the enigmatic sorceresses Malakar Shadowthorn and her faction of would-be mutineers swept through these very halls casting down any who stood in their way. Her little reign didn’t last, of course. She was in chains by nightfall once word got out to the larger luminal factions. But what this did serve to start was a strange paradox here in the castle of those forces between light and dark, light and shadow—a contradiction that has remained.”

I look to Darkwood, but he’s giving me nothing.

The Headmistress stops in front of me. “Which I’m afraid is a long-winded way of saying while Shadowcraft is part of these walls, it is tempered by a certain restraint—restraint that you did not show when you sent dear Cassandra to the infirmary.”

“So I’m going to be expelled?”

The Headmistress laughs, looking back to the Professor. “I can see why you like her,” turning back to me, “but no.” She waves her hand around. “Professor Darkwood assures me this was a simple case of self-defense, that your darker powers are still in the taming phase.”

Taming—one way to put it. “So I’m not going to be punished?”

And fuck me, I’ve never sounded more like a child in my entire life.

I consider the relationship between the Professor and Isadora again, because they do seem oddly intertwined. I hope it’s only professional.

“Professor Darkwood has offered to further hone your talents and personally discipline Ms. Thornwood.”

I remember his threats to Cassandra. He’ll kill her for even thinking of harming me, his plaything. “That won’t be necessary,” I blurt.

The Headmistress looks to Damien, who shrugs. She claps her hands together. “Well, in any matter I’ll let you two…hash it out, so to speak.” Her lips pull into a tight seam. “For now, you’re dismissed, but please, Ms. Fairchild. No more displays. We wouldn’t want to give the student population any further cause for concern, would we?”

Darkwood pushes off the wall. “Allow me to escort her to class.”

The Headmistress seats herself at her desk, pulling across a stack of papers. “As you wish.”

“What was all that about?” I ask quietly once we’re back in the hallway.

“You should be thanking me,” he says, setting a brisk pace.

“You’re going to hurt her, are you, Cassandra?”

“I would quite like to break every bone in her body, but you seem to have developed a weakness for her.”

“A weakness?” I laugh. “No, it’s not like that, but I don’t want to be responsible for her…” I can’t force the word out, the big ‘D.’

We reach the crossroads of the hall, facing one another as a student presses past us.

“I’ll consider leniency,” the Professor says, “but your display, as the Headmistress put it, was unacceptable.”

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