Page 24 of Shadows in Bloom

“What about the book?”

“We’re not stealing it.” I glared.

“Yes, of course.” He chuckled. “I will come back on my own after our lesson tomorrow. If I find anything meaningful, I’ll bring it to your attention right away.”

My anger had served as a wonderful buffer between the other emotions plaguing me, but now that it had waned, I found my cheeks warming. I shook my head, allowing my hair to fall in front of my face, and turned my back to him. “Let’s go, then.”

“It’s been lovely to see your personality shine through tonight, Nairu. Even if it did come in the form of you being upset with me. I had a feeling there was a fire within you.”

I froze, but didn’t turn to face him. I couldn’t. Not with my entire face now burning and taking on what was no doubt a shade of deep crimson. So we spent the entire walk back to the inn in silence, with me keeping just a few steps ahead of him.

When I crawled back into my bed, having successfully opened and closed the door and crept across the wooden floors without waking Kallistra, I struggled to find sleep. Each time I closed my eyes, I saw him. Felt him. Suddenly, being caught sneaking off in the night by Kallistra seemed like the less deadly option.

Chapter 11

Whatever emotion had begun to blossom inside of me the night of the private library incident had since been shoved down into a deep, dark corner of my being, never to be acknowledged again. I’d made sure of it. Without such distractions, and with a renewed sense of courage, the last couple of magic lessons with Alandris had gone fairly well. We’d been focusing on having my shadows manifest as blasts of energy rather than worrying about them taking a distinct physical form. After every lesson, Alandris headed over to study the book we’d found, but up to now, he still had discovered nothing of note. Nor had his mentor responded to his inquiries.

It’d dawned on me that if we found nothing, I would have little option left but to ask Kallistra for the truth. And if our history gave any indication of how willing she would be to enlighten me, I’d be back at square one. That thought, thoughit’d never bothered me before, now terrified me. I wouldn’t go back to playing the role of the perfect little puppet. I would find the courage to fight that fate somehow.

Today was my last proper lesson before we set out toward the Azog Bog. After today, any training would be had sporadically as we traveled—if we weren’t too exhausted from the road. Kallistra and I had grown accustomed to such tedium because of the distance we had covered on foot during the pilgrimage, but I wasn’t so sure about my companions. I didn’t want to push Alandris too far by bothering him to teach me after long days of travel. I wasn’t sure if he was used to such a thing, and he’d never tell me honestly. I’d have to pay attention.

“Are you ready to battle?” Alandris called out, taking his place across the clearing opposite me.

I cocked my head to the side. “What?”

“I know, I know. I would never move to battle training this quickly if we were at the Consortium.” He held a hand up, letting a ball of flame spin in his palm. “However, our time is severely limited, so we won’t be doing things by the book. I’d like to get at least one lesson in before we set off tomorrow morning.”

My eyes widened as I watched the fire grow larger. “Are you going to throw that at me?”

There was a humored glint in his eyes as he shrugged his shoulders.

“What if I hurt you?”

I’d needed Alandris’ assistance in quelling the strength of my magic fewer and fewer times over our past few lessons. I’d been able to manage it on my own on multiple occasions. The black tendrils had still crept up my arms, but they were nowhere near as large or as painful as they had been in the past. Still, I had no idea what would happen if I were to hit him with a blast of my magic. The tendrils could appear on him… or worse.

“You won’t hurt me, Nairu.”

“Is that confidence or your reckless disregard for your own life speaking?”

He shrugged once more.

Alandris didn’t give me the opportunity to argue further, sending that ball of flame he’d been spinning barreling right at me. It was slow enough that I could dodge if I needed to, but I knew that wasn’t the purpose of today’s lesson.

I called upon my magic, feeling the shadowy wisps seep from my palms. I sent them forth to intercept the fire. That darkness wrapped itself around the flame, dancing with it until it snuffed it from existence, and there were no traces of either of our magics left in the air.

There was hardly time to brace myself before another burst of fire shot toward me, this time much faster. I again summoned my shadows to quell the blow, but this time, I reached further down into the pools of my magic to send a blast of my own in Alandris’ direction. I thought I saw a flash of pride on his face before he snapped his fingers and my shadows burst into flame. I was still weak in comparison. What had drained me immenselyseemed to be as easy as breathing for him. To ever face him in battle legitimately would be horrifying.

He rushed for me, closing the space between us so quickly I barely had time to react. His flames took on the shape of a blade, swinging down at me. Without the time to counter with a blade of my own, I opted to let my shadows protect me, covering my arm entirely, like a shield. The moment the fire met the darkness, it fizzled out.

Alandris stepped back and held up a hand, an indication to stop. “Interesting.”

“Did you just try to slice at me?”

“No. Well, yes, but I would’ve stopped if you didn’t guard yourself.”

My jaw dropped. “What if you couldn’t stop in time?”

He let out a breath of a laugh, as if what I’d asked him had been utterly ridiculous rather than a valid concern. “I suppose you’d have an impressive scar at best, and one less limb at worst.”

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