Page 78 of A Dusk Of Stars

He lets out a scoff then leans a little closer. “Hate to step on your rose-colored glasses, ohChosen One, butsometimes,” he says mockingly, “when someone tells you you’re oh-so-special, they don’t actually mean it, they’re just saying it for you to do their bidding for them.”

I let out an exaggerated groan, throwing my arms up. “This is not aboutme. If it turns out it’s not true, who cares? But if it turns out itis, well, I’d be saying no to saving the world, now wouldn’t I?”

“No onesaves the world, Novak,” he insists with this bitterness in his voice. “The world is shit and will alwaysbeshit, but luckily, none of it isyourresponsibility, unless you choose to stay the fool you’re apparently intent on being.”

Wow. I just look at him for a second. Then I take a step back. “No.” I shake my head, hoping to make him finally drop it. “I’m not ‘discussing’ this with you any longer because, frankly, it’s none of your business.”

“None of my business?” he snaps. “I’m your mentor, in case you forgot.”

I let out an exasperated sigh and turn back to the mat. “You know what?” I say as I grab my tote and my book off the floor. “This is onme, thinking you could lastonehour without being an asshole,” I complain as I push past him and start moving for the door, “but you can’t even respect my decision so I’ll just go—”

He comes to block me. “Oh I’ll be respecting your decision alright. It’s just that you won’t exactly like it.”

My eyebrows pull down when he takes the tote off my shoulder and lowers it onto the floor. “What’re you doing?”

“Since your decision is to be stupid,” he says simply, “I guess I’m being forced to start training you for real.”

It’s in growing confusion that I watch him take a step back, push his chest out and fold his arms. “No one is forcing—”

“Though I have to warn you,” he cuts me off, tilting his head at me and making his voice saccharine like he did once before, “it means the end of your fucked-up ways.”

“Fucked-up ways?” I protest. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Constantly depriving yourself of sleep,” he readily lifts a hand to start listing, “only ever eating junk food, drinking insane amounts of coffee…” He pauses to pin me in place with his eyes, his lips curling into a self-satisfied smirk. “That all stops because from now on, you’re doing everythingmy way. You’re working out how I tell you to, you’re eating what I tell you to…” He quirks an eyebrow. “Hell, you’re even going to bed when I tell you to.”

“Fascist much?” I snap, albeit without a bite to my words.

A lazy smirk tugs at his lips. “Why don’t you quit being a smartass and start trying to defend yourself, huh?”

Um… Wait, is he being serious? Defending myself fromhim?

“With what, mysparks?” I demand with anxiety in my voice.

He shrugs. I don’t have time to linger on it, because he’s lifting his left hand in the air and the next thing I know, all the light in the room gets sucked into his palm, all except a tight circle around the two of us.

What the…

For a moment, he just looks at me with this smug smile on his face. Then he takes a single step back, disappearing into the darkness.

My breath catches, then my heart starts pounding.

I’m afraid to tear my gaze away from the spot where I last saw him, but seconds go by and the total absence of sound coupled with a feeling of being watched intently… It’s all becoming too unnerving.

Reluctantly, I lower my eyes to my right hand, summoning the sparks. What else?

It’s too late, because there’s this super fast movement to my right, and before I can even try to move or do anything with my only power, my legs get swept off and my ass crashes to the ground.

I groan, only to hear a low chuckle sound from behind my back. “Come on, Novak,” his smooth, smirking voice pokes at me, “don’t you want to bethe best Chosen One ever?”

***

I’m breathless and aching, but after what seems like an eternity of getting my ass kicked, I summon all my remaining strength and manage to concentrate the sparks into a single point hovering above the tip of my middle finger. My eyes rounding, my instinct nudges me to use a flick of my wrist to send it flying.

It shoots across the space before me with a sound much like the cracking of a whip.

Huh.

My distraction with what I just did only makes it easier for him to make his move from the cover of darkness, sending me falling face first this time.

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