Page 79 of A Dusk Of Stars

Groaning, I pick myself up, my chest heaving and my muscles burning.

“Stop, just stop,” I tell him in a breathless voice, bending at the waist with the heels of my palms digging into my thighs. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“Your wish is my command,” he chuckles from somewhere in front of me, “oh Chosen One.”

And the next thing I know, the darkness gets sucked in the direction of his voice and I find myself in the brightly lit gym again.

I look up, trying to throw daggers at where he’s standing, but I have to immediately look down because all I see are goddamn silver spots.

“Come on,” he says as his hand holding a bottle appears in front of my face, “drink up.”

I stand straight and down it greedily.

When I’m done, still breathing heavily and trying to blink the silver spots away, I find him on the mat, lying propped up on one elbow, looking up at me.

“You know, there’s no chance in hell I’m giving up coffee,” I tell him as I start a wobbly trek to the mat.

“Fine,” he says as he throws something at me, making me catch it midair, “now eat that.”

I lower myself to the mat across from him, looking at the thing in my hand. Looks like some kind of protein bar. I frown and look up at him. “If you're expecting me to stop eating normal food…”

“I don't care what you eat,” he says with a frown, “but Idocare about you getting all the nutrients you need, not just emptycarbs. Make sure one of those is the first thing you eat every day. You can get them in the cafeteria.”

“Alright.” I take a bite and almost fail to stop the urge to spit it all out, that’s how bitter it is.

He’s laughing at the face I’m making, but the thing is strangely soothing as well, so I ignore him and keep eating, letting my eyes sweep over the gym and reveling in the progress I’ve made as I absent-mindedly lick the crumbs off my fingers.

It’s then that it finally hits me and I look up at him, catching him staring. I throw him a snarky smile, but I can’t seem to get it out of my head, that I’ve just had an actual training session with him.

“What?” he asks, squinting at me.

Which means he could be of actual help to me. Maybe.

I hesitate, but only for a second. “I need you to arrange access to the Restricted Section for me.”

He lifts into a seated position, his eyes narrowing at me. “You need me to,” he echoes with a touch of defiance in his voice. “What, you think you can just snap your fingers and I’ll do whatever you want?”

I frown at him. “I need to get my hands on the book that chose me.”

He lets out a scoff. “So it’s just to indulge your curiosity that you’re bossing me around like that?”

I roll my eyes. “I’maskingyou.” Then I shrug. “And no, it’s because the book just has to contain information about the Aurora thing.”

He frowns. “You do know professors have to teach here for at least a year to get access themselves?”

Damn it, he’s right.

“Besides,” he keeps going, “why don’t you ask your precious Order? Or better yet, why don’t you start by checking the information they’ve already given you?”

That makes me frown. “What’re you talking about?”

“That incident they claim is the result of Baldur waking up? It’s obvious it wastheirdoing. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have anything to pressure you with.”

“No,” I insist with a shake of my head, “they couldn’t have done it, the Authority classified it as Nature Magic misfiring.”

He quirks a mocking eyebrow at me. “You can’t fake a Nature Magic misfiring?”

“Of course you can’t,” I say with a frown.

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