Page 59 of Hellfire

I covered my mouth to withhold a laugh at her always assigning everything a romance trope.

“Don’t worry, you won’t hurt the volunteers.” Blaze thumped the chest of his padded suit. “These are made from a new fiber that detects specific spells and mimics them.”

The class “ooohhed” at that.

This sounded like the kind of tech built by Cole. He mentioned a secret project. My man was so clever. Pride flushed my body, and I clasped my hands together and smiled, thinking of him.

“For example,” Blaze went on, “if you hit the hunters with a weakening spell, it will prevent them from moving for up to sixty seconds to give you time to escape. If you hit them with a knockout blow, they’ll fall on their ass.”

Sixty seconds was hardly enough time. In a combat situation, it was more than generous when some gantii required multiple strikes to take them down.

That aside, this exercise sounded like fun. Damn. I wish I’d spent more time outdoors familiarizing myself with the Academy’s layout. Then I’d know my way around better to avoid getting hunted.

Astra’s fingers painfully dug into me. “I’m so jealous you’re getting hunted by your harem.”

I wish. Blaze and I only ever fooled around outside of “official” class time. Not that I would complain if they snuck in some fun, sexy lessons.

“It’s just an exercise with NO funny business.” I tried to pry her off and avoid bruising.

“Shh.” She pressed a finger to my lips. “Leave me to my imagination.”

I swatted her away. “Don’t get caught up in your fantasy and fail this lesson.”

“I won’t.” Her dreamy smile foretold she was the first to fail this lesson because she got lost in a primal play fantasy.

Blaze’s voice snapped us both out of our private conversation. “Like last time, the Guildling with the lowest offensive tally earns the job of collecting every Nerf dart from the forest.”

Definitely not losing then. The grounds of the Academy were huge. Hundreds of hectares of forest to keep unwanted gantii out. A search like that might take days.

Astra turned to me and shoved out her hand to shake. “May the best princess win.”

We all knew who’d win this challenge and claim class valedictorian for this year. I’d give her a run for her money. I laughed and shook my competitive bestie’s hand.

Blaze set a timer on his watch. “You have a seven-minute head start, class. The alarm sounding signals the exercise commencing, and it will run for a total of thirty minutes. I hope I don’t catch you.” And with that, he lifted a dragon mask, his eyes catching mine before he lowered it over his head.

Astra groaned and jogged away, leaving me stunned for a few seconds, contemplating her theory. I felt the burn of Blaze’sscrutiny on me, and my body responded, flushing with a need to run, be chased and caught.

Damn Astra for putting the idea in my head!

Refusing to come in last in this exercise, I shrugged off my winter coat and left it on the table, leaving it behind because of the cumbersome weight and rustle of fabric. This exercise required stealth and surprise. I forced myself to move, hurrying away into the wooded forest, encountering thickening canopy the deeper I went. The end of winter’s chill seeped into my bare arms and legs. I picked up my pace, my blood flowing quicker, heating my body.

Students scurried about, rustling through scrub, some taking cover in tree hollows or within bushes to prepare their offensives. Gargoyles perched in trees above us, overlooking the exercise and ensuring our safety. Angela cursed as she stubbed a toe on a fallen log and hopped to lean on a tree.

I continued for another two hundred feet to dig in my defense for when the timer went off and the hunters entered the forest. Tucked amid a thicket, I spotted Astra a hundred feet ahead of me to the east, using the same tactic.

A blowhorn resonated through the trees, and my stomach crunched with determination to get my offensive spells right. I kept tracing the spells in the air, praying my mind didn’t blank in the thick of conflict. If I couldn’t do it under pressure in class, then I stood no chance of protecting myself in the field. Fairies were one thing to contend with in a test, a real-life Lycan or dragon another, and I didn’t plan on becoming their meals.

Snapping branches and crunching leaves sounded in multiple directions like a pack of wolves descended on the class. Within a minute, the forest lit up with the magical attacks we studied in class—repelling spells to knock foes back or discourage their magical blasts, neutralizing and weakening rays, and enchantments to send gantii to sleep. Some studentscried out as they were captured or shot with Nerf darts. I couldn’t quite make out all the details from my low vantage point. I waited, my fingers at the ready to paint the fending spell. Crunching leaves said students or hunters were on the move, headed right for me, and I hunkered down for a surprise offense.

A hunter came out of nowhere, wrapping an arm around my throat, another around my middle, dragging me from my shrubs, crushing me to a hard body. I kicked and beat them, unable to release a spell without encapsulating myself in it.

“You got complacent, Princess,” the hunter growled, his voice husky and lower through his mask.

Talon.

Damn, what did they teach in Tollen classes? Stealthy attacks?

His hand came to my throat, his arm around my waist tightening, his earthy, vanilla and dark cherry scent invading my senses. “You know what I do to my men when they let the enemy best them?”

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