“From what I’ve been told, you had a blocking spell placed on you when you were sixteen, and your affinity was never allowed to surface until recently.” Dr. Thorne arranges several bowls of water around me.
“Yes, that’s what I’ve been told.”
He finishes with the bowls and moves to stand behind a table with a tall magical shield. “Stand very still for a moment and we’ll see what we’re dealing with.”
As the magical energy in the room amplifies, the pattern etched into the floor begins to glow and shift. The hair on my body stands on end, and everything in me wants to look down and see what’s happening. But after his request for me to stand ‘very’ still, I’m worried there might be some kind of magical feedback if I move.
I draw slow, deep breaths into my lungs, and close my eyes to remain calm.
After what couldn’t be more than a minute or two, the hair on my arms relaxes and the magical energy dissipates.
“Well done, Miss Hallowind. You can come here and see your results if you wish.”
I hurry off the patterned floor and join him behind his worktable and magical shield. He points to what appears to be an ordinary computer screen, and I look at a series of images of wavy and peaked lines that tell me absolutely nothing.
“If we assume the spell was put in place soon after your sixteenth birthday, it seems it was reinforced yearly since then. Someone really didn’t want your powers emerging. And to do that to a young witch with a family history like the Hallowinds is both bold and alarming.”
Reinforced yearly? Who the hell did that? How did I not know that? Did Laurel have spies watching me? Questions burn on the tip of my tongue, but I refuse to go after Wylder within earshot of the others.
I swallow and curl my fingers into fists at my sides. “But you can remove the block, right?”
“I have yet to be bested by any magical block, young lady. Trust me, you’re in good hands. Come, let’s get started.”
I blink back to consciousness to find myself propped up on the mattress of my dorm bed. There’s a strong tang of blood in my mouth, and Wylder is sitting on the other side of me, holding a warm cloth against my nose.
“Breathe through your mouth,” he instructs, his voice unusually free of hostility. “Dr. Thorne stabilized the energy released from the first two phases of the block being broken, but you passed out and got one hell of a nosebleed.”
“Was the nosebleed because of what was done or because I faceplanted on the enchanted floor?”
“From what was done. You landed on your ass.”
“Well, that’s much less humiliating.”
He shrugs. “If it makes you feel any better, I think Thorne regretted having you go first because the other four students up for blockage removal didn’t look at all eager to go after seeing what happened with you.”
I take the cloth from him and shift to sit up until the room spins. Too soon. Much too soon. “And how many times will I have to do that?”
He sits back in the chair. “I don’t have that answer. The good news is that while the first time can really suck, eventually it won’t.”
“That was one hell of a pep talk.”
Wylder stands and pulls out his tablet. “Motivational speaking has never been my thing.”
“Look at that. We finally agree on something.”
He taps the screen a few times and frowns. “It’s almost ten. Rest for a couple of hours while I check in on some of my other charges. Get something to eat, and then we’ll head off to your afternoon sessions.”
I blink up at him. “There’s more? Doesn’t passing out and humiliating myself once already excuse me from further torture today?”
“Nope. And in the immortal words of Samantha Stevens, ‘Witches aren’t wusses.’ So, rest and regroup, and I’ll come back to get you at noon.”
I blink. “Did you just make a joke?”
He rolls his eyes. “It was more of a jab than a joke. I was telling you to stop whining like a baby.”
I stand corrected.
When he’s out of my room and the door is closed, I sit up and lower the bloody cloth as I look in the mirror. “Well, hell, that’s not disgusting at all.”
