She moved forward again, but his deft, ink-stained fingers were there, lightly grasping her wrist. A gasp escaped her as his magic met hers, curling around it before summoning it out into the air. Her obsidian swirls melded into his smokey blue; the color born of tempest seas and stolen nights. The space around them brightened causing Seren to squint against it.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, heart pounding.
She could hardly breathe beneath the sensation coursing along the surface of her skin. Sheer, unbridled power. Connection. A recognition similar to that of her and Bella's magic, but somehow more. She'd felt a hint of this in the briar maze when they'd battled over the way forward, passing globes of fire between them. But this was deeper, intimate, almost intrusive, yet she didn't want to pull away. Instead, she longed to bottle the feeling, brew it into an elixir she could take.
All too soon, he released her, the only expression on his face to give anything away was a small crinkle between his brows. “Double checking. I had to be sure.”
Her knees trembled and her fingers tightened as she hugged her arms close to her body, eyes narrowed. “Had to be sure of what?”
“That it was, in fact, your magic my detection spell picked up once I realized my Pavor wand had gone missing. And it is the very same magic I tangled with at your opening trial.”
So it hadn't been her imagination, their magic connecting that day in the briar maze.But why?She eyed him up and down and he mirrored her, waiting for an explanation, she realized.
"I–" she faltered.How could she explain? How could she make him see how important her magic was to her? How deep this fear ran?She shivered at the notion. It was bad enough she'd allowed Calder such an intimate glimpse into her weakness. She would not beg.
"From what I've observed in class, you've proved to be a powerful and intelligent young woman, Miss Marudas, so tell me, what would ever compel you to be so reckless with your position here at Calami? You do understand what happens to witches who are displaced, do you not?"
Seren fought against the blood rushing to her face. The swell of emotions his words provoked.He'dbeen observing her?For a moment she felt almost as giddy as the vapid witches she scoffed at in his classes, who saw him as though he was a god, displaced, fallen from the stars.
But the more important half of his statement crashed over her. She did know what would happen. Yet she'd taken the risk. Gambled her fate. Her mouth turned dry, and she glanced away.
"You're going to have me expelled then?" It was hardly a question, but she waited for the confirmation with bated breath all the same.
When he said nothing, she lifted her gaze to him once more, raking over the soft chestnut brown hair and stormy eyes hardened to steel.
"You didn't do this alone, did you?"
A thousand answers flooded her, the truth among them. Growing up, she'd been a fairly convincing liar; had to be when village boys were threatening to pummel you for being a rarity, and your only choice was to bluff and threaten to turn them into toads.
"I did." Her words broke low and resolutely between them. She gritted her teeth and met his stare.
He shifted a fraction, his tall, muscular frame too solid for someone who spent most of their time behind a desk. But hadn't she heard rumors? How his fan club of young witches sometimes waited to glimpse him coming back up the hill toward Calami after a fight down at the village docks of Dunebury? Smartandstrong, something similar to what he claimed to see in her. She doubted he couldn't see straight through her lie.
But his face was impossible to read. "Do you understand the danger?” he whispered, shifting ever so slightly. “If perhaps you don’t and, by some chance, my wand has fallen into the hands of a young, compelling wizard with emerald green magic, it will need to be dealt with immediately."
Her stomach fluttered. "It hasn't."
"Oh?"
"It's in my room. I didn't give it to him."
His stormy gaze darkened. “I don’t think you quite understand, Miss Marudas. It’s not often the Darkmore's are given things. They take what they want.”
A weight dropped like stone in her stomach, followed by the overwhelming urge to run to her dorm. She half choked, shifting to face Atwood full on. "How could you possibly know it was Calder Darkmore?"
The professor all but rolled his eyes. "We've just been through this, Miss Marudas. Magic leaves traces. Sensations. I know the Darkmore boy. I'm familiar with his magic, and the two of you were sloppy with your trail."
A spark of magenta light glinted suddenly just above his shoulder. A sharp crack followed, and a scrap of folded parchment blinked into existence. The professor caught it deftly, a gentle frown marring his otherwise handsome face as he read before crumpling it in his fist.
"Retrieve the wand. I expect it on my desk by tomorrow morning. You've gotten into my office once. I assume you'll have no problem doing so a second time." He turned to go, but this time Seren reached for him, halting his retreat.
He stiffened beneath her touch in a way that made her let go immediately before slowly looking up at him. "Am I to be expelled?" She needed to know; fear gripped the very core of her.
He watched her again with that strange knowing. She waited for the words of condemnation. Shut her eyes when he spoke. But they came open again just as quickly when he murmured, "No."
"No?" She echoed.
"Bring the wand, as I said, and this stays between us. Fail to do so, and you'll leave me no choice but to go to the headmistress."
