Like Mildred Green, when the elementals were on the stage, pair after pair, eating away at the bulk of the day, and she failed to control all four elements.
Water is her strong suit. She turned it into a block of ice without even blinking.
Air, she did ok with.
The breeze was welcome in the stuffy hall.
But then the fire she tried to conjure flickered just twice before it died, and after that, when she tried to crack the soil down the centre, like an earthquake in a pot plant, a dusting of dirt puffed out of the pot, and that was that.
She failed.
It brought a smile to my face.
I’m not smiling now.
Not as Master Wealdwine announces, “Tomorrow, the practice examinations will continue. Attendance is mandatory for all.”
Even those who have done theirs already.
Even the deadblood.
My mouth tilts into a stroked line.
It will be another full day.
We’re only halfway through the prints. Eric hasn’t gone yet. Neither has Teddy.
There’s still prediction, star reading, numerous, rituals, shielding, summoning, resurrection, runes.
Tomorrow will be another long day.
And we’re ending this one with a demon, because just as everyone thinks she’s about to dismiss us, she announces, “The final test for the day is makut. Dray Sinclair.”
Bitterness spreads through me.
I look across the room, watching him push from the pew, shifting the shadows around him.
He is in the first row, so he walks directly onto the podium, into the warmth of the dim lights.
Master Wealdwine lifts a hand and gestures to the portraits on the walls. One for each wall, six in total, oil-painted and seemingly looking at each one of us.
I hate those paintings, like the family portrait in the foyer at Elcott Abbey. There’s just something unnatural about them.
Wealdwine commands, “Amaze me.”
A blank look slackens my face.
Oliver stiffens beside me.
In front, two seats down, Landon twists around to throw us a bewildered look.
I lift my shoulders just as Oliver shakes his head, a twin response of ‘don’t look at us, we don’t know.’
Of all the instructions and tests given today, none have been so open ended.
‘Amaze me…’
Whatever the fuck that means.
