“Get up!” Master Dorian was unrelenting.
I couldn’t move. I desperately rushed to catch my breath.
Another spell hurled through the air, flipping me up and over onto my already bruised back.
“Get up!” Master Dorian stood over me, his hands raised for another assault.
The magic gathered in his hands, and I rolled away as fast as I could. He tried to follow, but the spell hurled into the ground where I had been. Turning myself onto my hands and knees, I scrambled away, putting distance between this merciless asshole and me.
When had I started cursing like this?
I didn’t have time to figure out the answer as another spell pummeled into my other shoulder, spinning me in the other direction.
Now, I was getting mad.
As I spun yet again, I caught sight of Master Dorian. I heaved as large a ball of magic at him as I could muster. He laughed and dodged—and he didn’t see the ball of magic in my other hand.
I flung it at him as he was standing back up, giving me time to stand straight again.
Since he hadn’t given me time to recover, I returned his consideration.
I used a whip of magic to his same hip. Yanking him around, I used a blunt club of magic to smash into his shoulder.
Now, though, Master Dorian was pissed, and I wasn’t prepared for his anger.
Magical hit after magical hit, he came at me. Tossing me in the air like a rag doll, letting me hit the earth again, throwing spells impossibly fast. Inhumanly fast. The magicbentaround him when I managed to get a glimpse.
No one should have been able to bend magic like that. It distracted me, and he was able to toss me in the air again.
I was going to hit the ground hard and bruise my bruises.
I grabbed the bent magic Master Dorian was whipping around and pulled it under me. As I bounced off the strings of power, it was easy to find my balance and land with both feet.
A small—thetiniest—flicker of respect danced across his face just as he yanked back his magic and crashed it against me; it sent me into the wall.
Again.
Gasping, I held up a hand. “Stop! Uncle!”
The assault stopped, but Master Dorian held the magic ready.
Lunella was already over to me with the wet cloth, wiping my face off again, finding more blood from the bloody nose that hadn’t healed as well as a dozen new small wounds.
She was smiling. “Good.”
“Good? I just got my ass handed to me.”
“You’re still standing. Hell, you’re still conscious. That’s more than most people can say against Master Dorian.”
I sucked air into my starved lungs, trying to alleviate the burning while the very man who had just beaten the tar out of me strode over.
“Done? You’re done, girl?”
Holding the towel to my bleeding nose, I cocked my head. “Yes, I’m done! You’ve beaten me to a pulp, you sadistic bastard.”
The magic unwound, and he let it settle. “You are pathetic.”
My jaw dropped. “I’m ateacher, not a fighter! You expect me to be good at this the very first time you take me out and beat the crap out of me?”
