Rune stood calmly on one of the rocks, her ankle twisted at an odd angle. She looked completely unbothered. Her glowing green hair crackled faintly with static, and her magic splintered off her as she withstood it.
My composure, slowly, began to fray.
Version seven was created bymymagic.
The first arcane burst hit the space below her, sending the rock she was on flying. She leapt, landing gracefully on another one.
Most students at least stumbled…aside from that vampire I’d passed a few students before her.
She simply narrowed her golden eyes and kicked off her boots with balance I’d never seen before.
When the second surge of magical power struck, she didn’t flinch. Her jaw set.
An illusion of a lost child filled her senses, but she brushed it off. Good thing, too. That illusion was not a child at all. It was a dark magic-infected warlock with a glamour…something I programmed in personally.
Usually, agents fell prey and had to at least fight the warlock.
She handled everything this version threw at her, and I was so curious to see how unbothered she truly could be by magic, so I let my power flood out of me and head toward her in a wave of crackling light.
As soon as my magic touched her aura, my soul surged with warmth. It was steady and pulsing in my chest. Somehow, she was familiar even though I’d never met her before today. It was the warmth I hadn’t felt since my parents were alive, and it cracked something deep inside of me.
She jumped across the floating rock, only pausing for a second when my magic brushed hers, leaping from one fractured surface to the next. She flipped over a barrier ward as if it was child’s play. Full grown firedrakes struggled with that barrier, but she didn’t.
She didn’t just survive the arcane storm of version seven that I’d built myself. She maneuvered around it as if it were hers, which was odd since she wasn’t a witch and couldn’t possess such control.
All of a sudden, fingertips brushed the back of my neck.
A jolt spread through my muscles, and I dropped to my knees. Just for a fraction of a second, but the simulator caught it.
Trial passed.
She…beat me?
“Did I pass?” she asked, panting just slightly, sweat forming on her collarbone, making the pretty poison tattoo shimmer.
“You...” I coughed, disoriented as I pushed to my feet and stumbled back. “Yes.”
She stepped closer. Too close. I could smell midnight orchid clinging to her skin, and it was driving me crazy in a way I’d never felt before.
“Nobody has ever outmaneuvered me before,” I uttered, rubbing the back of my neck where she had touched. “What kind of venom did you dose me with?”
Her lips curved, golden eyes gleaming with amusement. “I actually didn’t. That was just my hand.”
No.
That couldn’t be right.
My equilibrium still had me swaying slightly, legs wobbly beneath me. It was as if her magic had slipped under my skin and rewired something subtle but vital.
My breath hitched. My wards were all intact. Yet…
I stepped toward her as if on autopilot, reaching out to her without meaning to. My hand hovered an inch above her collarbone, drawn to the shimmer of sweat beading against her skin. That cursed tattoo,pretty poison,glowed faintly.
“You’re powerful,” I whispered. “You shouldn’t be able to manipulate my magic like that. And yet…I felt you do just that. Yousyncedwith it.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe it synced with me. I didn’t do anything specific.”
That was entirely possible considering what had happened. It was also entirely maddening.
