Another slice.
Another lash.
The restraints pulsed with energy, forcing my magic down, leaving me raw, exposed, and unable to heal.
Still, I refused.
Time stretched, warped by my pain, but none of the other students had to last this long.
My body screamed for it to stop, but I refused.
A long beep resounded inside the simulation. My vision came back as the simulator surrounded me again, but I was still secured to a chair.
Time was up, but why wasn’t the door opening?
The tourmalyke was still in my system, and a hallucination bled in.
A figure stepped from the side of the simulator toward me. “You really think you’re indestructible? No. You’re just a woman. A supernatural made weak with a little tourmalyke. You aremade of flesh, and that means you are breakable, even with magic.”
I locked my jaw and forced myself to breathe through the venom, through the fire in my veins, and through this fucking pain my own power was unleashing on me.
“Hallucination,” I bit out as a human came into view before me, face hidden behind a bright pink fae mask.
They leaned closer.
Their blue eyes were hollow, and their voice was too calm. “No. You’re a simple woman with a genetic code. One we’ll figure out.”
The air thickened with a sweet floral scent. It was wrong.
My head spun.
slater
. . .
I was still glaringat Hawk’s crumpled body and heart. My girl had just been grabbed, pawed at, and then I wasn’t even the one to rip his heart out.
“Shit,” I muttered.
My throat felt tight.
Beside me, Zuko’s scales faintly flared over his face. “That’s not fair. I wanted to at least torture him first.”
Rune was doing great in that gas-soaked torture simulation they called the placement exam, but she was contained in a chair.
“What the fuck is that, Lake?” Professor Bloodwyne hissed. “No other student was strapped down to a chair!”
“I didn’t do that!” He screamed at his brother-mate.
“Get her out,” Sabine hissed.
“I’m trying.” Headmaster Bloodwyne sounded frantic as he fucked with the controls.
I turned back to the monitor.
The feed flickered, static crawling over the image before it cut completely just as Rune’s eyes snapped toward the side like she saw someone in there with her.
“Fuck!” My demon form rippled out as I took off running to the simulator.“No, no, no!”
