“No weapons,” he said, eyes landing on me in a soft way that didn’t match the tone of his voice. “Especially not venom-coated boot knives.”
I exhaled through my nose. “It was just an ankle dagger.”
Jesper held out his hand.
With a low growl from the depths of my throat, I reached over, yanked it from Zuko’s belt, and slapped it into Jesper’s waiting palm.
“Hey!” Zuko pouted. “That was sentimental.”
Jesper turned back to the panel. “Do you require medical attention?”
Zuko winked. “Only if Rune’s doing mouth-to-mouth.”
Slater high-fived him.
I rolled my eyes.
Jesper muttered something under his breath and snapped his fingers, shifting the simulator around us into mission configurations.
Zuko leaned in, breath hot against my ear. “If you stab me again, pretty little poison, at least aim higher.”
“Shut up,” I huffed. “You got my knife confiscated.”
“Don’t be like that.” Zuko nudged me with his shoulder, as if I hadn’t literally just stabbed him. “This was my first intimate exchange. Are you going to take responsibility for me?”
I stared ahead, still pouting, refusing to look at him. “You got blood on my boot.”
“Sharing fluids already,” he sighed happily. “This is going better than I planned.”
“No fair,” Slater mumbled grumpily. “Why did you stab him and not me?”
“That’s how she flirts,” Zuko purred.
“My question still stands.” Slater crossed his arms.
“Since this is not a real mission, do remember you will be entering asimulationof the Bizarre,” Jesper cut us off. “It’s essentially a reconstruction of a quarantined village that had been sealed off twenty years ago after a dark magic ritual went wrong. There is no dark magic residue, but there is magical essence rot from the failed ritual. Objectives are: investigate a magical anomaly pulsing at the town center. Free or neutralize a tortured phantom caught in a corrupted binding circle that has been there for the entirety of the quarantine, but be aware he is likely unstable and hostile. Track down a rogue warlock who is siphoning power to the anomaly. Prevent the magical essence rot from spreading to the nearby forest or other nearby villages. Contain or eradicate the warlock without full magical support. That means no enchanted or digital assistance allowed. You cannot go in with weapons, but you can use any that you find within the simulation. If you’re caught cheating, failure. If you leave a squad member behind, failure. If you die, a simulated death, obviously, you lose points. Depending on how you are eliminated, you may or may not fail. If you are taken out, you will be frozen to the spot you were killed and have to observe the rest of the mission from that point until the simulation is complete.”
He let that information sink in for a few moments, and I did my best to forget about Slater and Zuko beside me.
This trial needed my total focus.
“You have four hours. All applicant squads will be rotated through the two simulators the academy has over the next twelve hours. Everything you do will be recorded and reviewedby me and the professors that will watch from the monitor outside. This includes your decision-making under pressure, your leadership skills, how you protect your team, and how you handle moral ambiguity. Use your instincts. Think fast. Work together.”
I bit down slightly on my lower lip, drawing blood with a hiss. I licked it as it healed.
Dimitri’s red eyes caught on mine. His fangs descended as he jerked his head away from me.
My lips curved at the corners.Was the vampire interested in my blood?
Perhaps I could trade him. My blood for his venom?
It would be a perfect exchange.
“Rune will be the spy.” Jesper’s brown eyes settled on me.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest as I met his gaze.
“Your mission is to infiltrate the village under the guise of a magical researcher studying the aftermath. You need to find signs of the rogue warlock and maintain character to distract him because hewillbe watching you, even if you do not see him. Lull him into a false sense of security,understood?”
