Professor Emberveil flexed her fingers. Her nails sparked first, and then fire unfurled from her palms. It was her firedrake fire.
My gaze widened. “Can she…do that?”
Several students in the audience flinched and stepped back.
Raze instinctively joined them, and I clenched my jaw as I watched the flames twist toward Rune like they were sentient.
“Final round,” Professor Emberveil said. “No illusions. No tools. Just me.”
Rune laughed, her voice hoarse and raw. “Finally. I was getting bored of your toys.”
That made Professor Emberveil pause. “Careful, applicant.”
“I don’t break easy,” Rune assured her. “And firedrakes don’t scare me anymore than icedrakes do.”
Icedrakes?
The flames swelled suddenly, reflexively. Professor Emberveil didn’t move a muscle, but the fire responded like a living extension of her frustration.
Rune was getting to this professor…wasn’t she?
“You should be scared,” Professor Emberveil said. “Firedrake fire scars. Even in simulations.” She stepped closer. “But don’t worry. I’m much older. I can control my flames better than most.I won’t let you scar, but it will feel like you will. Headmaster Bloodwyne, is this okay?”
The headmaster’s jaw was clenched tight, but he nodded.
Flames of fire unraveled from Professor Emberveil’s palm like a whip and snapped toward Rune’s thigh.
It hissed as it made contact with her skin.
Rune screamed, the sound wretched and primal as a blister formed instantly across her upper thigh. The scent of scorched flesh bit the air.
She still didn’t spill the intel.
“I don’t think it felt like it would scar,” she rasped through clenched teeth, sweat dripping from her chin. “Want to try again?”
Professor Emberveil’s jaw clenched. She flicked her hand. Fire kissed Rune’s tattoo-free collarbone, curling like a serpent beneath the black strap of her bra. The fabric sizzled, and the strap popped off one side. The swell of her breast was exposed more, but her nipple remained covered.
Thank Fates. Otherwise, I might’ve actually intervened and been sent home.
Rune jerked in her chair, her head thrown back, a strangled cry bursting from her lips—but still no surrender.
“You’re going to have yourself exposed if you don’t tell me the intel,” Professor Emberveil warned, voice low now. “In front of everyone.”
Rune tilted her head. Her lips trembled, but her smile came through anyway.
“I thought firedrakes had more control than this,” she whispered. “Or do you always lose it when someone tells you no?”
The flames roared from the professor.
A wave of fire surged toward Rune’s midsection, almost too close to her vital organs.
Professor Emberveil caught the magic just in time, the heat shrinking back by inches. “What about now?”
Drecken Grimsworn appeared in front of Rune. “Enough.”
The lights above them flicked on.
Professor Emberveil exhaled slowly, fingers curling into fists. “I’m only doing my job, Drecken. This applicant has better endurance than half of the actual agents. To test her, I have to be extreme.”
