Koa’s hand slammed against Darian’s face, fire roaring to life over his arm. His voice was deadly calm. “You shift, you die.”
Darian sucked in a sharp breath and stumbled back, pointing at Rune. “We’re talking about this.”
I let out a dark laugh. “You aren’t even going to be breathing in her presence again.”
“That’s right,” Slater added, his voice low and uncharacteristically menacing. “Forget talking.”
His chaos manifestation, Snakey, lunged from his body and bit Darian’s finger.
Darian’s scream was raw.
“Snakey’s venom is like liquid fire, liquefying from the inside out. Have fun enjoying that,” Slater cooed as Snakey looked at Rune before de-manifesting.
“Go to class before you get yourselves in trouble,” Tobias growled, eyes still blazing. “I’ll handle this asshole. He’s on my squad.”
Dimitri cleared his throat, ushering everyone back toward the academy. His gaze lingered on Rune. “You picked a real gem for an ex.”
Rune hissed, “He was fine at first.”
Dimitri’s lips quirked faintly. “I understand that more than you know.” His fingers brushed the scar at his throat through the slit in his suit as we walked on.
rune
. . .
The jagged palescar tissue that ran across the curve of Dimitri’s throat made rage unfurl in my heart. What made it glaringly obvious that it was a siren’s failed mating mark was how torn and messy it was. Up close, the light caught on thin rips, raised in some places and almost smooth in others from the siren’s sharp teeth.
It looked like it had hurt. Badly. It was the kind of scar left by someone desperate andfurious.
Nobodydeserved that.
I hoped whoever did that to him was dead by his hands.
When we entered the House of Twilight classroom, Professor Jarvins had files placed neatly on our desks with templates for the persona portfolios we had to create for ourselves.
Jarvins stood at the front of the class, his salt-and-pepper hair tousled as usual as his black, beady eyes scanned over us once we were seated. “It’s time for you to focus on your personas. These are important if you’re initiated into House of Twilight because spies tend to have favorite personas. The faster you create a good one, the better you are later down the road.”
Hawk raised his hand. “I thought that once you used an identity, you couldn’t anymore?”
Jarvins tilted his head. “Why would you think that? That’s only if your cover is blown. If it’s intact, you can always come back to it. Many agents do. They can build connections and rapport to help gain intel in the future using their personas over again.”
“I didn’t think about it like that.” He scratched the back of his head.
“Critical thinking is a skill every agent possesses, Mr. Moonfang.” His eyes narrowed at Hawk. “How did you pass the entrance exams?”
Hawk let out a weak chuckle. “I excel at other things.”
“Your assignment today is to create a distinct false identity with a detailed backstory, motivation, speech pattern, and supernatural history. You should’ve already been working on your personas, so filling the templates out should be easy for you. You get twenty minutes to fill it out, and then you must withstand a five-minute in-character interview without breaking cover. Do remember that while you have no access to glamours, you can still add them to your persona template. You will be partnered for the interview, but first, fill out your templates and hand them in to me,” Jarvins told us as he passed out papers before rounding his desk and sitting down with his tablet. “Your time starts now.”
I grabbed a pen and filled out my persona on the paper templates he provided.
Persona should be believable, adaptable, and resistant to exposure under interrogation.
1. Cover Identity Basics (Include Disguise for glamouring purposes)
Full Name (persona and real):
Renee Melone / Rune Bloodwyne.
