The room goes silent as Professor Olivier catches her breath. She clears her throat, straightens her crushed velvet robes, and turns to the blackboard behind her, writing with white chalk as if nothing happened.
The blackboard reads:Should gods be able to act with impunity?
Professor Olivier pulls a handkerchief from her desk and dabs the sweat from her forehead. Straightening her robes, she asks, “Well? Who will it be?”
Claudia is so confused. What is the professor looking for? Someone to volunteer? Why isn’t anyone raising their hand?
“Not again,” Cassius mutters under his breath, begrudginglystanding. His head drops back as he groans, sauntering up to the front. He stands next to the board and flits his glare to everyone in the class. He’s looking for something, waiting for something. Seconds pass and the class becomes restless, turning back and forth, staring at one another with expectant eyes.
“Come now, who else can read the board?” Professor Olivier asks. Whispers and murmurs sound like the beginning of rainfall. One by one, the other students turn toward Claudia. All eyes are now on her. No matter where she looks, she can’t escape their gazes. Panic thrums in her chest when she meets Cassius’s eyes.
Realization of some sort washes over his expression. “It’s you,” he mouths.
Professor Olivier finally looks at Claudia and says, “Oh, how could I forget! Miss Jolicoeur, you’ve never experienced this before. I should’ve explained and I do apologize. Please stand.”
Her knees shake when she rises. “Yes?”
“Can you read this board?” Olivier asks.
She clears her throat. “Should gods be able to act with impunity?”
Professor Olivier nods solemnly, motioning Claudia forward. “See, to everyone else in the room, including me, this message is completely illegible. Only those chosen by Malevimus can read it.”
When Claudia reaches the front of the class, the professor takes her by the shoulders and positions her next to Cassius. He winces at her closeness. “Congratulations to both of you, Mr. MacLeod and Miss Jolicoeur. Malevimus has selected you both to debate.”
All the other students are wearing smirks and whispering to one another. They know that Claudia will lose, and they can’t wait to watch.
Cassius sighs loudly while he walks back to his seat. “At least this one will be easy to win.”
Claudia catches up to him quickly. “What makes you so sure?”
“Oh, please.” He continues to his desk and falls gracefully into his seat. “Be serious.”
She places her palms on the corners of his desk and leans down. “I’m deadly serious.”
He laughs. “Deadly, sure, but serious?” He pushes himself up to her level. “You are not.” Leaning close enough to bite, he says, “You are nothing.”
The way he says it sounds exactly like her father. Once, right after her father began his search for Claudia’s marital match, he’d looked at his daughter and said, “You’re a perfect little pawn, Claudia. Do you know what that means? You’re not worth a damn thing to keep, but you are the easiest thing to trade.”
She is not nothing.
She is a scholar. She is a witch. And for Cassius, she’s a worthy rival.
Spite takes hold of her body and controls her next movements. Without thinking, she slaps him across the face. “I hate you.”
The entire class gasps, then goes perfectly silent. The only sound in the room is the sharp, almost wet echo of the slap, and Claudia’s slow, angry breaths.
It feels amazing. He’s been antagonizing her from the moment she arrived, and his comment was the last straw—that slap was well-earned. She wants to do it again. Harder.
Cassius is faster this time, catching her wrist the moment she raises her hand. His gaze flits between her hand and her eyes. His smirk, so slowly, stretches across his face, twists into his swollen stain of her handprint on his cheek.
“Miss Jolicoeur!” Professor Olivier yells. Claudia turns her head over her shoulder, eyes wide with rage. Even the professor looks a bit afraid. “Violence like that is completely unacceptable. Apologize to Mr. MacLeod.”
Cassius looks at her, pouting, mocking. “Are you sorry?”
“Not at all.”
Professor Olivier storms down the aisle and separates them. She looks at Claudia sternly. “I have no choice but to deduct points from your grade and allow Mr. MacLeod the choice of pro or against.” Looking sympathetically at Cassius, she says, “Please, choose your side.”
