Trial By Fire (Going Down in Flames #3)(53)

“Be careful,” Valmont warned.

Too late, Bryn’s hand stung as she received what felt like the mother of all paper cuts. She winced against the pain and pulled her hand back to inspect her thumb.

The sword glowed red as several drops of blood rolled into the keyhole and click, the box popped open.

“Your blood opened the box?” Garret sounded appalled and intrigued.

“So it would appear.” Bryn wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

“And the glowing of your sword, was that normal?” Garret asked.

“I’ve never noticed it before, because as Bryn’s knight my job is to keep her from bleeding.” Valmont grabbed Bryn’s hand and kissed her fingertips. “Are you all right?”

A happy warmth flowed from her fingers to her heart. She felt her face heat. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Do you mind?” Garret gestured at the mysterious contents of the box, which were shrouded in black silk.

“Feel free.” Bryn wasn’t so sure she liked the box or its contents if it was after her blood.

Taking great care, Garret pulled away the silk cloth without touching whatever was inside.

“Another box?” Octavius’s deep voice broadcast his displeasure through the room.

“Someone else can bleed on this one,” Bryn stated.

“There’s a button on the side.” Rhianna pulled a pencil from her book bag and used the eraser to press the button.

Something gave an audible click and then a faint ticking sound emanated from the box.

Not good. Bryn pushed back from her desk, “Mr. Stanton,” she spoke loud enough to gain his attention, “tell me that’s not a bomb.”

“No bombs,” Mr. Stanton called out. “Just the puzzle mechanism.”

“Not that I don’t trust you,” Valmont said, “but Bryn has a certain history when it comes to things that go boom.”

Rhianna, Garret, and Octavius glanced at the smaller box nestled inside the bigger box which suddenly seemed ominous.

“Just to clarify,” Garret glanced at the other students huddled in small groups, “is anyone else’s box ticking?”

A quick glance around the room showed no one else had managed to open their box yet to reach the contents.

Garret slammed the lid shut on the big box. Rhianna blasted it with frozen flames encasing it and the entire desk in a giant block of ice.

Mr. Stanton sighed. “Students, while I understand your caution, I can assure you—”

Ka-Boom!

Shards of ice flew. Rhianna blasted more frozen flames creating a wall on one side of the desk.

Garret created a twister making the shards of ice turn back on themselves in a twisting motion. Bryn blasted flames at the shards of ice that escaped.

“On my mark, stop your wind,” Octavius yelled.

Garret nodded.

Octavius held his hands out, palms down. He moved closer to the twister and angled his hands so they were facing each other. “Now,” Octavius yelled.

The twister stopped, and it looked like invisible hands had crushed the ice and the desk into a tangled ball of wood. Bryn felt the wave through the soles of her shoes. The ball of wood ground together, pulverizing itself. The air pressure shifted. Bryn’s ears rang and then popped.

Where the desk and puzzle box had been, there was what appeared to be a small mound of wet sawdust.

Silence filled the room, and then footsteps sounded as Mr. Stanton approached and knelt down to touch the remains of their classroom project. “I’d say you earned an ‘A’ for teamwork today.”

Wait a minute. “That was the assignment?” Bryn asked.

“We did use our breath weapons to work together.” Garret frowned. “I’m not sure of the ethical implications of trying to blow up a classroom full of students.”

Mr. Stanton stood. “There was only a small charge in the box. It should have gone off like a balloon popping. Something you did increased the power of the explosion.”

“Bryn’s blood,” Rhianna said. “Somehow it changed the charge, making it more powerful.”

“What are you talking about?” Mr. Stanton asked.

Bryn explained how she’d cut herself on Valmont’s sword and how the box had opened.

Mr. Stanton shook his head. “That was not part of the plan. Wind would have opened the box if applied in the correct manner.”

“So the Quintessence in my blood increased the balloon pop to a small bomb?” Bryn waited for someone to correct her. They all just stared.

“So if I scratch myself and bleed, weird crap will happen?”

“Not all the time,” Mr. Stanton said. “I think this was an odd set of circumstances, combining your knight’s sword and the bond with your blood, but you probably shouldn’t ever mess around with fireworks.”

“Gee, thanks. That’s comforting.”



Thankfully, the rest of Bryn’s day was explosion free. That night, Bryn and her friends headed for the theater to help with the repairs. The meeting with Adam and Eve weighed on her mind. Should she ask questions if the answers might endanger herself and her friends? The stakes to the behind the scene espionage games she’d been playing now seemed far too high.

“Twenty bucks says there isn’t a Blue in the entire theater,” Clint said, sounding a lot more like himself.