Braving the Elements (Darkness #2)(19)

Like that redhead.

“Let’s see you do it, Ginger,” Sasha muttered at her enemy. Who was actually named Tessie.

The other female sneered, looking back at her sword. Charles chuckled. A little competition was good for the soul. As was beating heads, just like he’d said.

“Oh, God, sorry!”

Charles crossed his hands over his chest and watched as Sasha laid her hands on Gabe’s back. He was bent over painfully, holding his stomach.

She’d probably blasted him in her anger at James-the-Clapping-Moron.

“Do what, kill my partner?” the redhead disparaged.

“I’m good, I’m good.” Gabe waved his hand at her, the other still fastened to his stomach.

Clap, clap, clap. “Focus, human! You are with the superior beings, now.

You must focus.”

Sasha glowered at Tessie’s smug expression.

Charles groaned. That wasn’t going to help. When Sasha got angry, she had a harder time controlling the lesser power levels. He’d tried to get her to work in black, because she seemed to mess up less in that power, or even gold, but she was (for good reason) afraid she’d get magic shock. The Boss said they needed to find some better trainers who knew how to work with her; these weren’t harnessing what she had to offer. Charles had to agree, and since the Boss was one of the smartest people in the clan, well, he would know. Except, they didn’t have anyone. Not without verifying her power with the council. And that would mean Stefan would finally have to pick a mate, since them coming out here would serve that purpose as well.

Dicey.

Two more accidents later, and some more aggressive trash talking from the ginger, and it was finally time to call it quits. Charles needed to have a word with James about negative reinforcement…

Sasha needed to give Ginger a fat lip. If this kept up, Charles would have to do it, and picking on a student was expressly forbidden.

“Seriously, Gabe,” Sasha was saying as she rubbed his back, “I usually only make a mistake once, so hopefully—I mean, definitely—I’ll definitely stop hurting you very soon.”

Gabe, a soft kid with terrible taste in fashion, shrugged his thin shoulders.

He gave her his attempt at a sultry smile. “It’s okay. I’ll brave it again to keep being your partner…”

Charles rolled his eyes and yanked Sasha toward the door. “Alright Casanova, let’s go.”

“Casanova is a guy, nitwit.”

“Whatever. You got a hard class next.”

“Trying to learn to fight without impaling my partner isn’t considered a hard lesson? I think I should use a wooden sword so I can’t blast people.”

“We have Darla next. I have to participate this time because I don’t know nothing about chanting and carrying on.”

“You don’t seem to know anything—notice my word choice—about English, either.” Sasha’s chuckle turned into a groan. “Darla hates me— worse than Ginger. This is gonna suck.”

“Yes on both counts.”





CHAPTER FOUR

I WALKED INTO THE THIRD STORY ROOM WITH AN AIR OF CONFIDENCE. DARLA might be gorgeous, apparently great at whatever the hell she taught, and promised to the man of my dreams, but she would not get me down.

About eight people sat in chairs around the medium sized room. Darkness loomed outside, sucking the candlelight out of the space. Darla stood in the middle of the room wearing a chic red dress that hugged every perfect curve.

“Oh goodie,” Darla drawled, “the Boss’s pet has graced us with her presence instead of throwing a tantrum and running into the woods. Aren’t we so blessedly privileged?”

“Yikes, not pulling any punches, huh?” Charles muttered as he shuffled in beside me.

I took a seat next to a sneering guy a few years older than me. In fact, I appeared to be the youngest in the class. Which meant they were super old.

“Great, let’s start where we left off last time, shall we?” Darla turned toward a chair, waved her arms around, and started chanting in a completely foreign language. And not foreign like French, Spanish, or even Latin. No, these weren’t real words. It sounded like a bunch of consonants she spat out one by one.

My arms prickled and my chest got warm, the indicator she was working a spell. A similar feeling, though to a much larger degree, also happened when the Dulca monster things called to me.

The chair started to bubble, wisps of red gathering and pulling around it, until it kind of…vanished. If you looked right at it you could see bits of it, like right after staring at the sun and having a sun spot obscure it. But if you weren’t looking directly at it, you wouldn’t notice it there.

It was probably that spell—with a ton more power—that hid the house I lived in. Neat. I really wanted to learn it. Or did it take multiple people to produce?

Darla took her manicured hands out of the air and put them on her hips with a smug nod. “Now, you try.”

I stared.

All eight students stood obediently and faced their chairs. Charles followed shortly after.

“I don’t know that language,” I whispered through half my mouth.

“Did you have a question, pet?” Darla’s honeyed voice rang out.

I turned slowly, wanting to find a corner to hide in. “Um, I don’t know the chants. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do this lesson.”