Page 55 of Serpent and Shadow

That’s what I told myself, anyway.

“You’re moving too slow,” Quicksilver retorted. “Funny how you can move just fine when you’ve got ten Dark Cathedral soldiers in front of you.”

“You aren’t trying to kill me,” I retorted. “Not that you’ve admitted, at least.”

He grunted in wry amusement.

I tossed my head to get hair out of my eyes that had escaped the messy bun I’d piled on top of my head. I should have used a ponytail. Whenever I forgot to redo my hair for one of these sessions, I always regretted it.

“You haven’t used any of the spells I saw you use out there,” Quicksilver observed, stepping around me in a slow circle. “Not once since we started this.”

“You told me you didn’t approve of those spells,” I shot back. “Nor, as they made abundantly clear, does the Praecuri. I’m not looking to be arrested just to pass my coursework.”

Quicksilver grunted. “Right. Coursework.”

“You’re a professor here,” I countered. “How do I know you don’t have some legal obligation to turn me in, if you don’t like the magic I’m using?”

Quicksilver scoffed. “Nonsense.”

“Is it? It’s not like anyone here would mind if the Praecuri carted me away to the gaol. Maybe you’re tired of teaching me.”

“And maybe you’re too emotional,” he said, probably to make me more emotional. “Why are you trying to convince me of anything? What do you care what I think?”

“You’re the one who seems hung up on a few spells,” I pointed out.

I followed the motion of his feet.

I still hadn’t answered his question, not really.

“But why not use everything you know?” Quicksilver asked. “Do you think you’re protecting Bones? We already know Mr. Bones taught you those spells. Forsooth and I were the ones who assigned him as your teacher. Are you worried we might learn of everything you got up to during Mr. Bones’s impressively detailed tutorials?”

I didn’t miss the faint taunt in his words.

Nor did I miss the slight emphasis on “tutorials,” as if he doubted very much that what we’d been doing in here had anything to do with me learning to duel.

I didn’t point out the obvious contradiction in him both accusing me of spending my classroom time having sex, and spending it learning a disturbingly wide array of dark blood magicks from my Dark Cathedral-sympathizer husband. If he was trying to annoy me into lowering my guard, he was going to have to try harder.

“You seem abnormally interested in my husband’s manner of ‘instructing’ me,” I retorted. “Should I be worried about that?”

Quicksilver’s eyes flinched.

I flicked my wrist in his direction.

“Pluvia ex pulvere et luce…” I mouthed.

Water sucked out of the air and ground below the experimental magic shed and drenched him in a torrent. I managed to surprise him, and he threw up his arms in reflex, so I stepped into the opening.

“Gravior aeris,” I hissed, louder.

He struggled to move under the gravity spell I’d landed. It made him so heavy his limbs wouldn’t cooperate. His light brown eyes glared at me in fury.

But really, both of those had simply been the set-up.

More of a precursor than a true attack.

“Levis tam levis quam aer…” I said, making the next mudra.

When I felt the spell lock in, I knew I didn’t have much time.