Page 30

I fucking can’t! I want to scream. Something stirs in that aching emptiness. Paces. It’s restless, frustrated.

Drake strides across the mat, stare drilling into me. He stops a foot away. “Fight.”

How am I supposed to do that if I can’t use my magic, asshole? Shoulders drawing together, I dig deeper than I ever have before, tasting bitter ash once more. The taste of failure. It’s pointless. I can’t access my affinities.

With a sigh that carries so much disappointment it smacks me across the face, Drake turns to Eli. “Kill her.”

My heart skips before anger clamps around my neck. “Fuck you,” I growl.

Drake glances back at me with a sneer. “Wouldn’t you like that?”

“I’d rather die, Foundation boy.”

“And you just might,” he says before nodding at Eli. “Go on. Do it.”

Eli stops casting and gives him a nasty look. “I’m not going to kill her.”

“It’ll either be you or someone else,” Drake murmurs.

Understanding ripples over Eli’s face, and he glances at me with the worst emotion of all. Pity. I’m clearly weak. There are too many days between now and the Goddess Trial, and my fellow students will only get stronger.

Drake steps closer, searching my face. “If you won’t fight to keep your life, why should I?”

“No one asked you to.” I gesture to other paranorms in the midst of their sparring. “Go bother someone else.”

Anger cuts across his features. “You’re a liability to the veil. To all of us.”

Shame burns through me, but I straighten, refusing to let him cow me. “And you’re an asshole,” I growl.

He closes the distance between us until our faces are inches apart. “You’d do well to remember that.”

What the fuck does that mean? How could I forget? I place my palms on his hard chest and shove, but he’s impossible to move. “Get out of my face.”

“Or what, little mage?” The way he says it is so demeaning. Like I’m a child. My knee slams up, but he blocks it with a vicious smile and a dark laugh. “That trick won’t work on me.”

“Fuck you,” I snarl again, incapable of a better insult with anger riddling my body.

“Drake,” Silverstone calls.

“Better run along before the good boy gets in trouble,” I taunt.

Just then, for a single heartbeat, when his green eyes darken and violence clouds his features, I think he might kill me himself, but that aggressive display of emotion slips away as his face hardens. He steps back, perfectly controlled and unaffected. He strides away as if nothing happened.

Dick. Head.

Eli takes his place. “What the fuck was that?”

“I have no idea.”

“That man does not like you.” Eli looks after him. “Any other Foundation, fine, but him? You don’t want to pick a fight with him.”

Because he and his vinculum are too powerful? Unfortunately, against all sense, my brain rebels at the thought of kissing his ring.

Eli sighs. “Well, the best way to prove him wrong is to show him the power you’re packing. Hit me with it.”

After many pathetic attempts to summon my nonexistent affinities, class finally ends, leaving me feeling like I’ve been run over by a truck. Eli tries to give me words of encouragement on our way to our Vanguard combat class. I appreciate him for it, but I don’t want to be the girl everyone pities.

Ever waves us over once we enter the pit, following the stream of students filtering into the room and down the stairs. Unfortunately, since this is a Vanguard-specific class, Melody and the rest of the second years are here. I don’t miss the vicious scowl she sends my way as she takes her place in the center of her girl squad. It’s disgusting the way they all fawn over her.