The bell tolled, its deep, metallic chime echoing through the crystal walls of the classroom.

  ?Demian and Eleste were the first to leave. Her obsidian hand was looped tightly through his arm, her silver hair shimmering as they moved in perfect, aristocratic synchronicity. Demian never looked back. Not once.

  ?I stayed in my seat until the room was completely empty. I packed my bag slowly, mechanically, my hands trembling so violently I could barely fasten the leather straps.

  ?The sanctuary of the classroom was gone. The library, where we had studied in quiet companionship, was tainted. The Great Arena, where he had held my face and told me I was a hurricane, felt like a graveyard of broken promises.

  ?There was nowhere left to hide.

  ?I didn't think about where my feet were taking me. I just needed to walk. I needed to get away from the sneering faces of the high-borns, away from the suffocating pressure of the Academy, and most importantly, away from him.

  ?I pushed through the heavy oak doors of the main hall and kept walking.

  ?I crossed the manicured lawns, ignoring the cold autumn wind that whipped at my face. I walked past Dorm 13, past the training grounds, until the manicured grass gave way to rough dirt and twisted roots.

  ?I entered the Whispering Woods.

  ?The canopy of ancient pines blocked out the afternoon sun, casting the forest floor in deep, cool shadows. It smelled of damp earth, pine needles, and silence.

  ?I walked until my lungs burned and my legs felt like lead. I walked until I found a small, secluded clearing, surrounded by thick, impenetrable brush.

  ?And there, in the quiet isolation of the woods, the dam finally broke.

  ?The anger, the humiliation, the sheer, crushing weight of the betrayal all collapsed inward. My knees buckled. I hit the dirt hard, not even trying to break my fall.

  ?I buried my face in my hands, and I sobbed.

  ?It wasn't a delicate, quiet cry. It was the ugly, chest-heaving sobbing of someone who had survived the streets only to be broken by a boy in a castle.

  ?He throws his toys away.

  ?Eleste’s venomous voice echoed in my head, perfectly in sync with Demian’s cold, flat assertion that my magic was inadequate.

  ?I dug my fingers into the cold earth, gasping for air. I felt so incredibly stupid. I had let my guard down. I had trusted a demon. I had believed that underneath the Ice Prince exterior, there was someone who actually saw me.

  ?"Just stop," I whispered to myself, squeezing my eyes shut as fresh tears tracked through the dirt on my cheeks. "Stop crying over him. He isn't worth it."

  ?But the tears wouldn't stop. They were a physical manifestation of the magic I couldn't control, leaking out of me in a pathetic display of weakness.

  ?Crunch.

  ?A twig snapped behind me.

  ?I froze.

  ?The sound of footsteps, heavy and deliberate, approached through the underbrush.

  ?My heart hammered against my ribs. Panic flared, instantly followed by a surge of white-hot, defensive anger.

  ?Eleste. She had followed me. Or Demian had sent someone to finish the humiliation.

  ?I didn't turn around. I stayed on my knees, my fists clenching so hard my nails bit into my palms.

  ?"Haven't you tormented me enough?" I choked out, my voice thick with tears and rage. "Just leave me alone! You won. You proved your point. I'm nothing. Now get out!"

  ?The footsteps stopped directly behind me.

  ?I braced myself for the cruel laugh. For the sharp, aristocratic insult. For the shadow-magic to hit me in the back.

  ?Instead, a pair of strong, muscular arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders.

  ?I gasped, my eyes flying open. It wasn't the cold, smooth silk of Eleste's armor. It was worn leather and rough fur. The scent wasn't dark orchids and ozone; it was pine, damp earth, and wet dog.

  ?Before I could react, I was pulled backward, right into a fierce, bone-crushing hug.

  ?"You smell like burnt sugar and misery," a gruff voice grumbled against my ear.

  ?I blinked, the tears blurring my vision as I looked up.

  ?Roc-ta.

  ?The Wolf-girl from my dorm was kneeling in the dirt behind me, her arms wrapped around my chest, holding me so tightly I could barely breathe. Her wild, gray-streaked hair fell around her face, and her yellow wolf eyes were glowing faintly in the dim light.

  ?I stared at her, completely stunned.

  ?"Roc-ta?" I croaked. "What... what are you doing here?"

  ?"I followed your scent," she said bluntly, finally loosening her grip just enough so I could inhale. "You've been leaking distress pheromones for three days, Val. The whole dorm smells like a wounded animal. Pip is hiding under his bed, and Bram polished his axe so hard he filed off the runes."

  ?I let out a wet, hysterical laugh that sounded more like a sob. I wiped my face hastily with the back of my sleeve.

  ?"I'm fine," I lied automatically, the street-rat instinct kicking in. "I'm just... stressed about the exam. I was just coming out here to—"

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  ?"To punch a tree and cry until you throw up?" Roc-ta interrupted, her yellow eyes narrowing. She shifted so she was sitting cross-legged in the dirt beside me. "Save the lies for the professors, human. I know what a broken pack-bond looks like."

  ?I looked away, the shame returning. "I was so stupid, Roc-ta. I thought... I don't know what I thought."

  ?Roc-ta sighed, a deep, rumbling sound in her chest. She reached out and awkwardly patted my shoulder with a clawed hand. It wasn't a gentle gesture, but it was incredibly sincere.

  ?"You thought the Ice Prince was a lone wolf," she said simply. "You thought you were taming him. But he's not a wolf, Val. He's a Demon. He belongs to a court. And when his alpha—that venomous Drow bitch—showed up, he fell in line."

  ?Hearing it said out loud, so plainly, hurt all over again.

  ?"He told the whole class my magic was useless," I whispered, staring at my hands. "He stood there with her and told everyone I was inadequate. That I was a coward."

  ?Roc-ta’s upper lip curled, revealing her sharp canines. A low growl vibrated in her throat.

  ?"He's a coward," she spat. "He's terrified of his own shadow, so he hides behind hers."

  ?She stood up, brushing the pine needles from her leather pants. She looked down at me, her yellow eyes blazing with fierce, feral determination.

  ?"The exam is in three days," Roc-ta said, her voice dropping the comforting tone and adopting the bark of a drill sergeant. "You can sit here in the dirt and let them convince you that you are weak. Or, you can get up, and we can show the entire Academy what happens when you corner a human."

  ?I looked up at her. The tears had finally stopped.

  ?"Show them how?" I asked, my voice hoarse. "Demian was right about one thing. My magic is just raw output. If a combat construct charges me, or if Eleste challenges me in the Arena, I can't calculate a shield fast enough. I'm too slow."

  ?Roc-ta grinned. It was a terrifying, beautiful smile.

  ?"The Ice Prince taught you how to fight like a Demon," she said, extending a calloused hand toward me. "Demons are artillery. They stand far away and blow things up. It's arrogant magic."

  ?I hesitated, looking at her hand.

  ?"You are not a Demon," Roc-ta continued, her voice echoing in the quiet clearing. "You are human. You are squishy. You bleed easily. So we aren't going to fight like them."

  ?I took her hand. She hauled me to my feet with effortless strength.

  ?"Then what are we going to do?" I asked, wiping the last streak of dirt from my cheek.

  ?"We are going to fight like wolves," Roc-ta declared, her eyes shining in the gloom. "I'm going to teach you Body Magic. And by Monday, you won't just break the floor, Val. You are going to break them."

  The rules for the Battlemagic Exam were notoriously simple. Headmaster Solon had announced them at the beginning of the semester, and they had echoed in my mind ever since:

  ?Rule One: Weapons, magic, and physical combat are all permitted. Rule Two: Leaving the boundary of the Arena is a forfeiture.

  Rule Three: You may maim, you may break, but you must not kill.

  ?Anything short of death was allowed.

  ?Every day after classes, while Eleste paraded Demian around the courtyards and the High Elves drank wine on the terraces, Roc-ta and I vanished into the Whispering Woods. We trained until the moon was high and our muscles screamed for mercy.

  ?Body Magic was not elegant. It was a brutal, agonizing process of trial and error.

  ?To use it, I had to summon the kinetic force Demian had taught me to release, and forcefully swallow it back down. I had to push the neon-green mana into my own bloodstream, forcing it to bind with my muscles and bones.

  ?The first time I tried to sustain it, several blood vessels in my arm burst. I spent an hour coughing up blood while Roc-ta calmly set a fractured rib I had given myself just by throwing a punch too hard.

  ?"Pain is just weakness leaving the body," Roc-ta had grunted, tossing me a healing potion. "Drink up. Again."

  ?And so, I did it again. And again.

  ?At first, I held back. I was terrified of my own magic. For my entire life, I had been told humans were fragile. Squishy, Eleste had called me. I treated my body like a cheap glass cup trying to hold boiling water; I was convinced that if I pushed too much mana into my veins, I would simply shatter into a million pieces.

  ?Roc-ta noticed my hesitation immediately.

  ?It was Thursday night, and the rain was pouring down in sheets, turning the clearing into a muddy pit. I was panting, my arms glowing with a faint, flickering green light as I tried to block Roc-ta’s relentless assault.

  ?"You're holding back!" Roc-ta barked, sweeping my legs out from under me.

  ?I hit the mud hard, gasping for air. "I'm trying not to explode my own heart, Roc-ta!" I yelled back, spitting dirty water from my mouth.

  ?"You're fighting like a victim!" the Wolf-girl snarled, her yellow eyes flashing in the dark. She didn't let me get up. She stomped her heavy boot down on my chest, pinning me to the ground. "You still think you're weaker than them! You think because the Drow have pointy ears and the Demons have shadows, that you're just a fragile little girl playing dress-up!"

  ?She leaned down, baring her fangs. "If you fight Eleste like this, she won't just beat you, Valerie. She will break you, and she will laugh while doing it. And Demian will stand there and watch."

  ?The mention of their names was like dropping a match into a powder keg.

  ?My blood boiled. The image of Eleste’s smug, aristocratic smile flashed in my mind. I saw Demian turning his back on me in the classroom.

  ?The human approach is inadequate.

  ?I closed my eyes. No, I thought. I am not inadequate.

  ?Instead of releasing the anger as a kinetic blast the way Demian had taught me I slammed the door shut. I trapped the hurricane inside myself. I pulled every single drop of raw, chaotic mana from my core and flooded my nervous system with it.

  ?I didn't shatter.

  ?The realization hit me with the force of a thunderclap. My human biology wasn't a fragile glass cup. It was a dense, incredibly adaptable sponge. Because I didn't have natural magical pathways like the Elves, my entire body—every muscle fiber, every bone, every drop of blood—became the pathway.

  ?I wasn't holding the storm. I was the storm.

  ?My eyes snapped open. They weren't just glowing; they were burning with blinding, toxic-green light.

  ?Roc-ta saw the shift. She raised her fist, wrapping her own arm in thick, werewolf-enhanced muscle, and swung down at my face with bone-crushing force. A blow that should have caved my skull in.

  ?I didn't dodge. I didn't flinch.

  ?I simply raised my hand and caught her fist.

  ?BOOM.

  ?The kinetic shockwave of our collision rippled outward, blowing the rain horizontally away from us in a massive circle. The mud beneath my back instantly hardened into cracked, dry earth from the sheer pressure.

  ?Roc-ta’s eyes widened in absolute shock. Her fist was completely stopped in the palm of my hand. She pushed, straining with all her supernatural strength, but my arm didn't budge a single millimeter.

  ?My skin was practically humming with neon-green energy. I felt no pain. I felt no weakness. I felt like a god forged in a back alley.

  ?"My turn," I whispered, my voice vibrating with power.

  ?I gripped her fist, channeled a massive surge of kinetic energy into my other arm, and drove my free hand directly into her sternum.

  ?The shockwave snapped through the clearing like a cannon firing. Roc-ta flew backward, lifted completely off her feet. She crashed through a thick thicket of bushes before hitting a massive pine tree with a heavy, sickening thud.

  ?She slumped to the ground, wheezing for breath. I slowly stood up, the green glow pulsing beneath my skin like a second heartbeat. I looked at my hands, flexing my fingers. I was completely unhurt.

  ?I was stronger than I ever thought possible. I was faster, tougher, and more dangerous than any textbook said a human could be.

  ?I dropped my fighting stance, the green glow finally fading from my veins as the adrenaline settled. Suddenly terrified I had actually broken her in half, I ran over to the tree.

  ?"Roc-ta!" I gasped.

  ?The Wolf-girl looked up at me, coughing violently. She wiped a trail of blood from her chin, but her yellow eyes were shining with feral, absolute pride.

  ?"Ancestors," she rasped, grinning widely as she clutched her bruised ribs. "You caught my strike... and you didn't even blink. If you hit the Drow bitch like that... her perfect head is going to pop right off her shoulders."

  ?I smiled, a cold, ruthless expression that felt entirely new to my face. The girl who used to hide in the library was dead.

  ?"That," I said softly, helping my friend to her feet, "is exactly the plan."