chapters two and three of your textbook before your next class.”
#
I packed up my unused notebook with excitement bubbling in my chest. This was the flashiest magic I’d seen since Priam Redbriar, and he’d always been more interested in impressing me than explaining the boring mechanics. I slipped into the aisle, dodging between the flood of leaving students. I wanted to talk with Professor Bayes, see if she could place the spells I’d seen from Priam before into the theoretical framework she was teaching us. I could learn so much from her—
A hand closed around my shoulder. Aegis.
“Where are you going?” he said.
“To talk with the professor. You can wait outside for me, if you want.”
Aegis's hand tightened. “I would advise you not to,” he said in a low voice.
“Or else what? What’s wrong with that?” Practically all the other students were gone now, leaving us in an empty, echoing hall.
“Up close, she might be able to detect the magic drainage you’ve been through. She might grow suspicious.”
I gritted my teeth. Aegis was still keeping me on a tight leash, it seemed. And I couldn’t risk trying to slip the collar just yet.
Even as we spoke, Professor Bayes had finished cleaning up the chalk lines and scorch marks at the front of the room with waves of her hand. She strolled out, whistling. There went my chance.
But there was still one other person left in the lecture hall.
He sat in the distant back row, hunched far enough over his desk for his dark hair to hide his face, but he was fresh enough in my memory that I recognized him on sight. The student that Cly had singled out for bullying two days ago.
“Am I allowed to talk to my fellow student, at least?” I growled at Aegis.
“I admit that’s an inevitable part of attending classes,” said Aegis, lips thinning. “But I’ll be listening in.”
Good enough. I marched past Aegis up the steps.
I was nearly on top of the student before he looked up, startled, his attention at last torn from whatever he’d been working on. His glasses were in one piece, I was relieved to see, probably fixed through a repair spell. From the other side of the lenses, his dark eyes looked me up and down warily. “So it’s you again.”
I held up my hands, carefully. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
He gave a disbelieving laugh. “What else would you be here for?”
“I wanted to apologize for what I did that evening,” I said. “I was awful to you and you didn’t deserve any of it. I could have seriously hurt you. I’m sorry.”
If Cly was never going to do the decent thing, I would. At least one of the Redbriars’ victims would get an apology this way.
Aegis tensed behind me; he clearly hadn’t recognized this student earlier. The student, for his part, just stared at me, like I was a riddle he was trying to solve. “You humiliated me in front of half the school just two days ago. And now you’re apologizing? Is this some kind of trick?”
I sighed. I hadn’t been the one doing the humiliating, but I couldn’t exactly tell him that. “It’s not a trick. It’s just… complicated. Ugh, I can’t even promise that ‘I’ won’t do something crappy again in the future. I’m sorry. What’s your name again?”
The student looked even more confused now. “Darshan,” he said slowly. “Darshan Jain. I’d say nice to meet you, but we’ve already met and it wasn’t nice.”
I winced. “I deserved that. And I guess you know my name already.”
“Yes. So there’s no reason for me to keep you,” Darshan said brusquely, grabbing his backpack and standing. He was about to put away the notebook on his desk when I caught a glimpse of what he’d been working on.
“Oh, is that a magic circle?” I said, unable to keep the excitement out of my voice. Darshan’s hands stilled, allowing me to get a closer look at what he’d drawn in blue ballpoint pen on the lined paper. “I see you’ve got two protective three-point clauses linked by channeling runes… although what are those two extras lines here and here?”
Darshan blinked at me, before turning to look where I’d pointed. “The first line is supposed to regulate outflow. Normally the friction cost would outweigh the benefits, but the linkage is a bit shaky on this design, so I’ll need it to get things to work. The second… shit, you’re right, that’s not supposed to be there.” He