a perfect, huge rainbow arc, momentum gathering the whole way, up, down, floor.
I’d let his earlier volley of shadows hit me. He’d expected me to be dodging and had aimed accordingly; the shadows missed anything too important. I gritted my teeth against the cold numbness in my side and shoulder, spreading right through my jacket, and went for Acubens.
The shadows had cushioned Acubens’s impact, but not even he could take getting body-slammed a distance of twenty feet. Dazed, he was struggling to get back up, his shadows flickering and sluggish.
But I hit him first, shouting spells of shielding and abjuration. My glowing fingers dug into his shadows and ripped out chunks, exposing the workings and weaknesses of his magic. I called out more spells of abjuration and drove them into the seams.
The shadows misted to nothing. Leaving Acubens, exposed, staggering to his feet.
I slammed my shoulder into him ruthlessly, toppling him once more.
All my self-restraint went out the window. We grappled on the ground, spending lower magic like water. I got in a punch to his face, and he made the sweetest sound I’d ever heard. “I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” I hissed, twisting to avoid a knee to the stomach. Acubens snarled, landing more blows I barely felt, until I grabbed his arms and wrenched them above his head. He fought, but I climbed over him, pinning down his legs with my weight.
“Got you.” I said.
A drop of blood fell from my hairline, from some cut I didn’t even remember getting. It splashed onto Acubens’s face, mingling with the smear of blood from his nose, trickling along the elegant contour of his face.
He wasn’t fighting anymore. He was panting, looking at me with wide, shocked eyes.
“What’s wrong—” I shifted atop him, and froze. He was rock hard, his erection pressing against my knee.
His body was hot and alive underneath mine, every tremor echoed by my skin. His lips were half-parted, but no words came out. His eyes were lost.
“Don’t make this weird,” I said, over the hammering of my own heart.
“Hng,” he said, with the expression of someone witnessing divine revelation.
“Combatant Acubens Nightfeld is out of the duel,” came the desperately welcome interruption. “The side of Clytemnestra Redbriar wins.”
The walls to the dueling arena came down, and our moment was swallowed by the ground-shaking roar of the crowds.
Chapter 19
“We should’ve gotten a prize for that,” complained Darshan. “Such as, oh, I don’t know, not having to take our midterms the week immediately after.”
“That’s not really the school’s fault,” I admitted. My cheek stuck a little to the pages of my opened textbook. “I wanted more time to prepare for the duel, Arcturus wanted less, and we wound up with this compromise. I’d reasoned that, if we lost, midterms would be the least of our problems.”
“I’m blaming you, then,” Darshan grumbled. “Consider yourself blamed.”
Our victory in the duel had stunned everyone. Overnight, the fortunes of the Redbriars had seemed to reverse. I couldn’t walk three steps without someone trying to schmooze. Professor Bayes went up to me to gush about my application of magic circles, and we could’ve talked for an hour if Aegis hadn’t stepped in and escorted me discreetly away. Even Cly seemed in high spirits; I caught her bragging over the phone to her mother about the duel, making it out to be all her brilliant idea.
But the duel and its preparations had taken its toll on me and Darshan. We’d been skipping classes and neglecting assignments for the last two weeks, and we hadn’t even begun to study for midterms. And while magic could heal our impressive collection of injuries, it couldn’t quite take away the bone-deep exhaustion of having been pushed to our limits. The moment I’d left the dueling grounds, I’d passed out on a bench.
I stared at the page I was supposed to be reading, the text wobbling in and out of focus in front of me. I wanted to sleep for a year, but instead it was Monday afternoon, and we were back in our room at the library, because the Artifact Analysis exam was tomorrow. Knowing the professor, it would involve hideous essay questions.
In this situation, I almost wished Cly would take over. But like hell was she going to take tests she could possibly avoid.
“I still think the duel was part of your secret plan,” said Darshan, giving up any semblance of studying with a sigh. “It worked out awfully conveniently. The Nightfelds are humbled. The Redbriars