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I prayed to the moon that I gained enough control over it so I could sleep with him one more time before I died. It sounded petty, but honestly, if I had to go, I wanted to go knowing I had enjoyed him thoroughly.
In the corridor outside the library, I saw Lavinia and Elisa, both walking my way.
“Good morning,” Elisa said, almost too formal.
“Morning,” I said, pausing my steps to talk to them. “Where are you two going?”
“To the library.“ Lavinia pointed to the doorway a few feet behind me. “We’ll help Shane with his research.”
“Not just us,” Elisa said. “More witches are coming. Witches here in the castle. The ones at the Silverblood Estate are already at it.”
Something burned behind my eyes and I averted my gaze.
Lavinia hooked her arm behind my neck and pulled me to her. “It’s okay, Raika. It’ll be okay. We’ll save you, okay?” She kissed my cheek, then let me go. “Now go train and leave the research to us.”
The two of them waved at me and disappeared inside the library. Three other witches turned into the hallway and headed to the library. They too waved at me.
More tears prickled my eyes, and I hurried out of there before I became a blubbering mess.
When I got to the clearing, Thea wasn’t alone. Almae was there too.
She smiled at me, like a grandmother would. In this aspect, she reminded me of Rue—a strong presence, always ready to help.
“Ready to train with me, my dear?” she asked, gesturing for me to enter the circle. Almae had participated in my training from the beginning, but she had not been as active as Thea.
“Of course.” I halted in the center of the clearing.
“Let’s start simple,” she said. “With some breathing exercises to clear our minds and activate our magic.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I did the same.
From breathing exercises, we moved on to simple casting—calling both magics, controlling them, shaping them as I wanted, throwing them at targets. Then calling them at different times, switching between them fast, without thinking. Pulling back on one, throwing the other.
Thea cast several blue and silver figures, shaped like humans, and had them blink here and there, and I had to hit them—blue with darkfire, silver with dragon magic. Almost like an advanced whack-a-mole game. It was fun, but tiring, and whenever I made too many mistakes in a short period of time, frustration made me reckless.
Whenever that happened, we took a short break.
We trained for several hours, but when the sun was right above us, making me more tired and hot, Thea called it quits. “Lunchtime. We’ll come back in a couple of hours, after everyone has rested, and this sun moves a little.”
“You could always create some kind of shield over the clearing,” I said, joking.
“I could, or I could have a giant tent installed,” she said, matching my tone.
“That too.” I walked to her and the three of us entered the forest.
Being among the trees reminded of how we hid yesterday to catch Paimon, and how nervous I had been. If it weren’t for Shane by my side, I would have succumbed to fear and had a panic attack myself.
Since then I had been wondering … “Do you think throwing bolts of magic at Paimon will kill him? Isn’t that too little for a demon like him?”
Thea pressed her lips tight. “I have been thinking about that and I’m not sure.”
Almae nodded. “I thought about that too. We might need to create a unique spell using your magic for this reason.”
I frowned. “But what?”
Almae shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“We should make a list of ideas,” Thea suggested.
