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“Hey, that’s one of Lander’s instructors,” Emelle whispered, nodding at a perfectly chiseled man waiting at the other end of the patio. In fact, he was a little too chiseled, with a sharply cut jawline, high cheekbones, and rippling muscles.

Not uncommon for a Shape Shifter to use their magic to maintain the physique they wanted, but what was he doing here?

It dawned on me about two seconds before Ms. Pincette set the tank down on the cobblestone and opened her mouth to speak.

“This is Mr. Flinch, instructor of Enlargements & Enhancements. He’s going to be helping us replicate what happened three days ago.”

No, not again. My stomach twisted itself into a knot. I really didn’t want to face another giant, venomous, many-legged monster for the rest of my life… but it didn’t seem like I had much of a choice. This was the Esholian Institute, presented as a perfectly safe testing facility but full of teeth beneath the surface.

Or in this case, forcipules.

“Now,” Ms. Pincette continued, “what I want you to do is become the centipede’s ally. Do not threaten it, but promise to help it explore its dominion instead. Centipedes love dark, warm, damp places, remember? So lead it to a new one.”

“Don’t even think about making a joke,” I muttered at Rodhi, who smirked.

“Wasn’t going to, darling. That dirty thought belongs to you and you alone.”

“Whatever,” I snorted, then rubbed at the shivers on my arms. No amount of untold jokes could sweep away the fear bubbling up inside me at what we were about to face—again.

Ms. Pincette nodded at Mr. Flinch, who stepped forward.

As soon as she dipped a finger in the tank, lifted a centipede out, and placed it on the ground, he narrowed his eyes at the arthropod.

Which promptly swelled into something twenty times its size.

It was a different centipede, but the same nameless terror seized my lungs as we all backed up several paces. Its two clusters of eyes swung back and forth, antennae crashing down onto the cobblestone.

“You first, Mr. Pollard,” said Ms. Pincette steadily.

“Me?” Norman jabbed a thumb at his chest and swiveled around, as if expecting to find another person of the same name behind him.

“Yes, you. Go on. You can do it.”

It was, perhaps, the most encouragement Ms. Pincette had ever given a student, and Rodhi seemed to notice with a slight scowl. Norman himself stepped forward until the centipede’s clusters of eyes landed on him.

It opened its mouth, forcipules flexing as it did so.

“You dare stray directly into my path, human?”

“Uh…” Norman craned his neck. “Not to hurt you. To help you—‍”

“Help me?” the centipede scoffed, its legs twitching. “Help me how?”

Become the centipede’s ally, I mentally repeated, as if that would help Norman at all—but maybe I was repeating it for my own sake. When I’d faced the giant centipede, I’d taken mental control of it and then threatened to make it smaller again. No wonder it had marked me as an enemy. Promise to help it explore its dominion. Centipedes love dark, warm, damp places.

“I-I can lead you to a really good cupboard beneath the kitchen sink?” Norman said uncertainly.

Apparently, that wasn’t convincing enough. In a flash, those venomous, pincer-like claws closed in around him. Mitzi and Cilia screamed, Emelle sucked in a breath, and my heart galloped.

Moments before the centipede sunk into Norman’s flesh, the beast shrunk back into its original size and began scuttling around his shoes, uttering a string of faint, high-pitched curses.

“Thanks, Mr. Flinch,” Ms. Pincette said, rubbing at her eyebrows. “Next!”

Norman was left standing there with his arms shielding his face, as if that would have done anything to prevent the centipede’s venom from spreading through his bloodstream and paralyzing every bodily function within seconds. With an awkward drop of his arms, he shuffled away for someone else to take his place.

One by one, Ms. Pincette called us up by name, always taking out a new centipede for Mr. Flinch to enlarge. And one by one, the class failed to win their centipede over, relying on the Shape Shifting instructor to shrink each monster back down before they could bite or scurry over us and trample us to pieces.

Finally, there was only Rodhi, Gileon, and me left. Emelle returned to my side, her hands visibly shaking after her centipede had lunged at her.