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“Excellent,” Gabriel praised. He glared at Kelsana, Mira, and Rennick. “You’ll see me after this session. We’ll have a joint conversation with Dean Drake.”

Damn.Our dean was a no-nonsense sorcerer who really didn’t take kindly to brash displays of magic or abilities. The three of them really weren’t going to fare well during thatconversation.

I was actually glad, because they’d been so foolish and ridiculous.

Things had been going so well. I’d managed to control my power and my pride in myself for that had been overshadowed by their stupidity.

Fuck it.My emotions were all over the place. It was what happened in the aftermath of anallure surge. It made me feel extra sensitive. And I guess it bothered me that beings like me and Ariana had to struggle so much to control our abilities so things like what those three assholes had done didn’t happen, and yet here they were in full control and doing things like that because they felt like it, because they wanted attention and affirmation that they were super dominant? I mean… it sickened me.

Thankfully, my worked up thoughts were cut into when Gabriel came to us and whispered to Kai, “You demonstrate the same approach and attitude that you did with this exercise in your upcoming meeting with a certain someone and you will fare very well.” He laid his hand on Kai’s shoulder. “The mask won’t work with him.”

“Noted. And appreciated,” Kai told him, grateful for the assistance Gabriel was offering him for when Kai and Vorzyr met with Cornelius in a couple of days.

As Gabriel gave another chin lift, and smiled at Ariana, that emotional upheaval I’d been trying to fight off—emotional unraveling was more like it—deepened as the heaviness of what that meeting meant bore down on me.

The weight of it all.

Upon Ariana.

Upon our foursome.

Upon what we were building so wonderfully.

Ariana eyed me, alarm all over her, and I realized she was feeling my magic becoming unstable. It couldn’t be seen because of the stabilization she was employing over everybody’s right now.

She nudged Kai and diverted some of his focused attention from his magic to me.

He registered what was happening with me swiftly.

“Hold on just until the end of this class, and we’ll get you the release you need,” he told me. “More than you realize,” he added cryptically.

But there was an earnestness to it, a wholehearted promise.

All I could do was nod.

And I let that promise and their amazing understanding roll through me, focusing on that and drawing on it to calm myself, to stabilize, and make it through.

I moaned softlyat Ariana stroking my hair while Kai held my hand as the three of us walked through the corridors of Maven Academy.

Thankfully, Ihadmanaged to make it through class and hold it together.

But now I was buzzing uncomfortably, on edge, and struggling to maintain stability.

I jolted when Kai slipped his hand from mine, and we all came to a stop, as he told me, “There’s something I need to see to right now. It’ll take barely ten minutes. Why don’t the two of you head outside? You need a breather, Nyx.”

“Kai, I… do you have to head off? Can’t it wait?”

Hesitation warred on his features.

Ariana took my hand where Kai had been and gave it a squeeze. “He’ll only be brief. Come on, I’m here with you. Let’s get that fresh air, yes?”

“Okay,” I murmured, nuzzling against her.

Kai was gone in a burst of teleportation in the next second.

I sighed heavily. I didn’t like being without him when I was in this sort of state.

But things were different now. It wasn’t just him that I had anymore. There was Vorzyr and Ariana.