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So blood would spill.

I rolled up the sleeve of my tight black training top and dove the tip of Venom into my skin.

Think, Huntyr. Focus.I thought back to what I had learned about blood magic.

Clear your head. Think of your intentions.

I pictured a small flame, one that could fit in the palm of my hand. I felt the heat of it, imagining the small orange light flickering deeply enough to illuminate the dark courtyard.

Voiler had tried to help me again a few days ago, but it was no use.

This had to come from within. My blood had to call to the magic.

I closed my eyes.Come on, blood magic. I know you’re in there somewhere.

Other students had succeeded overwhelmingly with summoning their blood magic. Even Wolf had managed to heal my wound with his blood magic, which was annoyingly gratuitous of him. Still, I remained shocked.

Focus on the flame, Huntyr. Focus on summoning the magic.

I thought about how the entire castle had been blessed by the archangels. I pictured them pouring their power into this place, into the stones of the walls, into the dirt beneath my feet.

Come on, Moira. I only need a small amount of your magic.

I let my blood drip and drip and drip. I took my knife and sliced even more of the skin on my forearm, offering more of my blood to the blessed lands of the academy.

Give me something.

Anything.

The silence became unbearable.

Still, I felt nothing.

“Hells,” I mumbled to myself, aligning Venom’s tip back onto my arm. Maybe more blood would do the trick.

If what was said about bloodlines being stronger with blood magic was true, perhaps the opposite was true as well. I was born from poverty. I was raised without even knowing who my actual parents were.

Lord surely did not have good things to say about them.

Perhaps they had been too far from the pure fae bloodlines that I had no magic left in my veins. Perhaps this entire seminary was a waste, and I could never wield blood magic like the others.

It had to be a possibility.

I pictured Lord’s face, thinking about how angry he would be with me if I failed. The scars on my back were nothing compared to what he would do to me next.

Hells, if I couldn’t summon this magic and get into The Golden City, I could never show my face around Lord again.

I was the one person he trusted with this assignment. I understood why, of course. In a world as cold and evil as this one, we all had to be careful about who we trusted.

Trusting people showed vulnerability.

Vulnerability would get you killed.

A wave of desperation fell over me. My entire body screamed with pain, whether it was from the dull ache of old bruises, or the new stings from the blood sacrifices, I didn’t know.

Everything hurt.

Everything needed rest.