Page 139 of Spark of Sorcery

“He’s joking, Clare,” I tell her, ripping a corner off my toast and chucking it at Fly’s head. “My brain is fine – at least I think it is.”

“Your brain was never fine, Cupcake.”

“I assume neither was yours – that’s how we became friends.”

“Touché!” He turns to Clare. “In conclusion, I think her brain is working just fine.”

I laugh, which has everyone in the canteen looking my way.

“Oh, jeez,” I mutter, relieved when the bell clangs meaning it’s time to head off for classes.

“Will you be here for lunch?” Clare asks, gripping my arm as we follow the crowd out of the canteen. “Considering you weren’t gone that long, you missed out on loads. I have so much to tell you.” She glances through the crowd toward the boy from her History class and I understand.

“I can’t wait to hear all about it.” I squeeze her hand. After all, I have quite a bit to tell my friends myself.

Chapter Fifty-Three

Briony

I stare out at the assault course in front of me with apprehension. The last time I tackled this course was right at the beginning of my time at the academy. It seems like an absolute lifetime ago. On that occasion, I’d nearly fallen to my death. Okay, the person responsible for my fall is no longer here, but having just survived another assassination attempt I’m not exactly feeling confident, especially as my legs have morphed into jello and the pain medication has most definitely worn off.

Then there’s the way Adrianna – Odessa’s best friend – is glaring at me like she’d like to reach down my throat and rip out my heart.

I swing up and down on my toes, trying to find some sort of enthusiasm, waiting for one of the troll twins to blow their whistle and signal our start.

When he does, I set off at a slow jog. I don’t have it in my legs right now to run at my usual speed. I haven’t run two meters, though, when Dray and Beaufort appear out of nowhere flanking either of my sides and Thorne positions himself behind me.

“Wh-wh-what are you doing?” I ask.

“Making sure you get through this course without any serious injury,” Beaufort explains.

We reach the first obstacle. A series of tires fixed to the ground. Other students are already hopping through them.

“Right,” Dray says, scooping me up into his arms and skipping through the field of tires with ease.

“Is this even allowed?” I squeal.

“Do I give a shit?” he says, placing me back on my feet when we reach the end, the others right there with us.

“I can do this myself,” I point out. They all look at me like I really did lose all those brain cells. “Fine, okay,” I mutter, setting off on that slow jog towards the next obstacle, wanting the ground to open up and swallow me as Beaufort lifts me up and over a short wall blocking our path, handing me to Dray on the other side, who lowers me down.

“This is fun,” he says, giving my ass a playful slap as we set off.

“This is your idea of fun?”

“Yeah, this course is usually way too easy. This makes it more of a challenge.”

Although, I’m not sure it makes it that much of a challenge. They lift me through, over and along each piece of apparatus with ease.

Then we reach the monkey bars.

“There’s no way you can help with this one,” I say, watching the student in front of us try and fail to swing to the other side, landing down in the mud.

“Huh,” Beaufort snorts, lifting me again and going to wade straight through the mud.

“There are spikes in there!” I warn him.

Thorne lifts his hand and his shadow magic swoops through the mud and plucks out each of the spikes, clearing Beaufort’s path for him.