na

ing lecture hall thirty min

still clung to t

rectly in the cent

later, yawning behind her scarf, she stop

s is the line of fire! Foster spits when

enly, arranging my inkwell, quill, and pr

tered, but she took the seat to my left anyway

n, filling the b

choed off the stone walls,

final be

eaked open o

nto the room, her dark c

n her wake, his head held r

stopped

hin, his collarbones sharp against th

-out greenish gray, the silver piping a

his clothes, there was nothi

shadowing a face of striking, severe beauty-high cheekbones, a sharp

there wer

vertical pupils that cau

gon

on the fringes of the realm, feared for their destructive fire-mag

at the cente

own," she

lski of Abyssal House will be joining our pra

eyes swept acros

th, scanning the students as if asse

idn'

offer a po

owalski,"

n I remembered, cool, re

was

one cleared their throat

r rippled through the Avi

but she simply gestured to

alski. We are covering w

at the students w

climb the stairs toward the very last row-the broken, drafty corner under the back rafters wher

oment, I

ill suspended over h

, her hand shooting out to grab my

you doing?" she

d her co

le, placing myself dir

opped three

e looked at me with open wariness, his shoulders

the lump i

on the first syllable, bu

est, most genuine smile I possessed. "I'm Giana