Shade materialized beside us, his amusement palpable. “Well, that was exciting. You sure do know how to make friends, little rose.”
“Did you know she could do that?” Zephyrus demanded.
“No, but I’m thrilled by the prospect.”
“Would someone tell me what I supposedly did?” I cut in before the headmaster could reply.
“WarFire,” Zephyrus said. “You created WarFire and threw it at Ella. It’s a lethal flame meant to kill. And it requires high-level magical skill, something you claim not to possess, but that little act suggests otherwise.”
“I…” I wasn’t sure how to reply to that. “All I did was destroy her water lion.”
“What color did you see?” Zephyrus asked, ignoring me in favor of Shade. “I saw red. Kolstov swears it’s purple. You?”
“Green,” Shade replied. “Just like yesterday.”
“It’s cerulean blue,” I insisted, annoyed that they kept talking about the color of my flame and not focusing on what the heck just happened. “Is Ella all right?”
“Cerulean…?” Zephyrus repeated, trailing off and sharing a glance with Shade. “That’s impossible.”
“Why are you all so obsessed with the color? You’re telling me I almost killed Ella. Is she okay?”
“Tray’s healing her,” Shade replied, still holding Zephyrus’s gaze. “And I agree; that’s impossible.”
“Do you have Quandary Blood in your history?”
“No. It’s a dead line.”
“I know that.”
“Then why bother asking such a question?”
“Just tell me what’s going on,” I interjected, tired of these conversations about colors and bloodlines. There were more important things at play here. “How could I possibly create WarFire? I don’t even know a standard defense spell.”
“WarFire is an advanced offensive spell.” Zephyrus finally gave me his attention again. “It’s exceedingly difficult to conjure and requires a lot of energy. It’s also extremely illegal.”
“Great.” I threw up my hands and paced in the small stone space, wary of the dusty walls and cobwebs in the corners. Beautiful place, I thought, pinching the bridge of my nose. “You realize Earth Fae don’t fight, right? We’re very peaceful beings.”
“Could have fooled me,” Shade murmured.
“I learned how to duel at a young age because of my birthright, but I rarely took defensive or offensive skills in school. My method of fighting is through power. Earth power. And we don’t create fire.”
“Yet here we are,” Shade replied, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. “How did you pick up her bondage spell? Or did you read that in a book?”
“I don’t know. I just… absorbed it.”
“Which is how you dismantled Zeph’s force field?” Shade guessed.
“Is that what that was?”
“Yes.” Zephyrus narrowed his eyes at me. “A powerful one, too, that you took down faster than a
nyone I’ve ever seen.”
I swallowed. “Oh.” That wasn’t good for a lot of reasons. Well, none of this was good. It showed a growth in dark magic, which I definitely didn’t want. “I really am becoming an abomination, aren’t I?”
“So it would seem,” Zephyrus replied, not mincing words. “The question remains: Is it permanent or temporary?”
I had no answer for that and neither, it seemed, did Shade. He merely remained as nonchalant as ever, not a single inkling of remorse tainting his features.