Page 73 of Bound By Fate
From the back of the room, Rook stood up. He looked pale. He looked panicked.
"Sorry, Dean!" he said loudly. "I think my stomach is singing."
"Sit down!" Marrow barked.
"I can't!" Rook wailed. "The rhythm! It's contagious!"
He started to tap dance. On his desk.
Tap-tap-shuffle-stomp.
"Stop this!" Marrow shouted, raising a hand to silence him with a spell.
But before he could cast, the ceiling exploded.
Not with rubble. With glitter.
Tons of it. Literally tons. Ivy had transmuted the dust in the rafters into industrial-grade crafting glitter. Pink, silver, gold, neon green. It rained down on the silent exam hall like a disco blizzard.
It wasn't just sparkly; it wassticky. It was enchanted adhesive. It clung to the desks. It clung to the exams. It clung to Marrow's pristine white suit, turning him into a shimmering disco ball of authority.
"My eyes!" a student yelled joyfully, throwing his papers into the air. "I'm fabulous!"
"This is insurrection!" Marrow screamed, wiping pink glitter from his mouth. "Guards! Seize them!"
The doors burst open.
The Enforcers rushed in. But they didn't make it far.
Ivy, standing on her desk like a queen, raised her hands.
"I cast..." she paused for dramatic effect. "The Floor is Lava."
The stone floor shimmered. The gray flagstones turned into bubbling, glowing molten magma. Heat radiated upward.
It was an illusion—Arthur had checked the safety calculations to ensure no one would actually burn—but the lizard-brain instinct to avoid fire was powerful.
The Enforcers shrieked. It was a high, undignified sound.
They leaped onto the nearest tables. They scrambled up the curtains. One particularly athletic zombie-thrall managed to hang from a chandelier.
"It works on instinct!" Ivy shouted to us. "Keep dancing!"
Then, the music started.
Jax rode in through the side door. He wasn't walking. He was riding a heater shield he had stolen from the armory, using it like a skateboard over the "lava." He was wearing sunglasses and holding a boombox over his head.
"Party time!" Jax yelled.
He hit play.
Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It"blasted through the hall, amplified by Rook's sonic magic.
The students didn't stay seated. They jumped up. Papers flew into the air like confetti.
"We're not gonna take it!" the entire student body sang, jumping on their desks.
"No, we ain't gonna take it!"
