Page 45 of Darkness Defined

Alex must have seen the look in my eye. “Matt, don’t,” he cautioned again.

“That’s right. Heel.” George laughed.

I threw my bag down. “Fuck the rules.” I shadowed in front of George before he realized what was happening and gave him a good shove.

“You son of a bitch,” he roared and swung at me. He may have been bigger, but I was faster and actually knew how to fight.

Up ’til now, the only other shadow demon I’d sparred with had been Alex. But for some reason I didn’t understand, he wasn’t interested in sparring outside of class. Right now, that kind of sucked. I could have used the practice. My assumption that George would be slow and awkward fell flat as he shadowed out, only to cuff me in the ear a moment later.

He was supposed to be bad at that. But he wasn’t the only one hiding a few tricks. The club manifested in my hand.

“That the best you got? Bring it on, bottom feeder,” he goaded.

I charged George, fully prepared to smash his face. I should have known better. How many hard lessons growing up had it taken for me to learn “never make the first move”? A thread of darkness came out of nowhere. Unlike when Alex used shadow on me, this hurt. The normally ephemeral substance coiled around my neck without forgiveness.

My club vanished as I clawed at the shockingly firm whip of shadow. Blood roared in my ears and my breath came in fitful gasps. Dark spots swam across my vision and my body shook violently as panic took hold. This was just like when I’d gotten cornered in an alley. It had been right before I’d gotten scooped up and hauled to Superno House. The rope had burned as it cut across me then, and this burned nearly as bad now.

“That’s enough.”

The cord winked out of existence, and air poured into my lungs. I looked over to find Vera standing a few feet away and Alex only a few paces behind her.

“Don’t look at me like that. The rules are here for a reason. They keep us safe.” She rubbed her forehead like the mere act of talking to me was giving her a headache. “And as for you, George Cartwright, this is not your first offense.”

He sneered back at her and gave me a look that promised pain.

Just fucking great.

“That’ll be private study for the both of you. Maybe next class you can keep your tempers long enough to learn something new.” The entire room seemed to hold its breath, frozen in anticipation. “Move!”

I snatched my bag off of the floor and slunk out of the room, passing Alex along the way. I didn’t know whether to thank him or hit him for interfering… again. One of these days, he was going to get me killed.

I was swinging away furiously at nothing in a secondary training room when the door slammed. I spun around, expecting to find Vera ready with a tongue lashing. What I got was a face full of shadow. I quickly cleared it away, only to be shoved backwards without getting a good look at my attacker. Before I could regain my bearings, there was another sharp shove behind me that made me stumble. I barely caught myself when that same someone ripped me back to my feet. That someone turned out to be a very angry-looking Alex.

I freed myself from his grip and rounded on him. “What the hell!”

“Yeah, what the hell, Matt? Are you out of your damn mind? Fighting in class? Are you trying to get expelled?” He shoved me again.

I shifted and spun out of his way as he continued to advance. “Cut it out, Alex.”

“Do you know what they’re going over right now?” He paused, but not long enough for me to guess. “The subject of the practicum. Newsflash, it’s one of the few things you’re not a natural at.”

“What?” I shouldn’t have stopped moving. He came at me full force. “What’s your deal?” I asked, grappling with him.

“What’s yours? You’re stronger than George. Fucking act like it.”

“He’s twice my size.”

“It has nothing to do with that. Why won’t you believe me? You should have knocked out his entire attack, no problem, but you just stood there and let him beat you. It’s ridiculous.”

I took it back. I didn’t want to spar with Alex. He was freaking me out. “I won’t fight you, Alex.”

“Why not?” He held out his arms like some demented invitation to take a swing at him. “You were going to fight George. We’re about the same power-wise. If you can beat me, then you can beat him.”

“You two are nothing alike,” I insisted, trying to put more of the room between us.

“You’re right. I’m much better at this.” He spun a disk of shadow into his hand, then sent it shooting at my head. It looked like a damn razor blade and sliced cleanly through the chair I’d been standing behind.

My eyes widened in alarm. I scurried away from the destroyed chair, but when I looked up, Alex was gone. A quick scan of the room revealed nothing. Suddenly, I caught sight of the disk of death whizzing towards me. I ducked in time only to get gut-checked.