Despite the pitch black

  surroundings, I could sense the general direction the trainer was in,

  though I was not confident enough to pinpoint where exactly she would

  be on that side of the room and send a fireball in that direction. I

  pushed out with my will, newly imbued with elemental fire and dimly

  illuminated my surroundings for a fraction of a second, but the light

  barely penetrated the thick layer of darkness pressing down all

  around me.

  My body instinctively ducked

  as a bolt of green magic came soaring at me out of the darkness,

  coming close enough for me to feel the hair on the top of my head

  shiver from the movement of air around the bolt. Summoning will as

  quickly as I could manage, I coalesced a handful of elemental fire

  and sent it soaring in the direction the bolt had come from, a thin,

  dimly illuminated trail of flame making a tail behind it. If it

  wouldn’t have further given away my position I would have let out a

  mutter of frustration. The entire point of the exercise was to learn

  how to control the flame without letting it give off light.

  Another bolt was sent in my

  direction, this one directed at my core and coming too quickly for me

  to be able to dodge out of the way. I barely got the flame centered

  around my torso before the bolt struck, the impact sending a shudder

  through my magical senses and threatened to knock the wind from my

  lungs. Before I could get my breath back, another bolt landed on my

  shield, this time knocking me off balance and I took a step back,

  catching myself before I completely fell over. I had not been on my

  toes enough to suppress the spark of light from the second impact, so

  I dropped into a roll to avoid any other follow up attacks and

  scurried across the ground to reset to a new location. Unfortunately

  in my tumble I managed to lose sense of where exactly the trainer had

  been so I was back to square one in finding where she was.

  Ana had arrived at the castle

  Drak only a few day cycles after our arrival. She was a tall, lithe

  demon, resembling something slightly more humanoid than the demons

  that inhabited the kingdom. Instead of long, curled horns, hers were

  petite and spiraled, sticking straight up from her head and her skin

  was a rich shade of blackened lavender. Her traits were supposedly

  common in her House, but I had a hard time seeing her differences as

  anything other than her being much more feminine and delicate, at

  least at first.

  From the moment of her

  arrival, the House Drak demons had given her a wide birth of respect,

  treating her like the last thing they desired to cross or offend. It

  had become abundantly clear very quickly why that was. As soon as she

  had stepped into training with me and unshielded her power, I had

  been overwhelmed, falling to my knees and struggling to stand against

  her magical aura. It wasn’t just massive, it was thick and solid,

  my own aura felt like it was strapped tightly to me like a cocoon. I

  had been impressed with House Drak and their abilities, but Ana was

  on a whole different level of power. Much to her credit, she had

  apologized for making a royal accidentally bow to her. Had I

  possessed her talent and ability I don’t think I would apologize

  for or excuse anything I did again.

  She had been quick to pick up

  on my weaknesses and devise a strategy to get my advancement quickly.

  Feros had tried to give his input as an equal, but she was quick to

  cast him a withering glance and inquire as to just who had been hired

  to train the queen. By his nonplussed grin and her immediate annoyed

  reactions around him. I got the sense that they had met before and

  she was rather irritated at the idea of having to see him again.

  There was no time for

  questions or thought to waste on a trivial bad relationship. I was

  thrust immediately into what Ana affectionately called combat

  training, which meant that from the moment training started until

  evening meal we would be locked into a game of cat and mouse. Mostly

  she was the cat and I was the mouse.

  There was a soft scuffle of

  fabric on a piece of furniture several feet to my left and I turned

  my head to point my ear better in the direction. The artificial

  darkness Busby had created for the day was much too dense to see

  through and Ana was more than capable of dancing around me without

  letting me sense her magical aura, sound was my only hope. A second,

  softer sound came from approximately the same direction, no louder

  than someone sighing from a few rooms away, had I not been intently

  listening I probably would have heard nothing at all. It had to be a

  feint, a distraction from where she really was. Perhaps I could

  believe that her clothing had mistakeningly brushed up against

  something once, but it was very unlikely someone like her was going

  to make the exact same mistake twice in rapid succession. That

  narrowed down that she was not in that direction at all, which wasn’t

  overly helpful, but was better than nothing and more importantly, I

  was starting to think better on my feet and not just react.

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  “Boo,” she whispered

  behind me, her lips so close to my ear that the air from her words

  sent a shiver of fear up my spine. Before I could catch my breath the

  darkness was gone and Ana’s hands were on my shoulders. “You’re

  getting better at this.”

  Taking a deep breath in to

  steady my pounding heart, I turned to face her with a scowl on my

  face. “I’d be dead.”

  “Mhmm, but you survived much

  longer than yesterday or the day before,” she said, crossing her

  arms loosely in front of her. “You are making progress and that’s

  the important part at this stage. You cannot simply expect a human to

  suddenly be able to stand face to face with someone like me, perhaps

  you never will be able to fully, but we can slowly work you up to be

  able to take on someone much stronger than you can now.”

  “I think she’ll be able to

  take you one day.”

  Feros had let himself in at

  some point. He was inclined to sneak into the sessions, despite the

  fact that he claimed to need all the time he could with Alice getting

  her properly disciplined and prepared. He seemed drawn to keep

  returning and annoying my new trainer.

  “Thank you for the opinion

  no one asked for,” Ana said dryly, rolling her dark eyes but not

  giving him the satisfaction of her casting him a glance. “You seem

  to be really intent on making sure we know every single thought and

  opinion that goes through your head despite the fact that neither of

  us particularly care.”

  “Oh no, you’d really hate

  me if I told you every thought I had,” the fiend said with a broad

  grin.

  “Anyway,” she said much

  louder than necessary, “I think now is a good time to break down

  what went better that time before we break for a meal. I can sense

  your core is running a bit lower today, I think we’re starting to

  run up against your magical exhaustion.”

  I sent my senses inward and

  found that she was right, it was not overly noticeable yet, but I did

  feel more tired than usual. It was not the bleak exhaustion like I

  used to feel when training as a child or when I overexerted myself

  with the inferno, but it would explain the lower lack of

  concentration that I felt I should be capable of. There was

  improvement, but deep down I knew I could be doing better with my

  current skills, perhaps the extended training hours were getting to

  me, it had been a while since I kept a full training schedule and not

  just a couple hours in the evening.

  “Two major improvements I

  saw today from you were that you knew to roll away once it was

  obvious that I had placed your location and secondly you didn’t

  fall for my feint. Both of those have caught you up before, so you

  are learning quickly, but you’re still producing too much light

  with your fire. Did you mean to use it as a means to see?”

  "The very first time yes,

  the second and third, no,” I admitted, “it just feels impossible

  to make it completely light-less right now.”

  “Dark flame is a very tricky

  skill, even for the very skilled with elemental fire,” Feros chimed

  in.

  “Dark flame is difficult to

  master, I think you’re doing well given you are not overly familiar

  with it.” Ana talked right over Feros like she hadn’t heard him

  at all. “In fact, you just attuned to it right before I arrived,

  correct?”

  “Yes, it seems to be

  something that I was always meant to have but had been missing this

  whole time,” I answered.

  The demon pressed her

  periwinkle lips together and turned her head to the side, staring at

  nothing in particular as she thought. “That worries me a bit, you

  are a human and shouldn’t have been so easily attuned to such an

  element.”

  “I was very proficient in

  human realm fire,” I offered, “I was not able to create it, but

  it called to me and I could call to it.”

  She nodded, but her facial

  expression did not change. “That I’m afraid does not settle my

  thoughts on the matter. Though, I see no instability in you yet, but

  it’s something to watch.”

  “Instability?” I really

  did not like that word being applied to magic and me.

  “Is nothing to worry about

  for you right now,” she answered with a wave of her hand. “Let’s

  get you a nice meal and a moment to rest and we’ll pick this up

  again this afternoon. Meet me in the garden this time, I have an idea

  on how to further test how far you’ve come so far.” Ana turned

  and for the first time in days, leveled her gaze at Feros directly.

  “You are invited.”

  His grin wider than ever,

  Feros clasped his hands before him and bowed deeply to her. “Oh of

  course, I would never think to ignore an invitation from a lovely

  creature such as yourself.”

  Ana took a deep breath in

  sharply like she was about to use the air to shout, but instead

  clasped her hands tightly into fists at her sides and raised her chin

  high in the opposite expression from his bow. “You test me.” Her

  voice was barely above a whisper, but contained a quiet rage that

  made me a little afraid to be anywhere near her in the moment. “Do

  not think I find your antics cute or endearing in anyway, I would

  suggest you stop before I reach a breaking point.”

  “My

  dear, I think you’re forgetting that I survived the last time you

  did.”