Calypso sensed the shift in magical aura in the hall and glanced over his shoulder.

  Honestly, I expected him to say something like “Wow, you actually dared to disobey your dear brother?” or something along those lines.

  But the bastard just looked at me skeptically and said in a haughty tone:

  “So? What now? Or is your famed darkness that supposedly won’t let anyone live in peace — is it just these cute little special effects with the static hair?”

  Special effects!! Spe-e-ecial effects!! Arrrgh!!

  Oh, you’re definitely a dead man, my dear Calypso. Maybe not right away and not today, but I’m going to make your life a living hell — just you wait.

  I struck immediately, without warning.

  A lightning orb of excess magic easily tore from my palms and flew humming toward Calypso. He thrust his hand forward to extinguish the lightning with a counter-blocker, but no such luck.

  Obeying my mental command, the lightning orb split into ten smaller ones and scattered sharply in different directions, approaching Calypso from multiple angles.

  Now he finally had to go on the defensive, quickly raising a very powerful protective dome around himself, because otherwise the lightning orb would have fried him nicely.

  And the spells he started using against me became more complex too — no longer limiting himself to frost needles, but bringing out something more potent.

  From his freezing cold spells, the hall quickly became frigid, the walls covered in frost, and with every breath, a cloud of steam escaped from our mouths.

  The air was already crackling with spell flashes, but Calypso continued to stand in place.

  Well, not exactly in place: he dodged left and right, but no more than that. And though his protective dome hummed from my lightning strikes, overall he deflected my attacks easily, without really breaking a sweat. And actually, it seemed to me like he was going easy on me… and I had a strong allergy to pity.

  Oh, is that how it is?!

  I stopped for a few seconds, catching my breath and raising a dense protective dome around myself in case of continuous attack from Calypso. But he wasn’t attacking, actually.

  He watched with interest as I closed my eyes, lowering my arms and spreading them to the sides with palms facing up. Observing. Waiting.

  And I was simply letting go, removing the upper blocking level and allowing the magic to burst outward, to wrap around me from head to toe, amplifying my aura many times over.

  Lightning bolts tore from my palms and quickly formed something like a reflective sphere around me. It sparkled with bluish flashes and was so dense that now Calypso wouldn’t be able to easily get close to me.

  Good luck trying to break through a sparking sphere like that. The outlines of my body began to ‘blur’ at the same time, as if I had stopped being whole and was ‘smearing’ at the edges.

  Yes, in a sense, that’s exactly what was happening… I was now releasing control over my corporeality, which led to a visible distortion of myself in space. Well, I could hold out for about five minutes without gloves holding it together. Hopefully that would be enough time to at least singe the backside of this self-assured Calypso.

  “Ye-e-es, now this is much more interesting,” he drawled with satisfaction.

  He was looking at me with the fanatical gleam of a mad scientist in his eyes, I swear. He circled around me, as if wanting to admire me from all sides. His sharp gaze seemed to take in every detail.

  Calypso paid particularly close attention to my hands, which now appeared to be covered in glittering gloves woven from the darkest magic itself.

  “The black gloves you always wear, aside from a number of magical functions, completely control your corporeality, don’t they? And they keep you from ‘falling apart’ and turning into… into what? Or rather into whom? What are you, Lori? What true magic is hidden inside you?”

  Now there was distinct interest in his voice, not haughty arrogance. I didn’t know how much trouble I’d get from Eric and the Mentor later for breaking the strictly agreed-upon rules, but this moment was worth it just to hear the pure wonder in Calypso’s voice.

  Calypso made his way to the magical player standing on the floor in the corner of the hall and pressed the large scarlet crystal with his foot, activating the musical artifact.

  Music immediately poured out — club music, and quite aggressive. Matching my mood and the overall atmosphere.

  And matching the mood of Calypso himself, judging by the dancing gait with which he moved around me, twirling his rapier.

  “So then, oh most spectacular Lori?” he sang in a mockingly sweet little voice. “Shall we dance?”

  I couldn’t carry on a dialogue, since I was no longer in a state for peaceful conversation. The magic was bursting outward, exerting strong pressure on my corporeality, on my psyche.

  A wave of fierce rage was involuntarily rising within me, provoked by a flash of concentrated darkness in my magical Spark. Fortunately, there was now someone to unleash that rage upon.

  Into the next strike I poured so much power that my hands literally crackled with lightning. They blasted toward Calypso, and this time he had to dodge quickly to avoid getting fried.

  Blinding magical orbs flew at me in response — I barely managed to remember which block — a very tricky, specialized one — was needed against this combat spell, and at the last second managed to defend myself. But I was partially hit anyway, and my vision blurred for several seconds. Damn it…

  Such moments of weakness are unforgivable in real combat — an enemy won’t wait for you to recover, and I shouldn’t expect that from Calypso either.

  So I had to engage my other senses, recalling all the training under the guidance of the Mentor and my father.

  I couldn’t rely on hearing either: it seemed Calypso had deliberately turned the music up louder, drowning out his quiet footsteps. But with the right concentration, I could detect the slight vibration from footsteps on the parquet and sense with my aura the approach of a new batch of combat spells in my direction.

  God knows what Calypso had hurled at me, so instead of standing and defending, I quickly ducked and rolled across the floor, dodging the fiery flares that swept over my head.

  My vision was almost back to normal too, and when I sprang to my feet again, I saw Calypso toying with a fire whip in his hands.

  A big one, sparking in all directions. That was exactly what had swept over my head while I was disoriented by the blinding orbs.

  “Combat is like a dance, you know,” Calypso sang in a sweet voice, moving in a circle with a playful gait.

  “Every battle has its own rhythm, and if you catch it, you can easily sweep the enemy off their feet. It’s like a real dance… A dangerous dance of two warriors. Listen to my rhythm, Lori. Dance with me.”

  I couldn’t hold back a nervous laugh.

  Well… Normal girls get invited to a slow dance in some romantic hall with dimmed lights, but I get asked to “dance” on a battlefield, with a fire whip cracking at my heels…

  I wonder where and at what point in my life I took a wrong turn…?

  But you know what? I think I was loving every insane second of it. Adrenaline was boiling in my blood, and mixed with my furious mood, it made for quite a bouquet of intense emotions.

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  And also… Well, no point hiding it: I was admiring Calypso.

  The way he moved so gracefully, like a predator that had spotted new prey. The way he looked at me — with interest, testing me. And with that smoldering gaze, that disheveled long hair, that scarlet shirt, white gloves, and the fire whip in his hands — he looked very dangerous, but also — very sinful. And terribly attractive. It made my heart skip a beat.

  I caught myself thinking the ridiculous thought that right now I’d rather be “fighting” Calypso in a whole different way… What the hell is wrong with me today?!

  It was all because of seeing him again after so long. Because of a meeting I’d both dreaded and desperately longed for.

  Well, what can I say… I was right to dread it. Just as my brain used to short-circuit at the slightest contact with Calypso before, nothing had changed now.

  Actually, no, I lied — something had changed: now my brain wasn’t slowly short-circuiting, it was rapidly flying out the window. I just can’t stay calm around this man, damn it!!

  “Your heart has lost its rhythm again,” Calypso said in a melodic voice, not taking his intent gaze off me.

  “There are techniques that allow you to hear another’s heartbeat even from a distance, did you know that? And another’s heartbeat can tell you a great deal about a person, Lori. It can reveal their rhythm, their state, their mood… And right now you’re full of the most varied emotions. Rage, anger, fear, irritation… and a certain flutter that definitely doesn’t relate to our training bout. Curious… What is making you flutter so, Lori?”

  He vanished in a scarlet flash of a spell. Before I could do anything, the next second I heard a hot whisper in my ear:

  “Or is it me who’s getting you so worked up?”

  Goosebumps ran across the delicate skin of my neck, which Calypso had scorched with his hot breath. Across my neck and down my back, along my spine — where Calypso had distinctly traced the handle of the fire whip.

  It was like an electric shock from that swift movement.

  Hell if I know how Calypso had once again so quickly and deftly ended up behind me, but if this had been a real battle, I would already be dead, having let an opponent get this close.

  The handle of the fire whip pressing into my back was a heavy hint that in other circumstances I would literally be going up in flames right now.

  But the circumstances were such that behind me now stood a man whose voice mesmerized me, and whose presence melted me more fiercely than any real fire, only from the inside rather than the outside.

  And yes… Yes, damn it, Calypso was right — he was turning me on incredibly. And with his abruptness and unpredictability, he was only igniting me more.

  “Have you shown everything you’re capable of?” Calypso continued to whisper hotly in my ear.

  “Do you surrender, Lori?”

  Like hell I do — I was only getting started!…

  All the while Calypso was seductively whispering in my ear, I hadn’t just been standing there like a statue — I’d been channeling dark magic, passing it through myself, making it flow through my legs and into the floor, around me, around us, imperceptibly wrapping around Calypso’s ankles.

  Carefully, not pressing with my aura, but acting very cautiously yet effectively… And now hold on tight, my dear warden.

  Things are about to get hot.

  He didn’t notice it right away, and when he did, it was already too late. Obeying my command, the bonds of dark magic that had cleverly wrapped around Calypso suddenly shot upward, launching my opponent into the air. I have to admit, Calypso flew rather beautifully to the other end of the hall.

  Honestly, I hoped that would end our fight, since I would have dealt some damage to Calypso…

  But no such luck!

  He somehow managed to free himself from my bonds blazing with black flame while still in mid-air and landed softly on the floor by the window. And there it was again — that self-assured little smile, and still not a scratch on him…

  What the hell?!

  Arrrgh, this was really starting to piss me off. And my next lightning orb came out as a very dense energy cluster… That one couldn’t possibly leave no marks.

  I didn’t understand what spell Calypso used next, but he thrust his rapier forward, straight at the lightning orb, and seemed to slice it in half… The two halves of the “bisected” orb passed Calypso on either side of him and slammed into the wall behind… which immediately exploded and crumbled within seconds.

  The crash was so loud that the entire academy must have heard us. And instead of a wall with beautiful stained glass windows, the training hall now featured a huge hole with a view of the blooming garden.

  Boy, we were probably going to catch hell for this later…

  Ah, whatever. If you’re going to get into trouble, might as well do it with style!

  Literally with music, by the way, since the music in the hall kept playing, egging me on even more.

  From the pressure spell I’d launched, Calypso was dragged another couple of meters, to the very edge of the hole that had formed after the explosion. He stumbled and swayed, lost his balance…

  But he didn’t fall backward from the second floor — at the last moment he twisted and did a backflip, landing below on soft ground.

  It was quite spectacular and unexpected for me. Damn… Did he really get away without a single scratch this time too? How is that even possible?!

  I didn’t hesitate and jumped after him, softening my fall with levitation charms, and immediately struck at Calypso with a crackling electric whip, which he had to defend against.

  We hadn’t agreed to limit our fight strictly to the training hall, so I still had a chance, right?

  The fight continued, becoming more fierce and large-scale. In open terrain, we could allow ourselves new spells, and everything came into play — from ice vortexes to walls of flying sharp blades.

  Academy adepts relaxing in the garden on this warm late evening, who happened to be in our path scattered in all directions with shrieks, not understanding what was happening.

  Well, to be fair, it’s not every day that a couple of Armarillis students blow up a wall and prance across the green lawn of a blooming garden, flashing lightning and tongues of flame.

  Now Calypso was fighting me if not at full strength, then at least actually at a real level, not lazily swatting me away like an annoying fly. Not standing still for a second, sharply dodging my spells, and in his eyes I could read open delight. He was enjoying the fight and no longer going easy on me.

  It was noticeable how Calypso was progressively using increasingly complex spells, with each one moving to a new level of difficulty and gradually probing my limits of acceptable strain.

  Very professionally probing, I must say.

  My limits were bursting at the seams, but holding for now. I tried with all my might to get close to Calypso, but how could I possibly get close to him at all?!

  He had erected an impenetrable dome around himself, so powerful that everything bounced off it like off a wall.

  And then… then Breath of Death flew at me — very powerful magic, very dense dark magic, based on poisoning the air around the victim.

  For the first second, I was actually taken aback seeing exactly what spell Calypso was weaving.

  He really decided to hit me with that!! What if I couldn’t deflect it?!

  Actually, this spell we had only briefly covered in individual lessons with professors, because executing it required a level of magic that I still had a long, long way to go to reach.

  There was no time to think, so I simply concentrated all the power I was capable of in my palms and sent that black clump of darkness forward, hoping it would at least knock the vortex aimed at me off course.

  The two spells collided just as they reached me… and exploded with such a deafening crash as if the heavens had decided to fall on us.

  From the colossal energy flash, several lightning bolts struck the air, making not only the random witnesses of our fight shriek, but I couldn’t hold back an exclamation myself.

  I instinctively lurched backward, tripped over a root sticking out of the ground, and sprawled on the grass, painfully hitting my back when I fell.

  Just in time: a pillar of purple magical flame that had arisen from the collision of spells swept in a vortex across the entire clearing. A dangerous ray passed right over my head and struck a tree trunk, which instantly burst into purple fire. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught that all the trees in the garden on our side were now engulfed in this purple flame. And also, judging by the numerous sounds of breaking glass, several such purple rays had hit the academy windows, instantly shattering them.

  But Calypso wasn’t as lucky as me. He hadn’t expected such an effect from the collision of spells either and couldn’t calculate the recoil trajectory in time.

  As a result, one such flaming purple ray struck Calypso right in the chest, and though he managed to put up a fire shield, he still flew to the side and plowed the ground with his body.

  When I propped myself up on my elbow to see how my annoying opponent was doing, I saw Calypso already on his feet, walking toward me.

  He was covered in dirt, one button had flown off his shirt, and a large scrape adorned his left cheek: it seemed Calypso had finally been slammed cheek-first into some tree. Slammed good and proper, beautifully. The scrape wasn’t deep, but clearly very unpleasant.

  Calypso ran the back of his palm across his cheek and stared with slight bewilderment at the droplets of blood on his white gloves.

  “Well, well… you actually scratched me,” his voice sounded genuinely surprised and, well, respectful, I suppose?

  Then he shifted his gaze to me. In his eyes I could read something… something I had never seen in his gaze before, and which I still found hard to name.

  And I… at that moment I felt that I was done.

  I had gone beyond the maximum possible limit of being without gloves. I had exhausted my control threshold for today.

  And the black magic, no longer restrained by anything or anyone, continued to churn inside me, pour outward, and drown out the voice of reason. This was bad, very bad…

  And threatened serious problems if not stopped immediately.

  An unpleasant ringing started in my ears, and my body began to ache familiarly from the onset of corporeal disintegration.

  Unfortunately, such episodes of losing control over magic and having my mind consumed by darkness were not uncommon for me, and I couldn’t solve this problem on my own yet. I urgently needed help from one of the seniors…

  As if through a thick layer of cotton, I heard:

  “I believe we’re done. Put your gloves on,” Calypso commanded curtly as he approached.

  But it was too late: I could no longer concentrate, and my consciousness began to drift away…