Chapter 9 · Dropped Into Witch Academy at Midnight - Chapter 9: Lesson One: Don't Bleed

Cassandra doesn't say a word when I show up to the private training hall at dawn. Just points at the center of the room.

I walk. My legs feel like someone filled them with wet sand. The whole academy watched me stabilize an arena yesterday. Watched me pull light out of nothing and stop a dueling platform from collapsing on Rena's skull. Now they think I'm the real deal.

Which means Cassandra's gonna test that.

The training hall's smaller than I expected. Stone walls, high windows letting in gray morning light. No bleachers. No witnesses. Just her and me and a circle of runes carved into the floor that I really don't like the look of.

"Stand in the center," Cassandra says.

I do. The runes start glowing the second my boots cross the line. Pale blue, then silver, then something that looks like old blood.

"What is this?"

"A binding circle." She walks around the edge, hands behind her back. Her coat's buttoned all the way up today. Hair pulled tight. She looks like she didn't sleep. "It will contain any magic you produce. If you lose control, it won't spread beyond this room."

"Great. Love that for me."