Tasting Darkness
Tempting Darkness Chapter 9: Aleera POV

Tobias asked me to step forward, and I did. My bond became excited, and I stamped it down, forcing it back. I knew they felt it, but when I felt Darius’s presence moving closer, I didn’t want him to feel my reaction to my mates. H So it was no surprise when I felt him stop behind me. ”Hold your hands out,” Tobias whispers, then his eyes dart over my shoulder.

I glance back at Darius. He leans against the door frame, watching us, but I turn my attention back to Tobias and focus on the casting he was about to show me. Tobias holds his hands out above mine, and I watch the air between his hands’ ripple and thicken. A picture forms and my magic wants to latch on to him, and it does.

He transfers the strange sphere into my hands, and it hovers above my palms. He pokes it with his finger, and it ripples, taking the form of the rainforest. ”Why are casts dangerous?” he asks, looking out at the class, yet he looks back at me for the answer.

Vampiric – Fae primarily did casts because my kind no longer existed or was rare. It took compulsion and could temporarily blind an opponent, yet it also took a lot of concentration to maintain. ”They are dangerous because they act as virtual reality, and people can be trapped within them until the cast holder releases them,” I tell him, and he nods.

One demon in the class raises their hand, and Tobias nods to him. ”Why are we learning this, though? Only vampiric and Elemental can yield it,“ the demon asks, and Tobias asks.

”You think a vampiric will care if you can yield it if they are planning to use it against you?” he asked, and as Tobias said, the man dropped his head. It was a stupid question to ask. ”So, how does one break out of the spell of a cast?” Tobias asked before the sphere was suddenly wrapped around my face, blinding me to the rest of the classroom.

Forest scenery surrounded me, and I could vividly see and hear, even smell, everything. The classroom completely disappeared, and I stumbled forward. I could even hear the crickets chirping, the sound of the soft breeze, and feel it like it was real, the air thick and moist, and the ground smelled of moist soil.

Yet Tobias’s voice I could also hear faintly, his voice becoming more distant until he touched me, making me jump, thinking something fell from the trees and landed on me. My hand moves to his hand on my shoulder. ”Focus on my voice, Aleera,” he says, yet the cast I am stuck in feels real, so I instinctively look up when birds take off out of the canopying trees above.

”You need to remember it’s a cast. Remember your true surroundings, no matter how much fear or what is going on around you. It isn’t real. You just need to focus on where you were before, paint that picture in your head, and implant it. This will force fake reality away to bring you back to your true surroundings,” I try, but I replace myself stuck as everything becomes overwhelming.

”Where are you, Aleera?” Tobias asks. ”Rainforest,” I murmured, turning when I heard leaves rustle behind me.

”Where were you before Aleera, focus?” his voice says, and I look for him but can’t see anything but the forest. My pulse races when I see a giant tiger step out from the foliage. I stagger, taking a step back, only to trip over my feet. It charges at me, and I put my hands up to shield myself when the cast is dropped, and I replace Tobias grabbing me and hauling me to my feet. Everyone in the class laughed, and Darius even chuckled at me. Embarrassment coursed through me.

”This is why you should have been in my class instead of running hiding in an advanced defense class,” Darius says, making me glare at him as I catch my breath. ”You did well. Ignore them. It was your first go,” Tobias whispers, yet as I went back to my desk, everyone tried to stifle their giggles, and Darius clicked his tongue. ”Do it again,” I snap, gritting my teeth. I hadn’t wielded magic like that before it was banned in the schools, yet I could feel how he did it and knew I could mimic it if I could just touch it again.

”You don’t have to,” Tobias says, his lips brushing my cheek. The demon holler and whistles at his gesture, and I glare at them. ”Do it again,” I tell him, turning to face him. I refuse to let them think I don’t belong here or that I can’t do this.

Tobias’s eyes search my face before he síghs, looking past me to Darius. I look at him, too, and he waves arrogantly, thinking I would fail again. I could feel his amusement at my anger which only served to anger me more.

When Tobias sets the cast in my hand this time, however, my magic locks onto his, but instead of letting him manipulate it when he flicks his fingers, I grasp onto it tightly. He raises an eyebrow at me. ”Aleera!” he hisses, wondering what I am doing, but I hold on firmly and feel for the compulsion he was using in it before crushing and stamping it out.

His magic fizzled in my hands. I feel how it disintegrates his cast, dying out as I destroy it. The demons laughed. ”What’s a matter, Aleera, scared, burned it out before entering it?” one chuckles. ”That was my intention,” I tell the demon. He scoffs, throwing his head back. Lycus snarls at him, and he jumps when my mate stands behind him.

”Stop playing around and get either to my class where you should be or back to your seat,” Darius snaps at me, and Tobias nudges me, but I refuse to move. ”I can do one better,” I smirk, feeling my magic sing in my b***d, morph and twist as it writhes through me, cold and chilling while also warm and tingling as I blend both sides of my magic, melding them into one.