AS THE THREE OF THEM watched the carriage pull away, the professor turned to the two of them. “This goes without saying, but all that needs to stay between just us, alright?” Both girls nodded in agreement, and the professor made his way towards the camp. Then he stopped.

He turned to look at them again, and Lilianna watched as he opened his mouth, closed it, then studied the both of them intently, like he was trying to figure them out. Finally, he shook his head and grinned, patting them both on the heads and ruffling their hair. “You’re good kids. Come on, the others are no doubt freaking out that they haven’t heard from us by now.”

Lilianna was momentarily taken aback as the professor left. She felt oddly happy, even as she fixed her mussed hair. Nadrina looked like a rewarded puppy as she trotted off after him.

When they arrived a few minutes later0, they found everyone else already there waiting for them, their faces obviously relieved. They also found a nearly blown horse, complete with a very anxious rider wearing academy robes.

Said rider immediately ran up to the professor, not even offering an introduction. The words were already out of his mouth before the professor could properly respond.

“You must return to the academy immediately! There’s been an attack!”

Chapter 13

Early morning the same day...

Remus did his best to wipe the blood off himself, but knew it was futile. It caked every inch of his shirt, and wiping it only spread the mess further. He’d been doing this for years now and learned killing was messy work. Especially when you were Remus’s incompetent partner.

His partner, whose name he still didn’t know, was doing his best to get his sword out of the corpse still seated at the desk. Mages were tricky targets, not something you could face up front. Sneaking behind with a surprise attack was really their only weakness, as evidenced by the dead mage who still had a glassy look of surprise forever imprinted on his rictus face. His partner was trying and failing to get the sword back from the corpse, which had been slammed in so deeply that the body was practically nailed to the desk in front of it.

“Amateur,” Remus muttered to himself, too quietly for the other man to hear. Regardless of the man’s boasting, he had to be new to this. Only fresh recruits got so nervous that they drove their blade home too hard. Partners for missions like this were strangers. That way, if anyone got caught, there’d be less for them to reveal. It also had moments like this where Remus got stuck with an idiot. Again.