The Immortal / Fourth Wing

Chapter Twenty-Two

POV: Violet Sorrengail

"You have to be kidding," I said loudly enough for the knocker to hear. "Just because Liam is healing doesn't mean I need another -" I wrenched the door open and stumbled over my last word "-bodyguard." Professor Carr stood in my hallway, his hair standing on end as he looked at me with scientific appraisal, then lifted his eyebrows as he stared past me unto the wreckage of m room. "We have work to do."

"I have Archives duty," I argued.

He snorted. "You're off Archives duty until we can be sure you're not going to burn the place down. Lightning and paper don't mix well. Trust me, Sorrengail, the scribes aren't going to want you anywhere near their precious books, and from the looks of it, you can't even control your powers in your sleep. And I assure you, Cadet Mairi is perfectly fine and completely healed."

I tired to ignore the sting of his words, since he was far off, but ended up following him down the hallway when he left. "Where are we going and how is Liam already fully healed. Did Nolon mend him?"

"Somewhere you won't start a forest fire," he said without looking back. "And Nolon didn't mend Cadet Mairi. It was Xandor Galadon who did."

"What?"

******

The bite of spring wind stung my cheeks as we flew deep into the mountain range, and I was thankful I dressed in flight leathers this morning, thinking I'd have a session before lunch.

We landed almost a half hour later, high above the tree line. I shivered and rubbed my arms to fight off the low temperatures that come with high altitude. A growl rumbled in Tairn's chest as he edged Carr's smaller dragon out of his space.

"You just want me to..." I gestured to the mountains around us.

"Preferably anywhere but right here, yes."

Power flooded my entire system, crackling along my skin, and light flashed behind my closed eyes.

"Good job!" Professor Carr nodded, jotting something down. "See, I told you." Carr lifted the notebook. "The last lightning wielder said it made them overheat. Now do it again."

This time, I focused on the feeling of the power rush and not what got it there, opening every sense and letting white-hot energy course through me, gathering to a breaking point. Then I released it, and lightning struck more than a mile away. Well, look at that. I was certified badass.

"Maybe you could work at aiming it this time?" Professor Carr peered over his notebook. "Just remember not to exhaust the physical strength with which you control the power. No one wants to see you burn out. A power like Tairn's will eat you alive if you can't contain it."

Lightning struck five more times before I was exhausted, and none of it hit where I was aiming. This was going to be harder than I thought.

"That'll be enough for today, Cadet." Professor Carr said and closed his tome. I nodded exhausted and leaned against Tairn's foreleg to come to breath. "Now, I'll supervise another cadet right here so if you want to, you can either stay and watch, or fly back to Basgiath. You'd be in for a treat, though."

A treat?

Professor Carr took out his pocket watch and checked the time. "He should already be on his w -" A roar interrupted him and I snapped around, facing the snowy mountain behind me. Only that it wasn't a mountain. The massive body of Xandor's dragon Dâmoren straightened up and he shook his body to get rid of the snow. The earth trembles as he walked toward us and stopped a hundred feet away. In the next second, the familiar shadow of landed beside him on the snowy ground. Petting Dâmoren's snout, he walksed past him and towards us. He sometimes treated the biggest dragon on the continent like a dog. But Dâmoren's loud and deep purrs showed that he liked it.