Although Thomas shifted just a few feet away from me, and was growling like there was no tomorrow, I wasn’t feeling as scared as I thought I would be. Having come close to a rape-slash-death experience with the rogues a few weeks ago, I had truly expected, when this whole trial came into perspective, to be more afraid – I suffered from enough nightmares to prove the incident wasn’t behind me yet… but then again, I knew no harm would befall me.That said, I was frozen to the spot in fascination. Blake The Troublemaker was making a show of his obvious superiority. As the five-feet-something brown wolf attacked, teeth bared, seeking blood, he dodged with ease and swiftly kicked him in the gut, earning a surprised yelp. The kick sent the werewolf crashing against a tree which creaked loudly in protest and then broke, making him fall back in an ungracious heap. A low growl was heard as Thomas straightened and then lunched himself again at Blake who, just l

“Set spells are risk-free,” I saw my father’s eyes narrow slightly at that, so I hurried to continue, “or to put it more correctly, set spells are those in which the risk, if any, is known. On the other hand, improvised spells can give the desired result, but the risk is unknown; they are to only be used if there’s no other way.”Reciting such a basic rule, as if I was a grade schooler, was not my idea of testing the results of my special “witchcraft lessons”. Set spells were, for the most part, old, written in Latin, and proved to be efficient. Every witch knew that much. I sometimes wondered if this oral test wasn’t some kind of late punishment for my blowing-up-a-tree episode. With the ten days I had taken off school, I was able to learn a bunch of set spells other than the rudimentary ones. And most importantly, I was able to fully commit to my training.Controlling my newly found ability was no easy feat but I