Outside the examination room, Mel stood leaning against the wall. Austin was there too. Apparently they had gotten the same time slot, lucky her.

Austin hadn’t talked to Mel since the night at the Last Stance. He was probably still angry with her. For not wanting to end things with Marcus, for being hot and cold toward him. It wasn’t really any of Austin’s business, but he sure seemed to want to make it his. Why Mel couldn’t understand.

Austin was breathing evenly, and Mel observed the rise and fall of his chest. He stood looking down at his feet and from the examination room door; they heard notes ringing clear. His presence made her feel calmer, making her more sure of herself.

Mel puffed up her chest, glancing down at the metal pommel sticking up between her hills. The rest of her dagger was covered in its sheath and wrapped in a cloth, then strapped against her. It wasn’t perfect, but she hoped it would give her an edge.

She had practiced all day and night, done nothing except for practicing since the Last Stance. Gabriella had hurled expensive apples at her during the evenings to make her shut up and stop hitting tuning forks against the leg of her bed.

It was the only thing that made her stop. Apples were too precious for Mel to be wasted, it was difficult to find any type of fruit here in Aldrion. But Gabs had been nice enough to secure some during one of the Governor’s last shipments. Only the dragons knew how much those must have cost.

Mel’s gaze flew up when she saw a blue glow in the corner of her eye. Austin’s armband shone and the student inside the room must have found the water note. A moment later, Isabella emerged from the examination room, a wide smile on her lips. She gave Austin a wink, and he fiddled with his armband. He got it off and placed it on the table next to the door.

He looked up and met Mel’s eyes before he entered the examination room.

Isabella had already wandered off and Mel stood alone in the corridor now, waiting for Austin to find whatever note they gave him. She took in a deep breath and let it out through clenched teeth. She had a seventy-five percent chance of success. It would have to be enough.

During the last hours before the test, she had managed to remember by heart the exact note of both water and earth. Those she had locked down. The dagger could give her fire, if she found earth first. It was a bit of a gamble, but that could work. Her only real weakness was wind. She had tried to remember the note, the sound. But it was like it blew out of her mind as soon as the tuning fork stopped ringing.

The door opened to the examination room. Mel turned her gaze and found Austin walking through it. She had a frown on her forehead. Wasn’t that too fast? Had he really passed?

Austin gave her a thin smile and a nod, holding up the door for her to walk inside.

Oh, he must have passed then. Otherwise, she was sure that he would have yelled at the professors.

Mel walked past him, closing the door behind her. Inside, the room was bright and smelled fresh. Professor Dereey sat with his elbows on the table before him, staring at her through spectacles. Beside him, Professor Monroe was seated with a ready smile on her lips.

The last professor she didn’t recognize, and he turned to meet her gaze as she walked closer toward the group. He had a long dark beard, streaked with silver gray. His eyes were dark and warm. He gave her a smile and stood up.

“Master Foss,” he said.

“Hi, I’m Melissa Temper.”

“Foss will be your mage smith teacher if you pass the basic training,” Professor Dereey said in a monotone voice. Like he had made this introduction at least a hundred times today. “Please walk forward to the table here. These are the twelve tuning forks, as you should know. Four of these are the elemental tones. You just need to locate one.”

Professor Dereey focused his gaze and turned to Master Foss.

“Do you want to choose the note?”

Master Foss looked straight into Mel’s eyes, seeming to want to peer into her soul and find the right element inside.

“Fire,” he said.

Mel swallowed. Shit, had he seen inside her shirt instead? At the dagger strapped with twine that was cutting into her flesh.

She shook her head. No, he hadn’t.

Mel took a deep breath and tried to calm her irrational thoughts. No one would suspect her of having a double imbued dagger poking up between her breasts. That was so crazy, no one would even think of it.

“Great,” Professor Dereey said, with a voice that sounded flat and bored. “You have ten minutes to find the fire note and hand it over to Master Foss. Starting…”

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He looked down at his watch.

“Now.”

Mel swallowed hard. She walked up to the table and grabbed a tuning fork. The three professors watched her intently as she hit the first fork against the surface of the table. It rang out.

Not earth.

She kept going, hitting all twelve forks against the table and listening. The last one was different. It made her jump up and almost run out of the examination room. Because her dagger, strapped against her body, glowed. It actually glowed.

Mel was sure that the tenth one was earth, but that last one, the twelfth, it was fire and earth. It must be its pure note, her dagger's pure note.

Her breath caught in her lungs. Her eyes were wide, and she blinked rapidly, looking up at Master Foss. He bore a frown on his face and gave her a slight, but noticeable shake of his head.

Yes, Mel thought, I know this isn't fire. But it’s…

Then she realized none of them must have seen the glow from her chest. The room was bright after all and the glow orange, not one of the elements as they recognized them. The time ticked on and Mel swallowed, putting that twelfth note down on the table with reverence.

She picked up the earth note and moved it to her left hand and picked up other tuning forks. She cleared her throat and hit two tuning forks at the same time against the table, glancing down inside her shirt.

No flicker.

Mel kept going, seeing Professor Monroe lean back in her chair with a curious expression on her face. Professor Dereey crossed his arms over his chest and seemed annoyed at Mel for taking the full ten minutes to just hit forks against his table. He looked convinced she wouldn’t find the fire note.

The third fork she hit together with the earth note gave a flicker. It was slight and also bright. The sudden burst of orange light from inside her shirt made Mel jump again, and she looked up, staring into Professor Monroe’s face. She stared back at Mel, but the seconds ticked past and no one said anything.

Eventually, Professor Dereey looked down at his watch.

“You have one minute left. Do you at least want to guess at something?”

His voice sounded flat and bored, just like before. Mel’s heart started beating again, and she took in a full breath, almost gasping for air. She clutched the earth note in her left palm and the fire in her right. She didn’t dare hit them against the table again. Mel was sure they would see the flickering light from her dagger if she did.

She stretched out the tuning fork in her right hand toward Professor Dereey.

“It’s this one,” she said, her voice wavering. “This is fire.”

Professor Dereey glanced over at Master Foss, who took up a briefcase from his side. He placed it on the table and opened it so everyone could see the contents. He took the tuning fork from Mel’s hand and hit it against the table. The fire note rang out through the examination room, loud and clear.

Inside his briefcase, a small ring glowed bright red.

Master Foss nodded to Professor Dereey, who took up a pen and wrote a check mark next to Mel’s name on a piece of paper.

“Good,” Professor Dereey said. “You got lucky, I guess. Doesn’t matter. Now, it's lunchtime.”

The three professors stood up and walked Mel out of the room. Professor Dereey locked the door behind him after they’d all exited the examination room.

“Do you want to go to the canteen?” he asked, looking at Professor Monroe.

“Yes, I’m starving,” Monroe said.

Master Foss touched Mel’s arm and leaned in with a curious expression on his face.

“What kind of method was that?” he asked.

“What?”

“The method you used to find the fire note,” he said. “You first located the earth element and then you could locate fire with it. How?”

Mel shook her head.

“No,” she said, an embarrassed smile spreading on her lips. “It was like Professor Dereey said. I was just lucky. I just tried to buy time and then eventually realized I didn’t know and panicked. I chose one and it happened to be fire.”

Master Foss’s eyebrows dipped, and he didn’t seem to buy it.

“You’re saying you had a chance at one in twelve and you were just that lucky?”

Mel shrugged.

“Someone has to win the lottery, right?”

“I guess,” Master Foss said.

He ran a hand through his beard, seeming to mull over what she had just said. Mel felt heat rising to her cheeks, and she turned her back to the three professors.

“Thanks, bye,” she mumbled and ran away from them.

She didn’t hear Master Foss or anyone else call after her, and Mel just hoped he would forget about this. She didn’t want next semester to be riddled with him, distrusting her or asking her questions about this test. Honestly, Mel just wanted to forget about it. Forget she had cheated to pass the test and forget she was just so bad at magic, she would have failed otherwise.

In all truth, this wasn’t the first time Mel had cheated on a test. She had done it before, in Windbrook. The first time had been during a math test. They had studied the multiplication table and Mel just hadn’t been able to remember what seven times six was. Or seven times eight or nine, for that matter.

She had written down a couple of the really hard ones on her wrist, just over her pulse, hiding them under her sleeve. Then during the test she had stretched out her hand, tilted it slightly, and seen the answers. She knew them all by now, the entire table. She could count, after all. But back then, it had seemed so hard and she hadn’t wanted to return home with yet another low result.

Mel wasn’t like most of her friends, like Marcus or Minnie. Proud and with a strong moral compass, knowing what was right or wrong. Like Austin. They would never have cheated, even been offended by someone suggesting it.

Mel often thought more about what she wanted, what she needed, than what was right or wrong. Like passing this test, it was something she needed, so therefore she had cheated to pass it. Same with Marcus. He was someone she wanted around, so therefore she might lead him on to make sure he would stick around. Was that wrong?

Yeah, probably very wrong. But Mel was convinced she was, in fact, a bad person. It was one of the things that made her question her destiny the most. Why would the dragons choose a morally bad person who cheated on tests and only cared about themselves as the most important person in millennia? As the one who would bring them back?

They wouldn’t, right?