A white light flashed on the battlefield. Then it flashed again.
The pendants had worked. Azrael and Elvara were gone, teleported to the infirmary. Two more students were out of the test.
The sudden quiet was heavy. The fighting stopped. The wild energy from Elvara was gone. All that remained was the soft crackle of the fire in the forest.
Kaelen, Selvara, and Seraphina were the only ones left.
Seraphina was the first to break. Her legs felt weak. She stumbled to a blackened log and sat down hard breathing fast and shallow.
Her mind was a mess. She kept seeing it again and again.
The white energy. The fear as it came for her. Then being pulled back, flying through the air and landing in a heap.
'He saved me.' The thought felt wrong. It didn't fit with anything she knew. 'The person I hate most in the world just saved my life.'
She remembered how he didn't even hesitate. He saw her, frozen and about to die, and he acted. Then he turned around and did something even crazier.
