This is from Book 10 of The Academy of the Accord and it hasn’t seen the editing pen yet.
(By the way, just to clear up any confusion, this is from the prologue and is set at a different school (Arcane Academy) not The Academy of the Accord.)
We’re picking up from last week, which ended with:
Master Epans smiled coldly, then suddenly spun and hurled something unseen at Rarian.
Calef had been expecting him to do it, but seeing it was still enough of a shock to tear a howl of pain and fear from him, even as he reacted, shouldering into the bigger man, knocking him off balance, and casting a spell of his own around Rarian, a protective shield. At the last minute he added a reflection and the spell rebounded, returning to its source, leaving Master Epans on the ground struggling to breathe, his body wracked with pain, a few strangled cries of fear making it out of his chest.
Calef did not spare him so much as a thought; all of his attention was on Rarian as he ran to the cadet.
“Are you all right?” Calef wrapped his arms around him, shaking, and Rarian wrapped his arms around him, soothing him, neither of them caring where they were or who saw them, or what the others thought.
“I’m all right.” Rarian bowed his head against the apprentice’s. “Thank you, Calef. That took a great deal of courage.”
Calef shook his head. “I couldn’t hurt you, Rarian. And I couldn’t let him do it either.” He looked into the cadet’s eyes. “He was going to kill you.”
Rarian looked past Calef and stiffened. “Calef. I think he’s dead.”
Calef turned. Master Epans lay unmoving, his face contorted by pain and fear.
Slowly the other apprentices were coming out of shock, staring at Master Epans’ lifeless body and then at Calef.
“You killed him,” one of them said.
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