“Maam, get ready to shoot at me. Stun please.”

  The lieutenant had turned around with a startled look on her face, and she had her mage pistol drawn.

  The rapist was trying to get back up, and she leapt onto his back knocking him back to the ground, and by feel alone put him in a headlock as she drove the palm of her other hand into his kidney. He froze from the pain of that strike, and then she rolled onto her back, pulling him on top of her.

  “Now, maam.”

  The lieutenant must’ve figured out what was going on, because she didn’t even hesitate. The stun blast hit him, and would’ve hurt them both, but she was shielded.

  The man went limp in her arms, and she tossed him to the side.

  Stacy nailed him with another mage capture spell, and that time it stuck as a whole lot of MPs and investigators rushed in, and he slowly faded into visibility. Unconscious mages couldn’t hold spells.

  Stacy snickered, “Not our finest moment or takedown. Thank you, maam.”

  That was just true. If their mage pistols hadn’t been locked down, it would’ve been a lot easier. She could’ve taken him down casually from blocks away, the arrogant bastard hadn’t been shielded, too secure in his ability to evade the reveal spell. They’d also been hampered by the need to keep him breathing. Still, they’d gotten the job done.

  The other cadet said, “Professor Verdi?”

  “He’s a professor?”

  The cadet nodded, “He started this semester, new galactic history course,” she swallowed, “He was going to take one of us, wasn’t he? Thank you.”

  Brennan interjected, “We’ll take it from here, just give us your records before you go. Thank you, cadets.”

  They transferred things from their point of view to the inspector, then headed back to the house.

  The extra base restrictions were lifted the next morning, and Verdi was discovered to hate the military and women in general, and he would be spending the rest of his life behind bars for a laundry list of crimes. Rape, illegal drugs, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, torture, hacking implants, and a long list of illegal spells including the top secret reveal spell, would ensure he wouldn’t see the light of day again. He was also chemically neutered for his crimes.

  Between him being taken down and there being no more Harbingers on the ground, her daily life for the next six weeks were quiet and orderly. Almost paradise in comparison to the first four weeks of the semester, and the time passed quickly as they conquered the vast workload and Hall’s physical challenges as a team.

  It was Friday evening, the night before the competition. In the morning they’d be heading to another continent and the marine mage academy for the inter-academy tournament. The dueling practices had gone well, and she was even better now, with Katherine Pierce’s advice and training.

  At the moment however her and Crandall were cuddling in her bed and just existing after the last hour or so of lovemaking. It’d been three months since their first kiss twelve weeks ago, and that day back in the Gazebo at Daniel’s mansion felt like another lifetime to her.

  Crandall said half playfully, “I don’t think I can let you go.”

  She giggled, “You can’t sleep here, so don’t tempt me.”

  It was tempting, she loved how he held her so tenderly in his strong arms.

  Crandall shook his head, “I know that, that’s not what I meant. I’ll go back to the dorm soon. Think stupider.”

  She giggled, “Stupider than spending the night?” then it hit her, what he’d truly meant by those words, and she said, “Oh,” both thrilled and terrified by his true meaning, “So my evil social climbing plans to influence and affluence are working?”

  He chuckled, “Yes. They really are.”

  She kissed him teasingly, “Not to mention this hard body I get to enjoy.”

  He snorted, “Behave.”

  She blushed, “Serious? I feel the same way. Even if you don’t get tired of me over the academy years, we could be stationed apart.”

  He said, “I think we could make it work, if we really wanted to. I could probably get us stationed on the same ship.”

  She nodded slowly, “I might even be willing to accept that reputation for you.”

  He asked, “Reputation?”

  She snorted, “Like that won’t travel as gossip? They’ll see me as your kept woman, the one following the councilor’s son and using my body to get along in life.”

  He shook his head, “That’s ridiculous, you’re the best of us. The fleet posts couples all the time, just not in the same direct chain of command, it won’t be like that.”

  She nodded, “Of course it’s ridiculous, but you know perception trumps reality, that’s basic political reality. You also skipped the married part of couples. I don’t want to let you go either.”

  He said, “But…”

  She shook her head, “But nothing. Unqualified truth, but,” he started laughing, and she whapped him, “But that unqualified statement is the limit for us, until we’re graduating.”

  He tilted his head, “I get what you’re saying. We have time and there’s no need to rush into anything.”

  She nodded, “Yes, if we still feel the same way in three years and a few months, and I can’t imagine I won’t, we’ll tackle it then.”

  He said deadpan, “The important part is you’re shameless enough to become my kept woman in the fleet.”

  She giggled, “Ass, you started this whole thing. I never said I’d be your kept woman, and the sun will burn out first. I said I’d accept that stigma because of the false perceptions of others. People will assume the worst, they always do, and you’re a hell of a catch.”

  He shook his head, “Nope, you started it. It started for me when you put me on my back.”

  She snickered.

  He grinned, “Seriously. Not that I enjoy getting my butt kicked by the woman I love, but it was the look in your eyes and what you said to me after. I knew you were different even then. There’s no one else like you.”

  She bit her lip, “Stop tempting me, Cadet Duke.”

  He nodded, “No commitments past not wanting to let go, and hoping for the best. If you can still put up with me this time in our fourth year, we’ll get down to serious planning.”

  “Very practical, but it’s what we have to do.”

  Career, the expectations upon both of them, ambition, it was all important, especially for a councilor’s son and a woman who had sworn to take down the Harbingers for good. She loved him already, but despite how tempting he was and how much she wanted to keep him, she knew the odds were against it. First loves hardly ever became lifetime ones, but looking into his admiring and besotted gray eyes, a part of her believed anything was possible.

  The money and influence was if anything, a negative and complication that would make it harder. She’d joked about being a social climber, it was really all about him.

  There was also the matter of Rebecca. If they rushed or did something stupid for love, she’d lose any chance of getting that formidable woman in her corner. Not that she would anyway, but it was one more reason to be patient, even if a part of her did want to make sure of him sooner, three more years would be soon enough.

  He said, “Given all that, staying the night doesn’t sound so crazy.”

  She giggled, and pushed him away, “Go home,” but he didn’t go far as he held her tightly. She was tempted of course, and that was the problem, she didn’t want to always be forced to be the practical one. Fortunately, she was fairly sure he was just teasing, despite the wanting glint in his eyes he’d never truly pressured her for it.

  He smirked, “You’d send me out into the cold damp night?”

  She giggled, “You’re a tough guy, you can brave it. You need your sleep for the fighting tomorrow.”

  He kissed her, “Goodnight, Ash.”

  “Goodnight,” she said warmly, and watched as he got up and dressed before heading out.

  She rolled over to his side, to enjoy his scent and the lingering warmth as she fell asleep, dreaming stupid dreams of the future.

  Chapter Eight

  There were nine shuttles on the tarmac that morning. Four for each club and five for each team, along with support staff. The three of them waved to the guys as they headed for the hand-to-hand club shuttle while they went to the dueling club’s shuttle.

  Dueling did sharpen the mind, and she supposed it would make her a more effective mage, but in a lot of ways the largest thing it taught her was never to go into a fight unprepared.

  Essentially that’s all a duel was, going into a fight unprepared and the only good aspect of that was so did her opponent. In all of her real fights, she’d always gone in shielded with the telekinesis, levitation, and magic detection support spells, that latter one since she’d made it, anyway.

  Duels were fair, and they were decided entirely upon speed of casting and tactical response and flexibility. Of course, the whole point of fighting was not to do it fairly, when taking on a true enemy. So that was the major part of it. It cemented the idea of never going into a fight unprepared.

  The other part that would help her was it forced advancement in adaptability and flexible tactics out of desperation. That would make her more adaptable in the field, where she’d also be cheating to win. If you weren’t cheating to stack the odds against a real enemy, then you were doing it wrong. Still, she was confident, and the point was she believed she’d already learned what the club had to teach her. She had fun, enjoyed the challenge, but she wouldn’t hesitate to join the flight club next year instead.

  Of course, today was all about winning and bragging rights between the three branches of the military. She was already a little jazzed up and limber as they got onto the shuttle and took their seats.

  Katherine stood at the front by the cockpit doors and held onto a bar welded to the wall as the shuttle took off.

  “Alright, listen up. When we get there we’ll be led to a large tent where all sixty of us, plus our staff support and escorts for the three schools will gather. There’ll be food and drink between matches. Like the tryouts, the tournament is a double elimination rule. There will be large screens inside for the three fighting rings so we can watch the competition.

  “Now, the marines favor cold looks and psychological intimidation tactics. They’ll look at you and make you think they not only want you dead, but that they might just hunt down your family and eat them for breakfast too. Don’t let them psych you out, they aren’t really crazy or bloodthirsty, they’d all die for us to the last man and woman while we backed them up in it. It’s just part of the game, so don’t let it get to you.

  “The spooks are even worse in a way. They’re subtle about their psychological warfare. They’ll chat you up, pretend to be your friend, then drop a seeded comment into your mind that will grow if you let it, to throw you off your game in the ring. Any questions?”

  “What do we do?” Stacy asked.

  Katherine laughed a little darkly, “Mage fleet gets the job done with style. We are cool, unflappable, immune to such childish psychological tactics as glares and subtle innuendo injecting doubt, and that simple unshakeable confidence will throw them off their game.”

  She snickered, “I can do that.”

  Stacy shook her head, “I can do fearless, not sure about calm. Excitable?”

  Katherine laughed, “That works too, and let’s go with fearless exuberance. Excitable has a negative connotation, and I’ve never seen you panic in the ring, just have fun.”

  Ella asked, “Any other last-minute advice?”

  Katherine nodded, “Win!”

  Everyone cheered.

  Katherine grinned, “Seriously, they are not going to know what hit them this year. We have seven solid dark horses in our first years, and the best of our second years from last year. We need to work hard, but if we do, we’ll take them down hard.”

  She nodded, not sure how much of that was just motivation, but she’d do her best to make it happen.

  Ella asked, “Why only three rings?”

  Katherine replied, “So we can study our opponents and mingle a bit. This isn’t just for bragging rights, it’s supposed to bind the branches closer together through friendly competition. Also because that will cover every combination. We’ll be fighting in two rings against both academies, and they’ll be fighting each other in the third. That’s only ten duels in the first and second round to get through all twenty of us, with two of us per duel timeslot, and the duels per round will go down quickly after that. We only fight once in each round, no matter how many are left. All three rings will be used until there are five or less left among the three schools. I’m hoping we sweep the top five positions, so we’ll wind up fighting each other at the end, just to determine order.”

  Ella sighed, “I’m so sorry then. It’ll be embarrassing when I beat our club captain.”

  Katherine laughed, “That’s the spirit! Just don’t forget what I said, the marines will act all intimidating to make you freeze in fear for a split second, and the spooks will try to get you to spiral so your doubt makes you hesitate. Don’t let it happen, which is easier said than done even when you know what they’re up to. The trick is to see it as the game it is, if you just try to ignore it without putting it in its proper context, it will affect you despite yourself.

  “Unless there are delays for some reason, duels running longer than normal, we should be finished up today, which means our clubs will be the only cheering sections our sport’s teams have tomorrow.”

  She nodded in agreement. She wasn’t actually that worried given her past, the real pain, trials, and fights behind her. This was just a game, and she’d never hesitated in real life, not since being free from the Harbingers at any rate. Ella and Stacy had been in enough real danger and scrapes, that she didn’t think they’d fall for the attempts of their competition to psych them out either.

  Katherine moved over to a seat, and the rest of the sub-orbital flight around the world went quickly.

  The three rings were set up in a large triangle, and they weren’t all that far from the fighting rings for hand to hand, maybe a hundred yards across the field.

  The inside of the tent was about what Katherine had described. Tables full of drinks and food, three large screens showing the rings, and three long tables that could seat all twenty and then some for each group. They’d just eaten breakfast at home, so she ignored the food for now.

  It was almost amusing, as the marines were all glaring their way as they came in, and the intelligence group was smiling and waving, like they were old friends. It so closely matched Katherine’s description that a chuckle almost escaped as she nodded confidently to both groups.

  She also spotted Julie, who started her way.

  Julie said, “I’m part of the support staff today, not here for you but I thought I’d check in.”

  She smirked, “I’m not the center of your life then, maam?”

  Julie snorted and ignored the curious stares from Ashley’s teammates as she said, “Being your liaison is an important aspect, but I also work at the academy. You’re not that hard to look after.”

  She shook her head, “Do you enjoy it?”

  Julie asked, “Enjoy what?”

  She smirked, “Teaching the next generation of sneaky minds.”

  It was pretty clear to her that Julie had gotten transferred to Irilia because of her, the spook had been her contact and support since she escaped and turned herself in. The powers that be had probably decided to give her a single point of stability in that move, and also because Julie knew her pretty well and would most likely notice the signs if she started to go off the rails.

  She knew that too of course, it wasn’t just for her benefit, it was for theirs. She could be a monster with her power if she ever went off the rails. She suspected they’d be watching her closely for the rest of her life. She supposed she just wanted to know if Julie was happy with the transfer, or if she… wasn’t. Not that she could do more than feel guilty about it, if the latter were true, they all had their duties.

  Julie said, “It’s satisfying, Ash. I’ll let you and your team settle in. Good luck, today.”

  She chuckled, Julie had said that last doubtfully, like she’d need it but probably wouldn’t be getting it, and not like a sentiment of encouragement. The mind games had started already, apparently, and they hadn’t even sat down.

  “Thanks, but I think your cadets might need it more.”

  Julie chuckled back, then headed back over to her side.

  She ignored all the stares while they sat down.

  Katherine asked, “What was that about?”

  She replied, “I knew her on Cassiopeia, met her two years, shortly after the space station terrorist attacks. We have history, nothing bad though.”

  Katherine followed up, “Liaison?”

  She shrugged, “The harbingers want me dead, it’s a long story and most of it is classified, but the rub is intelligence is keeping an eye on me because of it, as an avenue to them. Lieutenant Taylor is that eye.”

  That was completely true, if not even half the reason why.

  To her relief, the group moved on at that point and focused on why they were there.

  Her first duel was the seventh in the first round, the twelve cadets before her had won eight and lost four, and that first round she had no idea what tactics her Marine opponent favored. He was medium of build and athletic of musculature, and the overdone glare promising pain and death suggested to her that he would do something sneaky, and not go for the quick kill.

  She was right, as her first spell finished and the dirt clumped in the form of a disc at chest height, his first spell was a shield spell.

  She was already casting a sever spell, a quarter second ahead of him, so should finish it a full half second before his second spell went off. So right before she released it her dirt shield rocketed across the pitch and slammed into his shield, as a new discus of dirt rose up to replace it.