Challenges Read Online Free PDF

it was Vallant Ro who had spoken. There was the oddest air about him, which was why I didn’t flatly refuse the way he’d refused me just a short while ago. The urge was definitely there, but curiosity won out.
    “All right, Dom Ro,” I said just as formally once I’d followed him a few steps away from the others. “What is it you wanted to talk about?”
    “Not many minutes ago, it was pointed out to me that I was the one left in the residence rather than Holter because you and I aren’t gettin’ along,” he said, not quite meeting my gaze. “The doin’ is part of the testin’ authority’s plan to ruin us as a Blendin’, so continuin’ with our … disagreement would just be playin’ into their hands. For the good of the group, I want to propose a truce.”
    “A truce,” I echoed, staring straight up at him. “And for the good of the group. You chase after me until I can’t think straight and then suddenly won’t even speak to me, and that’s what you call a disagreement? Anyone else would have come to me with
some
kind of explanation, but you—you just want to foil the plans of the testing authority. All right, Dom Ro, if that’s the most pressing thing on your mind, let’s by all means foil the testing authority. Consider me one hundred percent willing.”
    By then his direct stare had a frown to keep it company, and he parted his lips to say something else. But I no longer had any interest in anything he might say, so I turned and stalked back to the others before he produced the first syllable. Distantly I knew that if I hadn’t still been in touch with the power I’d probably be in tears, but that realization didn’t do much to calm my anger. I’d barely been able to keep him out of every thought I had, and all
he’d
apparently thought about was getting even with the testing authority.
    Jovvi glanced at me with her own frown, but she seemed to know better than to ask me any questions. Which was very wise of her, since I was more than ready to make a scene even worse than that unknown Fire talent. I suddenly understood that when frustration reaches a certain level, the only possible reaction becomes the screaming out of it for all the world to hear. But I wasn’t quite at that level yet, since I would have much preferred making someone else do the screaming…
    Dom Ro actually tried to speak to me again, but Jovvi quickly drew him aside and saved his breeches as well as any sense of modesty he might have had. The desire to burn the pants off him was an almost living thing inside me, and if you don’t believe I could have done it without harming him in the least, you haven’t been following our adventures very closely. He would have been bare before he could even think about protecting himself with Water magic, and the picture that evoked drove me even crazier. I had to forcibly push it away with another thought, and my mind came up with just the thing.
    Rion had gone to join Jovvi and Dom Ro, so Lorand now stood all alone. He gazed toward the place where the group in orange and silver had stood, possibly watching the way every noble in sight moved with the sort of short, jerky motions that proclaimed them to be horribly annoyed. Their annoyance probably stemmed from the fact that they couldn’t simply leave when they wanted to, but had to wait around like commoners until it became their turn. My parents would have fit in perfectly, but I didn’t care to waste time realizing that you don’t need a title to be self-centered and heartless.
    Instead I walked over to Lorand, trying to forget what I’d heard pass between him and Jovvi. They really cared for each other, and there shouldn’t be so much pain between people who cared so deeply. Maybe I could help to make
him
forget for a while, too…
    “You don’t look like yourself,” Lorand observed suddenly, proving he wasn’t as distracted as he’d seemed. “Is something wrong?”
    “I’m about as angry as it’s possible to get