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her hands on her hips, breath coming in short gasps, three ivy rings disappearing from her forearm. “More light, Aug.”
    “Right, sorry.” The lightning rippling around his hand crackled brighter. He was so good with the Shine spell now he hardly gave much thought to brightening his palm.
    Haylee, who was still struggling with her 2nd degree, angrily threw her cane. “I hate this thing! I hate this leg! Why couldn’t they have done a better job healing it?”
    “Just bad luck, Hayles,” Augum said.
    “Don’t you call me that. He called me that.”
    “Of course. My apologies.” He forgot Robin had a slew of nicknames for her. He could hardly blame her for being angry. Everything about Robin made Augum angry too. He often enjoyed remembering his fist slamming into that idiot’s face in a most satisfying way.
    Bridget turned to Leera. “Again?”
    Leera, forehead beaded with sweat, nodded. She slapped her wrists together, three watery rings appearing around her arm. “Annihilo!” A jet of water shot forth, slamming into Bridget’s shield of leaves and ivy.
    Bridget grunted from the force of it. The moment the shield disappeared, she brought her own hands together. “Annihilo!” and a vine shot forward, the end a dull stump very much like a fist. It punched Leera’s hastily summoned shield of pond leaves and driftwood, sending her tumbling backward.
    Bridget’s vine and Leera’s shield disappeared, leaving no trace. The girls’ shoulders heaved with exertion.
    Leera brushed herself off. “Good one.”
    “Reflect,” Bridget said, readying herself.
    Leera groaned but withdrew the prism from her pocket.
    Bridget slammed her hands together. “Annihilo!”
    “Mimica!” Leera shouted, trying to catch Bridget’s spell at the exact angle and reflect it back at her. Instead, the vine slammed into Leera’s hands, bending them back. She yelped and fell to the ground, sucking air through her teeth from the pain.
    “Sorry,” Bridget said, hands on her knees as she breathed heavily. “I eased up on the hit too.”
    “Hate this dumb spell,” Leera muttered, standing. “Never works …”
    Bridget jerked her chin, ponytail swinging. “Hit me back.”
    Leera slammed her wrists together. “Annihilo!”
    “Mimi—” but Leera’s jet of water bowled Bridget over before she could say the trigger word, which had to be spoken very quickly.
    “Late,” Leera said.
    Bridget watched as the water disappeared from her robe. “I know,” then slowly picked herself back up.
    “Take a break, you two,” Augum said, striding between them and extinguishing his palm. They both slumped onto a log bench around a dark fire pit, while Augum prepared to run through the spells he knew. Unconsciously, his three lightning rings flared to life around his arm.
    “Haylee, want to join me doing a cycle?” It’s what they called going through every spell they knew.
    Haylee, who had been watching their jousting, picked up her thoroughly-dinged cane. She brushed aside her long golden hair, sighed, and nodded.
    He started with Shine’s extension, practicing shocking a stump. The lightning left a charred hole on the bark, but otherwise dissipated harmlessly. Haylee followed, temporarily icing the stump. He quickly moved on to Telekinesis, raising a log into the air before placing it a few feet away. Haylee moved the same log back to its original position. He then broke a stick over his knee, dropping the pieces to the ground. He splayed both hands over it. “Apreyo.” The two parts came back together, light shining from the mending seam. Haylee took the stick from him and attempted to break it with one hand while holding the cane. Augum reached out to help.
    “No! I need to be able to do stuff like this on my own.” She placed the cane under her arm and strained to break the stick, but lost her balance and fell. She cursed and flung the stick into the stream, promptly doing the same with her cane. “I’m a cripple,” she