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broken neck.
    “So they taught you a few things in charm school,” Stone growled, sounding as P.O’d as I was. “Get to your feet.”
    Even as she released her hold, allowing me a much-needed breath, she kept her eyes glued to mine. Smart cookie never, ever trust an opponent until they were knocked out or dead.
    My opinion of her improved and I noticed she didn’t extend her hand to me this time as we rose and backed away from one another. Stone hadn’t ended the session. Not by a long shot.
    But as I was dancing on my feet to keep my momentum up I felt a jolt ricochet up my right arm like a lightening singe just as Monroe grabbed for my raised left arm, pulled me toward her, and used an upper cut of her knee to my chest to collapse me.
    This time as I curled to my knees I wasn’t half as agile or fast to respond, my right arm vibrating like a funny bone on crack. Damn. Had she hit a nerve?
    She must have sensed I’d pulled away mentally so she zeroed in for the kill strike. Very smart cookie. Take every opportunity you could in a fight.
    Cradling my right arm with my left I didn’t give her anything to grab onto so she came in low, using the power of her shoulder bone coming up against my chin to send me flying backwards.
    Thank heavens I smashed into the nearest cheering section who broke my fall, though I doubted they meant to be live sandbags. By the time I scrambled to my feet one leg wasn’t working. Not numb from the fall but tingling, as if electricity streamed through it. A high jolt of juice.
    What the . . .? I glanced around. A blur of faces. Monroe across from me, hands braced on her legs, chugging air. Stone acting as referee, his face blank, his eyes shifting to high-alert wariness. Something was happening, but I was too focused on not getting the stuffing beaten out of me to realize what it was at first.
    Then as hard as Monroe’s last kick, it hit me . Magic. I could almost sniff it in the air. Someone was hamstringing me by weakening my limbs.
    A quick heated glance at Monroe only earned a frown. Not her. But who?
    By this time Stone figured something was up. He raised an arm, calling. “Play is over ladies, back to work.”
    The circle broke up with a few groans, but I wasn’t paying them any mind. Not with the twisting starting low in my belly and tightening.
    By this time a wary Monroe and a focused Stone sidled up to me asking in a low voice, “What’s up?”
    I barely bit out the words, “Black magic.”
    Then the room spiraled into darkness.

 
    CHAPTER 7
     
    The new girl Monroe was the one with enough smarts to grab me before I toppled. For that alone I’d kiss her feet, nothing more humiliating than doing a face plant on your first day of proving yourself.
    Stone grabbed my other arm and between the two of them dragged me to the side while I fought to keep from upchucking all over them.
    “You hurt?” Stone asked, looking at Monroe as if she’d hit me harder than he’d suspected.
    I shook my head, repeating, “Black magic. Someone’s using.”
    Stone glanced over my shoulder, doing a quick scan of the room as the women were pairing off, some dragging their feet more than others. But he must not have noticed anything out of place as his attention snapped back to me almost immediately.
    “Not seeing anything.”
    That had me biting back a groan. Of course he wouldn’t see anything; it wasn’t like a bolt of black magic emitted a colored energy wave. At least not to someone not trained to see it. Even I wasn’t that strong a practitioner, especially as rusty as I was, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t smell and feel the dark magic.
    Monroe rolled her eyes at Stone as she asked, “What can we do?”
    I’d promised myself I wouldn’t embrace my magic except for survival. Damn, if this wasn’t just that. Do nothing and the magic attack still washing over me was going to weaken me to the point I was out of the program. Or dead.
    Besides, once I or any witch started using