Dark Light of Day by Jill Archer

spoke with a theoretical tone, as if discussing whether or not Professor Telford would repeat last year’s test questions.
    “Watch me, firestarter,” Peter said contemptuously. Ari glanced over at me to see my reaction to Peter’s insult. I didn’t give Ari the satisfaction of seeing me break ranks with Peter but I couldn’t help wondering if “firestarter” was how Peter viewed me as well.
    “Easy, spellcaster,” said Ari. “All I’m saying is that casting something that big shouldn’t be rushed into. Noon’s working with a pretty tight deadline. Do you really want to risk botching the spell?”
    “I haven’t botched a spell since I was a kid,” Peter said viciously, clenching his fists.
    Ari shrugged. “Search for the spell. But leave Noon out of it.”
    “I’m doing it for her.”
    “Are you? Any Angel who locates and successfully casts the Reversal Spell could likely do anything he wanted, become dean of the Joshua School, maybe even head of the Divinity—”
    “Enough,” I said, cutting into the conversation and physically placing myself between the two men. I was tired of being talked about as if I weren’t standing right there. I had told Peter earlier tonight that if he hadn’t yet found the spell, I was going to declare. The only reason I’d started wavering again was his continued insistence that he could find it by Bryde’s Day. But I hadn’t thought about what casting the spell might mean for Peter. So what if Peter was hoping to cast the spell out of ambition? That didn’t make it any less dangerous for him.
    Peter must have sensed my commitment wavering because he grabbed my shoulders and shook me.
    “Noon, you’re a woman,” he said. “Don’t you want to have the power to create something instead of destroying it?” Ishook my head. I did
not
want to have this conversation right now. But Peter misinterpreted my look as argument. “Don’t you want to hold life in your hands? To grow things, instead of killing them?
    “You’re a
woman with waning magic
for Luck’s sake!” he cried.
    I cringed. Peter had never spoken to me like this before. But his next words were even worse. “Without a spell to help you, you’ll
never
have a child.
Never
have a family. Is that what you want?”
    I stepped back as if struck. Suddenly what I wanted most was another cloaking spell to hide me. I wanted to run and run and never look back. Peter’s recitation of my deepest, most private fears, in front of Ari, someone I’d been more than mildly infatuated with, someone who likely viewed me as a repulsive mutant who was too cowardly to do what was necessary, undid me. Tears welled and I turned away, embarrassed, hating myself for being weak. But I didn’t have to be. If I declared and started learning how to control my magic, people would no doubt say all kinds of things about me. But
weak
wouldn’t be one of them.

Chapter 7

    I left Ari and Peter. I have no idea what they said to each other after I left. I didn’t care. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was taking charge of my destiny and stopping all these feelings. I refused to be weak or scared—for myself or anyone else—again. And the only way I could do that was to declare and accept what Luck had given me.
    I walked from the back alley where Marduk’s was to the front of Warenne. The administrative building was dark and the doors were locked. Frustrated, I jiggled the handle. In seconds, the doorknob became too hot for me to hold. I stared, half-horrified, half-satisfied, as it melted before my eyes. Hot dribbles of molten metal dripped down the front of the door. A few drops fell to the ground and sizzled, cooling into a small piece of charred metal. I stepped over it and pushed open the door.
    Waldron Seknecus’ office was on the third floor. Since he was the dean of demon affairs at St. Luck’s, he was the individual charged with rounding up that year’s current crop of potential Maegesters. To facilitate