Together with Calypso, we managed to make some makeshift weapons from what we had. Polly and Patricia had hairpins, which I barely managed to enlarge to the size of small swords.

  Barely — because ordinary enlargement spells belonged to light magic, which wasn’t responding to energy impulses at all right now. So I had to get creative and remember other spells from dark magic that could somehow affect an object’s size.

  It didn’t work right away; eventually a swelling spell did the trick, more or less getting the job done. Casting really was difficult, like I’d only just learned how to do it. Feel like a beginner adept, ha!

  I even broke out in a sweat from the effort.

  I passed the enlarged items to Calypso, who infused them with shadow magic. The improvised weapons blazed with black flames, exactly like Calypso’s artifact swords were burning now. Well, with tools like these we could at least try to keep fighting the dark creatures.

  This way we ended up with four more blades. I bitterly regretted that I didn’t have any hairpins in my hair — my thick black hair was always worn loose, I liked going without clips or hair ties. A mistake, really; I should have taken note of the hairpin trick. You never know when it might come in handy… Like right now.

  Oh, and Polly Levington really surprised me — she had a whole set of throwing knives hidden in the shafts of her tall boots.

  Tiny ones, but still. Now there was someone who came prepared for emergencies better than me! And not just me.

  I enlarged those too, and Calypso filled the knives with shadow magic.

  “There are eight of us, but we only have enough weapons for six,” Grey clicked his tongue, anxiously eyeing the protective dome, which was cracking louder and had already started shrinking.

  “Little Po’s throwing knives are great and all, but…”

  “I’m not little!!” Polly instantly flared up, eyes flashing with anger.

  “How many times do I have to say it?!”

  “Tell that to the kernals, you’re like a little meatball appetizer to them…”

  While they bickered, Calypso finished imbuing the blades with shadow fire, handed them to Polly, and said:

  “Lori and I won’t need the blades. You’ll be fighting with the improvised swords. Six blades and throwing knives. That should be enough for you to hold out for a bit.”

  “What do you mean ‘enough for you to hold out for a bit’? Hold out until what?” Kes squinted suspiciously.

  “And what will you and Lora be doing?”

  “Lori and I need to do some cuddling,” Calypso said in a deadly serious voice.

  “What?!”

  “We need to meditate together.”

  After those words, everyone burst into hysterical laughter.

  Especially me. I laughed so hard that tears came to my eyes, despite the insane situation around us. It was definitely nervous laughter… But I just couldn’t stop.

  “Meditate?” I asked with a hysterical groan.

  “Here? Now? Now’s the perfect time, obviously.”

  “You shouldn’t be laughing,” Calypso said without a hint of a smile.

  “It’s immediately obvious that none of you trained with mind mages and don’t know this method of merging auras for a combined attack.”

  Our laughter died instantly, and I looked at Calypso with interest.

  “Alone we won’t survive, we need to act as a single unit, and for that we need to merge our auras,” Calypso spoke quickly, turning to me.

  “If you and I combine our efforts, we can hit with a fire pulsar powerful enough to, if not destroy, at least knock out that big guy,” he nodded at the five-year-old kernal, which was currently doing its best to crush the protective dome with its clawed paw.

  “But I’m not a mind mage, I haven’t been trained to merge auras…”

  “But I’m an expert in this magic. All you need to do is simply do what I tell you. I’ll do the rest, if you trust me.”

  “You’re going to get inside my head?” I asked doubtfully.

  “I’ll have to. To lock onto your aura and merge it with mine.”

  I thoughtfully bit my lower lip and swallowed nervously, lowering my gaze. My heart was in my throat. And it seemed my calm quota for today was exhausted, because panic was starting to wash over me. I was still a far cry from Mia trembling with fear and Patricia nervously sobbing, but I was already on the edge.

  “What’s wrong, Lori? I won’t dig deep into your head, don’t worry. And even if I did… It’s not like you have anything to hide from me that could surprise me,” Calypso smirked.

  Actually, I have one hell of a lot to hide.

  But it seemed like I didn’t have the option to refuse, right? We weren’t in a position to be picky. Or rather, we did have a choice, but a pretty limited one — between a quick death and a horrible death. Not much of a choice, honestly.

  “Fine, tell me what I need to do…”

  I sighed, mentally already saying goodbye to my own life — either from impending death at the claws of the kernal, or at the hands of Calypso himself, if he got into my head and somehow accidentally dug up my truth. And I honestly didn’t know whose claws would be scarier.

  “All you need to do is listen to me and do exactly what I say,” Calypso said.

  “Just don’t resist my magic, don’t try to block it, trust me, relax. I’ll do the rest.”

  Trust him… Don’t resist… Relax… Relax with him, right?…

  Easy to say. To me it still sounded like subtle mockery.

  “Sit here,” Calypso pointed to the center of the protective dome and sat down right on the ground himself.

  “We’ll meditate here.”

  “What should we do?” Patricia asked anxiously, picking up a sword blazing with black shadow flames.

  “Stand around, shake with fear, and wait to see what happens,” Calypso smirked, but immediately turned serious.

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  “Be ready to take down the two smaller kernals.”

  “Well, calling them small is a stretch,” Iranor muttered, eyeing the fanged creatures the size of a grown human.

  “Everything’s relative,” Calypso said, glancing at the five-year-old kernal, which was much bigger.

  “Anyway, these two smaller kernals are on you. During the meditation I’ll create a thin protective dome around me and Lori it’s necessary for proper magic concentration because of that, the big dome will suffer and weaken a bit. It won’t drop completely and won’t let the five-year-old through, but the smaller ones might slip through. In that case, you’ll have to fight them and do everything you can, if not to kill them, then at least to keep them from disturbing me and Lori. The meditation can’t be interrupted, protect us at all costs.”

  “At all costs meaning to our last breath?” Iranor asked skeptically.

  I couldn’t hold back a nervous chuckle.

  “Are you a Fortemin or what?” Calypso said dryly.

  Iranor had no response to that, and Calypso continued:

  “First, send the throwing knives down their throats. It won't kill them, but it’ll weaken them a bit, make them more vulnerable. I’ve also given these knives a small antidote effect that can partially neutralize the creatures’ venom. So if they start spraying venom, it won’t paralyze any of you. It’ll still hurt like hell, yeah, but at least you’ll be able to keep moving.”

  “Through the pain? Well, thanks,” Kes muttered.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Oh, come on,” Polly chimed in.

  “It really is better than nothing.”

  “What would we do without you and your knowledge right now…” Mia shook her head.

  “You’d be dead already,” Calypso replied dryly.

  “And we still might die, so I wouldn’t recommend relaxing.”

  “You’re such a ray of sunshine,” Polly snorted.

  “It is what it is,” Calypso shrugged.

  “Anyway, be ready for anything… Absolutely anything. And when I give the signal, everyone hits the ground so the shadow flames we’re going to blast the kernals with don’t hit you, if we pull this off.”

  He immediately erected a protective dome around us as soon as I sat down opposite him. The dome constantly trembled and was a murky crimson color, indicating its instability. Calypso clicked his tongue with displeasure.

  “It’ll hold five minutes at most… We need to hurry.”

  Meditating surrounded by dark creatures gnashing their sharp teeth — quite the experience, let me tell you. Not for the faint of heart.

  Although I wasn’t exactly faint of heart, and even I couldn’t stay calm anymore, marveling at Calypso’s composure.

  “Just look into my eyes,” he said, moving closer.

  “You don’t need to do anything special, I’ll do everything. You just need to let me cast. Just relax… I need to penetrate your aura, make contact with you. Don’t resist. Let me in easily and freely.”

  His sly smirk practically dripped with double meaning.

  “Don’t you think this is hardly the time to be messing with my head?” I raised an eyebrow ironically.

  “Well, what if these are the last minutes of my life and I didn’t get to make one last dirty joke?”

  I couldn’t help but laugh, even though it was completely out of place given the situation. Still, it snapped me out of my intense tension, and I finally managed to relax.

  Maybe that was exactly the effect Calypso was going for. If so, it worked, and I was finally able to just exhale and look into his eyes, ready for the mental intrusion.

  Though when Calypso moved almost right up against me and placed his hands on my shoulders, I instinctively pulled back. But not because it was unpleasant or anything like that, just… I wasn’t wearing my gloves…

  “It’s dangerous, I might accidentally touch you.”

  “We’ll have to be extra careful. We don’t have a choice, I need your hands. Keep them in front of you, at the level of your solar plexus, press your palms against yourself. Yes, like that. Ideally, you should actually be touching me too, maximum contact is needed… And your hands need to be without gloves right now, I’ll be tapping into your darkness… Well then, let’s try to do without the reciprocal hugging,” Calypso smiled crookedly.

  “And if it doesn’t work?” I whispered.

  Calypso didn’t answer, but from his pressed-together lips I understood that if it didn’t work, we were screwed.

  For a while, nothing happened for me and Calypso. We just sat on the trampled grass, our knees touching, Calypso holding my shoulders and silently looking at me. I looked back in silence, but with each passing second I felt more and more uncomfortable.

  Finally I couldn’t take it:

  “Are you just going to stare at me in silence? Aren’t you going to use any spells?”

  “All the most complex and important spells, especially mental ones, are cast silently,” Calypso said.

  “Don’t distract me. Just relax. You’re very tense and you’re not letting me in.”

  “That sounds so wrong,” I muttered.

  “Mmm, does it? Maybe you’re just hearing me a certain way because you want to hear me that way, hmm, Lo-o-ori?” Calypso drawled melodically.

  I huffed loudly, pressing my lips together. I tried to concentrate, to tune everything out. I looked into Calypso’s grey eyes, but kept getting distracted and flinching, listening to what was happening beyond the protective dome.

  Calypso had deliberately created a dome that partially muffled sounds from outside so we could concentrate, but muffled clanging sounds still reached us.

  And those sounds strongly suggested that our classmates had started using their swords, meaning the dark creatures were breaking through the thinning protective dome.

  “This isn’t working,” Calypso shook his head.

  “I can’t do this because you’re not opening up… Why won’t you let me in, Lori?”

  And again that double-meaning tone and that sly smirk.

  “Are you messing with me?”

  “Never been more serious.”

  Definitely messing with me…

  I slowly inhaled and exhaled, trying to concentrate again, to relax…

  But I only tensed up more when I heard a piercing girl’s scream from beyond the boundary of our inner protective perimeter. I think it was Mia, scared to death.

  “Don’t get distracted by outside noises, Lori.”

  “But the others…”

  “Don’t get distracted!” Calypso said harshly.

  “Lori, focus! Don’t react to outside noises! We can only help the others if we focus and finish what we started! It’s very hard for me to hold your attention, I’ve almost latched onto your aura, but if my spell breaks now, it’ll all be for nothing. I can't repeat this twice in a row, and then everything will be for nothing!”

  “I don’t understand what I need to do…”

  “Just focus completely on me. I need all of your attention. Clear your mind and let me in. Just relax.”

  “How?!” and that was already a cry of desperation.

  I’m no mind mage, let’s be honest. Not my area. And I’ve always had problems with concentration.

  Instead of answering, Calypso moved his hands to my neck, his fingers caressing the tender skin of my neck, sliding to the back of my head, running over it tangibly — sending shivers down my spine…

  “What are you doing?” I whispered, frozen in place, staring at Calypso with wide eyes.

  In his grey eyes, it seemed to me, pale golden spirals appeared — ones I had seen before.

  “I want to relax you, Lori.”

  “Mmm… By pressing certain pressure points?” I asked hopefully.

  “Uh-huh,” Calypso said with a sly smile.

  “Pressure points… Yeah… You can call it that…”

  “What are you doing?” I whispered again, when his warm palm slid from the back of my head to my cheek, caressing it pleasantly, and his thumb traced the outline of my lips.

  I froze, unable to move or even look away. I felt incredibly awkward right now and was afraid to even stir.

  Calypso smiled. Smiled strangely — wickedly, sweetly, with the promise of something more. He moved almost right up against me, and now his heady cologne with notes of citrus and something piney was making my head spin.

  “You want this too… Don’t you? I can hear your heart beating,” Calypso whispered hotly, pressing his palm to my heart.

  “It’s beating like that not because of what’s happening around us, but because of me. Right, Lori?”

  ‘Right,’ I thought, but I couldn’t say anything out loud.

  I really wasn’t noticing what was happening around us anymore. All I could see in front of me were grey eyes that I wanted to drown in right now.

  His long fingers continued to pleasantly caress my neck and pull me closer, even closer, dangerously closer… And also… I also thought I could hear an excited heartbeat — but not my own.

  “I want… to taste you,” Calypso whispered practically against my lips.

  My eyes closed on their own, and I gasped involuntarily when Calypso pulled me closer by the waist. He wrapped his arms around me, burying his fingers in my hair and leaving me no chance to resist…

  He touched my lips at the exact moment when I, forgetting myself and wanting to embrace him back, placed my gloveless hands on his chest.