“You will do as you are told and that is final!” Master Lumere growled. His eyes flashed gold and his magic quieted, but his voice was soft only for my ears to hear. I knew that he did not want to make a scene. I also knew that he was very wrong in the choice he was about to make.

We would all suffer if he did not open his eyes and see what was before him.

“Very well, Master,” I bit the title off, unable to help myself. I bristled inward and out, leaning just close enough for the position to be mistaken, if any of the guards were so stupid as to assume such a thing. “I obey, but under protest. Let it be noted.”

his jaw clenched and his hands curled into fists. “It is noted,” he ground out. “Be gone with you!”

The choice of words was his protest, but it was also my freedom. He never realized that with his short temper, every time he snapped those careless phrases at me, my apprentice contract unraveled another five inches.

Tonight, I would be free of him.

Then I would help. I would save them all.