Smoke and Mirrors by Jess Haines Page A

despite the hissing sibilants. Aidan turned a panicked look on his teacher, whose pitiless gaze showed no sympathy.
    “Professor, I—”
    “Don’t tell me. Tell him,” she said, waving her hand at the giant snake coiled and waiting before him.
    Aidan’s color gradually paled. “I… umm. I’m terribly sorry if I may cause offense, but I forgot my homework—your gift—oh, great one.”
    The naga bowed his head and voiced a low hiss that sounded very much like a sigh. The snake turned to its master and spread its hands.
    James shook his head, and the naga turned its back on Aidan in dismissal. Crestfallen, he turned to Professor Reed, who gestured for him to return to his seat. Trudging back up the stairs, he shot a venomous look at one of the younger magi who dared snigger at him as he passed.
    Professor Reed made a note on a clipboard. “Would anyone else like to cop to ‘forgetting’ their homework?” A few tentative hands raised. She made more notes on her clipboard, then scanned the remaining students. “Kimberly. Why don’t you show us what you’ve got?”
    Kimberly swallowed hard, then nodded and turned to dig in her backpack for the last remaining rosette from yesterday. She was glad she’d saved it so she wouldn’t flunk this exam. It wasn’t much of a tribute—nothing like the gold and jewels she had read about naga traditionally being showered with in return for a blessing—but hopefully he wouldn’t spurn it outright since she didn’t have any fancy jewelry or money to offer him.
    Her shoulders hunched self-consciously at the laughter and whispers that started up as soon as she pulled the bread in its clear plastic bag free of her backpack. Keeping her eyes focused firmly on the ground at her feet, she stalked to the stairwell at the end of the aisle and didn’t stop until she reached the edge of the stage.
    When she looked up, golden eyes the size of tennis balls were focused on her. She took a deep breath to steady herself, then went down on one knee and bowed her head as she extended the hunk of bread.
    “Forgive my meager offering, wise one. I greet you as a representative of Blackhollow Academy and humbly beg your blessing.”
    Kimberly held her breath, silently praying that he wouldn’t spurn her gift. She could still hear the whispered chatter in the background and did her very best to ignore it.
    Lame. Cheapskate. Loser. Stupid freeloader.
    Dirty sorcerer.
    Monster.
    “Receive your blessing, representative of Blackhollow Academy.”
    Surprised, she looked up, eyes wide. The naga bowed his snake head over the offering as she placed it into his large, scaled hands, though she suspected his gaze was still focused on her.
    Just as he reached out to grant his blessing, the rosette in his palm burst into white-hot flames.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
     
    The naga’s cobra-like hood flared as he shrieked and flung the burning bread away from himself. The flaming missile hit a girl in the shoulder near the last row at the back of the room and bounced away, disappearing under a desk. As the great snake flailed and howled in pain, Professor Reed shouted instructions, trying to be heard over the overturning desks and the panicked screams of her students.
    James stepped in, laying his hands on the whipping tail of the naga—which was far less dangerous than the curved, needle-like fangs as long and thick as his index finger bared at the younger magi.
    An arm as thickly muscled as a body-builder’s passed through Kimberly as Sam swung around to face his master. The illusion fragmented and disappeared. Sam’s cries of pain tapered off as James used his grip on the naga to channel magic into him and heal the burn. Sam was panting, his hood flaring in and out, but no longer on the verge of attack.
    Despite that he had calmed, many of the students were still screaming and fighting to hide behind one another at the back of the room. They were clustered so tightly together that they were shoving some of