Glimmerglass

Keane pushed to his feet, shoving his hands in his pockets and not quite meeting my eyes. I remembered Finn telling me my teacher’s attitude would inspire me to violence, and I was beginning to see why. The attitude was going to get very old, very fast.

“Let’s go,” he said curtly, then headed for the front door.

I didn’t budge. “Go where?” I asked.

Keane took his hands out of his pockets, but only so he could cross his arms over his chest and glare at me. “I’m the teacher, you’re the student. You do as I say, no questions.”

Geez, what an asshole. As far as I was concerned, bad boys should be seen, not heard. Behind me, I heard Finn swallow a laugh.

I knew Keane was trying to intimidate me with that glare of his, but with Spriggans and Faerie Queens trying to kill me, even the most intense glare just wasn’t that scary. I took a few steps toward him and returned his glare with one of my own.

“I don’t know what your problem is,” I said, poking him in the chest, “but’”

It happened so quickly, I barely even saw him move. One moment, I was poking him in the chest; the next, I was lying facedown on the floor, one arm twisted up behind my back, Keane’s weight keeping me pinned to the carpet. Somehow, he’d managed to do it without hurting me, but the shock left me dazed and breathless.

“My problem,” he hissed in my ear, “is I don’t like the kind of clientele my father whores himself out to.”

Okay, asshole was too nice a word for him. I struggled a bit, but he just pushed my arm up until it hurt. I gasped, and he let up.

“If you had the guts,” he continued, still whispering in my ear, “you could get me off you any time you wanted. But you’re not going to do it just by squirming.”

I raised my head as much as I could from that position, glancing over to Finn. He was looking out the window, acting as if he couldn’t see what was going on right in front of him. I guessed that meant he wasn’t coming to my rescue.

“Come on, Dana,” Keane said, no longer whispering, but still talking into my ear. “Think about what parts of your body you can move in this position. What can you reach me with?”

“So this is all part of the lesson?” I asked. Apparently, he was serious about the “no questions” bit, because he gave my arm another push. “Ow!” I protested, but this time he didn’t let up.

“Concentrate,” he said. “What can you move?”

I really hated to give in, but my arm was starting to throb. I’d humor him and his delusions of grandeur until I was free. Then I’d tell Finn what I thought about him for siccing this psycho on me.

I wriggled around a bit, trying to figure out how to move, but I was thoroughly pinned. Keane might not be as meaty as Finn, but he was no lightweight, either. The only thing I could move much was my head.

“So I’m supposed to head-butt you?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“If that’s the only thing you can move, then it’s the only weapon you have.”

I’d kind of hoped he’d let go after I gave him the answer he was looking for, but he didn’t. “Well?” I prompted. “Can I get up now?”

“I think you’ll have trouble doing that until you get me off you,” he said, sounding drily amused.

“You mean you actually want me to head-butt you?” I asked incredulously.

“Unless you’d like to spend the rest of the day getting up close and personal with the carpet.”

I hesitated. I’d never deliberately hurt anyone before in my life—even when I’d kneed Ethan in the cave, I obviously hadn’t done it hard enough to slow him down for more than a second—and I was pretty sure that if I head-butted Keane, I was going to hurt him, since the only thing I could hit was his face. But apparently, Keane wasn’t big on patience. He pushed my arm even higher up my back, and the pain was going to go from annoying to torturous any moment now.

Gritting my teeth and hoping he knew what he was doing, I jerked my head backward. The back of my skull smacked into his face, but I hadn’t been able to bring myself to do it very hard.

Keane laughed at me. “Is that the best you can do?”

A growl of frustration rose from my chest. Okay, fine. If he wanted me to hit him with my best shot, I would, and I wouldn’t feel guilty about it afterward.

This time, I jerked my head backward with all the strength I could muster, which, considering how pissed I was, was a lot. There was a loud bang and a cracking noise as my head hit against something hard. Keane howled in pain and let go of me, leaping to his feet.

I scrambled to stand up, my heart suddenly in my throat. Pain reverberated through my head, but I knew my skull hadn’t taken as much damage as Keane’s face. All well and good to tell myself he’d been asking for it, but he was now bent over double, his hands clasped to his nose. Had I broken it? I winced in sympathy and reached out to him.

“I’m so sorry!” I said. “Are you okay?”

I should have remembered that Keane’s dad was in the room, and that if I’d really hurt him, Finn would have come running. Keane dropped his hands back to his sides and stood up, smirking at me.

“I’m fine,” he said. “You hit my shield spell, not my face.”

My jaw dropped open, and right that moment I’d really have liked another shot at him.

“Lesson One,” Keane continued. “If you’re going to fight someone, you have to be willing to hurt them, or you might as well not bother. Now come down to the garage. I’ve got some mats set up down there, since you don’t have a shield spell yourself.”