A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One Read Free Page B

longer cared. She was content that these were her last tests ever. Her parents had thought their ultimatum would push her over the edge and into majic, when in fact the opposite had been true. She had been released and relieved. She looked forward to her failure for the first time in all the autumns since she’d started testing eight autumns earlier.
    She noticed a sudden ripple of silence running through the students and then someone nearby gasped, “It’s Dendri Adiron!”
    Yasra leaned forward and scanned the small crowd of mentors and sure enough, Dendri Adiron walked past everyone, garnering a respectful bow and silence everywhere he passed.
    What was Dendri Adiron doing at a preschool? she wondered. She watched the man move, felt as though she could feel the power emanating off of the 20 th level Aspano majji. He was a towering six foot six, but his large body moved with an incredible amount of grace. It was lean and clearly strong. The man was well-defined in his close-fitting pants and sleeveless shirt that left little to the imagination as far as his fitness was concerned. She found that impressive, since 20 th level majji usually ran to fat, their power making them lazy in all other ways not related to their majic. His black coffee colored hair was the deepest, darkest of browns with no hint of highlights. His hair was long, reaching to the middle of his shoulders, but he did not wear it free. It was braided in an intricate series of braids, hand-painted beads the size of large peas braided throughout. She couldn’t see the hand painting from the distance at which she sat of course, but she had seen the style on others. Though none of them had worn it quite so well as Dendri Adiron did.
    He had a square jaw, all lean angles leading into a strong chin. His cheekbones were well defined and his brows winged up over his eyes as two separate beings, unlike Esmo with his unified brow who was falling all over himself to speak with Adiron at that very moment. To her infinite pleasure, Adiron looked down on Esmo as if he were some kind of annoying little bug that had dared to run over his boot tip. Yasra chuckled when, in his excitement, Esmo tripped over his own feet and landed on the ground face first. Adiron seemed not to notice as he continued walking on.
    Adiron walked out onto the field, taking in the elemental tables and then turning an assessing gaze on the gathering of students waiting to be tested. His eyes fell on Yasra briefly and she felt the insane impulse to sit up straighter. But by the time she did, his attention had slid past her and on to someone else.
    Adiron walked up to the proctor and said something to him. The proctor nodded and stepped back, letting Adiron take his place behind the elemental tables.
    Oh no! Did that mean Adiron was going to proctor the tests? That would be awful! Bad enough to embarrass herself in front of a class full of youngsters and the regular proctors, but in front of Dendri Adiron? He moved in circles even above what her parents moved in.
    Maybe he would only proctor some of the tests and she would not be called until after he was through.
    “Yasra Desro,” one of the other proctors called out. Yasra’s heart sank. First. She was first. And Adiron was going to proctor her test.
    She stood up and wiped her suddenly damp palms down her skirt. She wore breeches just as often as she wore skirts, but she had felt like dressing up today. Now she was glad she had. At least she wouldn’t look like a boy going up there. Not that anyone could mistake her for a boy. She was round in all the right places…and some not so right places. Her mother had frowned on her habit of wearing breeches and the fact that she didn’t wear an underbust. But she didn’t like to be confined. She liked to be able to breathe and move. Besides, it wasn't as though other women didn’t wear them. She wasn't exactly setting a trend…it was just that most women wore long, floor-length dresses with