*Draven's POV*
The headmistress delivers the partnership assignments on a Wednesday morning, posted on the combat training board before first class, and I find out the way everyone else does — by reading my own name beside someone else's in a public corridor with students on both sides of me.
Draven Hunter. Arwen Blackthorne.
I stand in front of the board for four seconds. Then I go directly to Headmistress Thorne's office and knock once and open the door without waiting for an answer, which is something I have not done since I was fifteen and operating under the impression that authority was something you took rather than something you earned.
Thorne looks up from her desk without surprise. She was expecting me. Of course she was.
"Sit down, Draven."
"The partnership assignments."
