“That,” I say, “is a high-level spell. Bending time, even in the minimalist way you just saw, is not something you take lightly. Not ever.”
“Every one of you in this room was given magic by Mother Fate.” My eyes move row by row, landing on Seth last. “It was a gift. And because it’s a gift, it has a price. Every spell you cast, small or large, costs you something. Sometimes the cost is obvious—you cast something big and you’re tired afterward. Sometimes you don’t see the bill until years later.”
The hair on the back of my neck lifts a little as I say it. I keep going anyway.
“So when you misuse magic—especially when you cast for personal gain, or to dodge something you should have just faced, or to bend a rule you weren’t supposed to bend—the cost goes up. Sometimes it goes up a lot. And it always comes due.” I let that land. “Sit with that. That’s the lesson for today.”
The room is quiet in a different way now.
I glance at my brother. “I was hoping to see how much you’d retained over the break. A full semester of review work toprepare you for higher-level potions this term.” I don’t look away from Seth’s face. “Turns out some of us need more work than others. I’ll be holding off on the elevated material for a few more weeks.”
The whole class groans. Priya glares at him. The boy in row two muttersSeth, come on manloud enough for everyone to hear. Seth glares back at me across the worktables.
I clap my hands once. “Alright. That’s it for today. Clean your stations. Priya, Mercer, bowls need dumping in the disposal bin. I’ll resume the unit on Wednesday.”
They start moving, chairs scraping, the class muttering at Seth the entire time. Priya gives him a flat look as she walks past his table on the way to the disposal bin and doesn’t say anything.
Seth is cleaning slow as if he’s stalling.
When the last student is through the door, I lean over his table. “You didn’t study at all. Did you.”
He doesn’t look at me. He scrubs at a spot on his table that isn’t there. “How about you get your fucking lust under control and stop worrying about me.”
I stiffen against the worktable, my hand tightening on the wood. Every student in this room has been breathing the same air as me all morning, and most of them can’t scent. But Seth has beenright there.Smelling exactly what I’ve been thinking about all morning.
I run a hand over my face. “Seth?—“
“Maybe that’s why I can’t focus.” He stops scrubbing and looks up at me finally, his eyes flat. “I’m tired of smelling that shit.”
I catch the hiss before it gets out of my throat. He shoulders past me and walks for the door.
“This isn’t over,” I mutter at his back. “I’m telling Mom.” He doesn’t slow down.
I stand there for a minute with my hands still on his table.Casting for personal gain.I just lectured a whole classroom about the cost of bending magic for your own purposes. I just slowed time, not for them, but because I was daydreaming about my mate’s body so hard I stopped watching my brother’s potion work. Seth almost blew his own face off because I was half-stiff thinking about our morning. And I did what I do best, I covered it. Turned a near-disaster into awowmoment and made them applaud.
The hair on my arms stays lifted. Somewhere in the back of my head, where I’ve been pretending not to know things for the past year, my own bill is waiting on me.
I shake it off and clean the classroom. When I’m finished, I turn off the lights and step out into the hall.
Fuck.I don’t know why Eric is in my head as I walk. He shouldn’t be. He hasn’t shown up in a year, not once since the vow renewal. The lake that night was the last time I saw him, and he was aged then, coughing, his skin thinner than I’d ever seen it.Not long,he’d said when I asked how much time he had. I still haven’t figured out what to do with any of it.
I take the main stairs down toward the Academy side. Tyrion’s classroom is on the next landing, and his door is open.
He’s standing at his workbench with his back to me, the new telescope assembled and mounted on a brass tripod beside him. He’s bent over a spread of star charts that run the length of the bench. One of his hands is planted on the edge of the paper. The other holds a pencil.
I rap on the doorframe with my knuckle. “Professor.”
He straightens. His face crinkles up when he sees me.
“Aaron.” He smiles. “Come in.”
“You finally get the tracking aligned?” I ask him.
“Last night.” He gestures at the charts. “I was up into the small hours. The Equinox Star crosses in front of the Crown cluster tonight, first time in a generation.”
I grin. “You stargazed through your dinner again, didn’t you.”
“I stargazed through last week’s dinner too. Don’t tell Claude.” He takes two steps toward me, formal as ever, his hands folding behind his back. “Which brings me to why I am pleased you are standing in my doorway, Aaron. I was going to send for you after your last class. I would like to invite your mate to the border with us tonight.”
