She stepped closer, and her voice dropped.
“I thought, at first, that you might simply be immune to my Sight. But then you blocked everyone else’s mental magic. Your mind cannot be bent, and who knows what else you’re capable of.”
I swallowed. “Soehl says it’s called mental immunity. Mind-benders cannot get in my mind.”
“Yes, not even Lorik Draventh, who is one of the most sophisticated mind-benders alive, could reach you” she said.
My chest clenched so hard it hurt. Shame and longing wrestled inside me. Did she know everything, the desperate way I had kissed him, how much I wanted him, how my body still burned for him?
I said nothing. I couldn’t. That kiss would stay buried, locked inside me until it burned itself quiet.
“Ever since he saved you, I’ve been watching his path,” she continued, moving even closer. “I wanted to track him, to make sure you were safe, but my magic is spread too thin with the threats rising around Rionis. Still, I saw him tryingto command your mind and failing. When Headmaster Marvek informed me of your placement in the Interrogation class, my concern doubled. If anyone learns what you can do…” She shook her head. “It’s too rare. Too dangerous.”
A long breath slipped out of me, relief loosening my lungs, she hadn’t seen the kiss. She hadn’t seen what really happened between us. But she might have seen him try to command me to kiss him, and that his command failed; she might wonder why it didn’t work.
But that relief crumpled when I truly looked at her. She was nearly hollow, her strength stretched to the breaking point by the Sight. For a fleeting moment, I saw only my mother fragile, unraveling, not a queen but a female whose edges were coming undone.
“Why didn’t you talk to me sooner?” I asked softly.
“As if you would’ve listened,” she said with a faint, sad smile. “After everything I’ve demanded of you? After the pressure, the expectations… the marriage negotiations?” Her smile fell, revealing the female beneath the crown. “I wasn’t sure you would hear me as your mother.”
I nodded because she wasn’t wrong. And for the first time in a long time, I felt like we were finally speaking honestly, just us. No kingdom. No legacy. No politics.
She turned slightly, as if she was preparing to leave.
“Why can’t anyone know? Why now? What’s changed?” I asked quickly. I realized too late I’d asked too much at once.
She exhaled, weary. “I can’t answer everything tonight. But I will soon. I came to warn you in person. I trust few people now.” Her gaze moved to the window, haunted. “Do the same.
Don’t trust anyone. Don’t reveal your magical trace yet. People fear what they don’t understand and there’s no record of anyone like you. We can’t predict what your immunity means.”
A portal shimmered into existence beside her, the Glass Castle gate responding to whatever silent signal she had sent. The timing was perfect. Too perfect.
She stepped toward the light, but paused, turning back to me with a look that pierced deeper than her magic ever had.
“The Draventh boy won’t expose your secret,” she said. “But Thea… for the sake of Solvir, stay away from him.”
And then she vanished into the portal, leaving the moonlit room colder than before.
Her last comment made me realize she must know exactly what Lorik Draventh had attempted to command on the Sky Terrace, even if she hadn’t seen the kiss itself. And for the first time, I intended to do as my mother told me. I was going to stay away from Lorik Draventh.
Chapter 28: Magma Dragon
After a forbidden kiss and discovering my magical trace, I felt swollen with secrets, too full to breathe, too heavy to speak. I didn’t want to see anyone or talk to anyone.
I especially didn’t want to see Lorik. I had a lapse of judgment, and the farther away I stayed from him, the better, so we could both forget it had ever happened. The fact that Dragontail Trials practice would officially start the next day would further limit my interaction with second-years.
I couldn’t talk to Shakari either. If I did, I knew I might confess everything and that would put her in danger. Knowledge itself was treason. A Sunheart and Moonveil interaction left unreported was not just forbidden; it was a criminal offense, one punished by justice without mercy.
So I disappeared.
And for one quiet Sunday, I succeeded.
I slipped to the meadows by the King’s Forest, bringing my books and hiding in plain sight. I studied for hours, mapping the sky, preparing for the trials, memorizing constellations asif they could save me. During the day, I felt certain, I was a Sunheart, and the sun would guide me. But the night could still trick me.
I also studied an ancient book about dormant traces, hoping to find something, about mental immunity, or how I could be tested during the trials. I found nothing worth my time.
When I got tired of reading, I walked through the King’s Forest, stopping at the limits allowed by the academy.
