“Yes it is,” I snapped. “Itisour job to challenge them. Or else I’d still be in that palace basement snoring, with no hope to keep me going.”
“Then make your own hope.”
“Why do you think I’m here?”
Hesitation lingered in his eyes. “Why have you never sought tutoring before?”
“Are you so isolated in your tower that you know nothing of the people you claim to rule?”
His hands fisted into his mage robes, the movement obscured by shadow. “Why are you unskilled? It’s a simple question.”
I shoved my hands toward him, palm up. He flinched.
“Don’t turn away. Look.”
He eyed them warily—the long, scraggly pink lines that marked my dark skin, the callouses thick and rough like leather. The proof that forever showed my weakness in magic.
“This was my formal tutoring,” I said. “I’m the daughter of a fire mage, from a long line of fire mages.”
He winced, not resisting as I grabbed his palm. I ran my thumb over his soft, unblemished skin. His whole body went still.
“And this is the hand of a pampered prince, one who has never had to sweat for his room and board,” I said.
His eyes flicked to mine, deep and stormy, and I abruptly let go of his hand. It dropped to his side.
“Well, you’re being tutored now,” he said.
“And what of the other maids and blacksmiths and bakers who have untapped potential?”
He didn’t respond, his gaze drifting toward the pond, which glimmered under the stars.
My jaw hurt from how tightly I’d been clenching it. I forced it to relax.
Great, Lyra. Now you’ve lost even this opportunity.
“We shall learn together,” he said, startling me. “There are no lurking eyes to tell us otherwise. And it would be deceitful to claim I haven’t still much to learn.”
I shoved down the desire to stoke the fires of our argument further. It seemed the prince was tired of my complaints.
But I also realized what he meant. Out here, under the stars with no courtiers around to gawk, we were near equals. At least for these quiet, stolen moments.
And although he was my teacher now, as the anger abated within me, I realized there was nothing I wanted so much as to best him, to one day create the spells he learned in his books, to be…
To be Grand Mage myself.
I coughed at the unwelcome thought.
His brow wrinkled, the tension between us finally broken. “Are you alright?”
“Just fine,” I croaked, choking a bit. I allowed the smallest of smiles to break through my mask. “I’ve decided I’m going to call you Thom.”
“You’vedecided?”
A soft snickering behind me made me turn my head. Caleb’s lips were pressed together, his shoulders shaking in a hidden laugh. I turned back to Thom with a grin. “Your guard clearly agrees.”
“Caleb?”
“I’m not here, sire. Please ignore me.”
