Chapter 9
ROSE
My annoyance at Raith’s absence last night faded away in an instant. I hurried after him as he left his study and headed down the corridor. “You plan to teach me fae magic?”
“I do. You have some raw talent for it, but you’ve clearly never had any real magical education. It would be irresponsible to leave you untrained.” He stopped in front of a plain black door and removed a key from his coat pocket. “Have you had any sort of mentor before?”
“I’m self-taught,” I said, standing up straighter. Even though I hadn’t attended the fancy fae school in Korelan, I’d done the best I could with what I’d had.
“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”
With a click, his key unlocked the heavy door, and he slowly eased it open to reveal a dark, musty room with no windows.
With a quick rune drawn in the air, he made a candelabra overhead flare to life.
Bookshelves lined each wall with ancient, dusty tomes, and a long, wooden table stood in the center of the room, covered with vials, bottles, and flasks.
As I gazed around, I also spotted a human skull, a small dagger, and jars full of stones and crystals.
“What is this place?” I asked, as he locked the door behind us.
“This was once my father’s magical workshop. Now it’s passed to me.”
“He was fae too?”
“Yes, born in Korelan. His sister is the current High Queen, in fact.”
Oh. I should have known that already. “How did he and your mother meet?”
He removed his long black coat and hung it on a small hook.
“My mother was already Queen of Ilidan then, and even younger than I am now when she took the throne. She had some fae blood in her too, but little magic to speak of. She journeyed to Korelan on a diplomatic mission with the fae, and met my father there. According to them, it was love at first sight. They were married a week later and were disgustingly in love their entire lives.”
I smiled at his story. His parents’ tale was so different from my father’s many marriages that always ended in death or exile. “Perhaps hasty weddings are a family tradition.”
He smirked and moved to the nearest bookshelf, where he began searching for a title.
I surveyed the room, studying the strange liquids and powders stored on a nearby shelf, but no matter how much I wanted to explore every inch of the place I schooled myself to stillness and patience.
It was hard and quite unlike me, but I was trying to show Raith I was ready to be the best magical student he’d ever had.
All my life I’d dreamed of learning to use fae magic like my mother and now I had the chance—I wasn’t about to waste it.
“Have you trained anyone before?” I asked.
“No. You will be my first and likely only apprentice.” He pulled a book off the shelf. “It’s a shame your father never sent you and Lily to Korelan for schooling. I suppose he won’t send young Iris either, for that matter.”
“He would have if not for his last wife. She soured him on the fae and ruined everything for the rest of us.” Iris’s mother Riala had been caught having an affair, and when my father sent guards after her, she used fae magic to murder them all and escape.
She’d been officially exiled, but no one knew where she’d gone or where she’d been hiding all this time, or if she was even still alive.
After that, my father banned all fae magic from our kingdom.
He’d always been suspicious of it, especially after magic couldn’t save my mother, and Riala’s betrayal was the final straw.
“So I’ve heard.” Raith grabbed another two books and set them on top of the other, forming a growing pile in his arms.
Impatience and curiosity won out, and I inched closer to the table in the middle, eyeing what was on it. All the vials and bottles had runes etched into them, though I didn’t recognize most of the symbols. “Did you attend the school in Korelan as well, or did your father teach you?”
“Both.” He turned toward me and shoved the giant stack of books into my arms. “For your first lesson, read all of these and then write up a short summary of what you’ve learned about the history of fae magic and the original runemakers. Once that’s done, we’ll begin the next part of your training.”
I staggered under the weight of the books and gaped at him. “You want me to read all of these?”
“Yes, ideally in the next week or two. Will that be a problem?”
I set the books down on the table, accidentally knocking into some empty vials.
“No, but I’m not a complete beginner. I already know many spells and how to cast them.
I was hoping you’d show me some new runes, like the one for teleportation, not give me long, stuffy texts about the history of magic. ”
“How can you expect to understand a thing if you don’t know it’s history?
Besides, I’ve seen your poor excuse of a spell, and it would be easier for both of us if you were a beginner.
” He gave me a withering look and crossed to the other side of the room to grab another book.
“Teleportation is a high level spell that very few can ever master. You have a long way to go before I’d even let you attempt it.
And why would you even need such a spell?
Do you hope to use it to escape this place? ”
I planted my hands on my hips, my defenses prickling at his words. “My spells are not poor, I was simply startled by your sudden appearance the other day. And I have no intention of escaping, but it’d be nice to be able to visit my sisters whenever I wanted.”
He added the new book to my already tall stack, likely just because I’d argued with him. “If you performed a teleportation rune wrong, you would be stuck in the Shadow Lands forever. No, you won’t be learning that one anytime soon.”
I sighed and flipped through the crinkling pages with words in tiny font that made my eyes cross. “Fine, but couldn’t you simply give me a quick summary of these books so we could move on to the actual training? I’m much more of a hands-on learner.”
“I could, but I will not. If you need a place to study other than your sitting room, there’s a library on the first floor you’re welcome to use.” He turned his back to me and began inspecting one of the vials. “Let me know once you’ve finished and then we’ll move on to the next lesson.”
That was a dismissal if I’d ever heard one. Resigned to my fate, I grabbed my heavy stack of books and moved to the door, but hesitated in front of it. There was something else I wanted to know, and if I didn’t ask now, I wasn’t sure I’d have the courage to do so later.
I took a deep breath and faced Raith again. “Why didn’t you come to my room last night?”
He jerked his head toward me. “Your room?”
Was he going to make me spell it out for him? “Yes. We are married, after all.”
He examined another vial with his brow furrowed. “I had other matters to attend to last night.”
“Of course.” I paused. “Then you’ll come tonight?”
“No.”
“I see.” I tried to keep the disappointment from my voice, but it was difficult. Rejection always hurt, even from a man I barely knew. I swallowed and tried to smooth over the awkward moment. “I understand. We only just met, after all. We need some time to grow better accustomed to each other.”
“No,” he said again, more forcefully. “I have no plans to visit your room. Not tonight. Not tomorrow night. Not any time in the foreseeable future.”
“You don’t?” I blinked at him. “But…surely you need an heir.”
“Eventually, yes. We’ll face that problem later.”
I blew out a long breath, unease swirling in my stomach. “Later.”
His stormy eyes swept over my body like a caress. “Are you so eager for me to join you in bed?”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “No! Definitely not.”
He turned back to his vials and sounded almost bored when he asked, “What is it then?”
“I simply want to know my role here as your wife. What do you want from this marriage? An apprentice, fine. But what else? A friend? A partner?” My voice dropped to nearly a whisper. “A lover?”
His back stiffened, and when he spoke next, his tone was hard.
“I don’t expect anything from you. We were both forced into this marriage and we must try to make the best of it.
If you’re hoping for a grand romance, you will be sorely disappointed.
Best to get that foolish notion out of your head now. ”
“Trust me, I don’t,” I snapped, as his words burned through me. “You’ve made it quite clear you have zero interest in me in that regard.”
I threw open the door and stormed out before he could cut me down more.
Perhaps it was foolish to hope for a marriage filled with love, but didn’t everyone wish for such a thing?
Even a princess who knew her role was to be married in a political alliance could dream of romance, no matter how unlikely it was to come about.
At the very least, I’d hoped Raith and I could be friends someday, but he wanted nothing more than a student, and didn’t seem particularly excited about me playing that role either.
What had I expected, truly? He hadn’t chosen me for his bride.
He would have picked another if I hadn’t volunteered.
Perhaps the idea of laying with me completely disgusted him.
Perhaps he looked at me and only remembered the wife who’d died, who no doubt would have made a better queen.
Perhaps we would never be more than acquaintances forced to live together in the same castle.
I’d have to find my happiness and fulfillment in some other way, it seemed. Starting with this giant stack of books.