Chapter 4
Iwoke in my own bed, feeling alert and well rested. But I jolted upright as soon as my memory returned, frantically feeling my injured arm. I could detect no sign of any injury, however.
I fell back against the pillows, gasping. Had I imagined the whole thing? I couldn’t possibly have been sleeping long enough to heal completely.
“She’s awake!” The bellow made me startle so badly I nearly toppled out of bed. I glared at my youngest brother, but he was turned toward the door shouting again for our mother.
“Are you trying to shatter my ear drums on top of everything?” I growled at Timothy, who at fourteen was all gangly long limbs and who usually preferred to communicate in grunts.
“When Harvey carried you into the dining room, you looked like you were dead,” he said at a more normal volume, twisting back to me and grinning.
“Well, clearly I’m not,” I said shortly, not wanting to think about the embarrassing moment.
“Even for you, it was a dramatic birthday meal.” He leaned back in his chair. “And to think I thought it was going to be boring and tried to get out of attending.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but I couldn’t muster any true antagonism. From the position of his chair by my bed, he had been watching over me, waiting for me to wake.
Then he continued speaking, extinguishing my goodwill.
“And now you’re finally awake, so Mother will have to let me free. Did you have to sleep so long? I’ve been dying here.”
I pushed myself into a sitting position, glaring at him. “You’ve been dying?”
He grinned. “Well, you just said you weren’t.”
My lips twitched, and his grin widened. Sandwiched in the middle of four brothers, I knew better than to take their sallies personally. For their part, they had decided years ago that I was a good sport and treated me accordingly, much to our mother’s dismay.
Two tall figures appeared in the doorway at the same time, shouldering each other in their efforts to squeeze into the room first. I sighed at both of them but directed my words toward Anson.
“As the oldest, shouldn’t you show a little more dignity?”
He scoffed. “Mother has been making us spend every spare minute that we’re not at work kicking our heels at home. Anyone would think we were keeping vigil at your deathbed! I need to see with my own eyes that you’re awake and I can finally be free.”
Ellis, the brother between me and Timothy, snorted. “A tragedy, indeed! All the girls at the market must be despairing at the absence of their favorite flirt.”
Anson smirked back. “Only the pretty ones.”
I sighed loudly. “Are you trying to make me sick again?”
All three of them rushed quickly to my side, jostling each other as they plumped the pillows behind me and straightened my blankets.
“Dearest Aria,” Ellis said. “Is there anything you need us to fetch? We are utterly dedicated to your full recovery.”
“Yes, I can see that,” I said dryly. “What was Mother thinking keeping you all chained here?” I held up my arm and moved it around experimentally, still unable to find any trace of the injury. “I’m completely fine. What in the kingdom happened?”
“Faylee,” Anton said promptly. “Mother always said you’d done well coming to her notice, and she was proved right at last. Faylee had a healing composition on her, and she insisted on using it.”
My brows rose. “Faylee was carrying a healing composition able to fix an injury like that?”
Timothy shrugged. “She said it was a side effect of that expedition into the mountains with the Sekali princess. The one that made her famous. She said she always keeps a stack of healing compositions on her.”
“She has plenty of mage friends to supply them,” Ellis added in an admiring tone. “And not just minor mages either—ones from the four great mage families.”
“Our family is very grateful that she chose to use compositions from her own personal supply on Aria,” Anson said in a repressive tone.
Ellis glared at him resentfully but didn’t say anything. I knew he hadn’t meant to minimize Faylee’s gift with his words. He had hero-worshiped her since the first time she visited my family.
Their mention of Faylee made me squirm uncomfortably, however.
Had Zakary already visited her? She would be even more disappointed in me after giving me such a valuable gift.
Even Zakary, a mage himself, hadn’t had the necessary healing composition, and yet Faylee had gifted it to me without a thought.
I swung my legs around, determined to get up. If I remained stationary in bed, I would only feel worse and worse. If Faylee wanted to upbraid me, it was better to face it as soon as possible.
A head rush hit me as soon as I stood, however, and my vision briefly blurred. I put a hand out blindly to steady myself, and all three of my brothers lunged for me, keeping me upright.
“Quick, get a hold of yourself before Mother sees,” Timothy hissed.
I rolled my eyes and pushed them all away. “I’m fine. I just got up too quickly. How long was I in bed for anyway?”
“Four horrifically long days,” Anson said.
“FOUR DAYS!?” I nearly blacked out again. They had to be teasing me. “I cannot have been sleeping for four days.”
“Faylee gave Mother two compositions,” Timothy said. “The first was for healing, and the second was a working to encourage rest. Apparently, you have to rest after such a significant healing, and they seemed to think that would be a challenge where you were concerned.”
He and Ellis exchanged smirks.
“Your body must have needed rest badly if the composition made you sleep for so long,” Anson said more gently.
“How could you let me sleep for four days?!” I wailed, unable to process their words. “I’ve missed the last test.”
“Exactly.” My mother appeared in the doorway, regarding me with satisfaction. “Given how obsessed you were with that test, I knew I would never keep you in bed and resting without intervention. This was for the best.”
“Mother, how could you?” My voice cracked and tears pricked at my eyes. “Byron is a Robart just like Gina, and now Teacher Wendell will have an excuse again, just like two years ago.”
My mother’s expression softened, and my brothers cleared their throats, exchanging looks that I caught in my peripheral vision. They weren’t comfortable with my display of emotion, but they shared my anger over Teacher Wendell’s previous betrayal.
Bustling over to me, my mother put a comforting arm around my shoulders. “It would be one thing if you had a chance. But everyone says the fourth-year trainees are strong this year. There isn’t going to be a sealing ceremony this summer, and you would have put your health at risk for nothing.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, trying to blink back my tears. Mother had never understood the drive that pushed me to keep going after Gina stole my place.
“Big news!” The shouted words came from the front of the house. “Big news! Where are you all?”
“In Aria’s room!” Anson called back, and my final brother appeared in the door, panting from an apparent run.
We all stared at him. At twenty, Harvey had mostly outgrown the youthful boisterousness that still plagued Ellis and Timothy. If he was this excited, it really was big news.
“They’ve caught the Shrouded Mage!” he gasped out, grinning at us all before his eyes fastened on me. “There’s going to be a sealing ceremony after all!”
My mother gave a soft, astonished cry as I stumbled backward, sinking onto the bed. Their voices swirled around me, talking and exclaiming. Several supporting hands reached for me, but I pushed them all away.
After a few moments, my mother swept my brothers out of the room, pausing in the doorway herself.
“I’m so sorry, Aria,” she murmured. “There’s still a chance you’ll be the one…”
I shook my head silently, not looking at her. I had missed the final test completely, not just performed below my usual standard. There was no way the teacher would miss his chance to choose another Robart. Everything I had worked for was over.
My family tiptoed around me over the following two days, not even pressing me to tell them how I had ended up injured on my birthday. They didn’t mention my continued presence in the house either, no one asking why I was missing my final days of school.
But on the last day, I forced myself to leave the house at last. I had no hope that I would be chosen over Byron—my mother had informed the school of my injury while I was sleeping, but I knew that wouldn’t weigh with Teacher Wendell—but I had to officially confirm the situation.
My appearance in the classroom proved just as awkward as I had anticipated.
The happy hum and buzz of the end of the year dimmed the moment I appeared, and the admiring crowd around Byron stepped back slightly.
Those who spoke to me did so in quiet, uncomfortable voices.
Even the teacher fell back before my accusing eyes, addressing me in a brash, blustering tone that showed he had some shame lurking deep inside.
I left early. I didn’t have any friends of my own left at school anyway. I had been the only eighteen-year-old left.
I couldn’t bring myself to go straight home, though. As uncomfortable as school had been, my family weren’t much better—tiptoeing around me as if I was still an invalid.
At least the visit to my school had provided the information that the sealing ceremony was to take place in two days’ time.
I would give myself those two days to wallow and grieve, I decided.
And after the sealing ceremony was complete—sealing the hopes of my childhood and youth with it—I would think about the future and try to find a way to start fresh.