Chapter 3
By the time Iliana dragged herself back to her room, her bones felt like one breath might send them crumbling into a puff of dust. One of the Refoel healers had checked her out at the end of the practicum, but said Iliana wasn’t in need of healing, that she wasn’t suffering anything a good meal and a full night of sleep wouldn’t cure—and added an injunction to practice her magic replenishment techniques.
Of course, Sabrina had to saunter past at that exact moment and snidely comment that no doubt Iliana was fine because she hadn’t completed the assignment, that Iliana had failed to yield up all of her magic without resistance.
The remark still made Iliana bristle, in no small part because it was true.
Normally Iliana was very good at her lessons, but today had been an abysmal performance.
She simply hadn’t been able to get over her intense dislike of Sabrina Hanneil.
Iliana didn’t want that bitch to have any of her magic, let alone all of it.
Infuriated by Iliana’s recalcitrance, Sabrina had gotten heavy-handed, yanking on Iliana’s magic with wrenching force that felt like her intestines were being extracted from her body through a straw.
Fortunately, their pairing hadn’t been the only utter disaster and Wizard Angela had finally cut the practicum off early, saying that she’d clearly expected too much of them and that they’d repeat the exercise with more harmonious pairings the following day, and then work up to the difficult pairings from there.
While Iliana was relieved to be able to try again with a wizard she got along with better—she really hated that she’d performed so poorly—she also dreaded having to open herself up again like that, even with someone like Alise.
Worse, if she did learn the skill, she’d still have to face the blade of Sabrina’s wizardry scraping out her insides again.
Inside the quiet sanctum of her little room, instead of sitting in a meditation pose as she was supposed to, she flopped facedown onto the bed, feeling as if she could dissolve into it and sleep for days.
But she couldn’t let herself do that. She was under strict orders to eat heartily, too, so she’d get up and head to the dining hall in just a moment…
A knock on her door woke her from such a deep sleep she nearly jumped out of her skin, disoriented and groggy. Getting her bearings, she checked the El-Adrel timepiece on her bedside table and found she’d only been asleep a short time, but wow—she’d really passed out.
“Iliana!” Han called through the door. “Are you in there?”
Oh, right! She jumped up, ran her hands through her hair and saw in the mirror that one half of her face was red and smushed with the pattern from her coverlet. Fantastic. And no way she could make Han wait outside while she got a grooming imp to fix her up.
“Iliana?” Han sounded concerned, knocking again, more urgently.
“Coming.” She tripped the magical lock on the door and opened it for Han, who was glaring at her, hands on hips.
“You didn’t show for dinner,” he said accusingly, slipping past her and into the room. “I was worried.”
Wincing, she closed the door and engaged the lock again. She was a terrible friend. “I’m so sorry. I fell asleep. What did the oracle head say?”
He sat on her bed and flopped back, arms akimbo. “Uncategorized. Still.”
“Oh, Han.” She sat beside him and stroked his pale hair back from his brow.
Fascination might be a myth, and even if it wasn’t, she couldn’t feel it for someone not a wizard, but she’d gladly give Han all the magic in her to make him feel better.
If she had any left, that was. “I’m so sorry,” she said again, unable to think of anything better, even though this was another order of magnitude of regret.
He opened his eyes and rolled them. They were an extraordinary shade of blue, with a deep ring like the ocean in summer at the outer edge, shades of crystalline blue inside that, and a sunburst of grass green radiating from his pupil.
Finer rays of green shot through the other blues.
From a distance, his eyes looked very bright blue, standing out against his dusky skin.
Up close… Well, Iliana sometimes found herself staring at the rays of green, and how the concentric rings of varying blues seemed to shimmer from one to the next.
If Han became a wizard, his eyes would eventually turn black from magic wielding.
As much as she wanted that status for him, she secretly hated that those lovely colors would disappear from the world.
Though that was silly: there was a high probability, nearly a certainty, that Han would disappear from her life completely, let alone his fascinating eyes.
Maybe she fastened her proactive grief on that color vanishing because it was easier to imagine never seeing him again.
“It’s not a big deal,” Han was saying as she gazed into his eyes, memorizing how they looked. “Just frustrating. And, as a special bonus, I get to go for testing every day now.”
“Oh wow.” She’d never heard of anyone getting tested daily. “But maybe this is a good sign. After all, why would they want you to come in every day unless they’re worried about you suddenly manifesting as a wizard and blowing up the dining hall?”
His annoyed scowl softened and he sat up, taking her hand and tangling her fingers with his. “You are the best friend there is, you know that?”
“Of course, I know,” she replied breezily, covering the twin pangs of emotion—pleasure at his praise and sorrow at being forever only a friend.
“But I’m not spinning pretty illusions. You know how high your MP scores are.
You’re going to be a powerful wizard and everyone knows it.
” Feeling momentarily dizzy, she rubbed her forehead, willing herself to wake up.
Han narrowed those jewellike eyes. “I, however, am a terrible friend. Here I am, wallowing in my petty concerns, when you’re clearly upset.
” He touched her cheek, tracing an arc beneath her eye.
“And exhausted. I can’t even feel your magic and you have shadows under your eyes so deep you look like someone punched you. ”
She jerked away. “Wow, thanks. I’m fine.”
“What’s wrong?” he persisted. “Something happened to drain your magic.”
Restless despite her weariness, she got up and went to her vanity mirror.
Han wasn’t wrong, which was all the more annoying.
Uncorking the bottle with the Elal grooming imp, she set it loose to improve her appearance.
As a familiar, she couldn’t control the imp, but they came prepackaged with basic instructions.
In general, the imps did well with cleaning and smoothing hair, and they did fine with clearing skin and removing blemishes and unsightly shadows, stimulating skin to create a healthy glow that was as close to beauty as Iliana would ever get.
“I didn’t meant it like that,” Han said softly. “You don’t have to fix yourself up. You look beautiful. I just meant I could see…” He trailed off, and Iliana glanced at him in the mirror as the glowing sprite moved through her wayward curls.
Han had shifted to lie on his side, head propped on one elbow and long legs kicked out to drape over the end of her untidy bed.
He looked like a lover might, if they’d rumpled her covers with more interesting activities, those blue eyes catching the light and focusing on her.
Except he wasn’t gazing on her with sensual adoration, like she imagined in her fantasies.
No, he was making a face, clearly uncertain how to extricate himself from the hole he’d dug.
“I did need to fix myself up,” she replied with a smile, so he wouldn’t worry. “Not because you said anything. I was going to anyway, before heading to the dining hall. Can’t have a daughter of House Ariel showing up for dinner unkempt.”
“Oh, you didn’t eat yet?” He glanced at the clock. “It’s late. If we want any food, we’d better go soon.”
“I fell asleep,” she admitted. “What have you been doing that you haven’t eaten either?”
He flopped onto his back with a groan and a grimace, drawing up one knee.
Because he was no longer looking at her, Iliana indulged in running her eyes over his long, lean body as she wished she could do with her hands.
Or lips. Better put that craving down deep where the thought-seekers couldn’t get to it.
“A Ratsiel courier ambushed me on my way out of the Testing Tower,” he said to the ceiling.
“My mother. Apparently there was a rumor I’d been certified a wizard.
I ended up having to exchange half-a-dozen messages convincing her I wasn’t engaged in a prank by denying it, and then another eight or nine in which I promised to do better in making myself into a wizard by tomorrow. ”
She winced for him, the grooming imp tickling when she interrupted its work. “I’m sorry, Han.”
“Don’t be. And somehow I ended up talking about myself again. Why did you fall asleep before dinner? That’s not like you. Tell me what happened today.”
“Just be glad you don’t have to attend the advanced studies classes yet.” She tried for sophisticated and world-weary, but sounded a little pitiful.
“The lab practicum?” he asked, sitting up and holding her gaze in the mirror. His pale hair had come loose from his flopping about, a few strands escaping the tie and hanging around his high cheekbones. “What was today’s exercise?”
“You know I’m not supposed to tell you,” she replied.
“Like I’d tell anyone you spilled Convocation secrets,” he snapped, pushing to his feet and coming to stand behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders and squeezing lightly. “You can trust me, Iliana. You should know that by now.”