Chapter 6
For the first time in my life, someone powerful has taken the blame for something strange happening around me. Not because he is kind... Valerius Draven is not kind but he does it anyway and I don't know what to do with that.
Professor Thorne doesn't believe him. Professor Thorne closes his slate slowly. "Interesting."
Valerius's eyes darken. "Is it?"
"Yes." He nods. The two of them stare at each other with enough tension to crack stone. Then Thorne turns away. "Assessment dismissed. Miss Starling, infirmary. Mr. Draven, remain."
"No," I say quickly. Both men look at me again. My face burns. "I mean—I don't need to go. I have history of magical law in twenty minutes."
"That class can survive without you." Professor Thorne says.
"I can't." The words come out too honest. Too bare. Professor Thorne pauses. Valerius's expression shifts. I hate that he heard it.
But it's true. I can't go to the infirmary.
I can't have healers studying my wrist, my pulse, my skin, asking questions I can't answer.
I can't have another official record, another whispered note, another reason for the council to look at me like I am an error.
I have survived seventeen years at Arcana by being disappointing in predictable ways.
I don't know how to survive being strange.
Professor Thorne studies me for a long moment. Then he says, "You will attend your class." Relief nearly weakens my knees. "But if you experience pain, dizziness, further heat, visible light, or any change in the mark, you will report it immediately."
"Yes, Professor." I nod intensely.
His gaze sharpens. "To me." Not the infirmary. Not the council. Him.
I nod slowly. "Yes."
Valerius watches this exchange too closely. Professor Thorne flicks his hand toward the doors. "Go."
I don't wait for him to change his mind. I turn and walk out of the training circle, forcing my steps to remain steady. I feel Valerius's gaze on my back like a touch between my shoulder blades. The moment I reach the doors, my bond mark pulses.
I stop.
Behind me, Valerius's voice cuts low through the hall. "You felt it before the Flame chose us." My fingers curl around the doorframe. Professor Thorne says nothing. Valerius continues, quieter now. "In the dining hall. In the lecture alcove. It started before the bond."
My breath goes still. He noticed everything. Every flicker. Every warmth. Every impossible moment I tried to bury beneath denial.
Professor Thorne speaks at last. "Be very careful what you decide you know, Mr. Draven."
A pause. Then Valerius says, "I'm always careful."
I leave before either of them can see me standing there.
The corridor outside is empty, the morning light stretching across the stone in pale strips.
My legs carry me away from the south training hall, but my mind stays behind, trapped in that circle, in the heat of Shadowflame leaning toward me, in the gold lines racing beneath my skin.
I walk faster by the time I turn into the east corridor, my breath is uneven.
I duck into an alcove near a window and press my back against the cold wall.
I pull up my sleeve. The bond mark glows faintly but that isn't what steals the air from my lungs.
Above the circle, almost hidden along the inside of my wrist, there is a tiny line of gold...
Not part of the bond but thin as a vein. It fades as I stare at it.
"No," I whisper. My voice trembles.
The gold disappears completely. For a second, I wonder if I imagined it. I press my fingers against the place where it was. Nothing. No light. No warmth. Only skin. Only a powerless girl standing alone in a corridor, shaking over something that can't be real.
Footsteps sound nearby. I yank my sleeve down.
Seren rounds the corner a heartbeat later, hair slightly wild, green cloak half-fastened, looking like she ran from the Veil tower. "There you are," she breathes.
I blink at her. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for you. Eli said your assessment started at dawn, and then he said Valerius looked like he wanted to set the south hall on fire, which honestly sounds normal for him, but I came anyway." She says.
"Eli told you that?" I ask.
She waves a hand. "Bonded partner communication. Horrifying but useful. Are you okay?"
I open my mouth. Nothing comes out.
Her face changes instantly. "Valentina." Seren steps closer, all her teasing gone. "What happened?"
I think of the Shadowflame bending toward me.
I think of my mark blazing gold. I think of Valerius lying to Professor Thorne.
I think of the gold thread that appeared beneath my skin and vanished before anyone else could see and I know, deep in my bones, that if I speak all of it aloud, it becomes real.
So I say the safest piece. "His magic reacted to the bond."
Seren's eyes widen. "Reacted how?"
"It moved toward me." I say.
"Shadowflame moved toward you?" She lifts an eyebrow.
I nod.
Her face goes pale in a way that makes my fear sharpen. "Did it hurt you?"
"No."
"Did he?" The question is soft. Careful.
I almost laugh because Valerius hurts people without touching them. He cuts with words, with looks, with the space he takes up in a room but that isn't what she means. "No," I say. "He stopped it."
Seren studies me. "He stopped it," she repeats.
"Yes." I nod.
"And then insulted you?" She asks.
"Obviously." I roll my eyes.
She exhales. "Good. For one terrifying second I thought he developed a redeeming quality." A weak laugh escapes me. It feels so good and so wrong that my eyes sting. Seren's expression softens. "Come on. We're going to be late."
"I don't want to walk into class." I admit.
"I know." She says gently.
"Everyone will stare." I say.
"Yes." She nods.
"Everyone will whisper." I add.
"Yes." She agrees and doesn't sugar coat it.
"Valerius will be there."
Seren's mouth twists. "Unfortunately, murder remains against academy policy."
I close my eyes for a second. The bond mark pulses beneath my sleeve.
Somewhere in the academy, Valerius is still here.
Still breathing. Still tied to me by a circle of ancient fire that should never have looked twice at a girl like me.
I hate him. I hate the pull. I hate the mystery.
I hate that when his magic reached for me, something inside me almost reached back.
When I open my eyes, Seren is watching me with quiet understanding. I straighten. "Let them stare."
Her smile returns slowly. "That's my terrifying branchless menace."
"I am not terrifying." I correct her.
"Not yet." She winks.
The words are meant as a joke. I know they are but something about them settles cold beneath my ribs. Not yet. I look down the corridor toward class, toward whispers, toward Valerius, toward a day that already feels like it has teeth. I start walking.
History of magical law takes place in a narrow chamber lined with old books and older judgments. Every desk is already full when Seren and I arrive, which means we are late enough for people to notice but not late enough to avoid the full walk of shame.
The room quiets. Every head turns. My wrist burns beneath my sleeve. I keep my chin lifted. Professor Vale—not related to my mother, despite years of students making the same joke and being punished for it—pauses at the front of the room, chalk hovering beside her.
"Miss Starling. Miss Ashwick. How kind of you to join us."
"Bonded assessment ran long," Seren says before I can speak.
Several whispers ignite. Bonded assessment.
Draven. This morning. Did something happen?
I feel them like insects against my skin.
Then I see him. Valerius sits near the back, alone despite Eli and Luc occupying the row in front of him.
His gaze lifts when I enter, and the room seems to narrow around it.
He changed his shirt. The thought arrives absurdly, unwanted.
The sleeves are still black, still fitted, but buttoned neatly at the wrists now, hiding the sigils I saw earlier. Hiding his mark too, maybe. His expression is unreadable, but there is something taut beneath it. Like control pulled too tight.
Professor Vale gestures to two empty seats.
Of course they are near him. Of course the universe has decided subtlety is dead.
Seren mutters a curse under her breath. I move toward the empty desk in front of Valerius because refusing would only give everyone more to enjoy.
As I pass his row, the air warms. Not enough for anyone else.
Enough for me. My bond mark answers. I pause for half a second.
Valerius's fingers tighten around his pen.
The silence between us is louder than every whisper in the room.
I sit.
Seren takes the desk beside me, angling herself like a small, furious shield between me and the world.
Professor Vale resumes her lecture. "Before the interruption, we were discussing magical liability within bonded partnerships."
A few students laugh softly. I stare at the front wall.
"Under academy law," Professor Vale continues, "bonded partners are jointly accountable for magical harm caused during sanctioned exercises, unless one partner can prove deliberate sabotage or reckless endangerment."
My stomach sinks. Behind me, Valerius's pen moves across parchment. I hate that I am aware of the scratch of his writing, the shift of his chair, the slow inhale he takes when Professor Vale mentions bond instability.
"Miss Starling." My heart jumps. Professor Vale looks directly at me. "Given your recent bond, perhaps you can answer. Why does the law hold both partners accountable for one partner's magical failure?"
The room waits. I feel Valerius behind me looking at the back of my head. I straighten. "Because the bond exists to stabilize both partners, not protect one from consequences."
Professor Vale's brows lift slightly. "Continue."
The answer comes from notes, from years of studying harder than everyone because theory is the only place I am not entirely useless.