CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Humidity lingered despite the cool midnight chill, remnants of the midsummer heat sending a bead of sweat down my neck.
I breathed in the thick, heavy air as I made my way to the pond, weaving through a few tall hedges that hid us from the windows on the palace’s backside.
Our little spot’s seclusion had always drawn me to it; perhaps that’s what had drawn Prince Thomas to it, too.
And although his presence turned the peacefulness of the pond into a place of frustration, I couldn’t deny the strange desire within me to return again and again, to listen to his condescending lectures, to try my hardest for his approval.
He was my last chance of freedom from my mundane life, from the shackles of my class, even if I disliked him.
At least Caleb was tolerable.
I nodded to Caleb as I passed him.
“Good luck tonight,” he whispered, and I smiled in return.
Maybe Caleb was more than tolerable. Come to think of it, he wouldn’t make a bad friend.
Prince Thomas, on the other hand, stood in front of the pond. My steps slowed as I realized the water was churning as if an invisible hand stirred it, the waters swirling like a whirlpool.
“I hope you haven’t killed all the fish.”
“There haven’t been fish in here for years,” he said, then paused at the sight of my face. “You were joking.”
I covered a laugh with my hand. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Enough with the honorifics. I’ll be Master Thom to you.”
At that, I broke into a full laugh. “Yes, how casual.”
He blinked. “You are my pupil.”
I schooled my features and nodded, then dipped my head in a dramatic curtsey. “Yes, your most fastidious, glorious Grand Mage, you.”
He rolled his eyes, but a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “I’m not Grand Mage yet. Please don’t say that publicly.”
“My Papa would roll over in his grave to see me talking to a royal like this.”
“I’m sorry to hear he has passed. I’m also sorry to hear he hated us.”
“He didn’t hate your family.” I paused. “He really didn’t. But he hated the walls around your world, your castle perched on the hill, overlooking the rest of us. No commoner could ever reach the other side. It’s impenetrable. The distance is too wide.”
“Well, you made it through,” Thom said.
I narrowed my eyes. “I…” I lived in the castle, but as a servant. A huge difference between him and me. “Is that what you would say to another chambermaid who crossed the line between us?”
He stilled, and for a beat, only cicada chirps resounded. The ghost of Ella’s presence stretched between us, sending a shiver through me.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” he said. “I know Teddy’s looking for her.”
I crossed my arms, unwilling to give him a response. Unwilling to admit I had eavesdropped, that I knew he wasn’t truly sorry about Ella’s heartbreak.
“We are all born into responsibilities we do not choose.” His voice was rote. “It is not our job to challenge them-”
“Yes it is,” I snapped. “It is our 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’ve decided?”
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.”
“But you are here, Caleb. What is so funny?”
Caleb took a deep breath. “I must check the perimeter.” He adjusted the sword at his side, then ducked around the nearest hedge, his footsteps retreating into the distance.
“Come back here! That’s an order!” Thom cried. I narrowed my eyes, but in the starlight, humour danced in his expression.
Thom seemed to notice my curiosity. “When no one’s around, Caleb is often ordering me around more than I’m ordering him.”
I laughed in surprise. “A prince taking orders from a servant?”
He scratched his neck. “I understand what you must think of us,” he said. “And after hearing your spiel, I think it might even be justified in many ways.”
I searched his face for the pride I’d come to expect, but his expression was open, his eyes steady and unflinching.
“I have my own concerns about the peers of my class. And knowing the concerns of yours…” He tilted his head. “You’ve given me much food for thought. I don’t want to underestimate a woman like you.”
He smiled.
My cheeks warmed from the unexpected attention. “Who would have thought you’d be learning from me already?”
“Who would have thought,” he echoed.
I took in the strong line of his nose. The stubble on his cheeks. His narrow chin. I took in the way his eyes locked on mine.
My pulse quickened.
“Try the water trick again,” he commanded.
And just like that, the turmoil that had been raging inside me settled quietly, like it’d never existed at all.
And it hadn’t, I told myself. I was confused, and nothing more.
I hated him, after all. I needed to—he was everything I despised about the upper class.
Wasn’t he?