Chapter 8 #2
“These sessions are closed to spectators,” he said instead. He gestured to the other guard. “Both of you, leave us.”
“Yes, Your Royal Highness.” The guard bobbed his head and the pair of them marched toward the castle.
“And you.” The prince pointed a long finger in my direction. “My time is valuable. I don’t care how far away your chambers are or how little you know the grounds despite having lived here for however many years. You are not to be late. Don’t let it happen again.”
I swallowed. “I won’t.”
“Now then—” he leaned back in his chair, eyeing me like a feral cat deciding whether to play with its prey or kill it outright “—do you know why you’re here?”
I paused. It seemed like an odd question. “The King wants me to train before I join his council.”
He rolled his eyes. “You are here because an ignorant witch at court is a liability.”
I dug my nails into my palms. “That’s not how he put it.”
He smirked. “Ever the politician, His Majesty. Now, I have little faith in your talents, but my brother is convinced that you have potential. Not that there’s a long list of alternative candidates.”
I bit back the insults at the tip of my tongue, reminding myself that it was unwise to make an enemy out of the Prince of Valen.
“I don’t imagine that this experience will be pleasant for either of us,” he continued, “and it’s certainly well beneath the time and energy of someone with my talents, but I digress. ”
My eyes narrowed.
“So I’ll say this now,” he continued. “At the King’s insistence, I have only half a year to forge you into a master witch.
Most people need years of training. So if you have a problem with my methods, you are welcome to scurry back beneath the castle and resume your life as a chambermaid.
Otherwise, you will follow my every instruction. Understood?”
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, Your Royal Highness.”
A beat passed between us. “Fine then,” he said, as if satisfied. “Sit down.”
I slipped wordlessly into a cold stone chair, my only cushion the thick wool of my cloak. He lounged back in the chair across from me as if it was stuffed with down. “We’ll begin with the basics,” he said. “Are you familiar with the Aminatan tenets?”
I shook my head.
“Aminata was an ancient scholar renowned for her research into the arcane arts, and one of the founders of Hollybrook,” he replied, his tone curt.
“She defined three main tenets of magic, namely the psychal, elemental, and corporeal. Psychal, otherwise known as mind magic, is going to be the most useful when operating within the court. It can be used both defensively and offensively, allowing the wielder to sift through their target’s thoughts and memories and, if you’re powerful enough, to manipulate. ”
I grimaced. It sounded unpleasant.
“More importantly, it will allow you to guard yourself and the wisdom of the council against the King’s enemies. My brother tells me that you already have a rough understanding of how to read others’ thoughts and emotions, therefore psychal is where we’ll begin.”
The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. “If there are no more witches, then who exactly am I learning to guard myself against?”
“There are no other witches that we know of,” he corrected. “That doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. More immediately, though, it’s the vampires I’m training you against.”
“Vampires?”
“Sharp teeth, fatally attractive … Ring a bell?”
I scowled. “Partially.”
“Well, vampires wield some of the same magic as witches. Although we’re mainly limited to the psychal and transmutation.”
“Transmutation?”
“Shapeshifting.”
I bit my tongue, my mind brimming with about a thousand more questions.
“As I said, we’ll begin with psychal. Let’s start with a simple exercise,” he said. “To test your abilities.”
I didn’t like the idea of him testing me on anything.
“I’ll try to invade your mind,” he continued, “and you’ll try to keep me out.”
“I don’t know how,” I protested.
“Try,” he insisted. “You’re a novice, sure, but I’m hoping this will kickstart your natural instincts.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “And if it doesn’t?”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “Then we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
He leaned forward, his green eyes twinkling.
It was alarmingly intimate, and yet, I found that I couldn’t look away.
In fact, the more I stared at him, the less uncomfortable it made me feel.
My fingers twitched as a chill seeped into my veins.
It felt as if I had slipped beneath the surface of an alpine lake in the heat of summer.
A voice tickled my ears. A beautiful voice. “Tell me something,” purred the prince.
“Anything,” I replied, my voice feeble.
“Tell me about the first time you met the King.”
I cocked my head, thinking.
“Quickly,” he coaxed.
I couldn’t disappoint him. An image of Mordric appeared before me, as if I had stepped backward into my own past, and the evening chill gave way to the gentle heat of the fireplace.
Mordric sat in an armchair, his elegant fingers paused between the worn pages of a book.
His handsome features were wide with surprise. “He was reading in the library.”
“And what were you doing there?”
I hesitated, the clatter of a broom hitting the floor echoing in my ears. “Going about my chores.”
“No,” he said. My heart thudded in my chest. “What were you really doing there?”
My voice came out in a whisper. “Practicing magic.”
“Where did you learn that magic?”
“From a book. A book that I stole.” I clapped a hand to my lips, but it wasn’t enough to stifle the words that came pouring out of me in a steady stream.
“I’ve stolen countless books from his library over the last few years.
I know that it’s wrong, but if I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t know half the magic I know now. And I always put them back.”
“I see,” said the prince. “Then you must report to the Captain of the Guard immediately and confess your crimes.”
I stood so quickly that I upset the stack of books piled before me. The sound as they thumped against the flagstones startled me and the courtyard swam around me, easing Enhart’s grip on my mind for the slightest moment before the veil fell again and I was back in the library.
What was I doing? I faltered.
I gasped as a great weight was lifted—it felt as if a wyvern that had been sitting on the bridge of my nose had taken flight—and the world around me came into focus once again.
My breathing shallow, I braced myself against the table, the coarse stone grounding me.
The prince was silent. I blinked my eyes open once my surroundings finally stopped spinning. “What was that?”
“That was nothing,” he said coolly.
“You made me feel …” I hesitated. “Strange.”
“What I made you feel would pale in comparison compared to what an enemy of the realm would do to you.”
His words sent a chill down my spine.
He sighed. “I have to say, I’m disappointed.”
My cheeks burned. “I know that I shouldn’t have stolen.”
To my surprise, the corners of his lips turned upwards for a fraction of a second. “I don’t care about the books, and I doubt anyone else does either. It is a library, after all. I’m disappointed in your lack of skill.”
“Oh,” I said, torn between relief and frustration. “I told you I didn’t know how to do this.”
“Well, it was easy enough for me to master. And I was far younger than you at the time. I loathe Valnar so I was hoping that this wouldn’t be a long engagement, but alas.
” A breeze rustled the edges of his inky black hair as he sat there silently, his expression bored. “Now prepare yourself. We go again.”