He was tall, much taller than I’d imagined. Whatever description Lo had given me hadn’t prepared me for this. Strong of frame, cut sharp as if stone itself had shaped him. His shoulder-cape draped like shadow, clasped with braided silver cord, swallowing the light. And his face—gods—his face was all edges and command. High cheekbones, a jaw set in iron, and eyes the color of lightning before it strikes. Ash-blond hair fell in loose waves, the kind that might have looked golden on another man, but on him caught the light like a warning.
There was no softness to him. No warmth. He looked carved for war, for storms, for a world harsher than this chamber could ever be. He wore black velvet cut close to his frame, silver embroidery tracing hard lines along the seams. His hand rested calmly on the hilt of a dagger—a dagger, here, in council—but I knew the steel was nothing compared to what he held inside.
If the rumors were true, the Court Wizard could smite a person to ash in less than a blink.
And it reached straight into me, stirring something dark. Something shameful. Delicious.
Kael Forloren was an excruciatingly handsome man.
I was still lost in him when I realized he was staring back. A brief, unreadable look, but enough to catch me in his gaze. And when he released me, the whole chamber felt emptier.
“Welcome, Magister Corvo,” he said as he sat. His voice resounded like thunder in my head.
It took me a breath to realize he meant me. I was Magister Corvo.
His voice was low, measured, yet it carried further than the walls. “Your first council. Hopefully, we make a good impression.” His gaze slid to Thalen, whose mouth tightened, then to Selena, who held his eyes with a defiance that looked practiced.
I didn’t know how to answer. I only smiled weakly and looked down.
Gods. Were all councils this suffocating?
The energyin the room shifted. Jorren’s smugness drained from his face. Thalen still looked stern, but now his words came slower, more measured. Isolde no longer needed to rattle the Code of Law to keep him in check. Even Selena’s soothing presence, subtle and precise, spread over the chamber like balm on a wound.
When Kael spoke, every voice fell silent. But the look in their eyes as he stilled them wasn’t admiration. It wasn’t obedience.
It was akin to fear.
As for me, my powers stirred. Each time his gaze brushed me, the air grew tighter, shadows clutching at my throat. If I faltered, if my calm cracked even once, an echo would tear me open here and now. The magisters already disliked one another; they would not hesitate to cast me out for losing control.
It took everything in me to hold the echoes back, to keep the box I’d built for them sealed. So much that I sat useless, adding nothing. And when the silence shifted, all eyes turned to me, expecting I might add something to whatever conversation had passed. I froze, lips parted, stupid, exposed.
I cleared my throat. “I have nothing to add,” I stammered, my voice brittle as cracked glass. “S—sorry.”
Why did I apologize? Gods. I cursed myself. They must have seen it. They must have thought the same thing.
Worthless.
“At least you will attend the Academy Ball, yes?” Selena asked suddenly. Of all things, a ball? I blinked.
“Thewhat?” The words escaped before I could catch them.
Could I make a greater fool of myself?
“The ball, darling,” Jorren cooed, savoring my awkwardness. “The one the entire academy is speaking of.”
I glanced at Lo. He narrowed his eyes, as if to ask how I could possibly have missed this.
“A revived tradition,” Selena explained, her voice calm, almost kind. “Now that the kingdom breathes again.”
I knew of the Academy Balls. They had filled the halls with chatter in the days before the plague. The last had been in my first year, though I hadn’t been invited. I must have been so consumed with my new post that I’d overlooked the news of its revival.
Gathering what courage I could, I lifted my chin. “I’ll be there.” I even managed a smile.
But my smile faltered the instant Kael’s eyes found mine. Cold, unblinking. His stare was an iron weight, undecipherable, until I thought I glimpsed something like disgust shadowing his face.
The chamber seemed to freeze with me. Then he looked away.
The assembly ended soon after. Kael dismissed us with a single word and swept out, the others rising in eerie unison, as if on strings. Lo snapped his book shut and hurried after him, already bound for the next council.
