Oh. “Noted.”
Diana smiled.
Considering House Madero’s reputation, Phillip Dunwoody was lucky to have kept all of his limbs.
“Are you still considering?” Arabella asked.
“Yes.”
“What should I do next?”
“Talk to Lina. She will assign you a new case.”
“Okay!”
The call ended.
“What are you considering?” Diana asked him.
“She wants to go to Rice.”
Of all Texas’ colleges, Rice was the best when it came to magic education. It was private, had an excellent curriculum taught by nationally recognized scholars, and kept its enrollment very small. It was also local, which was a huge plus for Arabella.
“Why can’t she?” Diana asked.
“She doesn’t have the grades or the pedigree for it. Even with the Path to College, her chances are slim. She is not a bad kid, and the Baylors are a loving family. Unfortunately, they have their hands full. Once they figured out that she had control over her magic, they left her to her own devices. She is independent, level-headed, and sharply intelligent, but she gets bored easily. Her grades suffer as a result.”
“Independence isn’t a bad quality,” Diana said.
“Agreed. The problem isn’t her independence. The problem is their lack of supervision. I know what my sister made on her last history exam. I’m not sure the Baylors even know what subjects Arabella is taking. She is thirty hours into her internship with MII, and I doubt anyone has asked her what she is doing with her afternoons.”
Diana gazed into the distance, a contemplative look on her pretty face. “Sometimes being ignored is the better option.”
His interactions with Cornelius had convinced him that childhood in House Harrison wasn’t pleasant. Perhaps that was why Diana still didn’t have a partner. After all, the point of Primemarriages was all about children with the right genetic makeup. She would have to choose another animal mage, and the burden to find a connection would be doubled…
And he was in the weeds again. What was it about today? He needed to get back to the subject at hand.
“Rice is very selective,” Augustine said. “Low admission rate. Not only does that child want to go to Rice, but she wants to double major in Business Administration and AMT, Applied Magic Theory. She needs a letter of recommendation, and she identified me as the best sponsor. It’s the reason she started this internship in the first place.”
“Are you the best sponsor?” she asked.
“The dean of the AMT faculty is a family friend.”
“Do you think she can do it?”
“Absolutely.”
He passed another slow-moving vehicle. What was the point of getting on a state highway if you were going to sit at fifty-five?
“Then why not give her the recommendation?”
He grimaced. “Because she doesn’t have the foundation for it. The Baylors have been a House for five minutes, and the AMT faculty is a shark-infested whirlpool filled with multi-generation Primes. They will rip her apart. If I give her the recommendation, I will be assuming responsibility for her, which means I will need to actually mentor her. I don’t have the time, and I’m not sure I want to make the effort.”
He took the exit and merged onto Sam Houston Parkway heading east. It was time. Augustine inwardly let off the imaginary brakes that held his magic back. It flowed over him and Diana, filling the car, coalescing over them and the dog, and he shaped it in a single breath with practiced ease.
The pressure lessened, and he exhaled softly.
His body generated magic at an accelerated rate. If he wasn’t careful, it would erupt out of him like a geyser. Maintaining hisusual persona bled some of it out, but assuming a new identity was so much better.
