A small sob escaped Arabella as she reached for Seren’s balled hand. “Have I changed so much? Am I not the same sister who loved you,savedyou?”
Seren stiffened as the memory of a day she would never forget cut through her mind like the sharpened edge of a blade borne of fear and ice.
A cold afternoon. Drums carried on the wind, beating in time with the Legion that marched its way into Little Ridge. The soldiers were war-worn, their armor gleamed but their faces held grime and scars from recent battle.
The Trinity War was finally over, and it hadn’t touched Little Ridge in the same way she’d heard it had other villages. Some were burned to the ground, laid to waste. Children, women, elderly… none were spared. The whispers of these horrors reached their small village and Seren had been having night terrors that they would come for them under a full moon.
Now here they were, real as the sunlight beating down on her. She scampered down the twisted elderwood tree in her front yard and ran deep into the heart of Myrkwyn Forest. It was blind, wild, running with no regard for the twigs that tore into her bare feet or the branches that ripped at her clothes. Her only thought was to get away. Far away before they burned Little Ridge to ashes, or stole all the children as a gang of boys in town so often promised, claiming that the Legion needed soldiers, too many had died in the war, so they would come for the young ones first… rip them away from their families to mold into warriors. And if you showed an affinity for magic, it would only be worse. That’s when the cave appeared.
Seren blinked, dragging herself away from the memory. “I don’t know what to think anymore, Bella. Your time at Calami has changed you. Two years ago, I would have laughed in the faces of those who dare throw such accusations at your feet, but that was before you abandoned me.”
“Why will you not understand, Renny? I made a choice anyone would have to provide for their family. The same choiceyoumade in leaving Mother behind. I–”
She watched Arabella bite her tongue, as if to stop herself, but then she pulled her hand from its perch atop Seren’s and stood with renewed determination.
"My whole life, Father told me I had to do the right thing. That you were counting on me. That it was my responsibility to keep you safe and set a perfect example. So I did, or at least I tried. And years went by, filled with me guiding you. Taking the brunt of villager torment. Shielding you from mother’s empty days and the weight of Father’s expectations. When he— when Father . . ." Arabella started gasping around the words, her tears flowing more readily.
"When Father died," Seren supplied. The sentence was plain, her voice hard as the stone of the tower around them, but inside her heart squeezed at her own words. An echoing pain flooded her chest.
Arabella nodded and sniffled, wiping her sleeve over each damp cheek. "I loved our family fiercely, Seren. Istilldo, though I won’t lie and say I accepted this opportunity at Calami to solely benefit you and Mother. I had to get away. I had to escape that grief, and once I got here, I realized, yes, I am good at this. Magic is a part of me, something that is my own. That I can control, but could also offer you and Mother a future better than the one we would have had if I’d stayed. Please,pleasetell me you understand. Isn’t that why you left, too? Left mother and the farm, and that whole damned village?” She pulled up short, breath coming heavy but quick. A hesitation flashed over her face. “I won’t insult you by denying the distance you feel, either. Seeing you, after being here for a year, taking time to heal. It was painfully shocking. A glaring reminder of all that I lost—”
“Just stop, Arabella.” Seren shifted back a fraction and a stomach-curdling heat roared inside of her. She didn’t want her sister’s excuses. No matter what she said, Bella would never understand the hurt. The pain and brokenness that her leaving had brought. She had needed her sister in those days, the darkest days of her life, and woken each one of them to an empty, cold house. “This isn’t aboutme.We’re talking about howyouhave changed,” she spat. “Regardless, you know Mother is being looked after by old Lady Bunce; that I came to an agreement with the hedge witch. Ineverwould have just left her alone.” She sucked in a rattling breath, and then let it hiss between her teeth, “And I won’t apologize forexisting. I’m sorry that I’m a walking reminder of your grief. Your misery. How difficult that must be foryou.” She bent to brush away a mess of curled dead leaves from her hem before standing.
Arabella’s shoulders softened, and she reached for Seren who jerked away. “Renny, that’s not what I meant . . . I–”
“Save your words.” Seren’s voice was made of venom and darkness. “I shouldn’t have come.”
She didn’t wait for Arabella’s response before stomping away, heart heavy with anger and hurt.
Chapter six
Seren Marudas
Serenfoundthelibraryall but abandoned in what was left of the afternoon’s free period, and thanked the gods for it. She pictured the surprise and hurt on Bella’s face, still fuming from their argument, but books were a safe place, her haven. Though she should have gone right to the section on Moon Magic, she opted for Magical Apparatus and scanned the shelves until she found a lone book on Pavor wands. It was pathetically thin, its dark cover cracked with age, the pages yellow and dog-eared, but it would have to do. She followed the maze of bookshelves before she reached the back where there was a set of soft chairs and a lounging chaise near a crackling fire. With a heavy sigh, she settled in and lost herself to everything the book had to offer.
“Miss Marudas.”
Seren jolted and blinked up. She’d been so immersed in the second to last chapter, she’d forgotten where she was. How much time had passed? An hour? Two? The library seemed to reform as the solid feel of the chair beneath her returned.
Hovering a polite distance away, stood Professor Icarus Atwood. The look on his face sent a strange pulse down her spine, that cool calculation, harboring intelligence that was almost intimidating.
She straightened, snapping the book closed. “Yes?”
“It’s a beautiful day. Most of your peers have found themselves lounging on the lawns, basking in what’s left of autumn’s good grace.”
It wasn’t a question, but the suspicion was there, unspoken between them.What are you doing in here?It seemed to whisper,why do you look so tellingly nervous?Her thoughts were flashing viciously back to the night before. To the dim light filtering into his office as she took what belonged to him for herself. An unfamiliar pulse of guilt stung her chest.
“My skin is too fair for the sun. And I’m not most students, I intend to spend my time here at Calami learning, not lounging.”
“Clearly.” His lips were a thin line, grim and stony as his gaze flicked down to the closed book in her lap.
Seren, realizing her mistake in drawing attention to it, stuffed it unceremoniously beneath her arm.
“However.” She cleared her throat and grappled for some semblance of a way to correct her misstep. “I know a dismissal when I hear one. I’ll be out of your way, Professor.” Quickly, she climbed to her feet, brushing back long strands of her black hair as she made to walk past him.
She got less than a step away when he whispered, almost as soft as the crackling of the hearth behind her, “Taken an interest in Pavor wands, have you?”
Seren cursed herself, closing her eyes for the briefest of seconds before throwing a stubborn look over her shoulder. “I have a wide variety of interests, Sir.”
