He continued to watch me with concerned eyes. “I heard about the arrest. I thought…” He hesitated. “No one’s going to fail the Academy this year, and you’ve just turned eighteen, sothis sealing was a last-minute chance for you. I thought you’d be so excited.”
My shoulders slumped. “My mother was worried I wouldn’t rest after the healing.”
“I can’t imagine why,” he murmured, but he said the words quietly, his eyes still showing concern.
“So she worked a second composition and forced me to sleep. For four days. I missed the final test.”
“You slept for four days!?” His eyes widened. “From one composition? How much power did it have!?”
I shrugged uncomfortably. “My family thinks it must mean my body was in desperate need of rest.”
Zakary nodded slowly. “Just how hard have you been driving yourself studying? You must have been on the point of collapse if your body shut down so completely in response to the rest composition.”
“I only had to make it through one more week,” I said, a little of my fire returning. “And then I could have slept for a week straight. I would have had all summer to prepare for the university year starting.”
“You were planning to apply to the University?” A gleam of interest lit his eyes. But he must have realized I hadn’t been chosen for sealing after all because the spark sputtered and died. “So your teacher chose someone else?”
I nodded. “Byron is a Robart. If I’d come first in that test, I could have lodged an official complaint over not being chosen. There would have been a review. But as it is…”
“And you only needed healing because you saved me.” Zakary looked appalled, and my heart instantly contracted, my anger forgotten.
“It wasn’t your fault you were attacked,” I said quickly. “If anyone is to blame for this mess, it’s those thieves who thought they’d try their hand at being copycat murderers.” Freshindignation filled me. “I just wish I’d recognized one of them. I would love to hand them over to the Reds.”
Zakary’s eyes slid away from mine, discomfort filling his face, although I couldn’t imagine what had caused it.
“I need to go,” he murmured, and my own face fell. I didn’t try to stop him, though. How could I? I had no reason to keep him.
But as I watched him disappear down the street, his pace fast, my mood once again plummeted. At our first meeting, he had discovered me with illicit writing, and at our second, I had used him as the target for all the anger, frustration, and disappointment whirling inside me. Was it any wonder that he couldn’t get away fast enough?
It wasn’t until I was lying in bed that night that it occurred to me to wonder what he had been doing wandering around the lower city so soon after being attacked—and dressed, once again, like a commonborn. Was he asking to run into trouble?
Sighing, I rolled over and told myself that Zakary’s mysteries had nothing to do with me. I wasn’t likely to ever see him again.
CHAPTER 5
The next day I didn’t leave my house. I told myself it was because I wanted to rest, but if I was honest, I didn’t want to find myself scanning the streets for Zakary’s absent face. Seeing him practically run from me had brought the reality of my future crashing in. I had hoped to win myself a position of value—to become someone like Faylee who was respected everywhere she went. But I would have to find a new, simpler dream now.
But while I could avoid the streets, I couldn’t avoid my family. They all gathered for the evening meal except Anson, and the concerned looks my mother kept sending in my direction weren’t as surreptitious as she thought.
“It’s been too long since we did a day trip out of the city,” Harvey announced suddenly. “I thought we could all go tomorrow.”
“What?” Timothy protested. “But the Shrouded Mage is being sealed tomorrow! I heard they’re going to march him through the streets to the sealing ceremony, and my friends are all planning to go watch.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Ellis exclaimed. “The Reds would never do that. What if he escaped?”
Timothy scoffed and began a hot reply, but Harvey cut him off with a significant look toward me.
“Oh. Yeah…” Timothy and Ellis exchanged uncomfortable looks and focused on their half-empty plates of food.
“I thought we could take a picnic down to the river,” Harvey continued as if they hadn’t interrupted.
I sighed loudly. “You can’t all be tiptoeing around me forever. And I’m not going to spontaneously combust if I’m inside the city walls when the sealing ceremony takes place.”
I managed a grin. “Although I do appreciate the thought, Harvey. Even if Mother was definitely the one to come up with the idea and pressure you into making the suggestion.”
Ellis cackled. “Busted!”
“I’m so sorry, Aria.” Tears clogged my mother’s voice. “I never dreamed this would happen.”
