“Neither do I,” he said with exaggerated sadness. “Maybe, as my official tutor, you could drop a word in my parents’ ears?”
My amusement instantly dropped away. His parents didn’t want to hear anything I had to say, especially where their son was concerned.
Zak’s eyes also clouded for a brief moment, but he quickly turned the subject and soon had me laughing again. Somehow he always managed to do that, no matter how tired I was or how frustrated at my progress. And in all the hours we studied together, he also got lost sometimes in our camaraderie and forgot who I really was.
The first time I managed to read a whole sentence without faltering, I jumped to my feet in triumph. Zak whooped, leaping to his feet as well and seizing me. He swung me around in a wide circle, knocking over at least two chairs.
I grinned at him, giddy with triumph, until awareness of our position crashed over me. His hold was little different from an embrace. As soon as my face froze, realization hit him as well, and he must have remembered I wasn’t one of his Academy friends. He dropped me, stepping back and clearing his throat awkwardly.
“It’s a start,” I said quickly, trying to be the one to cover over the awkwardness for once. Had he noticed the flush in my cheeks? “But I’m going to need to read much more complicated words at the University.”
“Sadly, that’s true.” He stooped to pick up the fallen chairs, hiding his face in the process. “But I have full confidence in you. Given the pace you’ve been learning so far, I’m convinced there’s nothing you couldn’t achieve if you put your mind to it.”
I smiled, but my heart wasn’t in it. It didn’t matter how hard I tried or how much I achieved, I could never make myself into a mage. Only bloodlines could do that. And without the ability to control power, I could never be more than tutor and student—or at a stretch, friend—with a mage.
But times are changing,whispered an insidious voice in my mind.The Spoken Mage has changed everything.
I tried to ignore the alluring words, but sometimes when I lay awake in the darkness, I couldn’t help turning them over in my mind. The gap between the sealed among the commonborns and the minor mages was closing. Everyone said so, even if they said it in whispers.
The changes had little effect on the great families—the powerful members of Devoras, Stantorn, Callinos, and even the Ellingtons—but it was different for the minor mage families. You only had to look at the power of commonborn families like the Robarts—and they’d never had a mage among them.
Maybe…just maybe, I wasn’t imagining the warmth in Zak’s eyes when they rested on me. Maybe he didn’t look at me and see nothing but a commonborn.
But the minor mage families weren’t happy about the changes happening in Ardann. They had the most to lose in this new social order, and Zak had already shown that he wouldn’t go against his parents’ wishes on matters of significance.
So, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter how Zak saw me. There was still an insuperable barrier between us.
CHAPTER 9
Ihad grown so used to Zak and my routine that I had forgotten the danger of discovery by my family. So it took me entirely by surprise when I stepped out of the kitchen one morning and found my second oldest brother leaning against the wall of the alley beside our house, arms crossed. I took one look at his face and knew he was waiting for me and he wasn’t happy. But for one blank moment, I couldn’t think why.
“I saw you in the market yesterday,” he said, not relaxing his posture. “With yourtutor.”
My cheeks instantly betrayed me with a flush, and his face tightened. “Yes, exactly.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said, rallying. “Zakaryismy tutor.”
“That may be,” Anson said. “But he also attracted the attention of every woman below thirty who caught sight of him.”
I managed a laugh. “Now I see why you’re looking so sour. Did he distract your latest flirt?”
He straightened, his arms dropping, but he looked sad rather than annoyed. “I saw the way you looked at him, too.”
My flush deepened, but I managed to speak with dignity. “We’ve been working together for weeks and weeks now. Of course we’ve become friends. It’s just what Mother was hoping for.”
“Mother is not hoping that you get your heart broken,” he said. “Because you know that’s what’s going to happen, Aria. He’s amage.”
My chest tightened, but I couldn’t bring myself to dispute any part of what he’d said. I clenched my teeth together, my shoulders slumping.
“I know,” I said softly. “And it’s true that I have eyes, the same as all those other girls. But that’s all it is, I swear. I’m well aware that Zakary and I will only ever be friends.”
“And maybe not even that once you’re both at the University.” Anson’s words held a heavy warning. “It’s one thing for him to slum it with you in the lower city during the summer. But he’ll sing a different tune when he’s only yards from the palace with his mage friends around him.”
I wanted to protest that Zak wasn’t like that. Obviously we’d see less of each other once the university year started, but he wouldn’t completely abandon me either. I couldn’t be entirely sure of that, though. Not when he kept ducking off our path at odd moments. And even if I was sure, the claim wouldn’t do anything to reassure Anson.
“You haven’t said anything to Mother, have you?” I asked sharply, a fresh worry hitting me.
“Do I need to?” His eyes rested heavily on my face.
