He closed his eyes, taking a breath before opening them again. “Is it really doing much harm for me to wander around the lower city dressed like a commonborn?” He gave me his most charming look. “Especially if I have you with me. If the Shrouded Killer proved too much for me, I’m sure you would rescue me as easily as you did last time.”
I snorted, but I knew him well enough to know that he must have utter faith in his arsenal of compositions. He wouldn’t have put me at risk by walking around the city in my company otherwise. Although he was probably expecting that if the Shrouded Mage noticed him, he would attack later, when Zakwas alone. So far, the Shrouded Mage had always attacked lone victims, and always males.
Personally, I put more faith in the unlikeliness of the killer targeting Zak when he had so many potential victims. And that reassurance galvanized me into one of my occasional bouts of recklessness.
“As long as you only wander off well-used roads when you’re with me,” I declared.
I had been studying so relentlessly that I welcomed a small thrill in my days—even if it was only playing with danger and not truly taking any risks.
Zak laughed delightedly. “I think you might be the only person I know who would say that.”
“Careful, or you’ll convince me I’m being foolish,” I said with a warning look. “I’m already aware I should be joining the general chorus and telling you not to make yourself bait for a serial killer. You make me sound like the only friend who wishes you ill.”
Zak grinned. “You love me too. You know it.”
I coughed, turning quickly away from him. He had spoken without thinking, and I couldn’t let him see how much his words had affected me.
He jumped to his feet. “I’ll go get our things from our locker.”
He disappeared from the room, leaving me to my frantic recovery attempts.
CHAPTER 10
Ducking into every suspicious alley we saw turned out to be more fun than I was expecting. I didn’t think for a second that we would actually find the Shrouded Mage lurking down any of them. Privately I thought he’d ended his killing spree for good, taking the exit provided by his copycat. It galled me to think he might go free as a consequence, but I could only be glad for the continued absence of any new victims.
But despite the lack of any real danger, Zak and I crept around like intelligencers on a mission for our kingdom, and the camaraderie was heady. When Zak looked at me, a gleam in his eyes as he silently invited me to partner with him, I couldn’t help following him anywhere he went.
Summer was drawing to a close, however, and our days spent in the lower city would end with it. We were both bound for the University in autumn, and that meant various preparations were needed beyond our usual studies. Unlike the commonborn students, the mage students lived at the University for the years of their study, and Zak had more to do in preparation than me.
As the summer wound down, I had several days to myself, and without Zak to keep me company, I couldn’t bring myself to stay shut up in a study room. Instead, my feet drew me towardthe largest of the lower city’s markets—a bustling place that I usually avoided in favor of the quieter ones nearer home. When I was absorbed in study, I didn’t have the patience for navigating large crowds.
The noise of the market soon lifted my spirits, however, the energy of the place proving catching. I wandered between the stalls, admiring the wares and thinking about which food stalls I would have liked to patronize if I only had some coin in my pocket.
“Aria!” The unexpected voice set off a flood of emotion. Even after two years, I recognized it instantly.
I turned slowly to face Gina. She pushed through the crowd toward me, her face alight.
She looked just as she always had—the tight curls of her dark hair springing wildly in all directions. The fine material and elegant cut of her dress were at odds with the crooked way she wore it, as if she’d pulled it on in a rush and not taken time to look in a mirror. The familiarity of the details made my stomach clench.
She was still the same Gina. And yet the Gina I had known would never have betrayed me.
She hurried the final steps to stand in front of me, her smile faltering as she took in my expression. Hesitating, she glanced at the crowd around us, frowning as someone bumped her, making her stumble closer to me.
“Come on! Over here!” Grasping my wrist, she pulled me between two stalls, moving us out of the flow of the market crowd.
My feet followed reluctantly, although I could have easily pulled free. Hurt pulsed inside me, but even stronger was the desire to look her in the face and ask her why she had done it.
“Aria, I just heard the news!” she cried as soon as she came to a stop. “You’ve been sealed!”
She looked so genuinely delighted that I didn’t know what to say. Had it really taken her all summer to hear?
“I just got back from the Sekali Empire yesterday,” she added, clearing up that question.
The information didn’t do anything to assuage my resentment, however. Gina was a Robart and had already been sealed for two years, so of course she had been given the opportunity to travel to the Empire with Faylee. Being sealed in my place had opened up a lifetime of possibilities for her.
“How fortunate for you,” I said stiffly. “It must have been an incredible experience.”
“Yes, yes, but never mind that!” she said in her old breathless style. “I was furious when I heard Byron managed to get himself sealed—he’s a worse student than me and I was never top of the class—but then someone said you’d been sealed as well.”
