I walked slowly down the street, in no hurry to arrive home and face my family’s eager questions. I had no hope of mustering the expected enthusiasm, and my mother would hound me to know why. Not that I meant to tell them the truth. I couldn’t even imagine how they would react.
A figure stepped abruptly in front of me, blocking my way so suddenly that I collided with his chest. I bounced back, the words of protest on my lips dying as soon as I got a look at the face in front of me.
Zak grinned down at me. “You’re starting to make a habit of that.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but I didn’t even know where to start.
“What are you doing?” I finally asked, my voice heavy with weariness. “Have you been following me? Wasn’t I clear enough this morning?”
“Crystal clear.” His eyes twinkled at me. “While we’re inside the University, I’m a mage and you’re a commonborn, and we don’t cross paths.” He gestured around us, grinning. “But we’re not in the University.”
I groaned. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“Perhaps so, but I meant what I said too.” His voice turned serious. “I won’t let you turn away from us because you’re afraid. Especially not if your fear is for me. I’ve already decided the best thing for my future, and it’s you.”
His certainty robbed me of words. How could he be so sure?
Someone brushed past us, the sack over his shoulder whacking against my side. Zak frowned after the man, his arm reaching out in a protective fashion to hover beside me.
“Come down here. We can’t talk in the street like this.” He ushered me into the closest alleyway.
“There’s nothing left to talk about,” I said, but the words lacked conviction, even in my own ears, and I didn’t step past him to return to the street.
“We don’t have to talk about us,” he said cheerily. “We can talk about your first day if you prefer. Did you enjoy your classes? Did you see the library?”
“I wasn’t in the right mood for it,” I said shortly.
A brief shadow crossed his eyes, but he quickly smiled. “Does that mean there’s still a chance I can be the one to show it to you?”
I couldn’t help the small smile that crept up my face. He was irrepressible.
A shadow fell across him from behind, obscuring much of the light. I peered over his shoulder, taking an instinctive step back from the enormous man who blocked the mouth of the alley. He didn’t speak, but I thought his hands moved, although it was hard to see what he was doing with Zak standing between us.
Zak frowned, and I expected him to turn to follow my gaze, but my ears caught a faint tearing sound and Zak’s eyes widened. He remained in place, making no attempt to turn, despite the increasing terror on my face.
“I heard you’ve been looking for me,” the man said in a low, hissing voice. “You may regret finding me.”
The man strolled forward into the alley, and still Zak didn’t move. Comprehension finally hit me. The tearing I had heard had been the attacker working a composition—one that must have been designed to hold Zak in place.
A terrible certainty came over me. Was this the way he had incapacitated his previous victims? According to the rumors, none of the victims had shown any sign of defensive wounds.
I screamed, the sound ripped from my throat, but no one came running, the noise apparently lost in the rumble of South Road. The Shrouded Mage turned to me, though, lowering the hood of his robe. I braced myself for the sight of his face, but it was covered in layers of material, leaving only his eyes showing.
“Commonborn,” he said in a tone of dismissal that sent a shiver from my head to my toes.
The single word carried a wealth of meaning. It wasn’t just an assessment of my lack of power in the situation. This sinister man saw me as less than human—a bug that he would grind beneath his boot merely because it crossed his path.
He turned back to Zak, speaking in a conversational tone that was somehow even more chilling than his previous words. “I wondered if I would be able to do it when the time came. Murder is no small thing. But now that I’m here, I can see how easy it will be.”
I swallowed. His words did nothing to dissuade me about his identity—rather, they confirmed my earlier impression. He didn’t consider any of his previous killings to be murder. To the Shrouded Mage, killing Zak—a mageborn—would be his first.
Zak’s frantic eyes were fixed on me, and I knew with an equal certainty that all his fear was for me. He had promised to protect me, but we had been caught by surprise, and all his compositions were useless if he couldn’t use his arms.
Just as had happened at our first meeting. The memory of that occasion flashed into my mind with perfect clarity, and I knew what I had to do.
I had been backing slowly away from our attacker, moving further down the alley, but without pausing to consider, Ichanged course. Throwing myself forward at full speed, I sprinted the few steps toward Zak.
I didn’t try to slow myself as I approached him. Throwing my arms around him, I cushioned the back of his head as the full force of my speeding body hit him, sending us both flying backward onto the cobblestones.
