Zakary’s shoulders slumped as he rubbed a hand over his face and groaned. “You did save my life.” He looked at the letter in my hand with uncertainty before his eyes rose to my face. “You really can’t read? You weren’t going to open it?”
I nodded fervently, trying to look earnest and trustworthy. “I do not want to turn into a giant fireball.”
He blew out a long breath. “My friends would say I’m a fool for letting myself get dragged into this—I could end up in trouble with the seekers myself…” He sighed. “But what am I going todo? Drag you down to their headquarters and hand you in while you still have a spear of wood sticking out of your arm from saving my life?”
I rose onto the balls of my feet, the kernel of hope unfurling inside me. I had gotten myself into a dangerous mess, but apparently I was going to slip out of it again by the thinnest of margins.
“Thank you! And you really don’t need to worry about me reading. I’m not doing any harm, I’m truly not.”
Zakary stepped close to me again, and for one unthinking moment I was conscious only of the warmth he sparked inside me. Then he stretched out his hand and snatched back the letter.
I gaped at him. “But you just said?—”
“I said I wouldn’t turn you in. But I also said we could all land in trouble for this. I’m not going to send you off to parade around the city with written words tucked in your shirt.”
My face flushed, this time with fear and anger. The school year wasn’t quite over, so there was still the slim possibility that a sealing ceremony would be announced before I was forced to graduate. But if I lost Teacher Wendell’s letter, he would never choose me. My last chance would be truly gone.
Zakary sighed, his eyes on my face. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it gets to its intended recipient. You wouldn’t be able to read it, but her name is on the outside.”
I stiffened. If I was going down, I would willingly take Teacher Wendell with me. He had wronged me terribly two years ago, and I was well aware he had continued to do so with every request for me to deliver a letter since. He had grown overconfident since coming into the Robarts’ sphere, convinced there was no chance anyone would discover his little shortcut.
But Faylee was another matter. She might be a Robart, but she wasn’t anything like Gina or my teacher. In fact, I already suspected Teacher Wendell had misjudged when he used me todeliver a letter to her. He had done so because he heard she was going to be at my birthday meal that night, but I didn’t think she was going to be happy about discovering he’d been using me as a messenger. Faylee was known for being blunt, and while she wouldn’t turn us in, neither would she spare either of our feelings when she upbraided us both for fools.
“Don’t worry,” Zakary said, apparently reading my reaction with ease. “It wasn’t Faylee who gave you the letter. As far as I’m aware, she’s done no wrong here. Yet. I would like a word with her, though.”
Despite the apparent reassurance of the start of his speech, his final line filled me with foreboding. But I also noted the way he said her name.
“You know Faylee?” I looked hopefully at him. Surely he wouldn’t want to bring any harm down on her if he knew her.
“In person, no. But everyone has heard of Faylee.”
I grinned. Faylee had been sealed in the first wave of ceremonies and had to be the most famous commonborn in Ardann—and she was my friend.
I wasn’t foolish enough to think it was due to any great virtue on my part. I had always known the young woman offered me her mentorship because she knew the truth of what her family had done to me. Unlike other Robarts, she was ashamed of their family’s dishonest dealing. But now that we had gotten to know each other, I sometimes thought she genuinely liked me and didn’t only offer friendship out of obligation.
“I’ll see the letter safely where it belongs.” Zakary stowed it in one of his endless internal pockets.
I watched it disappear with reluctance, but I was exceedingly fortunate if I escaped this lightly. If Zakary was true to his word, I only had to dread what Faylee would say to me after his visit. Would she be disgusted enough to drop our connection as Gina had once done?
The thought brought me pain—especially since it would be a result of my own foolish choices if she did. I shouldn’t have let my dreams lead me into such risky action.
“I need to get home,” I said shakily, expecting Zakary to protest again.
He didn’t.
Swallowing, I murmured a final thank you and hurried out into the street, cradling my injured arm against my chest. The discovery of the letter had changed his attitude toward me completely, but I had no right to feel disappointed after what he had discovered.
Of course, if I’d been sealed two years ago, everything would have been different. I could have carried as many letters as I wished openly and with pride. And Zakary wouldn’t have looked at me as if?—
I broke off my thoughts with a shaky laugh, turning into my street with a shake of my head. The blood loss—minor as it was—must have been affecting me after all. Sealed or not made little difference. Zakary was a mage, and even a minor mage was on an entirely different social level from a commonborn. He had been grateful to me for saving his life, but his interest ended there and my circumstances had nothing to do with it.
A lancing pain hit me as I hurried through my front door, making me stumble. More pain followed in its wake until I was awash with it.
Zakary’s pain relief composition had run out of power, just as he had feared. Workings like that were usually designed to cover the short time that it took to diagnose the issue and work a proper healing composition, as Zakary had done for himself.
“Aria!” My second oldest brother appeared in front of me, his cry sharp and concerned.
I tried to tell him I was all right, but my knees buckled under the onslaught of pain. Harvey caught me before I fell, lifting me into his arms with unusual gentleness.
