I nodded. “But he’ll need me close by all night. Mable is coming to help.”
“All right. Good night, Fallon,” he said and then stood, wearing a full grin.
“Night,” I told him and stood as well, stepping away from the bench and onto the street, unable to keep the smile from my own face.
I wore that grin the entire walk home. It felt good to be wanted, something I’d never had before, and I was going to enjoy it while it lasted, knowing eventually it would end. Ayden deserved so much more, but I would give him all I could during our time together.
SEVENTEEN
The next month passed in a blur of tutoring sessions with Ayden, working at Avis Apothecary, and learning to hone my magic. Ayden’s and my relationship was blossoming nicely. We spent every spare moment together, holding hands and smiling, but the urge to do more physically was an ever-present force in the room with us. Sometimes he would reach for me only to wince and retract his hand, looking crestfallen. He stared at my lips constantly and I ached to kiss him, but nothing could be done about it, so I tried to push it from my mind.
Now it was the morning of the midterms, and the Winter Belles Ball, and my father had healed well and was back at work. There was a crisp coldness to the air, and I’d just received a letter from Sorrel that the apples in the orchard had all been picked and I was missing Hipsie’s famous cider. I’d penned her back, telling her how well we were doing, and asked if she could come for a three-day visit anytime soon.
“I’m so nervous I could puke,” Eden announced when she met me at the front door.
I winced. “It’s notthatbig of a deal, is it?”
“Hah!” She laughed sarcastically in my face and Yanric took to the skies. “Easy for you to say. You aren’t hoping for a position in the queen’s Royal Army!”
“True.” I smiled. “Well, what happens if you totally bomb whatever they throw at us today?”
Eden stopped walking and looked at me with wide eyes. “I won’t make the brigade next year, which means I’ll never be considered for the queen’s Royal Army. I’ll be relegated to being a glorified security guard walking the streets of the East Side in the middle of the night to make sure there are no lost elderly people!” She huffed it all out in one big breath.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, E, that’s not going to happen. You’re one of the strongest pyros they’ve seen in ages. You told me so yourself.”
She swallowed hard. “Assuming I can show her that.”
Queen Solana. Watching over it all. That was not going to be fun for me.
We finished our walk to school, with Eden stuck in a sort of melancholy. I knew she wouldn’t feel better until she’d passed her midterms. I knew that I was required to attend this school for four years, so failing midterms wasn’t really a worry for me. They’d keep me anyway. I was stuck here, in a sense.
When we got to school there was an air of nervousness and stress throughout all the first years. The older students had their own testing going on, but it was the first-year midterms that held the most weight. It put us on a career path that I was told was pretty hard to move unless you really made strides in the next year. Master Clarke and Master Knight led all of the first years out to the giant training field. My stomach dropped when I saw that bleachers had been erected and were filled to the brim with families and onlookers.
I hated a crowd.
High above it all, a special shaded booth had been built where the queen sat alone, towering above the field thirty feet in the air. A tall wooden spiral staircase led up to her little lonely box and a guard stood just outside the door, an arrow nocked in his bow.
Were they afraid a student would hurt the queen? Interesting.
Eden followed my line of sight.
“Always be ready for an assassination,” Eden said cryptically, as if reciting some Royal Guard codex.
“All right, pyrotechnic students!” Master Knight bellowed, raising her arms into the air. “We have the honor of being first to test and display our powers for her majesty Queen Solana.”
The class erupted into applause, and I followed their motion, unsure what protocol was. I peered up to see the queen waving down at the class with a half-smile and I was reminded of what I’d heard in Avis’s shop. I couldn’t believe Avis was her secret half-sister, and even though Avis had warned me that the queen wouldn’t hesitate to harm me, I couldn’t help but feel bad for her.
She was up there all alone. No husband, no children, just a bunch of people who were forced to like her. It was a sad reality, really, one I would never want. One Ariyon would eventually have, or Ayden more likely, because he would live longer.
As if thinking of them conjured the princes, they passed by in full metal armor and stood at the base of the tower that held their aunt. They looked so regal wearing the royal battle costume of the Gilded City warriors.
Eden and I shared a look and both grinned.
Yep. They were pretty handsome; it was hard to deny that. And by the look on every girl’s face in the vicinity, they all agreed.
“Eden, you will be first,” Master Knight called, and Eden went stiff beside me.
“First?” Eden whispered and then gulped.
