Sabrina glared with cool hauteur. “I realize you don’t understand these things, silly Illy, else I’d be offended. But I know you can’t help being ignorant, coming from a distant branch of House Ariel. It’s no surprise that you think the council operates free of influence from the people who really matter.” She tutted mockingly down at Iliana. “Unless you plan to subject yourself to the Betrothal Trials—and let’s face it, who’s going to sign up to try for you?—then you give up any chance of random assignment.”
“Which is it?” Iliana lifted her chin. “Am I undesirable as a familiar or am I so desirable that you want me?”
“Your magic is tasty, it’s true,” Sabrina mused, then slid her gaze to Han. “But I think I’ve been clear about who I truly want, in my arcanium and in my bed. And my point is that the council does as my father tells them to do.”
“I’m sure the other Lords and Ladies of the High Houses would be interested to hear that tidbit,” Han snapped.
Sabrina waved that off as a matter of no concern, which spoke to her self-involvement that she didn’t give appropriate consideration to the position she just put her father in. Lord Hanneil wasn’t a popular figure for many reasons, but he was also far from the most powerful wizard in the Convocation. Other High House heads—notably Lord Elal, Lady El-Adrel, and Lady Hanneil—would absolutely take umbrage at the kind of influence Sabrina was implying.
“As Iliana pointed out already,” he said, seating himself again and turning his back on Sabrina, “this entire conversation is moot, as none of this is within our control, and besides which, we don’t know yet how I’ll be categorized.”
Sabrina leaned down on his side away from Iliana, her perfume a bit much at that proximity. “If you were going to manifest as a wizard, it would’ve happened a long time ago. You’re already a familiar and you’re already mine. The sooner you get used to the idea, the easier it will be on you.” She wrapped her hand around the long queue of his hair. “I look forward to cutting this myself, while you kneel at my feet,” she whispered in his ear.
Their dinners arrived and Sabrina straightened. “Happy Founders Day, you two. Prosperity through magic!” she chirped and sashayed off.
Iliana made a low, grinding sound, which hopefully wasn’t her teeth grinding together. “I hate her so much,” she spat out, stabbing at a piece of meat as if she wished it were Sabrina Hanneil’s liver.
“What happened to being able to work with anyone?” Unsettled by the encounter himself, he asked the sarcastic question without thinking it through—immediately regretting it when Iliana shot him a betrayed look, her big brown eyes wounded.
“Ididwork with her,” she replied with dignity, “despite my hatred. And I will again, if directed to. That’s precisely my point.” She went back to methodically eating her food.
“Iliana… I’m sorry.” He didn’t seem to be able to say anything right today. “It just makes me crazy to think of you being bonded to her. I won’t let it happen.”
Iliana lifted her head slowly and pinned him with the hardest look he’d ever seen in her eyes. “Don’t you dare,” she said softly. “Han, if you end up as a familiar and try to sacrifice yourself for me, I’ll never forgive you or myself. And if this is what drove you to make that offer from earlier, if this is why you’re thinking that you’d bond me as your familiar if you become a wizard, then I don’t want that either.”
“I thought we were at least friends,” he whispered, stricken. “If nothing else, don’t you care about me as a friend?”
She shook her head, then grimaced at whatever she saw in his face. “I mean, yes, I care about you. As a friend. You’re my best friend. And that can’t matter.”
“You’re wrong. Nothing matters more than friendship,” he returned hotly. “And what I feel for you is—”
“Irrelevant!” She cast a look over her shoulder at Sabrina’s cadre of wizards, who were laughing at some inside joke. “Our lives our not our own. That is,mylife is not my own and I’ve known that from the moment the oracle head confirmed what I’d always suspected—that I’m a familiar. My decisions stopped being my own at that moment, regardless of the illusion of freedom that being a student here, of being still unbonded, has given me.” When she met his gaze, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “It’s hard enough reconciling myself to a life of service, Han, without you tempting me with choices I don’t have.”
He was an ass. An utter and completely self-absorbed ass. Iliana always was the serene pillar of strength in his world and he’d cavalierly let her be that, never giving any thought to her struggles. She’d always seemed happy with her lot as a familiar. She never complained. She was…reconciled. “Iliana…” he said, searching for something to say.
She smiled, sadly, knotting her fingers in her lap. “It’s all right. You don’t have to say anything. I do lo—”
The student server plunked down two plates of ginger cake with brandy sauce. “You’re the lucky ones tonight,” he informed them with a grin. “Early batch of Convocation cake. Prosperity through magic!”
Iliana ignored the cake. “I do wish you the best,” she said, and Han was so sure she’d been about to say something else he wanted to smash that kid’s face in the cake. “I hope with all my heart that you’ll be a wizard and that you’ll never know this kind of powerlessness.”
“That’s why I’d want you to be my familiar,” he urged, “so I could give you a better life.”
She pushed away from the table. Away from him. “That’s just it, Han. I don’t want you to give me anything. It would be better for me if…” Shaking her head again, she rubbed her temples. “I’m too tired for this conversation. I’m going to bed.”
“You haven’t eaten your cake.”
“I’m stuffed. You have it.” Drumming up an obviously fake smile, she put a hand on his shoulder. “Extra cake for you, to sweeten an otherwise difficult day. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Though it heartened him that she at least planned to see him the following day, there was a finality to her expression that worried him. “Breakfast at the usual time?”
She’d already turned to go and glanced back. “Probably. But don’t wait for me if I’m not here. You can’t be late for Magic Theory again. Don’t make that face.” This time her smile was real. “You’ll be glad for that knowledge someday.”
Even though he was in the most advanced magic theory class there was for uncats, he still felt he’d learned everything there was to know until they could move him into the wizard or familiar advanced study tracks. Everyone in the class was at least two years younger than him, a lot of them much more. His father had even suggested Han come home until he manifested, then return to Convocation Academy for the final coursework. He wouldn’t be the first to do that, but it felt like giving up.
And he didn’t want to leave Iliana.
“Meet me for breakfast and I promise to be on time for class,” he ruthlessly bribed her, adding his most charming smile.
