A Trial of Sorcerers: Book One by Kova, Elise (universal ebook reader .txt) 📕

words were a cheap echo of Alyss’s, void of all substance.

“Exactly, family. And you know what family doesn’t do, Eira? Family doesn’t lie.” He took a step forward. “Family doesn’t challenge each other.” Another step. Her eyes were burning again. She desperately wanted to give in to the icy wind prickling her skin—allow it to coat her once more. “Family doesn’t attack each other.”

“I never attacked our parents,” she whispered.

He didn’t hear, or didn’t care. Marcus continued relentlessly on. “Family helps each other succeed rather than trying to tear each other down.”

“I just wanted—”

“You were selfish,” he snapped. Marcus loomed over her. “You didn’t think about me, or what I wanted. You didn’t think how important these trials may be to me.”

“And what about me?” Eira’s voice rose. “What about what I want? You don’t even care about Meru, or traveling, or the wide world. Maybe it’s you who should have stepped aside. You’d be rid of me at the very least. You’d all be rid of me, and think of how much happier that’d make everyone.” Maybe she should go and never come back.

“I’ve sacrificed so much to look after you!” he shouted, ignoring her self-deprecating remarks.

“I never asked you to!” she shouted right back. “You did that of your own volition.”

“Because I thought you were my sister!”

Thought.

You.

Were.

My.

Sister.

…Thought.

The words struck her down. They stole any strength she might have had. Eira backed away. Her ribs had been cracked open and her heart was exposed. She would bleed out before him.

“Go away, Marcus,” she whispered, clutching her chest. If she didn’t feel her heart beating, she would’ve suspected it had stopped entirely then and there.

His expression softened. “Eira, I didn’t mean… Look, I—”

“Go away!” she yelled with all her might. Eira didn’t care who heard. She didn’t care if threatening everyone’s precious front-runner cost her pin.

“You’re being unreasonable.”

“Stop.” Eira shook her head, straightening. The world was spinning. She felt like she was in a tide of black ink, spinning around a drain. But if she was going down, she would do it with her head held high. “Just…leave.”

“Maybe I should, before you attack me too,” Marcus grumbled and stomped down the ladder. Eira watched him go from the rooftop. When he stopped, a flutter of hope took over her that he might already try to mend this. But hope was fleeting, because then he said, “If you ever cared about me, you’ll drop out. If you want to prove you love me, and Mom, Dad, and the rest of our family, don’t compete in the next trial.”

With that, he left her alone.

Eira shrank, crouching into a ball and clutching her knees. He didn’t mean it. Not really. He’s hurting, too. He’s being stupid. She tried to reassure herself over and over and over again. But the words were hollow and they wouldn’t stick.

The crackle of ice diverted her attention. It was coating her once more.

Quickly shaking the frost from her shoulders, Eira descended and took the long way back to the Tower. She went first to her room, but stopped, staring at the nameplate that read:

EIRA LANDAN

“Well, that’s not really me, is it?” she murmured and wandered away.

Eira felt like a ghost—an unwanted creature, void of substance. There was no place for her here. Was there?

Her thoughts drifted like she did, as dark as the rooms she passed. The Tower was silent this late, save for a few apprentices hunched over textbooks in the library. Eira avoided them at all costs. If she was seen, then she was real. If she was real, then she could feel.

She didn’t want to exist.

So she went to a place that wasn’t supposed to exist.

Eira pushed open the secret door in the Waterrunner storeroom. She sidestepped around the barrel into the dark room and closed the door behind her. Breathing a sigh of relief—as if she had truly somehow escaped all the problems that hunted her—Eira lay out on the bed and closed her eyes.

Maybe she would fade away here. She wouldn’t worry about trying to sort through these messy feelings. And…the world would be fine without her…wouldn’t it? They’d be happier without her. It’d be simpler for them…

Something cold, and sharp, pressed into her neck right underneath her jaw. Eira’s eyes shot open. Standing over her was one of two elfin in all of Solaris—Ferro’s guard, Deneya. Her dark hair was tied back into a high bun. Her eyes shone in the moonlight. And she held a dagger to Eira’s throat.

“We need to have a talk, you and I,” Deneya nearly purred. Eira opened her mouth but was interrupted by, “Tell me…what is your relationship with the Pirate Queen, Adela Lagmir?”

17

Adela Lagmir, the infamous pirate queen. Eira had grown up with the lore and whispered stories of her. But she’d never heard the name more than in the past day.

Narrowing her eyes, Eira pushed her magic outward. A sheet of ice grew underneath the tip of the dagger, coating her neck and chest, pushing the blade away. Deneya stepped back nonchalantly, letting Eira swing her legs off the side of the bed and sit. Frost clouded the air off her body in waves.

“Don’t look at me with murderous intent. If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead.” Deneya cast aside the dagger. However, it didn’t clatter to the floor as a normal dagger would. It fell through the air, unraveling into strands of light. Yet, Eira had felt it at her throat—solid and sharp.

“Mysst.”

“What?” Deneya tilted her head.

“That was mysst—Lightspinning to craft weapons and shields. Wasn’t it?” Eira’s attention drifted from the spot where the dagger had disappeared back to the woman who had been holding it.

Deneya tilted her head to the other side, as if Eira was a complicated book to be read. When she finished her assessment, she put her hands on her hips and let out a low humming noise.

“You’re not one of hers, then, are you?”

“Do you mean Adela Lagmir’s?” The name was