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

interests in mind, and he needs to marry of a particular station.” Which you are not, hovered in the air, unsaid.

“Cullen is my friend,” Eira said flatly. “I’m not interested in him in any other way.”

“Good. We have an understanding then.”

They passed the open doors to court and, from the corners of her eyes, Eira saw Cullen storming off toward the castle. She stopped. “I have to go.”

“Pardon?”

“Excuse me. And, uh, it was lovely to talk with you.” Eira gave a nod of her head and hiked her skirts before starting down the gravel paths of the gardens. On her way to where Cullen had run off to, she passed by Yemir. He cast her a wary glance, one Eira returned.

There would never be friendliness between them. Eira was certain of that.

A whisper in a familiar voice had her slowing to a stop. She glanced between a nearby bench and where Cullen had gone off to. She shouldn’t eavesdrop, even after the fact, but…

Eira looked to the bench, reaching out with her magic. If it didn’t snag on anything, she’d go. But if it did—

You’re being unreasonable. Cullen’s voice resonated through the tether.

The girl is a political liability at best and outright dangerous at worst. Yemir was talking about her.

She’s neither of those things.

She can find out about you, us, your past.

Maybe we should stop trying to hide it?

What you suggest goes against the empress’s wishes and the good of Windwalkers everywhere, Yemir snapped. Stop this insistence otherwise and do as I say. We will find you a suitable wife and you will marry on your return as the victor of the tournament. The city will be so enraptured with you that it will be the perfect time to make your bid for the senate. Your life has a plan.

I don’t want your plan, Father.

I’m only looking out for your best interests.

What if I want to decide, just once, what my best interests are? So much pain lived in Cullen’s question. Pain Eira could share keenly.

You are a child. You can’t be trusted to know what that is. Cut your ties with her and proceed as we planned—her brother will be your Waterrunner counterpart. Let me handle her. She’s more of a liability than you know.

And if I don’t do as you ask? Cullen dared to ask.

Don’t test me, son.

The sensation of eyes staring at her drew Eira back to the present. She looked over her shoulder, back toward the court, to see Yemir and Patrice staring her down. She knew how she must’ve looked, focused intently on the bench. Eira swallowed her discomfort and continued on after Cullen, her head held high—even though it felt as though they were trying to cut her down with every step.

Once inside, she didn’t have to look far to find Cullen. He sat, hunched, on a bench framed by two suits of armor. He didn’t even look up to confirm it was her as Eira sat next to him.

“I know,” he said softly. Eira had never heard him sound so vulnerable. “I know, you will tell me to be grateful that I know who my parents are. That I didn’t have them keep a profound secret from me. That what I’m enduring isn’t that bad.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything of the like,” Eira said, equally softly. “What did you tell me that day? I’m not the only one with family problems?”

He gave a raspy chuckle. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into it. I fear I might have made things worse for you. My father is not a bad man…but he can be misguided in how he determines the path forward, especially when it comes to me.”

“I can handle myself.”

“So you’re proving.” Cullen finally looked at her. “Thank you, Eira. Having you here today…” He rested his hand on hers. His fingers curled around her palm. “I find your presence calming. As if, out of everyone, I’ve finally found the one person I can trust. The one person who might understand.”

Eira stared at his hand holding hers. She had to fight the urge to take his fingers. “I want you to trust me,” she admitted to both herself and him in that moment. “But you can’t, if I’m not completely honest with you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I heard.” Eira slowly dragged her eyes from his hand, up his arm, to his face. “I heard the traces of your conversation with your father.” His eyes widened. “And before that I heard a whisper of you in the Windwalkers’ study.”

“You…you were spying on me?” he breathed.

“No, not at all!”

“Did someone put you up to it?” His grip tightened around hers, popping her knuckles. “Was it to take me down? Or my father?”

“The first time was an accident. Just now…well, I listened. But only for a little.” Cullen stood, as though she’d burned him. “Cullen, please, I was worried about you was all. Given how you and your father looked…”

“What do you know?” He refused to look at her when he posed his question.

“That you have a secret. That’s all. I have no idea what it is,” Eira said reassuringly.

“It’s only a matter of time until you do,” he murmured. “My father was right.” Nothing could’ve prepared her for how deeply those words wounded. “With that gift—that curse of yours, no one is safe.” Cullen looked over his shoulder with a wary stare. In one expression he encompassed the voice of everyone who had teased, belittled, or hurt her over the years.

Her uncle had been right about how others would see her magic. And she hated him even more for it. She hated the whole world in that moment.

“Sometimes, I just hear things.” Eira stood, stepping toward him as he walked away. “I don’t mean to. Usually I try and stop it but—”

“Don’t follow me.” Cullen’s voice was a stranger’s. No, she knew it. It was the voice of the indifferent apprentice, the Prince of the Tower, lording above her once more. Distant and unreachable. “I’m