Page 15 of Elemental Affections

She alighted from the stairs, intent on exiting out the main door, but the sight of Ezzyn standing inside the doorway in conversation with another man brought her up short. The other man was talking, making wild gesticulations to emphasize a point in his story. Ezzyn laughed, a ray of sunlight filtering through the window and turning his hair white-gold.

He looked so … light, and it made Dae feel—

I can’t imagine your family sanctioned this endeavor.

Dae was sick of being seen merely as an extension of the Helm name. Sylveren was the place to make something of herself, independent of anyone else, so that none could claim she’d only managed it with help. Her Adept One in her first year of study, that was her goal, her focus. She didn’t have time for the kind of trouble a prince would bring.

Dae turned around before the men spotted her. She went back up the hall in search of a side exit, too focused on escaping to notice how the sound of Ezzyn’s laughter had cut off, as if his attention had been diverted elsewhere.

Chapter 6

Eyesclosed,Daedirectedher focus inward, settling on the presence of magic circulating within her. After only a week immersed in magical learning, the faint but ever-present hum of energy beneath her skin had become like second nature, the ability to produce a spark of light taking only the tiniest bit of conscious thought. Casting her magic outward to tap into sources of water, however, was progressing at a slower pace. And writing an essay describing the different properties of water? Her vocabulary fizzled out of her head.

Two glasses sat on the table in front of her, one filled with room temperature water, the other mostly ice. Though Dae’s magic coiled in her fingers, waiting for direction, it was of little help here. She knew that her magic would interact differently between solid and liquid forms of water but couldn’t articulate why or even how. When she did small magic at home, she just … did it. Knew how it felt. But the theory behind the action wasn’t something she’d committed to memory. A single class at Grae U had long since fled her brain. Trying to hold her magic steady long enough to wrap her mind around how water felt in both forms and distill it into words, those efforts took her an inordinate amount of time and energy. It was the stuff of Initiate levels—early ones, at that—yet she struggled. Everyone else in her Adept One Concepts of Water Magic and the Biological World course could identify the states of their medium with ease. Instead of erudition, she had Brint’s jeering about teenagers knowing more than her crowding out any useful thought.

Blowing out a frustrated breath, she glared at the melting ice. Being able to produce a result without showing how she got there was all well and good when magic had been little more than a hobby. Less so here at Sylveren. They were only a week into the semester, but Dae was paranoid about falling behind. Professor Vaadt had informed her of a social mixer for the upperclassmen that weekend, but she was starting to think her time would be better spent imprinting the Initiate core class’sArcane Structure: Understanding the Foundation of Magicinto her brain. That was before tackling her own journal article readings and starting a paper about modern uses of historical techniques for elementalists.

Casting a surreptitious glance toward the door of the empty classroom she’d holed up in, Dae pulled theArcane Structuretextbook out of her bag for a quick skim. Even if no one should care how Dae studied, she didn’t want to advertise the fact that she needed to refresh her memory from an Initiate text. Especially not Ezzyn Sor’vahl and the assistantship he’d offered, the details of which she’d ignored, despite the paperwork having arrived in her mailbox. She’d seen him only once during the last week, across the courtyard. She’d found alternate routes to her destinations ever since. Which was absurd behavior on her part. They spent most of their days in separate areas of the Towers, and she’d been a recluse up in her room every waking hour that she wasn’t in class. Avoiding him even within the walls of Sylveren was a simple enough affair.

She knew she should say something, not just as a courtesy for his offer but to clear whatever tension still existed between them. Their interaction at the Mighty Leaf implied that he saw her as Ana Helm, deferential to her parents’ bidding. Someone who wasn’t serious about starting anew. Yet the thought of taking him aside sent a frisson of … something down her spine. Made her stomach do strange things. To convince him that she wasn’t the Ana of the past meant acknowledging said past rather than letting it exist in the unspoken spaces between them. To speak of it while here in the halls of Sylveren, free of any expectations save for her own, that invited too many other thoughts.

Especially when she was supposed to be informing herself of the theory of magic and how the threads of it were managed in reliable ways by an informed mage. Dae sighed, propping the book up as she tried to make sense of one of the diagrams.

“Ana?” a voice called from the doorway. “What are you doing in here?”

Dae startled, jostling the book as she simultaneously tried to drop it and clutch it to her chest. A few pages crumpled under her fingers. “Shit.” The library wouldn’t be happy about that. She’d already been pressing her luck in cajoling the student staff member on duty to let her take it out of the building.

Distracted in trying to smooth the pages, Dae’s mind lagged behind the order of events, only registering that the voice had been familiar. Approaching footsteps announced that her interruption was about to get worse.

False, close-lipped smile in place, Dae looked up as Ezzyn stopped in front of her table. “Hello. Can I help you?”

A bemused expression crossed his face. “I was passing by and thought I saw someone in here.”

“Me.” Obviously. “Just doing some review.”

Ezzyn craned his neck around to read the title, but Dae quickly swept it from the table and into her bag. Rude? Possibly, but she’d never enjoyed feeling as if someone was reading over her shoulder or trying to peep at her work.

There was a soft huff of a laugh, but Ezzyn made no comment on her reading material. He wasn’t a regular teacher. Dae told herself that he probably didn’t recognize the beginner’s title with only a glance. Not when it had been over a dozen years since his own Initiate levels.

An awkward silence rose as neither made to leave nor speak. Dae fussed unnecessarily with her bag before remembering she possessed some manners. “I never managed to thank you for the assistantship offer,” she murmured, eyes still on her bag. “So, thank you. I’m not— It’s just— I haven’t made a decision.”

One would never believe she had once handled communications and projects for years at a high level, based on her current performance. Dae had given presentations to members of the Council of Standards, gods all break her. Not very many and not solo, but she’d done it, back before her engagement to Brint demanded she focus on her society agenda rather than work. Yet she became self-conscious and tongue-tied in the presence of Ezzyn. It made no sense; he was just Ezzyn. Royalty, the limited state of Rhell’s monarchy notwithstanding, but what did she care about that? It was a mark in his favor that he’d never stood on ceremony, either. But then, she shouldn’t have cared what he thought of her. She’d already hardened herself to the disapproval of those she held dear. That loss carried a mix of hurt and relief that Dae hadn’t taken the time to interrogate. Who was Ezzyn compared to that? No one. Meaningless.

“I see,” he murmured.

What was this strange blend of animosity and magnetism she felt when confronted by Ez?Ezzyn,because it had been far too many years for her to feel any familiarity with him, even if her brain kept trying to disagree. It made no sense. They were nothing to each other. Not really even friends. Never had been … sort of. Except, almost, but that was so long ago.

“Well, I should probably…” Dae gestured toward the door. “I’m sure you’re busy.”

“A moment, Ana—Anadae.” Ezzyn caught himself. “I’ve just come from seeing Vaadt.”

Dae froze. “Oh?”

“They mentioned that you seemed … reluctant to join the seminar I’m attending in my brother’s place.”

“I—” Dae cleared her throat. “I’m still getting used to—”

“I hope it isn’t because of me?” Ezzyn continued. “It’s a pass-fail course, and Vaadt will have all authority. If that was something you were worried about.”

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