Chapter 1
Kerensa had been staring at Aurelian Academy for so long that the tea beside her had gone cold.
She drank it anyway.
It tasted bitter.
Across the city, six black towers stabbed through the morning fog, their silver roofs catching pieces of sunlight that hadn’t yet reached the streets below. From this distance, Aurelian looked less like a school and more like a castle someone had forgotten.
Maybe that was why Kerensa loved it.
Or maybe it was the magic.
Even from here, she could see flashes of it.
A streak of blue shot between two towers and disappeared behind the eastern wall. A second later, something golden exploded above the courtyard.
Kerensa leaned closer to the window.
“You’re going to fall through the glass one of these days.”
She didn’t turn.
“I’m sitting down.”
“You’ve managed more impressive things.”
Her grandmother set a plate on the table hard enough to make the spoon jump.
Kerensa finally looked away from the window.
Mara stood across from her with both hands planted on her hips. Her gray hair had been twisted into a knot so tight Kerensa sometimes wondered if it was responsible for her permanently irritated expression.
“Eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Didn’t ask.”
Kerensa pulled the plate toward herself.
Two eggs. Bread. Half an apple.
She picked up the bread.
Mara reached for the curtains.
Kerensa caught her wrist.
“Don’t.”
Her grandmother looked at her hand.
Kerensa released her.
Mara’s eyes moved toward the distant towers.
“You’re torturing yourself.”
“I’m eating breakfast.”
“While staring at a place you’ll never set foot inside.”
Kerensa’s fingers tightened around the bread.
“Good morning to you too.”
Mara closed the curtains.
Darkness swallowed the kitchen.
For half a second, Kerensa felt it respond.
The shadows beneath the table stretched toward her feet.
She froze.
One thin ribbon of darkness crawled across the floorboards.
No.
She flattened her palm against the table.
The shadow stopped.
Mara’s back was still turned.
Kerensa slowly exhaled.
The darkness retreated beneath the table.
Her grandmother opened the cupboard.
“You work today?”
“Yeah.”
“Stay away from the north district.”
Kerensa tore the bread in half. “Why?”
“House Thorne arrived last night.”
Her appetite disappeared.
She looked up.
Mara continued rummaging through the cupboard as if she hadn’t just dropped a stone directly into Kerensa’s stomach.
“All of them?”
“Enough.”
“Why are they here?”
Mara finally turned.
“Term starts next week.”
Right.
Of course.
Kerensa looked toward the closed curtains.
Seven days.
In seven days those towers would be filled again.
Dozens of students would cross the bridge wearing black academy coats embroidered with the colors of their Houses.
They’d complain about professors.
Get lost finding classrooms.
Stay awake too late.
Make friends.
Learn magic.
Kerensa would be delivering packages.
“Stop.”
She blinked.
Mara was staring at her.
“What?”
“Whatever you’re thinking.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“No?” Her grandmother raised an eyebrow. “You’re staring at those curtains like you’re considering setting them on fire.”
“I can’t set things on fire.”
“Thank the gods for small favors.”
Kerensa almost smiled.
Almost.
Mara pulled out the chair across from her and sat.
The amusement disappeared.
“Thornes are Mind.”
“I know.”
“Then act like it.”
Kerensa dropped the bread onto her plate.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“If one of them speaks to you—”
“I leave.”
“If one touches you—”
“I leave.”
“If you feel them inside your head—”
“I leave.”
Mara’s mouth tightened.
Kerensa leaned back.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You always make that face when it’s something.”
“I have one face.”
“You have at least six. Most of them angry.”
Mara didn’t laugh.
That was when Kerensa knew something was wrong.
Her grandmother reached across the table and took Kerensa’s hand.
“Don’t use it.”
Kerensa looked down at their joined hands.
“Use what?”
“Don’t.”
Mara’s voice had gone quiet.
Kerensa hated when she did that.
Yelling was easy.
Quiet meant fear.
“I haven’t.”
“Not even if you think no one’s watching.”
“I know.”
“Not even if you need it.”
“I know.”
“Kerensa.”
“I said I know.”
Mara released her.
Kerensa stood so quickly the chair scraped against the floor.
“I need to go.”
“You don’t start for another hour.”
“Then I’ll be early.”
She grabbed her coat from the hook beside the door.
“Kerensa.”
Her hand stopped on the latch.
Mara sighed behind her.
“You can’t let them see what you are.”
Kerensa stared at the chipped paint beneath her fingers.
Something cold brushed the edge of her thoughts.
Not Mara.
Herself.
Anger had a way of making the walls thinner.
She shoved it down.
“I’m aware.”
She opened the door.
“Both of them,” Mara said.
Kerensa stepped outside.
The door shut behind her.
The city had changed overnight.
It always did before the beginning of term.
Black-and-gold banners hung from windows along Crescent Street, each stamped with Aurelian’s six-pointed crest. Shopkeepers had dragged tables onto sidewalks and filled them with things students didn’t need but would buy anyway.
Enchanted notebooks.
Self-sharpening quills.
Bottled charms.
Tiny glass creatures that glowed when shaken.
Kerensa passed a display of academy uniforms outside Bell & Finch and slowed.
The coat was black.
Simple.
Silver buttons ran down the front, and a small Aurelian crest had been stitched over the heart.
Beneath it sat six scarves.
Gold.
White.
Blue.
Green.
Red.
Violet.
One for each House.
Kerensa stared at them.
“Planning on buying one?”
She turned.
A boy stood in the doorway.
Maybe sixteen. Pimples across his chin. Bell & Finch apron tied around his waist.
He nodded toward the uniform.
“Academy stock’s twenty percent off until First Bell.”
Kerensa shoved her hands into her coat pockets.
“Just looking.”
“Which House?”
She looked at him.
He waited.
“None.”
His expression changed.
It was small.
Barely anything.
But Kerensa knew that look.
Everyone without a House knew it.
“Oh.”
One syllable.
That was all it took.
She turned away.
“Hey, I didn’t mean—”
Kerensa kept walking.
The bell above the shop door jingled behind her.
She hated that stupid word.
None.
As if magic only mattered if someone important had put a name around it first.
A carriage rolled past.
Kerensa stepped closer to the buildings as it splashed through a puddle.
The crest painted on the door caught her attention.
A golden sun.
Aurelia.
She watched it disappear around the corner.
Light.
House Aurelia had produced some of the most powerful Light wielders in the kingdom.
At least according to the books Kerensa definitely wasn’t supposed to have seen.
She’d read The Great Houses and Their Gifts so many times the binding had cracked.
Aurelia—Light.
Vale—Shadow.
Thorne—Mind.
The others—
Someone slammed into her shoulder.
“Move.”
Kerensa stumbled.
Two boys in academy coats pushed past her.
Neither looked back.
One wore red at his collar.
The other violet.
Kerensa watched them disappear into the crowd.
She hated them immediately.
Which probably wasn’t fair.
She hated them anyway.
By noon, she’d delivered three parcels to the south district, two to the market and one particularly irritating box to a woman who insisted Kerensa had damaged it despite the fact that the box contained enchanted stones.
“You can’t damage rocks,” Kerensa muttered as she pushed open the door to the courier office.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Tomas looked up from behind the counter.
His eyebrows rose.
“You’re late.”
“Mrs. Dallow spent fifteen minutes explaining the emotional value of rocks.”
“Stones.”
“They’re rocks.”
“She pays extra.”
“They’re beautiful stones.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Kerensa dropped her empty satchel onto the counter.
Tomas grinned.
He was twenty two and had somehow turned being annoying into a full time occupation.
He slid another stack of parcels toward her.
“No.”
“You haven’t looked at them.”
“I don’t need to.”
“North district.”
She pushed them back.
“No.”
His grin widened.
“Since when do you turn down north district?”
“Since today.”
“You get double rate.”
Kerensa paused.
Tomas knew he’d won.
“Asshole.”
“Hard worker.”
She grabbed the stack.
He placed one final envelope on top.
Cream paper.
Gold trim.
Heavy.
Kerensa stared at it.
Her fingers went cold.
A black wax seal sat across the back.
Six points.
Aurelian.
She forgot how to breathe.
Tomas snapped his fingers in front of her face.
“Still alive?”
Kerensa slapped his hand away.
“Who’s this for?”
“No idea.”
“You wrote the route.”
“I don’t read everyone’s mail, Ker.”
“You read everyone’s mail.”
“I read interesting mail.”
She flipped it over.
The address was written in precise black ink.
Aurelia EstateNorth DistrictFor the attention of Lady Cordelia Aurelia
Kerensa ran her thumb over the corner.
It was thick.
Too thick for an ordinary letter.
Tomas leaned across the counter.
“Acceptance?”
She looked up.
“What?”
“Academy. That’s what their admission packets look like.”
Her heart thudded.
“You’ve seen one?”
“Couple.”
He shrugged like he’d just said he’d seen a grocery list.
Kerensa stared at the envelope again.
Aurelian Academy.
Admission.
Her thumb moved over the raised crest.
For one stupid second, she imagined her name there instead.
Kerensa—
Nothing after it.
No House.
No family name worth printing in gold.
Just Kerensa.
“Careful.”
Tomas pulled the envelope out of her hand.
She blinked.
“What?”
“You’re crushing it.”
He smoothed the corner and put it back on the stack.
“Rich people get weird about their paper.”
Kerensa swallowed.
“Right.”
She shoved everything into her satchel.
“Back before six.”
“Yeah.”
“And Ker?”
She looked over her shoulder.
“Don’t steal the academy letter.”
She stared at him.
Tomas laughed.
“Your face.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“See you at six.”
Kerensa stepped outside.
The academy envelope rested against her hip through the leather bag.
She could feel it with every step.
Aurelia Estate wasn’t a house.
It was a threat.
Kerensa stood at the bottom of the marble steps and stared up at four stories of white stone, enormous windows and golden ironwork.
Light floated inside glass spheres along the front path despite the afternoon sun.
Showing off.
Of course.
She climbed the steps.
Before she could knock, the front doors opened.
A young woman rushed out.
Kerensa jumped aside.
The girl was crying.
Not politely.
Not one delicate tear sliding down the cheek like noblewomen did in paintings.
Actually crying.
Her face was red, and she was wiping angrily beneath her eyes with the heel of her hand.
A woman followed her.
“Cordelia.”
The girl kept walking.
“Cordelia!”
Kerensa stopped.
The name from the envelope.
Cordelia spun around.
“What?”
The older woman froze halfway down the steps.
“You will lower your voice.”
“Why? Will it embarrass you too?”
“That is enough.”
Kerensa should leave.
Immediately.
Instead, she stood there holding her satchel like an idiot.
Cordelia laughed, but there wasn’t anything funny in it.
“Everyone knows.”
“They do not.”
“They will.”
“Your grandfather is handling it.”
“I don’t want him to handle it!”
Light flickered in one of the glass spheres.
The older woman glanced toward it.
So did Cordelia.
The glow weakened.
Kerensa watched Cordelia’s face crumble.
Oh.
“I wanted to earn it,” Cordelia whispered.
Her mother descended another step.
“Cordelia—”
“I wanted one thing that wasn’t because of my name.”
She turned away.
That’s when she noticed Kerensa.
For a moment neither spoke.
Cordelia’s eyes dropped to the courier emblem on Kerensa’s coat.
Then to the satchel.
Kerensa felt the academy envelope inside.
Her pulse jumped.
Cordelia wiped her face quickly.
Cordelia’s expression closed.
Kerensa opened her satchel.
One parcel.
Another.
A narrow box.
Her fingers touched cream paper. Handing her the thick envelope.
A tiny laugh escaped her.“Is that all?”
“Cordelia,” her mother warned.
She looked at Kerensa one more time and walked down the path.
Kerensa watched her go.
“Courier.”
She turned.
Lady Aurelia stood at the top of the stairs.
“Return to sender” she said tossing the package a few steps down between them.
Kerensa climbed toward it. Picking up the package. Reclaiming it.
Kerensa’s hand remained inside the bag holding it.
She thought about the girl’s face.
I wanted to earn it.
Her fingers closed around the envelope.
She should pull it out.
Hand it to the steward.
Walk away.
Simple.
Instead, another voice whispered through the back of her mind.
Not magic.
Worse.
Her own.
She already has everything.
Kerensa’s stomach twisted.
She doesn’t want it.
She loosened her fingers.
“Miss?”
She looked up.
The steward was waiting.
Kerensa reached deeper into the satchel.
Her fingertips brushed the wax seal again.
Aurelian Academy.
She saw black towers through a kitchen window.
A uniform she’d never wear.
Books she’d never read.
Classes she’d never take.
Magic she’d never be allowed to understand.
None.
She pulled her hand free.
Empty.
“That’s all.”
The steward nodded.
Kerensa turned before either of them could change their minds.
She walked down the marble stairs.
Ten steps.
Twenty.
She expected someone to call after her.
Nobody did.
At the gate, her heart was beating so hard it hurt.
She turned onto the street.
Kept walking.
Didn’t run.
Running looked guilty.
At the corner, she finally slipped into an alley.
Her hands were shaking when she opened the satchel.
The envelope sat beneath two undelivered parcels.
Cream.
Gold.
Perfect.
Kerensa stared at the name.
Lady Cordelia Aurelia.
She should go back.
She could still go back.
No one knew.
She pulled the envelope out.
The academy seal gleamed beneath her thumb.
Then the darkness around her feet moved.
Kerensa looked down.
Her shadow had stretched across the alley.
It climbed the brick wall beside her, thin black tendrils curling upward as if reaching for the envelope too.
“Stop.”
The shadow froze.
Kerensa closed her eyes.
She forced it down.
When she opened them again, everything was normal.
Almost.
She slid one finger beneath the seal.
And broke it.
