Page 25

“Correction, I’m Bree’s best friend,” he says.

“Hey!” She splashes him.

Eli laughs and wipes his face. “Goddess, I wish Lorn was here.”

“I bet you do,” Bree says suggestively. “How is your lover?”

“Hot and lonely,” Eli says. “He’d love the baths.” Eli gets a dreamy look but shakes it off with a wave of his hand. “Anyway, enough about me.” He glances at Ever. “What’s your name?”

“Ever. You’re in Vanguard, right? I think I saw you in the hall earlier.”

“Yup.” He glances at me.

“Raina, resident plague of Diremount.”

Grinning, he says, “Yeah, I’ve heard some rumors. Apparently you tried to eat someone?”

I lift a shoulder. “I was hungry.”

“You know, they’re only talking about you because they’re jealous.” Ever grabs the bottle of mage liquor and takes another sip, passing it over to me. “None of them did what you did to the Threshold.”

“I don’t know about that. I think we’re programmed to be suspicious of things that are different, and it just so happens that I’m that thing,” I grumble and take a drink. It would be nice to be normal for a change.

Bree accepts the bottle. “Well, either way, you’ll have to show the Foundations that you’re a badass and they can’t mess with you. That’s the only way to keep them off your back.”

Like the way she used her mindcraft on them? It’s smart, but the whole inability to use my magic thing gets in the way.

“Speaking of,” Eli says, snatching the liquor from Bree. “I have my first casting class tomorrow. Anyone else?”

Ever shakes her head. “Mine is on Wednesday.”

“Same,” Bree adds.

“Actually, I think mine is tomorrow.” I dip my fingers into the warm water. I’ll definitely come here on my own.

“Oh, good. We can suffer together.” Eli hands Ever the bottle, and she sets it on the ledge. “What are your affinities?”

I suck in a breath. That’s the question I’ve been dreading. May as well tell them the truth now so they can decide if they still want to be friends with me. “I’m not sure. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if I even have them.” The three of them give me looks that scream are you for real?

“You literally broke the Threshold,” Bree says quickly.

“It’s not broken,” I counter.

“Well, you did something to it. You have affinities.” Ever sounds so certain. She’s going to be really disappointed once she realizes I’m worthless.

“Plenty of students are still trying to understand their magic,” Eli offers with a kind smile. “You’ll figure it out.”

Bless his heart. He thinks I’m simply inexperienced. I guess they haven’t lived with years of emptiness where magic should be the same way I have. They’ll lose hope like I did soon enough.

Bree squints at me. “It’s clearly not healing, given the Threshold incident⁠—”

“It was one incident,” I say quickly.

“One grand incident,” Ever adds.

“There are so many options. Enchanting or illusioncraft? Siphoning?” Bree asks.

“Oh, that’s a good guess,” Eli murmurs.