“Oh, but they did!” He exhaled loudly. “I set everyone straight, but if the rumor had reached the constable or Master Barclae, you’d have the both of us tossed out of here for misconduct!”
I stared at the floor. “I had no idea.”
Darren’s tone fell flat. “Clearly.”
Neither of us spoke for a minute. Then I remembered what I had been waiting to ask him.
“What did you mean when you told me I was training the wrong way last night?”
“Huh?” The non-heir looked at me, thrown by the abrupt change in subject.
“I’ve tried following Master Cedric’s lessons,” I began again, “but nothing he says makes any sense, and he won’t show me what I’m doing wrong!”
“You’ve fallen asleep in his class. Twice.” Darren’s expression was unsympathetic. “What did you expect?”
“I don’t know.” I bit my lip. “But is that really enough to condemn me? I’m trying. You more than anyone can see that!”
Darren did not reply.
“No one else can help me,” I pleaded. “Even my twin brother doesn’t know why I can’t cast normally. But you do. I know you do. It’s why you told me I was training wrong.”
“Even if I did know, why would I help you?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
He snorted. “Well, good luck with that.”
“You can’t just give someone advice and then not show them how to use it!” I seethed. “It’s not advice if it doesn’t help them!”
Darren balked. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t give it to the girl that has tried to get tossed out of this place not once but twice now—oh, and let’s not forget your most inglorious moment, when you tried to light me on fire!”
“I’ve made some mistakes.” I met the prince’s eyes defiantly. “But you have made just as many, and you wouldn’t have given me advice if you hadn’t been feeling guilty about them in the first place.”
Darren regarded me grimly. In that moment I was aware of how near we were standing. This close, I could smell some sort of wooded musk emitting from his clothes, a mixture of pine and cloves that reminded me of home.
Hair had fallen across his forehead and into his eyes, but instead of being distracting, it highlighted the dark garnet-brown of his irises, which oddly didn’t seem quite as opaque as I’d initially assumed, enclosed in those dark, dark lashes. They seemed much less hostile this close, more like liquid shadows playing across flame than embittered stone.
And right now those shadows were doing strange, flippy things to my insides. I felt as if someone had wrenched the ground right out from under me. I was uncomfortably conscious of how much I was staring, yet I could do nothing to pull away.
“Are you done berating me?”
The trance was broken, and I stepped back quickly, flushing. His sudden presence had caught me off guard, and I hoped he hadn’t noticed.
“I—” I faltered. Darren was looking at me as though I was mad. “See here,” I began again, flustered at my inability to speak.
“You want my help,” he prompted.
I reddened. “Yes.” It seemed one-syllable sentences were all I was capable of. I’d had no trouble scolding the prince moments before, but apparently I was no better than a fumbling oaf when he stood close. For the love of the gods, he isn’t even that good-looking!
…Okay, maybe a little, I conceded, but certainly not enough to make you an inept convent girl! Pull yourself together!
I straightened and regarded Darren coolly. “I know you have no reason to,” I conceded, “but if you were to show me how to call on my magic, I swear I would never bother you again.”
He raised one brow. “Well, as tempting as your offer is, I do not have time to help every girl that bats her eyes at me.”
“I was not!” My speech impairment was gone as fast as it had come. “And if you spent a little less time disparaging me every time we crossed paths, you’d realize how abundant your precious time actually was! If you were really so secure in your own standing here, you wouldn’t think twice about helping someone you believed might constitute a threat.”
“You really think the way to charm me into helping you is by insult?” Darren was no longer frowning, and I had the distinct impression he was enjoying the debate.
I glared. “Would you prefer me to lie like every one of your blindsided subjects?”
He didn’t bother to hide his grin. “It would be a nice change.”
“Fine.” I put my hands on my hips and said in my most sickly sweet impression of Priscilla: “O, valiant Darren, brave ruler among men, please help this humble first-year learn…”
Darren raised a brow when I had finished. “I was wrong. Humility does not suit you.”
I glowered. “Does this mean you’ll help?”
“I will—if only so I can start realizing ‘the abundance of my precious time.’”
A couple of minutes later we had cleared a space in the center of the study, and Darren was facing me, a skeptical expression on his face.
“Do you know how to light a fire… without magic?”
“Of course.”
“Have you ever done it with flint?”
I raised a brow. Who hadn’t?