Page 52

Five Years Ago

I N THE YEAR FOLLOWING GIN PULVEY ’ S ASSASSINATION and Veronika Mallow’s ascension to the Seat of Bomard, the tension between the Bomardi students and Eversun students increased tenfold.

Collin Twindle started spitting on Eversuns as they passed, calling them “mind freaks.” Lorne Vult crowded Eversun girls in the hallway, asking them to read his mind for what he’d like to do to them.

Liam Quill started fistfights with Eversuns, and Larissa Gains began interrupting and sabotaging any tutor lessons that included any references to mind magic.

And Toven Hearst had shifted into an ice sculpture. Where he used to tease and smirk and even send heated gazes her way to make her uncomfortable, now he refused to look at her.

There had been no ring on Larissa’s finger when they came back from the summer solstice break, and Briony watched Toven and Larissa’s courtship die a slow death over the next year.

At the end of the Bomardi school year in the winter, Mallow had announced that the use of mind magic in Bomard was banned and liable for punishment.

“How in the waters is she going to do that?” Cordelia had said as she walked with Katrina and Briony to dinner that day.

“They don’t study mind magic as it is,” Briony said. “I’m sure everyone will be all too happy to have an excuse to not expand their knowledge. Most Bomardi stop learning anything about mind magic once they all choose their specialties in year four. Next year, it probably won’t matter.”

Katrina snorted. “Probably. But it’s hard enough to concentrate as it is with half the Bomardi arguing with the tutors.”

A few weeks later, a Bomardi in a border town had been put to death for using mind magic.

At the winter solstice, Finola had spent hours teaching Briony advanced mind magic techniques like cloaking and blending, all while Rory was invited to shadow their father in meetings with General Meers.

There was something in the tension of Finola’s shoulders during those lessons that made Briony quite aware of how bad things were getting between the two countries.

When they had arrived back at school for their fourth year, the Evermore year, Toven Hearst was paler than usual.

He took little pleasure in social activities the way he once had.

The only one of his friends who was still stuck to his side like glue was Finn Raquin, and even he had stopped flirting with everything that moved.

One summer night after curfew, Briony was sneaking back to the heir’s suite that she shared with Rory when she saw light bouncing off a far wall down a long hall.

After looking for any signs that a tutor might catch her, she moved silently toward the light.

When she rounded the corner, she found Toven Hearst in an abandoned hallway with a conjured flame to cast light. He held a page in his hand, and she wondered what he was reading before realizing …

He was writing . The pen was zipping over the paper, by itself. The fingers of his right hand were stretched, casting a complicated spell to send the words directly from his mind onto the page.

He was using mind magic.

Briony gasped, and a second too late she slapped a hand over her mouth.

Toven jumped up and his eyes were wide for a moment before they turned cold on her.

“You saw nothing.”

Briony stared at him, and then glanced down at the page—a garbled mess of every thought in his head.

“You need to meditate first,” she said. “That will clear your head of tangents.”

She’d just learned these techniques from Finola herself, and Briony itched to share them with someone .

Something flickered in Toven’s eyes, and a slow smirk spread across his face.

“That would be very helpful if it wasn’t forbidden to practice mind magic.”

“In Bomard,” Briony said, finishing his sentence. “It’s forbidden in Bomard. You’re in Evermore.”

“Ah, that explains the smell.”

She narrowed her gaze at him. “You’ll get better at it. It’s a shame you can’t practice anywhere—”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Rosewood.” His expression was cool.

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “I see. You know, Toven, I used to think you were different. But I see you’re just the same as the rest of them.”

He smiled and moved forward. “And what is that?”

“Ignorant.”

Air puffed out of him on a laugh, and she felt it from a foot away. “That would be your best insult, wouldn’t it? Eversuns are enlightened, and Bomardi are primitive? Is that right, Rosewood?”

“Your words, not mine.”

“Well, our ‘primitive’ magic has been doing just fine for us. Heart magic has more sheer power than mind magic ever will. Why should we ‘evolve’?”

She felt the full weight of his attention for the first time in a year, and it made her reckless.

“You tell me,” she said. “You’re the one transcribing nonsense onto a page after hours, using your mind.”

“You’re mistaken,” he said simply.

Briony’s volume lifted, a provocation. “Oh, no? I didn’t see TOVEN HEARST PRACTICING MIND MAGIC?” she yelled down the hall, taunting him.

Toven grabbed her, his hand covering her mouth as her back slammed against the stone wall. Once he’d looked down the hall for signs that anyone had heard her, his hand shifted—his thumb and forefinger holding either side of her jaw. He could choke her with barely a slip of his hand.

Her eyes were wide, but his angry face enraged her.

“Don’t speak on things you don’t understand,” he hissed.

“I know exactly what I’m talking about.”

His breath was on her, and she could smell the peppermint of his skin. His fingers tightened, and she gasped.

“Your brother will be a head on a spike one day, and your body will be dragged through the street once Mallow has her way,” he said softly. Briony’s muscles locked in fear. He let his eyes drift down her neck. “And such a shame for such a fine body.”

He was vile and she hated the thrill of him looking at her again—looking at her as a woman instead of an Eversun. She disgusted herself, so she turned her bile outward.

She spat in his face.

He glared down at her in shock. And then a smile crept across his features, curving and unfurling. Briony’s breath was hot, but his hand was cool against her cheek. His body pressed up against her, pinning her in place. Her eyes widened to feel the long lines of him as he towered over her.

“If you insist on forgetting your manners, Rosewood, then maybe I’ll be tempted to forget mine,” he whispered against her mouth.

There were no words in her head as Toven Hearst’s lips grew so close to hers.

“What manners?” she said weakly. “You’re no gentleman, Toven Hearst.”

He hummed. “If you wanted a gentleman, you’d already be betrothed to Winchester.”

Her breath stuck in her throat. His eyes seemed to sparkle as he tilted her jaw up.

“Tell me, Princess,” he said, sliding his knee between hers, just as she’d seen him do to Larissa when they were being intimate in the corridors.

She gasped, shock and thrill and longing singing in her blood.

Briony’s hands braced on his waist, ready to push him away or pull him closer—she couldn’t decide.

He smiled, and even though it was cruel, her gaze traced the lines of it.

“Do you want a gentleman?” he asked, his voice a low hum that sent waves through her.

She held her breath, overwhelmed with want, desperately trying to figure out if this was what it felt like to be wanted back.

Wondering if that thing her body searched for with Didion under the willow would finally open to her.

Wondering if she could keep his attention just long enough to let her find it.

The response fell from her lips, unbidden. “No.”

Something flickered in his eyes. His gaze softened as it slid down to her mouth.

“Briony?”

Briony jerked her head toward the end of the hallway. Cordelia stood in her dressing gown, hands splayed to fight.

Toven stepped away, and there was a rush of cool air against her front. She tried to catch her breath.

“What’s happening?” Cordelia asked harshly.

Toven smirked in response.

Briony quickly moved toward Cordelia, her legs unsteady. “Nothing,” she said. Briony linked arms and walked back to the dormitories with her, saying loudly, “Toven Hearst simply forgot his manners again.”

She sent a withering look behind her and found him watching her darkly as she walked away.

“What manners?” he called after her, echoing her own words. “I’m no gentleman, I’ve been told.”

She ignored him, pulling Cordelia closer.

Briony sometimes wondered if she’d dreamed the entire thing, especially when Toven Hearst refused to look at her for the rest of the school year.