Page 8

All around her, classmates were glaring at their tree trunks. Some of them even had veins popping out in their temples in their concentration.

Tutor Amelia was circling them, coming closer to Briony’s tree.

Briony turned back and quickly pushed the bark back together, healing the tree and hiding her initial. Tutor Amelia approached them, standing over Toven’s shoulder.

“Barely there, Mr. Hearst, but it is there. Very good,” Tutor Amelia said. “Work on the H now.”

Briony’s brows rose. Of all of them, Toven was making progress?

It shouldn’t have been a surprise really.

The Hearst family had an incredibly powerful bloodline.

Every few generations, a Hearst would manifest a powerful gift—some strength or skill that others worked years to build.

Toven’s father, Orion, could split his casting.

Normally, a magician could only cast one spell per hand, but Orion Hearst could split one magical gesture into two spells.

As Tutor Amelia came around the tree, tutting at Liam’s lack of progress, Toven smirked proudly at Briony.

Maybe Toven Hearst would manifest a skill for chopping down trees, Briony thought petulantly. He’d make a fine lumberjack. She almost snorted at the image of Toven tasked with such menial work.

Her gaze flicked to his exposed forearms again before refocusing on the bare bark of the tree as Tutor Amelia came to stand beside her.

A heavy sigh came from their instructor. “Pay better attention in the theory lessons, Miss Rosewood, and perhaps you’ll have progress.”

“Yes, Tutor Amelia.”

Briony stared at the spot in the bark where she’d hidden her B . As the older woman walked away, Briony’s eyes were drawn to gray ones on the other side of the trunk. Toven had knit his brows together, staring at her as if she were a rock stuck in his boot.

“The first person to carve two even initials on their tree will receive the top marks for today’s lesson and the month,” Tutor Amelia announced. “Mr. Hearst is leagues ahead of everyone else so far.”

The class groaned, but Toven was still watching her.

Briony looked away from him, turning to see how Rory was coming along. No progress. She sighed. Their father wouldn’t be happy to hear that Rory was bested by a Bomardi for the first month’s marks.

Briony faced forward, staring at her tree trunk but relaxing her gaze. There was a vein in her chest thumping with unused magic. She imagined a string between herself and Rory, connecting their hearts, connecting their magic.

It wasn’t the first time she’d amplified him.

He’d been unknowingly accepting a push of her magic for years—during lessons, when healing from injuries, in rare boyhood brawls.

She couldn’t remember how she’d done it the first time, and it wasn’t like there were a lot of people in Evermore whom she could ask about this kind of magic.

This had to be a kind of heart magic that she assumed came from a bond with her twin.

She pumped her magic on a string to Rory’s heart. And waited.

She heard a gasp from behind her.

“Oh wow,” Rory whispered. “I did it.”

She glanced at his tree. She wasn’t sure what gesture he was using, but there, in the bark, was a perfect R .

Didion craned his neck to see it. “Well, do it again!” he whispered excitedly.

Briony watched Rory concentrate, and now that she’d opened the connection, she felt him tug on it. The bark split apart. A matching R appeared next to the first.

She saw the corner of Rory’s mouth turn up in an amazed grin. He didn’t look to her in silent thanks this time. It was only the book studies and assignments that Rory thought he needed extra assistance in. Briony looked down at her shoes.

Didion raised his hand. “Tutor Amelia! Rory’s done it!”

The entire class turned to look at Rory and Didion’s tree. The entire class but one.

Toven Hearst’s gaze was narrowed on her.

Tutor Amelia congratulated Rory and told him to try it from ten feet away. Briony watched as he backed up and refocused. Tutor Amelia stood at his side.

Now that Rory had felt the burst of power, even without knowing where it had come from, he knew how to draw it quickly.

R R appeared like a crack of a whip. The class gasped, and Rory’s smile was so bright that Briony couldn’t help but match it.

That morning, Rory carved an entire poem into his side of the tree while the others worked to get their initials.

Overall, the Bomardi were faster at making the carvings, but the Eversuns had more precision.

With practice and patience, mind magic was much more effective, but heart magic would always show strength first.

Even so, Liam Quill was the last to accomplish it.

He had sweat rolling down his temples and his breath was shallow by the time he’d crossed the Q .

Not for the first time, Briony was glad she pulled on magic from the mind instead of the heart.

Liam wasn’t the only heart magician who was looking the worse for wear.

“Mr. Quill,” Tutor Amelia said. She placed a kind hand on his shoulder. “Excellent work, but you’ll need to rest now. Your magic will be drained soon.”

He shrugged off her comfort, a snarl on his face. “I’ll do no such thing. I intend to cut down every one of these trees!”

Briony felt the shame and anger radiating off him in waves. She glanced at his friends and found Finn chewing on his cheek in concern and Toven rolling his eyes.

“You look far too close to husking, Liam,” Toven said.

Husking was what happened to heart magicians who drained themselves. They were alive but a husk of themselves; the magic was used up. There was no such risk for mind magicians.

“This wouldn’t be an issue if familiars were allowed in school,” Liam grumbled.

“And have bears and wolves roaming the castle? No, thank you,” Finn said.

Tutor Amelia called for them to turn to the task of cutting down the tree, striking at the trunk.

“Won’t that mean there will be trees falling down in here?” Larissa said, looking pale with the drain on her magic.

“I will be very surprised if anyone can actually slice through a tree today, Miss Gains,” Tutor Amelia said patronizingly. “This lesson will test your skill as well as your aim, so please be mindful of not casting at classmates.”

Briony watched as Toven Hearst raised a hand and sliced through the air, as if an ax were in his hand. Their tree shivered.

“Excellent, Mr. Hearst.”

Liam made the same motion, but it was sloppy.

“Watch it,” Finn said. “Focus, or you’ll end up slicing me in half.”

Briony glanced at Rory, casting a tearing gesture with his hands, trying to separate the trunk from itself.

As he lifted his hands to try again, she pushed the pulse of her magic down the vein to him.

There was a mighty crack, and the room went silent. Everyone turned to stare at Rory’s tree. It had split up the middle, two halves separating from the center of the trunk outward. The class screamed as the pieces fell sideways, but Tutor Amelia slowed their descent to a soft landing.

“Very well done, Mr. Rosewood. The rest of you, spread out to another tree.”

Katrina quickly joined their tree, and Briony made room for her between herself and Liam.

“Stones, it’s so much harder to use mind magic over heart magic,” Katrina said, pushing her hair away from her face. “It’s incredible to see how much power Rory has, though!”

Briony heard a huff of exasperation and turned to see Toven glaring at them. He swung his arm through the air, and their tree shivered again.

Liam turned to Toven and whispered, “Are you boosting?”

“You know that’s not allowed in school,” Toven replied. Then he turned his eyes on her. “Is it, Rosewood?”

Briony narrowed her eyes at the conversation. What was “boosting”? A heart magic technique?

“I’m not letting every Eversun outrank me,” Liam said under his breath. He checked to make sure Tutor Amelia’s gaze was elsewhere, and his left hand twitched toward Katrina.

“Liam,” Finn said sternly.

Briony watched in confusion as Katrina gasped, her hand going to her chest. Before Briony could figure out what was happening, Liam sliced his right arm at the tree, and a mark like the chop of an ax appeared in the bark.

Katrina stumbled, and Briony helped her stay upright.

“What happened?” Briony asked her.

Katrina looked at Liam, fear in her eyes as he smirked back at her.

“Nothing,” Katrina said. “Just a pain in my … stomach.”

Briony was about to ask why her hand had been at her chest and not her stomach when Tutor Amelia came over.

“Miss Cove? I thought you were focusing your education on mind magic, not heart magic. There is no reason for your body to be exhausted.”

“I … yes, Tutor Amelia. I should be using mind magic instead, my apologies.”

“Husking is a very real thing,” Tutor Amelia said. “Go rest.”

Katrina retreated to the side of the room, and Briony looked from Liam to Toven and Finn, trying to figure out what Liam had done to Katrina. She caught Larissa’s smug eyes at the tree in the center, then watched her left hand stretch toward the person at her side, an Eversun girl.

The girl gasped, and then Larissa sliced at the tree in one solid motion, the crack of breaking bark drawing everyone’s attention. Larissa smiled at the progress she’d made, and the Eversun girl coughed, catching her breath.

“Come on, Toven,” Liam said. “It’s only against the rules if you get caught.”

Liam glanced at Briony, and she saw his hand reach for her. She waited for the shock. The pain. Anything.

Liam’s brow furrowed. Briony glanced at Toven, who showed no surprise at the lack of results. He was still watching her, almost disapprovingly.

Liam tried again.

“Hey!” They turned to see Rory looking furiously at Liam. “Are you boosting?” Rory hissed. “From the daughter of the king!”

“That’s rich, coming from you,” Toven said.

Rory turned his glare on him. “What are you talking about?”

Toven looked to Briony again, as if waiting for her to explain.

Was she boosting him? Was that what it was when she sent him her magic? But it didn’t exhaust or pain her to send her magic to Rory, like it had done to Katrina when taken from her.

“I’m hearing talk of boosting over here,” Tutor Amelia said as she arrived. “I hope we all know that the use of boosting from a human is grounds for expulsion for the Bomardi, not to mention illegal for the Eversuns.”

Briony blinked at her, shock creeping over her skin. She looked down at her boots, worrying her lip between her teeth.

The Bomardi boys muttered excuses, but as a group they seemed to stop whatever it was they had been doing. As class ended, with no one but Rory able to fully cut down a tree, Briony stayed behind with Katrina, who was almost back to full strength again.

“Katrina, what is boosting? I’ve never heard of it.”

Katrina sighed. “It’s a quick boost of heart magic, only without permission.”

Briony frowned at her, waiting for more.

Katrina continued. “Heart magic can be shared, like when a couple marries and decides to share their magic. They become heartsprings with each other in a ceremony that’s usually incorporated into the marriage vows.

” Katrina reached for her words. “Kind of like combining your gold when you combine your families, the heart magic gets combined, making each person better, stronger. Since heart magicians grow weaker faster, it’s like an alternative to bonding to an animal familiar.

Or an addition, really, as you can have both. ”

“I’ve heard of spouses sharing heart magic, but that’s a mutual cycle of power, I thought,” Briony said as they reached the stairs. “Liam took something from you, didn’t he?”

Katrina winced. Her hand rubbed her chest, almost unconsciously.

“Yeah. It feels like a zap, like a sizzle of lightning. Boosting feels like that when the magic is taken from you. If he’d asked permission, or if I’d given my magic freely, it wouldn’t be painful.”

Briony’s skin tingled. She gave her magic to Rory all the time. She’d never thought of it as something that could be taken from her, only shared.

“So you can give or take heart magic without being bonded as heart … heart—”

“Heartsprings, yes. The official bond keeps the magic flowing at all times. It’s usually tied to jewelry. My parents …” Katrina swallowed. “Even though my father didn’t use heart magic as an Eversun, he still gave it freely to my mother through their wedding rings.”

Briony glanced at her. Katrina’s face was pale with the effort of climbing the stairs, and her eyes were watery as she spoke of her parents.

A pang went through Briony as she thought of what it would have been like to lose a mother that she’d known for fifteen years instead of one she’d never known at all.

She supposed she and Katrina might have some things in common after all.

“It sounds like the heartspring bond is synonymous with love, in a way,” Briony said with a smile. “We don’t have anything like it in Evermore. It’s lovely.”

“It’s not always tied to love.” Katrina checked the hall to make sure there were no eavesdroppers before lowering her voice.

“There are some people in Bomard—in the woods or far from the cities—who, like Liam, don’t ask permission.

There are betrothals in the deep country that occur just for the dowry of the person’s magic.

There’s no cycle of magic between the spouses, just excess for one.

It’s becoming more and more common, too.

There are even people kept as servants, their magic weakened by the daily drain. ”

They stopped in between staircases so Katrina could rest.

Briony’s mind was whirring. “How is this allowed in Bomard? Why isn’t it illegal everywhere?” she asked.

Katrina’s brows shot up. “I mean, what do you think caused our countries to split apart six hundred years ago? We were one happy country on this continent for so long—”

“Until Vindecci discovered mind magic, and the Bomardi refused to learn it,” Briony said, reciting the history.

Katrina’s nose wrinkled. “That’s the history they taught you? Truly? Daughter of the king?”

A boiling fury rose in Briony’s chest. She hated when she was made to feel uninformed. She pushed it down and focused on the here and now.

“I don’t understand. Does my father know what’s happening in Bomard?” Briony asked.

“I’m sure he does. But why start another war over it?” Katrina shrugged and started to move up the stairs again. “It’s really nice of you to wait for me, by the way.”

Briony pasted on a weak smile and nodded.

She had so many questions now, but what worried her the most was she now knew she had been “boosting” Rory throughout their lives. And not only was it illegal in her country and prohibited at school … but now, Toven Hearst knew about it.