Page 109 of Ashes of Aether

“Because if it was Thursday night, then my last trial would be in the morning,” I hastily reply. He doesn’t need to know about my date with Nolan. I don’t think he would mind—and if he does, it would only be because of my Mage Trials being held this week—but I don’t feel like telling him. Though we are close, we don’t have that kind of relationship. If my mother were still here, I would tell her in a heartbeat. She would laugh at how I ran into Nolan and broke all of his wine bottles. Her absence leaves a gaping hole in my heart, one I doubt will ever heal.

I miss her so very much.

I stare at my hands. My father is silent. His magenta eyes don’t leave me, as if he fears I will collapse again. If I do, at least I’m already lying in bed.

“What about Kaely?” I ask. As I await his answer, I chew on my lip. I don’t want her to be dead. Not really. If only because it would make me a murderer.

“She was in an even worse state than you,” he says with a sigh. “Archmage Calton was beside himself when they found her inside a tomb of cooled magma.”

“A tomb?” My lower lip trembles, betraying my emotion. “She... She is alive, isn’t she?”

“It will be a few days before she will be able to walk. She is lucky to be alive.”

I swallow down my guilt. A few tears well in my eyes, but I blink them away and blame them on all the turmoil.

“Did she pass the trial?” I ask, not meeting his gaze.

“No, she did not.”

“So, she will never become a mage now?” Once, I thought such knowledge would fill me with glee. But it doesn’t. It just makes me feel hollow and heavy.

He shakes his head. “She will not. I suppose that is punishment enough for her actions.”

“For her actions? What do you mean? Archmage Gidston said that the usual rules didn’t apply on our Mage Trials. That we wouldn’t be punished for attacking each other.”

“Yes, you are right. She broke no rules. As the Grandmage of Nolderan, I cannot punish her for what she did. But she nearly killed you, Reyna. And as your father, I cannot accept that.”

“Well, I also nearly killed her. And I think I did a better job at it, too. I bet Archmage Calton was furious at me, wasn’t he?”

“He was,” my father replies. “He also tried to have you disqualified from the Mage Trials, but Archmage Gidston reminded him that the trials do not come without risk.”

“I definitely passed, didn’t I?” I ask, dread knotting my stomach. “I didn’t imagine Archmage Gidston telling me I passed the trial?”

“No, you didn’t imagine it,” he says. “Though I did hear there was little time to spare.” There’s a sharpness to those words.

Here I am lying wounded in bed, and he’s disappointed that I completed the trial too slowly. Even though I defeated Kaely, it’s still not enough.

“That wasn’t my fault. If Kaely hadn’t attacked me, I wouldn’t have needed to navigate through the rest of the maze injured and on the brink of collapsing. It was only thanks to Eliya that I made it out.”

“That wasn’t how I meant it.”

“Then how did you mean it?”

“As you said, it wasn’t your fault, and I don’t believe for a second that you would have instigated the fight.”

“If I hadn’t passed, would you be angry with me?”

“Of course not,” he says, taking my hand in his. “When the healer was examining you, for a moment I thought...”

That he might lose me. Just like he lost my mother.

He says none of those words, but I know he means them. I can tell by the way his brows pinch together and his eyes stare down at our hands.

I squeeze his thumb, since his hands are much larger than mine. When I was younger, the size difference was even more astonishing.

“If it’s six o’clock,” I say, breaking the brief silence, “shouldn’t you be working?”

“I was in a meeting when Archmage Gidston called for me, and I immediately teleported over to the Arcanium.”