Hours later, I stared up at the crimson roses carved on my ceiling as I lay in bed. After the bizarre oath moment with Cassius, he’d marched away like I offended him and told me to sleep because we had work to do today. And to my great annoyance, I obeyed—not because of the oath, but because the rush of power had left me utterly spent.

Rest had done me good, but I still couldn’t say I was sure that making the oath was the right thing to do. All my reasons held up in the light of day as I replayed the scene in my mind though, so I guess it was right for then. Whether or not it would come back to bite me in the ass remained to be seen.

I sighed as I realized this would be the first thing I had to report to my mother. Once she was done berating me over whatever mistakes she found, her advice would actually probably be good. There was a reason she was the top sorceress after all. I made a note to have at least one wholly positive thing to tell her when I finally sent my message via raven. An old-school method, but no self-respecting villain would trust their plans to anything less vicious and spiteful than a messenger raven. And bonus, it gave me time before I had to deal with her response.

Wincing, I tried to shove down the dread at the thought of talking to the one person I could actually speak to about my mission. It was hard not to feel alone with my plans, and I wished I could talk to someone else, someone closer and less…intense than my mom. Perhaps Cassius one day, if he proved I could trust him…

Ha.

I knew the truth. Even if the prince turned out to secretly be a big marshmallow on the inside—gag—complete trust was never an option. The Key Sorcerer never truly trusted anyone. And I could trust even less.

Unlike my mother, I was the only sorcerer alive in the kingdom who could wield all four elements. It was incredibly rare, most people could only control one or two. But I’d lucked out as the child of two strong sorcerer lines. I inherited the flow of air and water from my mother and the strength of earth and fire from my father…whoever he’d been.

That old, aching wish that I’d gotten the chance to know him crept back into my chest and I let it sit for a moment instead of shoving it back down. All I knew of him was his name, Luca, and that he died in the Fifty Years War with the heroes. His sacrifice had given the kingdom, not peace exactly, but the carnage had stopped.

Mother didn’t speak of him much, if ever, but I was pretty sure she grieved him in her own way. Whenever I asked about him as a child, the look of pain on her face tore at my heart and then she’d stop speaking and sequester herself in her room for a day or so. Eventually, I learned to stop asking. As much as I wanted to know him, it wasn’t worth losing and hurting my mother in the process.

A door slammed outside my room and then muffled shouting started right on its heels. Welcome to life with five boys, I thought wryly, flipping back the covers.

I flung open the wardrobe, scanning my options. Yesterday, I’d just wanted to get everything put away, so I didn’t really notice what my mother had packed for me, but now that I was looking at it, I sighed. Why did she always want me in a cloak? I wouldn’t mind a nice jacket with sleeves if bare arms just weren’t evil enough, but she always insisted on the damn cloaks. There was one in every color, in different weights and embroidery patterns. At least they’re nice cloaks.

I picked purple today, a powerful color that was not bloodred, and found the corset style shirt to match. These were the other parts of my sorceress “uniform,” visually appealing, but still functional—the steel boning made me harder to stab.

Angelo’s drawing flashed in my mind, but I pushed it away as I tugged on my leggings. Futurists’ visions were never absolute—no divination was. I’d worry about it when I saw a bolo knife coming at me. But the corset made me feel a tiny bit better.

I threw on the cloak first so I wouldn’t muss my hair as I’d been taught, then went about detangling and following Mother’s strict makeup routine. It was my first day at the academy, and I had to look “visually appealing at all times,” after all.

***

When I finally stepped out of my room, I was surprised to see my roommates lounging in the common areas—none of them fully dressed. I sighed. Welcome to living with boys indeed.

Men, I corrected myself, definitely not staring at the abs on display all around. These are definitely men.

Alceste leaned against the kitchen counter, his button-down shirt left open as he sucked blood from a clear pouch in his hand. Numair was in front of the mirror in nothing but blue sweats that matched the hair he was considering pairing with the gold eyes he had picked for today. Angelo was curled in the window seat, idly tapping his pencil on his knee as he stared out at the grounds. He at least wore a shirt, but the neck and arm holes were so large I could see everything, and the sun on his skin practically made him glow.

Nope, definitely not staring.

Valrun was on the couch in black pants, a shirt over one shoulder while he winced, rotating the other. I went over to him, glancing over his back. The intricate tattoos were more impressive in the light of day.

“How’s your wing?” Valrun looked up at me with a smile—and froze. “What?” I asked with a nervous chuckle, looking behind me to see what I was missing. But I only found the other guys all silent and staring…at me. I cocked an eyebrow. “What exactly are we looking at?” I asked coolly.

Before anyone spoke, Cassius’s door opened and he strode out, fixing his diamond cufflinks. Unlike the unruly men around me, he was dressed to the nines in a perfectly tailored suit that made his shoulders look miles wide. How had the buttons stayed put over all that muscle?

I shook the drooling thoughts from my mind as he skimmed a cursory glance over the room and smirked. “Well, they’re all looking at you, of course, my Key Sorcerer to be.”

Angelo started and turned hastily back to the window, Numair and Alceste looked sharply at the prince, and Valrun, well, he just looked at me and grinned. I looked down at myself and shrugged. It was a tighter top than my usual, but that wasn’t my fault. Mother insisted that corsets went with cloaks. I was just glad I’d won the war over wearing pants.

“Have we never seen a sorceress in purple before?” I said slowly. There really wasn’t anything that remarkable about my clothes, was there?

Numair tipped back his head and laughed. “Wow, you have no idea how hot you are, do you?”

A flush flooded my cheeks and I had to resist the urge to pull the cloak tighter around myself. Damn my mother and damn this outfit. It was having exactly the effect she wanted—and I wanted to crawl out of my skin.

“Uh, thanks?” I said, but then her voice blasted in my mind like she was beside me. When complimented—as my daughter, you will be—always act cool and unaffected. You are owed their praise, so work it to your advantage.

Putting on my best Fortunata voice, I tossed my hair and proclaimed, “Well, it’s easy when you’re born looking this g-good.” The flush intensified as my voice squeaked on the last word.

There was a moment of silence—and then everyone burst out laughing.

“Wow, you need to work on that hair flip,” Alceste said, wiping a tear from his eye. “You almost took Valrun out.”

I glanced, chagrinned, at the demon, and he grinned. “It wasn’t a terrible villainess attempt. You just need to own it.” He stood and leaned to murmur in my ear, “And perhaps not be so nice.”

Embarrassed, I shot him a glare. “Fine, then next time I’ll make sure to leave you and your broken wing for nature to deal with.”

For some reason, that seemed to delight Valrun, but Cassius cleared his throat loudly, interrupting whatever he was going to say. I turned to find a deep frown of displeasure on the prince’s face as he looked between me and Valrun.

“We should get going,” he said, and somehow made it sound like a threat. He turned for the door, and I rolled my eyes, weighing how much trouble I’d be in if I told him to shove it.

My gaze snagged on Angelo, on the concerned look on his face. I mouthed, “Are you okay?” but he just nodded and turned away. I wondered if he had another vision—and if it was about me—but I didn’t push him in front of everyone.

I just turned back to where Cassius waited by the door. “Where exactly do we have to be?” I asked, but he ignored me and strode outside without a word. Because of course. I just waved to the guys and followed him out at my own pace.

He continued to ignore me until we got outside. Well, by then, I’d had enough. He didn’t get to just boss me around and expect blind obedience. I had to nip that in the bud now. Intent on getting answers, I grabbed his arm—and the prince whirled on me, pissed.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he growled.