Thorns of Frost (Fae of Snow & Ice, #2)(11)
A smack to the back of my head jolted me forward.
“Enough of that salivating, Lady Seary. We are here to work!”
My cheeks flamed, even more so when the prince cast a knowing look over his shoulder. Embarrassment tumbled through me. Bastard. He’d probably removed his shirt just because he knew it would catch my attention.
Clenching my jaw, I firmly ignored him and concentrated on what Matron Olsander was telling me.
She sat straighter, her no-nonsense aura piercing. “Now, as I was saying, we’ll start with a series of tests.”
My new tutor spent the next hour going through a multitude of magical assessments that I neither understood nor could explain, but from what I could deduce, my tutor’s affinity was an unusual one. Every time Matron Olsander began a new test, I felt something foreign probing inside me, and after working up the courage to ask her what it was she was doing, she finally told me I was feeling her affinity.
Apparently, her affinity was a mental one and lay in her ability to sense, stoke, and call out others’ magic while helping them learn to master it. It was what made her such an excellent tutor.
When she finally finished, she sat back and rubbed her chin. “You’re strong, very strong indeed, but I sense other things in you. Slumbering abilities perhaps that haven’t fully manifested.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I don’t believe you’re fully manifested yet, Lady Seary. I believe there’s more to come.”
My hands fluttered. “Are you serious?”
“Do I look like the joking type?”
“No, I mean, it’s just that—” I stumbled with what to say. To have more affinities manifest, as crazy as that would be, meant that the king could take an even stronger interest in me. Not good.
Matron Olsander shook her head. “You’re an unusual one, Ilara Seary, daughter of Mervalee Territory. Your magic feels unique. I can’t say I’ve encountered another like you before, but something feels deeper in you. Perhaps yet untouched, or maybe not. I could be wrong.”
Please be wrong. “What about the queen? Isn’t she like me?”
“She’s also an unusual one, although she’s unique in her own way. You and she may share the same hair color, but your magic . . .” She shook her head. “While comparable in strength, your affinities are too different to be considered similar.”
I could sense the prince’s interest from across the room. He’d stopped doing chin-ups a while ago and now stood by the wall, watching and waiting. But since he hadn’t put his shirt back on, I’d refused to look at him again.
But now, after Matron Olsander had revealed what she had, his aura strengthened, brushing around us, demanding my attention. I shivered, trying to dispel the feelings he so easily provoked in me.
The matron cut him a sharp look. “Prince Norivun, if you insist on observing us, I am going to request that you either suppress your Outlets or go elsewhere to expel them.”
The prince dipped his head. “Apologies, Matron Olsander.”
I frowned. “Outlets?”
The matron sighed. “Blessed, I forget how new you are to all of this. Outlets are a learned control of one’s magic, something you shall have to master as well, lest you suffer the consequences. When a fairy is as powerful as the prince and you, magic can begin to build up in one’s system. It’s imperative that you let steady streams of it out, otherwise it can fester, building inside and resulting in harm to oneself or those around you.”
“Oh.” I sat back, stunned and embarrassed that I literally knew nothing about magic. Since I’d never formed an affinity during maturing age, I’d been labeled a defective, which meant I’d bypassed that part of secondary school. Instead of learning about my magical affinity and how to control it, I’d been sent to the fields to learn about the crops several winters before the other village children.
“Tell me,” my tutor continued, ignoring my blush. “Have you been experiencing any unusual symptoms lately? Perhaps intense aches, electrical jolts, severe stomach cramps, or moments of amnesia?”
I frowned, then thought about the strange reactions I’d had last night at the Betrothed Ball when the king and crown prince had been speaking of me. Several times, it’d felt as though lightning coursed through my veins, and then while dancing with Nuwin, I’d experienced something similar.
“Perhaps the electric one?” I explained in more detail what had occurred last night.
“Oh my.” Matron Olsander shook her head. “You’re already in need of learning Outlets. What you’re describing is your magic building and having nowhere else to go, so it’s attacking your essence and creating electrical responses beyond your control. Very well, we shall start there and then progress as needed as you learn to call forth each of your affinities individually and in tandem. On your feet. Now.”
I scrambled to a stand, and for the first time, realized I didn’t feel the prince’s aura. Frowning, I wondered if he’d left the room, but when I glanced his way, he still stood by the wall, his arms crossed and his bare chest on display.
He winked, and I hurriedly looked away.
“Is that why I usually feel the prince’s aura so strongly?” I asked my tutor quietly. “Because he lets his magic out through his Outlets?”