Weysh’s breath was coming in ragged pants by now. The dizzying scope of his anger alarmed him. Not even Montpierre could get him this riled. Only this woman, his Given, could cut him so deep. Emotion rumbled and built inside his chest until it spewed forth like a plume of flame.

“APOLOGIZE!” he roared at her. “This instant! Or I swear by all that is holy you will never hear from me again!”

She was shaking, and he caught a trace of sickly-sweet dismay among the smoky heat of her anger, but all she said was, “Good.”

Weysh gawked at her, and something inside him seemed to snap and crumble. She couldn’t possibly be serious, but her face was hard and unyielding. Why? Why was it always so easy for her to dismiss him? Weysh rose, weak and weary like a man three times his age.

“So be it. Good-bye, Yenni Ajani,” he said, and stormed away, ignoring the salty, brackish scent of her tears on the air.

Later that evening, Yenni ran a finger along the plush velvet of the armrest of her common room armchair, lost in thought.

“You seem distracted,” said Diedre. She gently took Yenni’s left hand across the low tea table between them, tracing a finger along the welt left by her cut. She tsked her tongue at it. “How are you holdin’ up, mams?”

Yenni sighed. She knew Diedre was referring not only to her injury, but to how she was coping since the attack in town. Over the last couple of weeks, people Yenni barely knew had been coming up to her in all her classes to ask for the gory details, and also to ask if she was truly a dragon’s Given. Her nerves were already stretched thin with worry about her father, and she had snapped at her classmates more than once for their intrusive and idiotic questions. She knew she was making a terrible impression, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

“I’m doing my best to stay focused. I must pass the next set of exams,” said Yenni. “And you? Your shoulder?”

Diedre waved dismissively. “Is all patched up. An’ don’t fret yourself over exams, they’re not for over a moonturn, an’ from what I see of your study sessions with me you’ll be jus’ fine. Watch, is only a couple weeks pass an’ already you’re better at almost all the spells was givin’ you a hard time. Uhad’s Retrievin’, Fenton’s Body Bind—”

“Yes, I definitely wanted to master that one. But I need to master Mereena’s Unbinding,” said Yenni. She gestured to the knotted piece of rope on the table before them. “I’m almost certain it will be on Mainard’s next examination.”