Han just rolled his eyes. At first he hadn’t really cared about becoming a blueblood—it was Crow’s price for the ongoing lessons. Now he was realizing how much there was to learn. How it could open doors for him.

For whatever reason, he was getting on better with Crow. These days his teacher’s barbs had less sting to them. He’d also broadened their curriculum to include other, more intricate aspects of magic beyond hex charms. Han could tell that Crow loved this stuff, and loved having someone to share it with. When Han mastered a difficult bit of spellwork, Crow would lift his face to the heavens and say, “The boy is brilliant! Truly he is!” A touch sarcastic, but a compliment all the same.

Han compared Crow to Rebecca—his other private tutor. He admired her backbone, even when it got in his way. He tried not to dwell on her green eyes, brilliant against her coppery skin, the flashes of ankle beneath her long skirts. He noticed everything—the way she drew her dark brows together and bit her lower lip when she was thinking; the way she waved her hands around when she talked; her shape under that dirtback uniform.

He’d let her know he was interested. Usually that was all it took, but she’d ignored his signals for weeks. Maybe bluebloods went about it a different way.

Or maybe she had no interest in walking out with a street rat turned wizard.

“Let’s discuss power management,” Crow said, wrenching Han away from his thoughts and signaling it was time to get down to business. “There are ways to leverage the power you have so that you don’t squander it all doing relatively minor tasks.”

“Leverage,” Han repeated dutifully.

“For instance, it takes less power to persuade someone else to do a task for you than to use magic to do it yourself. You can explode a boulder, or you can magically influence someone to smash it with a pickax. The second option requires less power, especially if that person is weak-willed.”

“Less power for you,” Han pointed out. “But not for the person with the pickax.”

“Of course,” Crow said, brushing the point aside as if that were obvious. “Here’s another example. You could set young Bayar aflame, which would require considerable power, especially if he resists, as is likely. It would be less taxing although more hit-or-miss to burn down his dormitory while he sleeps.”

It was still there, that constant incitement to action against the Bayars before they came after him again. Han tried to take what he could get from his sessions with Crow without allowing himself to be goaded. He’d be getting in the way of the Bayars soon enough, and his primary target was back in the Fells. It was easier to ignore them now that they’d moved out of his dormitory.