Death by Fire (Dual Mage Book 1) by S.C. Muir

Author:S.C. Muir [Muir, S.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-10-17T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter seventeen

Mari

W hen Mari was twelve, her instructor had required her to show her classmates how to move souls around on command. For six days straight, Mari had practiced her magic day and night, needing it to be perfect for her presentation. She’d barely eaten or slept for nearly a week, lying awake in her bed imagining every scenario of how it could go wrong: she could fall, not summon anything at all, or move the wrong thing at the wrong time. Then all of her classmates would laugh at her—the useless daughter of Yu’güe’s leaders.

The day it came time for her to showcase her magic, she stood at the front of the class, hands shaking and palms sweating. Her instructor had told her to relax, but all Mari could hear was the pounding of blood in her ears. Instead of summoning her souls, the contents of her stomach had come flying out. She’d panicked and fainted, crashing her head onto the cold ground.

Now, eight years later, she made sure to not eat anything before stepping under the makeshift stage set up at the bottom of the palace steps. A circular hole loomed above her, where she and Zahir would appear as the metal platform they stood on rose. Mari wiped her sweaty palms on her dress skirts and took several deep breaths.

“Are you all right?” Zahir asked, taking Mari’s hand.

Mari felt that the gesture was out of place since she and Zahir hadn’t spoken since their argument the previous afternoon. Mari hadn’t spoken to Zahir when she’d returned from the library at the end of the day, stacks of books in her arms. She’d found him already asleep and, by the time she woke this morning, he was already gone.

Mari shook her head. “Nervous.”

She looked straight ahead, worried about vomiting on Zahir seconds before his coronation.

Zahir rubbed his thumb across the back of Mari’s hand. “It’s going to be fine. You don’t even have to do anything. Do you get nervous in front of crowds?”

“Extremely.” Mari barely trusted herself enough to respond with single words to Zahir’s questions.

“Hey,” Zahir paused and Mari turned to glance at him, her head spinning. “You are going to be fine. Just smile and it will be over before you know it. All you have to do is kneel there and then watch me speak. That’s it. Everyone will be looking at me, not you.”

Mari nodded and rested her forehead on Zahir’s shoulder. “This is embarrassing. You know my biggest fears, and you don’t seem to have any.”

“I told you, failure.”

“That’s not embarrassing.”

Zahir was silent for several seconds before he took a deep breath, whispering into Mari’s ear so the guards wouldn’t overhear. “Thunderstorms. I can’t sleep if there’s thunder and lightning outside. It’s really embarrassing.”

“That is embarrassing.” Mari smiled, shaking her head. “Does it thunder often in Brahn?”

“Our rainy season is coming up. Just wait. If you like storms, it’s wonderful. If you can’t stand them, it is an absolute nightmare.”

Just then, the

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