Burned by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #1)(41)

Oh please. As if you looked any better the last couple of times you were summoned. If he’d wanted you to wear better clothes, he would have had the servants provide you with some.

True. Clearly I was letting my hormones get the better of me again. Since when did I care what any man I wasn’t trying to f*ck thought of me? But I couldn’t stop the sigh that escaped my lips as I studied my reflection. I’d been without my leathers and weapons for so long now, it was like a different person looking back at me.

A knock on the door interrupted my pity-party. “Miss Baine, the Chief Mage is waiting.”

Grumbling, I wrenched the door open and stepped out into the hall. “Take me away, Captain.”

The guard frowned at me, then led me through the torch-lit corridors in silence. He was nothing like the other guards, who’d been more than happy to taunt, glare and leer at me depending on their mood, and it made me wonder whether Fenris or the Chief Mage had specifically chosen him for that reason. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it – on the one hand it was nice not to have to put up with that shit, but on the other hand it was weird not to hear it.

Clearly I had masochistic tendencies.

The guard stopped in front of the doors to the Chief Mage’s study, then opened them and stood back to let me in. “They’re waiting for you, Miss Baine.”

Sure enough, I stepped in to see Iannis sitting behind his desk, talking with Fenris who was lounging casually in the visitor’s chair in human form. They both rose at the sight of me, Fenris coming around the back of the desk to stand by the Chief Mage’s side. The sight reminded me of where Fenris’s loyalties lay, regardless of how nice he was to me. The door closed behind me, and I swallowed against the ball of nerves in my throat.

“Hi.” I clasped my hands behind my back so I wouldn’t fidget with them.

“Hi.” Fenris smiled at me reassuringly, but the Chief Mage remained silent and stony as usual. I held my breath, remembering his promise that I would not escape punishment. What was he going to do to me now?

“Right.” I clasped my hands in front of me. “So, would you mind telling me what my punishment’s supposed to be? Or did you call me here so you could study me in the hopes of finding new things to criticize?”

“Punishment?” The Chief Mage waved a hand dismissively. “There is no punishment. I just said that to satisfy our audience. This was simply a test.”

My jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”

“Why don’t you sit down,” Fenris said gently, indicating the chair he had vacated.

Normally I would have refused, since I’m more comfortable standing, but in my shock I numbly obeyed. “What part of the last twenty-four hours was a test?”

“All of it.” The Chief Mage took a seat as well, and Fenris remained standing next to him. “Your cousin making the rescue attempt, Chartis ordering you to come to a hearing, all of it.”

I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

“It had come to my attention that the Director has not been sharing pertinent information with me,” Iannis explained, clasping his hands together and resting them on the blotter covering his desk. “I do have eyes and ears in the city, and I found out through them that your cousin was going to make a rescue attempt last night. I strengthened the wards to make sure that he would fail and left with Fenris to see what would happen during my absence. As I suspected, Director Chartis decided to take matters into his own hands without first alerting me to the problem.”

A sense of foreboding filled me, and I leaned forward again. “Wait a minute. How did you know Rylan was coming?”

Iannis waved his hand dismissively. “As I said, I have spies. But if you’re worried as to whether or not I am going after your cousin, I shall not bother just yet. The Resistance is hardly a concern – they’re little more than a scattering of snakes hiding out in their holes in the desert country. There are more important matters requiring my attention at this time.”

I gritted my teeth as my hands curled into fists in my lap. The way he spoke of the Resistance, as if they were nothing more than a cockroach beneath his boot, made my blood heat, and not in a good way. But I decided against mentioning it – I had to pick my battles, and there was no way I was going to win this one, not now anyway.

Instead, I directed my anger to a more pertinent matter. “You know that both my cousin and I could have been killed last night, right?”

“A possibility, but highly unlikely since I calibrated the wards to ensure they were not set to kill.” His eyes gleamed as he regarded me. “I find it very interesting that you were able to breach the wards at all to free your cousin and his friends. That part of the plan was not anticipated.”

I scowled, crossing my arms over my chest. “Well if you hadn’t wanted me to do that, then maybe you shouldn’t have given me access to my magic.”

The Chief Mage shook his head. “The level of magic I granted you access to should not have been enough to allow you to bypass the reinforced perimeter. It should have barely been enough for you to breach the wards keeping you inside the palace walls.”

I sighed. “So what? We already know that my magic bursts out when I’m in danger. Is it really a stretch that it would do that when someone I care about is in danger too?”

The Chief Mage arched a brow. “Has that ever happened before?”