The Devoted: A Reverse Harem Omnibus (The Devoted Season Book 1)(11)

I MEET THE FIELD AGAIN. This time, I’m actually able to get a good look at it as Cullen leads me around the sprawling white arena centered within the wide green field.

There isn’t much to it. The academy looms at our backs, massive, towering, and overbearing. With the shadow of the falling sun creeping over it, it makes the stone dragon look like it’s a living, breathing, thing. As the sun-shadow creeps over the stone dragon’s back, I can make out little divots of scales. Golden scented dew sparkles on the little divots.

“Amazing,” I breathe.

“Stonemasonry at its finest,” Cullen says.

There are others out in the field training, sitting cross-legged, or simply hanging out. A plethora of colored robes meanders out here. I catch a glimpse of other first years, but the amount of Initiates easily outnumbers them three to one. Like Cullen, some are simply wearing civilian clothes without any robes. I nibble my bottom lip and wonder if Cullen is among the Initiates or new joins. With his cold confidence, it seems like he might even be above the Initiates.

We find a spot no one has laid claim to. Cullen stops and scans around, probably checking the distance between us and the others training or idling about.

“Are you my remedial tutor?” I blurt.

It’s like his eyes are permanently shrouded in sleep, “You could say that,” he shrugs, “I saw it first hand, you know.”

When I burned Iris to a blackened crisp. I sneer and stare at my boots, “So...you’re one of the Instructor’s assistants?”

“No,” he digs the heel of his boot into the grass, “I’m a new join. Just like you,”

I stifle a gasp. I almost want to ask how, but I know how. Firedrake only picks the best of the best. If I paid more attention to my fellow new joins, I’d see why I should just pack up and leave.

But damned if I don’t try harder.

Cullen lowers himself to the grass and sits, crossing his legs. He pats the spot adjacent and I follow suit.

“If you’re my remedial tutor, are you going to teach me how to fight?”

Cullen shakes his head, “Discipline. That’s what you need.”

Picking up my pant leg, I force my legs to cross. I’m not sure what to say to that. My magic has always been uncontrollable. I can get it working one way for a certain amount of time but eventually, it all falls apart and goes haywire. What happened in Instructor Caterina’s class is no different.

But what about the room? The fire?

I shrug, then force it out of my mind.

“How did you feel when you burned your partner?”

I meet his eyes. He’s gone all analytical on me and I hate it. “Why didn’t I get a real tutor?”

Cullen smirks, “I am a real tutor,”

“No,” I snap, “You’re a new join—just like me,”

Pressing his hands onto his thighs, he rocks back, his eyes on the trees circling the field. “I’m from Albius, Miss Heart. Do you know what it’s like to be a mage in Albius?”

My tongue glides against the backside of my teeth. I’m a Luca native. True, I knew of the other nations that make up the Three Kingdoms, but I’ve never had the time to learn about them. From birth till now, all that has ever mattered to me and my dad were my magical studies and learning to control the mass of mana I’ve been given. Eighteen years and my magic is still uncontrollable and dangerous.

“I thought so,” his knowing gaze meets my confused one and he smiles, the smile darkening as it devolves into a smirk, “Imagine being given two choices at sixteen: one, you spend the rest of your life in a mana mine, or two, you join a Circle and swear on your life to never leave the premises.” His features are smooth like stone, expressionless, “I wouldn’t call myself lucky but...,” he shrugs, offering me a shy smile, “I know how to hide a magical signature. I’ve had friends that couldn’t hide it. Wouldn’t hide it. Especially from their families. One day they would be home and the next they’re gone mining mana somewhere in the deep south.” His eyes finally meet mine and a wave of remorse washes over me, threatening to drown me.

“I had no idea...”

“Of course. Why would you?” he shrugs half-heartedly, his smile returning in small fragments, “Luca is...different. Surprisingly so.”

I lean forward, trying hard not to bounce, “So, you’re going to teach me to repress my magic?”

“No, I’m going to teach you to harness it. To control it, Miss Heart,” he brings his hands to his knees, “But first, you must understand what exactly happened when you lost control of your fire earlier today.”

Fire? I called fire?

“Are you surprised?” he raises a dark eyebrow, “You didn’t know?”

I shake my head but stop myself. What does it mean if I didn’t know?

“Don’t worry,” he assures me, “I won’t tell anyone. But do you know what you felt when you lost control?”

“Like I was burning up,” I blurt, voice monotone. “Like something had transported me somewhere.”

“Where?”

His voice is soft and friendly. Unassuming. A cold sweat beads between my shoulder blades.

I cross my arms, “I don’t know,”

A moment of silence passes between us. Fighters cry in the distance. The carefree chatter of Initiates and new joins floats on a cool evening breeze.