Read Recipe for Magic for Free Online

reputation will suffer.”
    “You don’t have a reputation.”
    “Exactly,” Landyn said with a thin smile. “I’m far too intelligent to bother with juvenile pissing contests.”
    “I think you mean popularity contests.”
    “No, I don’t. It’s the same thing, as far as I’m concerned. Our fellow students are so preoccupied with the latest gossip, the next tournament, or their paramour of the week that they haven’t given any thought to what our lives will be like once we graduate.”
    “And you have?” Connor asked. He propped his head on his hand, watching the animated way Landyn spoke. Maybe he’d been hasty in writing Landyn off. There was something almost captivating about him as he warmed to his subject.
    “Obviously. There’s a whole world of spellwork out there. I intend to use my magic to do some good, like my mother and father. Did you know the southern territories are experiencing a severe drought? I can use my powers to help them find water underground. There are reports of Great Beast attacks increasing across the kingdoms. We need mages to fight them, but we also need mages to repair the damage the beasts leave behind. They killed a wyvern at Ferndell Lake just this week, but its body fell in the reservoir, so my mother had to spend days removing the poison and cleansing the water so it would be safe.”
    “Your mother is a King’s Mage,” Connor said, suddenly remembering. He sat up a little straighter.
    Landyn looked down his nose at Connor, clearly unimpressed. “Yes. She’s been on the Council longer than your father.”
    “I heard standards were lower in the beginning,” he said, unable to resist needling Landyn.
    Landyn’s eyes narrowed, and the air went cool and wet like a deep cave. “Say that again?”
    Connor gave Landyn a wide grin. “What’s the matter, Glendower? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?”
    “I can take it just fine,” Landyn snapped, and then went violently red for some reason and wouldn’t meet Connor’s eyes.
    Connor’s cheeks flushed in sympathy. He became abruptly aware of their legs pressed together under the desk, Landyn’s bony knee digging into his thigh through their robes.
    “Uh, maybe we should set up a practice schedule. If you still want to work together,” Connor said awkwardly. He leaned back in his chair and made a wide gesture with his hands. “My social calendar has recently opened, so I thought we could meet a few nights a week. We’ll need to cast small spells at first to get used to how our magic interacts. Then we can move to full conjuring.”
    “Hmm,” Landyn said, tapping his chin. “Should we use the arena? I have a key to one of the smaller practice rooms.”
    Connor raised his eyebrows. He didn’t have his own key. “How’d you manage that?”
    “I told you, I have an extra study period. I use it to practice my spellwork, so Headmaster Relvin let me have a key to one of the rooms since I’m there so often.”
    “Oh,” Connor said. That must be why he’d never noticed Landyn in the arena. “I thought you didn’t practice in the arena because the spellcasting was too intense.”
    “Of course you did,” Landyn said, rolling his eyes. “We can meet there and work on our spells. The space is big enough that you could conjure quite a large dragon. Eventually.”
    “I could conjure it right now,” Connor said, wiggling his fingers.
    “Probably best not in the library,” Landyn said, though it gave Connor a thrill to see that Landyn couldn’t keep from smiling. “Any dragon would still not be as fierce as Madame Lorenzi. I think her spectacles help focus her hatred when she glares.”
    Connor laughed long and loudly enough that several nearby students hissed at him to shut up, and Landyn looked quietly pleased with himself until Madame Lorenzi arrived, snorting angrily, and kicked them out.
    “We should turn in for the evening,” Landyn said, shifting from foot to foot outside the library’s