Exams can be life-changing. Failing one just ended Allen’s promising career at the royal court before it began. Now, to make ends meet, the lowborn sorcerer must help one of the kingdom’s highest-born young ladies pass hers. Duke Howard’s daughter Tina has a brilliant mind, but the prestigious Royal Academy demands magic. Try as she might, she can’t cast a single spell, and her impairment has baffled the kingdom’s finest minds for years. With the all-important entrance exams just three months away, Allen and his unorthodox brand of spellcasting seem like her last hope to realize her dream of learning sorcery in the capital. So why does her father, the duke, want the young tutor to dash her dreams instead?
Exams can be life-changing. Failing one just ended Allen’s promising career at the royal court before it began. Now, to make ends meet, the lowborn sorcerer must help one of the kingdom’s highest-born young ladies pass hers. Duke Howard’s daughter Tina has a brilliant mind, but the prestigious Royal Academy demands magic. Try as she might, she can’t cast a single spell, and her impairment has baffled the kingdom’s finest minds for years. With the all-important entrance exams just three months away, Allen and his unorthodox brand of spellcasting seem like her last hope to realize her dream of learning sorcery in the capital. So why does her father, the duke, want the young tutor to dash her dreams instead?
Ellie’s magical talents blossom, but Tina still can’t manage a single spell—and her impairment continues to mystify their tutor, Allen. Watching her maid and friend leave her in the dust only adds to the young noblewoman’s stress, pushing Tina ever closer to her breaking point. When she finally snaps, Allen is left to brave the resulting storm alone. To save himself and his student, he must draw on every trick he knows—including one he’s sworn to never use again. But can even his last resort carry the day when he comes up against a being beyond his wildest dreams? Meanwhile, a change in Duke Howard’s attitude poses a different sort of threat to Tina’s future.
Tina has finally tapped into her magical talents. But despite her potent spells, her father the duke seems determined to renege on his promise and bar her path to the Royal Academy. Now her hopes and Ellie’s ride on one final test: a duel to prove that they can hold their own. The fledgling sorceresses have come far under the guidance of their brilliant young tutor, Allen, but their masked opponent won’t make things easy. To win her father’s approval, Tina will need to overcome her own house’s greatest strength. Can her newfound skills possibly measure up, even with friends at her back? And what drives the duke’s obsession with keeping her close at hand?