Free Recipe for Magic by Agatha Bird

glittered instantly with frost.
    “Landyn?” Connor said warily, his breath fogging in front of him.
    Their eyes locked, and Connor nearly recoiled at the coldness in Landyn’s gaze.
    “Connor,” Landyn said. “I think this has gone on long enough, don’t you?”
    “What?”
    “This,” Landyn said, gesturing between them, his mouth a sharp sneer. “It’s the night before the Trial, and you still haven’t mastered your barrier spell. Your magic is sloppy. I can’t show up with you for the Trial. I might as well do it on my own.”
    Connor’s blood felt thick and sluggish; he could feel his pulse pounding in his neck. “What are you saying?”
    “I’m saying that I can’t believe you turned out to be such a disappointment, and I’m not going to let you drag me down with you,” Landyn said.
    The words hit Connor like daggers. “Landyn, what’s wrong with you?”
    “There’s nothing wrong with me,” Landyn said. His smile was like a thin sheet of ice on a pond, ready to crack with the slightest pressure. “And there’s everything wrong with you. You must think I’m a fool. I certainly feel like one. I can’t believe I fell for— It doesn’t matter. You want out, fine. I don’t need you. I’ll do the Trial myself.”
    Connor’s brows furrowed in confusion as he began to grow angry. “Hold on, I didn’t do anything.”
    “That’s the worst part,” Landyn said bitterly. “You honestly don’t think you did anything wrong. This is how you live your life. You don’t care about anyone but yourself. You’re as arrogant and entitled as I always suspected.”
    “Listen, I don’t know what your problem is, if this is just nerves before the Trial or what, but you’re crossing a line, Landyn.”
    “ I’m crossing a line?” Landyn laughed shrilly. “You’re a worthless mage, you have an appalling lack of precision and control in your spellcasting, and you can’t even do a barrier spell correctly.”
    The words struck like blows. “I’m not worthless!” Connor said, his temper flaring. “I’m worth ten of you. What do you have that I don’t?”
    “Intelligence? A sense of decency? I could go on.”
    “I think you’ve said enough. You’re a piece of work, Glendower. No wonder you never had any friends.”
    “Damn you to the deepest sea!” Landyn said. He was blinking hard. “I thought I had you !”
    “Well, you don’t,” Connor said with barely controlled rage. “Not anymore.” He stomped out of the room and made sure to slam the door behind him.
    When he looked back, the door had frozen over in a thick sheet of ice, and water rushed out from underneath, filling the hall with the salt smell of the ocean.
    Or maybe those were the tears he scrubbed off his cheeks.
     
     
    A FTER A miserable, sleepless night that left him red-eyed and exhausted, Connor sat huddled in a large chair in the common room the next morning, feeling blackened inside. He’d piled blankets and pillows around himself in a warm, comfortable nest that hid him from prying eyes. Everyone had gone to the Trial and the common room was empty; that suited Connor just fine. He wanted to wallow in peace.
    Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Landyn’s face and remembered the flinch as his barbed words hit home.
    He didn’t know why Landyn had turned on him, but it made his stomach turn to think that Landyn had never cared. That what he’d thought they’d shared had never been important to Landyn at all. Landyn had decided that Connor wasn’t good enough.
    Connor alternated between anger and anguish. He wanted to tell Landyn to take a long walk off a short volcano ridge, but he also wanted to grab Landyn and shake him and ask what went wrong.
    A failure. That’s what he was. The Gloomwood was looking more and more like his best option.
    The slam of a bedroom door down the hall made him hunch farther into the blankets.
    “Come on, we’re going to be late. Your hair looks fine. Stones, Elisa, get a move