A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One Read Free Page A

can open a little shop. You and me together. We’ll be bookshop owners!”
    “Really?” Bess’s eyes turned suddenly hopeful. “You mean as equals?”
    “Yes!” Yasra laughed. “As equals!”
    “Well, I have a little money saved as well. We can use that too. Only then will I think it fair we call ourselves equals.”
    “All right then!” Yasra laughed. “Oh Bess. This is going to be so wonderful!”
    Bess caught up with her excitement. “We should go look for a store to let as soon as possible. We will need to buy books for the shelves as soon as we can.”
    “We’ll use these,” Yasra said, indicating her large collection.
    “Oh Yas! No! This is your library!”
    “Bess, I’ve read them all dozens of times already. I won’t miss any of them. And any that are special to me, like the ones you gave me, I will keep aside. We will start to collect others as soon as we have enough money. Many of these books are hard to find and they will get snatched up immediately. We will have money aplenty soon enough.” Yasra said.
    “I hope so,” Bess said, nibbling on her bottom lip anxiously. “I want you to be comfortable and happy. How were you able to put so much money aside when they gave you so little?”
    “Whenever I needed a dress I would ask for more than I needed. I would forego meat and buy us only fish. My parents gave me a little money for incidentals every month and I never spent any of it. It was just enough to put a little aside. A silver here a penny there and before you know it…I’ve a few gold pieces put aside. I knew this day was coming and I wanted to be prepared for it.”
    “Well we’re lucky you had such foresight. For my part, living here with you and eating your food made it possible for me to save just about every penny you ever paid me! I’ve a few gold pieces put aside myself!”
    “Come on, let’s go find a shop to let!” Yasra cried, bouncing up onto her feet excitedly. Bess followed quickly behind her.
    The two women headed out, chatting gaily about all the things they were going to do for their new shop.

Chapter Two
    Yasra was impatient for the testing to begin. She found it funny that she wasn’t under duress for the first time since she’d begun testing so many years ago. She was truly impatient…actually looking forward to her failure this time. It was the last step necessary before she finally was free from anything and everything to do with majic. She would officially be declared a non and that would be the end of it. So she was relaxed and content to sit back and watch the others around her fret and worry about their tests.
    She was looking around the field, past the tables of elements, and across to the tent housing all of the instructors and mentors. She recognized almost every last one of them, all of them being associated with her parents in one way or another. Their school was a particularly large one. The schools were simple. A school was for all of the students of majic that had yet to test out for a specific house. Once the student tested out of the school, they were then assigned a house and would go to the furtherance school associated with that house. For instance, if a student tested out to have nature majic, they would belong to the Padoni house and would from then on go to Padoni furtherance school. If the student proved to have fire majic during their testing, they would belong to the Torenic house from that moment on and would go to Torenic furtherance school where they would advance in level each according to their skill. Some students would test out to average levels and would have to start out at the lowest level of the house furtherance school, but some…some tested so strongly and with such skill that they entered the furtherance school at already a high level.
    In the past Yasra had not cared which house or even if she’d had to start all the way at the beginning, as long as she showed the smallest bit of aptitude for majic. But now she no