Awakening - Kerns Robert M.

Gavin Cross is a young man in an unfamiliar city with no knowledge of how he came to be there. A desperate choice awakens a power he must learn to control, or it will kill him.

Marcus is an ancient master, possessing countless secrets of forgotten lore. He trivializes workings of magic anyone else would say is impossible.

Gavin becomes Marcus's first apprentice in uncounted years and must thread his way through a society where people who've never met him regard him with unease at best or outright fear at worst. But when he discovers a plot to destabilize and overthrow that society, Gavin must make another choice.

Option One: a society's leadership who would prefer Gavin dead. Option Two: a traitor who actively seeks Gavin's death. Hmmm, looks like it's time to make Option Three...