I couldn’t answer. I was ether.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
EMBER
The burning is not unpleasant.
— Hector Ambrosia, Echelon to the
School of Elemental Magic
He took slow steps toward his bed before stopping a foot in front of me and looking at the hole where I was, where there was nothing.
“Oh, Ember,” he said heavily.
I blinked at him, ghostlike and unspeaking.
“Do you know I can feel where you are in the room?” he asked.
We should have been flush and facing each other straight on. I should have felt him, his hard lines, his warmth, his breath, but I was no longer physical. I could see, think, and I had this spectral form, but there was no way for me to touch or communicate with him.
“Is it the same way for you?” he asked, clenching his hands briefly, then releasing them. “Can you always feel where I am?” He held in a breath and stared at the space where I was missing. “Will you stay if I explain some things?”
I didn’t know I had a choice.
I didn’t knowhowto leave. Floating, maybe, but I wasn’t sure.Plus, I felt safer with him, comforted by the quiet strength in his shoulders, his deep and steady voice, the power in his stance, and how every time his hands flexed, it emphasized the veins rippling through his forearms.
He talked for a while, explaining everything.
The first thing, I knew, or had guessed. Leland was an Allwitch. He wasn’t supposed to be. He was twenty-one, and if he’d followed the rules, he should only have one school of light magic right now. He should be competing for a spot in fifth year to get the remaining six light magics, like the rest of the Aspirants.
That’s what he was getting from the Dark Deal — Leland protected me until I was Selected, and Jaxan protected Leland’s secret, guaranteeing him a spot in fifth year so Leland could live the rest of his life safely in Alchemia.
He told me how it happened. He was born at the Circle of Seven. He wasn’t sure if that was the reason, but he was born with all seven light magics. His mother, fearing what witches would think if they knew he was born with so much spellcasting magicwithouthaving to drink any sap, ran to Mortal’s Gate and asked Jaxan for protection. He killed her for it — and everyone who knew — but he kept Leland.
The scrying orb that followed me was usually Leland. He Scried to block Helen from doing it, and when he was at the palace and couldn’t, he used a Mentalist he trusted. His orb was low on purpose — he said he wanted me to know he was watching, that it was the one courtesy he could give. That if hehadto spy on me, at least I should know about it.
TheVon his ring finger was for Ven, his Familiar, a mountain lion Jaxan had Severed from him when Leland was seven.
He’d made my magic suppressants himself, the process costing him forty-nine of his fifty spells. The transaction with Aila — he’d staged it. In case I was discovered wearing them, in case the Echelons asked where they were from, in case I needed a startingplace to ask about new ones after he was gone.
He also said he knew things about Helen and Ash but wouldn’t tell me what they were.
He told me not to trust him.
He told me he wasn’t good.
My lips parted to tell him to stop saying that, and my first audible breath was triggered. I felt the warmth of him, his chest flush against mine, and when I looked down, I saw my right arm was lightly there and blinking, as the rest of me began fighting to return.
Leland exhaled with relief, his thumb stroking the spirit of my hand. It was air to him, but I felt his whispery touch. A pleasant warmth lit me from within and more of me flickered back to existence.
As he gazed down at me, I had a thought that his hazel eyes were as grounding as the moss in the forest where I used to pretend trees watched over me. Then all of me returned, and I was corporeal again.
Leland backed up a step, still holding my hand.
“I should go,” I said.
