Chapter Twenty-Seven
We agreethat I will teach him another day. I cannot picture Landerdancing—and then, annoyingly, part of me can. The thought stirs feelings I absolutely should not entertain.
My soft heart will get me into trouble.
Somewhere along the way I stopped fearing him.
Is he becoming a friend? Not a romantic partner—he would never want me—the freak of nature.
“Do you mind if I destroy the paperweights?”
“Be my guest,” Lander says, waving me towards the case.
I set to work. First, I whip up a cleaning charm, scrubbing away the old chalk and sigils. Then I redraw the circle. Lander joins me; we meet in the centre, each completingour curves, chalk whispering over brick. To give the spell weight, I add a single drop of blood.
He watches in silence—his entertainment, apparently—but I let it pass. My magic hums through my veins. Normally, disintegrating something like this would take immense effort, yet the part of me that was once House slips into place. Instinctive power surges, familiar as breath, and the case—with all its foul magic—collapses into ash.
The residual energy pulses against my fingertips, sticky and wrong. I guide it into the earth, sensing it drain back towards the ley line beyond the Magic Sector ward. I should not be able to feel that.
Still, I’m safer with the weights destroyed.
“It’s lunchtime,” Lander says behind me.
“Already? You ate enough breakfast for five people.”
He shrugs, unbothered.
As we leave the bunker, Snack Thief greets us with a cheerful warble from the chapel roof, and a note flutters out of the ether.
Lander plucks it mid-air.
“What’s this?”
“A paper mage note. It must be from Knox.”
“Why is he sending you notes?” he growls.
The moment I read it, my stomach drops. I pass it to Lander; his jaw tightens.
Harper,
The island has been taken. I have only moments to send this.
Councillor Meredith Jackson arrived with a containment unit and guards.
Be careful. Keep safe.
—Knox
The note spell may have sat for hours, waiting, while we were underground and warded.
“May I keep this?” Lander asks, voice clipped.
I nod. He folds the paper and pockets it.
“What does she want with Knox?” I ask, though I already dread the answer.
“That’s what I’m wondering.” His gaze goes distant, calculating. “What if she didn’t come for you specifically—she just wanted an easy target. Maybe she wants a powerful mage.”
