“Thank you, Your Greatness,” Ansel says, apparently unimpressed by my lackluster response. “You are truly a magnificent and gifted sorcerer. I cannot wait to hear how you’ve accomplished the impossible and separated the sample magic in the amulet.”
“Thatwas the response you expected?”
“Do you want my help or not?”
“Fine, whatever. What did you do?”
As perturbed as a fussy cat, he crosses his arms. “Nothing of interest, apparently.”
“Good heavens. What did you do,Your Greatness?”
“I used shadow pixie magic to repel your magic from Rowan’s.” He drops his arms, his eyes bright. “It worked beautifully.”
“You…what? What made you think of trying that?”
“Do you have any idea how illegal it is to possess spectral magic?” Ash says, joining the conversation.
Ignoring the councilman, Ansel continues, “Rosalie told me about Arista’s struggles a few nights ago, and she reminded me of an acquaintance of ours from college?—”
“The woman who was experimenting with spectral magic to suppress pixie gifts?”
Ansel frowns. “How did you know?”
“She mentioned her the other day.”
Looking disappointed that he’s not introducing all this fresh, Ansel deflates a little. “Well, the sorceress wasn’t trying to separate fused magic, so I believe I should get credit for this.”
“Yes, fine. Why did it work?”
“In many cases, like magic repels.”
“Yeah, I remember. But in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a shadow pixie.”
“It’s your spectral match. We all have them. Imps and elves. Leprechauns and changelings. You’re similar enough that your magic doesn’t like each other.”
“So, you scared my magic out of Rowan’s sample?” I ask incredulously.
He closes his eyes. “I used the principle of comparable magic repulsion.”
“So…you scared it out of the sample?”
The sorcerer pinches the bridge of his nose. “Sure.”
“This is all good and fine,” Ash says, “but how are you going to use that to separate Kit and Rowan? It’s one thing to infuse a sample with magic. It’s another to infuse people.”
“We’ll have Rowan draw from the dust pendant. Once the shadow pixie’s magic merges with his, it should repel Kit’s magic.”
“All right, let’s back up a minute,” I say. “Where did you even get shadow pixie magic?”
He suddenly looks shifty. “A colleague.”
“You didnotbuy it from Russell,” I hiss, lowering my voice.
“I mean…he washere.”
“Ansel!”
“All right, listen. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. On a whim, I gave him a call after you all left. He was still in town.”
