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With a snap of his fingers, Aidric’s body seized as the spell fully activated. The amulet glowed bloodred.

Mira clasped her hands over her mouth, fighting tears.

As the tremors through his body finally stopped, Aidric rose in a mechanical manner. Face vacant. He was no longer in charge. Corvin was.

“We believe Rakkley is going to try to make contact with a Wielder group in Fernhem.”

Like a soldier, Aidric stood straight, awaiting his order, and then the Primemage spoke it: “Kill them all.”

Without a blink Aidric turned and walked out the door. But this wasn’t really him. Even his movements seemed less fluid.

When the door closed, Corvin hid the amulet beneath his shirt and sat down at his desk, rummaging through papers. If he looked carefully, he would be able to see her shoes beneath the chair. Mira held her breath, trying desperately not to think about Aidric.

It was only twelve minutes, but to Mira, it seemed like an eternity before the Primemage finally left his office. She waited a few moments longer and then made for the crooked door.

The entire way out of the council building, she couldn’t stop thinking about Aidric under enthrallment. It was too much Dark Magic. At some point, his powers and body would have to pay the price.

Corvin couldn’t keep the amulet. If Obryn wasn’t going to help her, she had to find another way. She had no idea how she would steal the amulet from the Primemage, but she was certain she would have to wield Dark Magic. She stepped out of the council building, took her writing equipment from her bag, and sent a scroll to Amelia, asking her for a training session.

Then she coin traveled back to Ivercrest.

—

Amelia sat on a windowsill, talking to Harrington in the otherwise empty training hall. Mira marched toward them. She wasn’t going to be able to become a masterful Wielder in a day, but she should at least know a little more about the power within her.

“I heard you had an uninvited guest at your Caster party,” Amelia said, lowering herself elegantly to her feet.

Mira nodded and dropped her bag to the floor. “I just want to be able to understand my signifiers a bit better.”

She couldn’t get Dawson’s twisted face of agony out of her mind. Where was he now? Was he still under enthrallment? Was he in pain?

Amelia flexed her gloved hand. “Out of all the signifiers, spirit is perhaps the most difficult to master. Control, pain, and internum are the same for each Wielder. Sin is slightly different because your prominent sin will inform your powers. But spirit…that’s tricky. Yours is—”

“Vengeance,” Harrington filled in with a wide grin, staring at Mira’s hand. “Nice.”

Mira covered her right hand with her left. She didn’t know why, out of seventeen spirits, vengeance was the one to answer her call.

“Mine is Gichea,” Amelia continued. “The spirit of the dead. It allows me to harness power and sometimes even communicate with the dead. It’s a more…quiet power. Similar to Dawson’s.”

Mira had looked up Dawson’s spirit based on its design. Two lines, one solid and the other dashed. It stood for Sakaya, the spirit of repressing emotions.

“Yours has more in common with Kane’s.” She motioned to her boyfriend, who lifted his right hand with five signifiers.

He pointed at his pinky, which had three elaborate lines intertwined in one another. “Yaru, spirit of chaos. It’s a raw power just like yours, which makes it a bit more difficult to harness. Especially since you’re fairly new to your control signifier. You don’t have much to temper all that power with. For example, if you had your sin signifier, sloth and pride could have helped you reign in your powers.”

That was precisely why Highmage Speltman had talked about attempting to gain the spirit signifier later.

“Spirits are also a lot more fickle,” Amelia added. “They don’t always listen. Why did you go for that signifier?”

“I don’t know. It just happened.” She hadn’t consciously done it. “So how do I use it?”

Harrington told her to focus on the strands of her Dark Magic in her mind, but as Amelia had pointed out, the strand of her spirit signifier was a lot more difficult to harness.

“You cannot command your spirit,” he explained. “You can only ask it for help.”

Mira thought of Aidric under enthrallment. His scream behind clenched teeth. Please, I need to free him.

In her mind, the strand of power appeared in her hand, and she grasped it tightly. Vengeance roared through her. Let me loose, it whispered in her mind.