Page 43

Tonight would be one of those nights. She could feel it—even her bones ached, and the skin beneath her eyes had turned a lovely shade of purple.

A sugarberry bounced off Taly’s head.

“I don’t feel like you’re listening to me,” Azura said a bit sharply.

“That’s because I’m not.” The sugarberry landed beside her, and Taly reached for it, popping it into her mouth. Living up to its name, sweetness burst onto her tongue. “Unless you grew these plants with time magic, this has nothing to do with, well, anything. I’d also venture to say that this is hardly the perfect sugarberry. It’s a touch bitter.” Though a part of her wondered if she ever would’ve noticed the difference as a human. Maybe it was the perfect sugarberry. Maybe this was the way sugarberries were supposed to taste, in which case…

Shards, first coffee, and now being fey had even ruined sugarberries.

Azura frowned as she tossed her shears onto the table. “I see there’s no accounting for taste,” she said, holding up her hands in what looked like surrender. “Fine. I thought that for one moment we might… but never mind. Lady Fun-Killer demands that we work, so that is exactly what we shall do.”

Taly felt a small pang of guilt as Azura removed her smock and began folding it. She wasn’t sure yet if she believed that there was some future version of her that became this woman’sfriend, but if there was, that Taly probably would’ve gladly listened to her ramble on about sugarberries.

Azura asked, “How are your individual studies progressing? Are you still meditating?”

Taly nodded. “Every morning.”

“And your aether? How are you at controlling it?”

Taly held out a hand and nudged the magic she could now feel sparking in her veins. A golden haze began to crackle the air. She snapped her fingers, and the manifestation immediately extinguished.

“Good,” was all Azura said as she laid the smock next to the shears and the basket. “That means we can move onto casting.”

Taly sat up a little straighter at that.Finally. There was a long list of spells she needed to master before she could pass her third seal and be called an Acolyte, and up until now, she’d been forbidden from casting anything at all.

“The second seal requires only a basic understanding of spellcasting,” Azura explained. “You’ll need to demonstrate how to slow, accelerate, and stop time within a limited area of effect. These three spells form the foundation of all time magic. Entire wars have been won using only the fundamentals.”

Taly began jotting down notes. She’d have to transfer them later to the journal she kept in her room—the one that had been transcribed, organized, and supplemented with annotations from her readings. If this had been five years ago, Skye would’ve come begging for a copy later that night. She never thought there would be a daywhen she missed that inevitable knock on her door.

“For most fey,” Azura said, leaning back against the table and reaching for a cup of tea, “casting is a reflex. It’s not something that’s taught; it’s just something that youdo. Many children begin using their magic mere moments after their Attunement Ceremonies. Even you—before your mother made you human—were no doubt performing basic spells. However, after observing you these months, I think it’s safe to say that as an adult, you’ve lost the ability to consciously manipulate your magic. My normal teaching methods won’t work, I’m afraid. You’d likely just end up dead. Or stuck in another pocket universe. Neither are ideal.”

Taly couldn’t help the way her expression fell. “What do I do then?”

Azura shrugged. “You’re just going to have to work at it. Bash your head against the problem until you rediscover your instincts.” She took a sip of tea before setting the cup aside. “When you were being attacked by the harpy, by the shades, by Vaughn—your magic instinctively rose up to protect you, which means that somewhere deep down, the ability is still there. You just need to remember that feeling, to learn to summon it at will.” Snapping her fingers, a large drawstring pouch appeared out of nothing and dropped into her hand. Taly jumped—she’d never seen magic like that—but the Queen didn’t explain, just continued on. “I don’t usually endorse the use of crystals for casting—they can quickly become a crutch. In this case, however, I don’t see any other way forward.”

The contents clacked together as she placed the pouch in Taly’s hand. “These crystals have been enchanted to freeze time,” Azura said, straightening. “All you need to do is feed a small amount of your aether into the crystal, and it will cast the spell for you. Your new assignment is to use these crystals to stop time on an object of your choosing, memorize the feel of the spell, then do it again. Over and over until you can replicate that feeling unaided.

“Think of them like magical training wheels,” Azura said with a wave of her hand. Then, smiling: “That’s a human expression, by the way. The mortals do love their turns of phrase. They have one for almost everything.”

“Fantastic,” Taly grumbled under her breath. She’d upgraded from grade school lessons to magical handholding. She wouldn’t be surprised if Azura had her working with finger paints next.

The Queen clucked her tongue at Taly’s tone, then leaned forward, her eyes awash with a golden glow and the air thrumming with aether. “Make no mistake, while crystals can be a crutch, they are not mere playthings. They are dangerous weapons in the hands of a skilled mage.”

In a flash, Azura’s magic dissipated, and she turned toward the exit. “Wait,” Taly called after her. “That’s it? That was the lesson? You dragged me down here at six bells just to hand me a bunch of crystals I don’t know how to use?”

Azura paused in the open doorway of the solarium, sunlight streaming in behind her. “You’re making progress,” she said with none of her usual flippancy. “You’ve found your aether now, figured out how to make it respond, but casting—that’s like giving your magic shape. Itshould be instinct—as natural as breathing. While I can eventually teach you how to wield your magic with efficiency and intent, this first step can’t be trained—only done. You’re going to have to figure this one out on your own.”

Six days passed, and Taly threw herself into her lessons—flipping coins into the air only to stop them mid-spin, suspended at the apex of their fall.

That was the object she had chosen to practice on. A coin. She had found a bag of them in a dresser drawer one evening, and since money had no value here, she figured nobody would mind if she accidentally disappeared the entire purse into another pocket universe. It seemed… safe.

Flip.

Suspend.

Fall.

Every day, coin after coin, she used the enchanted crystals to make them hover. She watched her aether carefully. She even tried closing her eyes to get a sense of how the flow of energyfeltas it swept through the crystal and then into the air, bending and twisting into something new. And when she thought she had figured out the shape of the spell in her mind, she tried casting it unaided.