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With a sigh, Ivain let him go, turning to Taly. “What happened?” he asked as he began to gently prod at the half-healed gash.

“I tripped,” Taly sniffed.

“That must have been some fall,” Ivain said gently. He shrugged out of his greatcoat and began ripping the fabric into strips. “We’ll have to be more careful next time. Although” —he rotated her leg, wiping at the blood— “it looks like you may have also broken your ankle, so I don’t think you’ll be doing any more skating for a while. Not until a healer comes to the island.”

“If you would just let me finish—” Skye’s mouth clicked shut when Ivain shot him a look.

“Listen to me, boy,” Ivain said, kind but firm. “I’m not sure how you did what you just did, but you’re never to use that kind of magic again? Understand?”

“But—”

“Never again,” Ivain snapped. “What you just did—it’s a type of bloodcraft.”

Skye’s brows rose. “How was that bloodcraft? I was healing her.”

“Bloodcraft,” Ivain said, slipping into the role of teacher as he began binding Taly’s leg, “covers a wide range of spells—anything from healing to aether contamination to ascendancy. More so than any other discipline of shadow magic, it is the mostintimately connected to aether, focusing not only on the way it moves through this world but the way it shapes it. Aether is everywhere and in everything, and our magic allows us to control it. To use it to transform ourselves and the world around us.”

Ivain moved to Taly’s ankle, pulling a dagger from his boot and using it to splint the broken bone. “Before we had so many regulations on shadow magic,” he went on, “I could’ve taught you how to turn your skin to bone, your bones to metal. I could show you a spell that would track a person across space and time using only a few drops of blood. Now, however, with our numbers dwindling, I can’t. The Dawn Court has decided that most forms of bloodcraft are too dangerous to be taught or practiced.”

“It doesn’t seem dangerous,” Skye muttered, kicking at the snow.

It seemed powerful. Alluring. Years later, he could still feel the pull, the temptation to reach inside and find that feeling again.

“Could you teach me?” Skye asked, helping Ivain tie off the last of Taly’s bandages. “The few spells that are still legal, I mean. It wouldn’t interfere with my studies. I promise, I… I just want to learn.”

Leaning down, Ivain let Taly wrap her arms around his neck and carefully lifted her from the ground. “Skylen, bloodcraft is dangerous.” Skye opened his mouth to protest, swallowing back the words when Ivain gave him another look. “With bloodcraft, even something meant to heal can be deadly in the hands of an unskilled mage. Whatyou just did—you’re lucky you didn’t cause lasting damage to one or both of you.”

Skye paled.

“I know it’s tempting.” Ivain clapped a hand to the boy’s shoulder, adjusting Taly in his arms. “Believe me, I know the draw that kind of power has. It’s why I spent so much of my life studying it. But even if I could teach you, Skye—even if that doctrine hadn’t been regulated into near-extinction—I wouldn’t. That road leads to some very dark places, and let’s not forget, your family sent you to me to become a crafter. If I do not uphold the promise I made, if they find out you’re dabbling in bloodcraft under my watch, they’ll take you away from me. From me and Sarina and Taly. Is that what you want?”

Skye shook his head, a stricken look on his face.

“Good.” Ivain ruffled his hair before letting his hand drop. “Now then, go get your boots and your gear and let’s get back to the manor so Sarina can tell me what a terrible idea it was to let you and Taly strap sharpened blades of metal to your feet.”

Skye ran to the other side of the pond and back, falling in beside Ivain. He let out a yelp when Ivain immediately cuffed him on the back of the head.

Taly snickered, tightening her grip on Ivain’s neck as he said, “And don’t let Sarina hear you cursing. Either one of you. I’m sure I’ll be blamed for that too.”

Skye stood there for a good minute, staring at the trio as they disappeared over the hill.

A laugh bubbled up. Then another. Soon, he was doubled over, laughing long and loud and notcaring that Taly was staring at him like he was crazy.

Which maybe he was.

No—no, hedefinitelywas. Because the plan that was piecing itself together in his mind was crazy. No doubt about it. It was categorically mad. And if he could pull it off… Shards, if he could pull it off, it just might work.

“That’s it,” he crowed, punching the air.

“What the hell has gotten into you?” Taly asked, a wary smile curving her lips.

Skye grabbed her shoulders, still laughing. “A locator spell. Using bloodcraft, I can cast a locator spell that can track a person through space and time. It’s both the whereandthe when.That’show I find you.”

Taly began to shake her head. “But that spell is illegal.”

“I don’t give a shit.”

“And dangerous.”