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“I felt you before you showed. But even when you made yourself visible, you didn’t intervene.” In fact, he’d just stood there at the tail end of the spell that I’d been seeing to with Grandfather’s help, observing quietly.

“You felt me? Very good. You are far more in tune with your power now then. As for why I didn’t intervene, you clearly did not need me to.” He drew closer and stopped a couple of feet in front of me. “Although, you should know that there is a way for you to extinguish Hellfire without the need for feathers. It is an advanced method, however, which is why Cornelius didn’t mention it. Nor can he employ it any longer, being a Fallen. Onlywecan. As such, it would be difficult for him to walk you through it.”

“Will you teach me?”

“Certainly. We will incorporate it into our sessions if you wish.”

“Wow, that was… easy.”

“Like I said, you did well tonight. You have assumed control of your full power like I asked, and you have agreed to my teachings.”

“Do not mistake my cooperation for submission.”

Our eyes locked.

Intensity, challenge, and a whole lot of sizing up flared between us.

And then the corner of his mouth turned up, as he told me, “I don’t desire your submission, Ariana.” He added pointedly, “Idon’t. Far from it, in fact.”

What the—

A pained grunt from him drew my focus, and I watched as he stumbled forward a step, then grasped at his chest—digging his fingers into a spot just above his heart.

“Curses,” I heard him exclaim on a whisper of anguish as he jerked his shirt aside.

I choked as I saw a mark being burned into his flesh right there, golden heat raging, a few moments before it dissipated and then something else was left in its wake.

Something definitive.

A brand of some sort.

Two jagged lines intersecting, one a glowing white, the other a luminous purple with black specks.

“What is that?” I asked.

His gaze flicked to mine and he blinked, the pain seemingly having now left him and enabling him to think clearly once again.

And then he was hastily fixing his shirt back into proper place, which hid the mark from view. “Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

“Was that the Celestial Plane expressing anger with you? I’ve heard of them burning marks into their emissaries before when they’d been displeased with them. It happened to Draco and my grandfather.”

“If they wereangrywith me, one such reason would be your mammoth expulsions of power on this mortal plane. Both when you worked to get control of your full power recently, and through what occurred today.”

I frowned. “Isn’t that something that will be occurring a great deal during our sessions?”

“WhileI’mpresent, right beside you to manage it, to ensure it does not impact the mortal plane in undue ways, or send out a ripple effect that could impact the balance.”

“I see, so you’re saying that I can no longer wield my own magic without your supervision.”

“I am referring to significant expulsions of power.” He held out his hand. “Conjure the Echo Coin.”

“What?”

“Conjure it,aberration.”

I gritted my teeth. “Calling me that again is not going to smooth out this situation, or facilitate deeper cooperation.”

“Because you are misinterpreting the meaning behind it.”