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“He’s been different these last several days.” He goes on about a fight they had, but I have my eye on the bauble shop. It’s up ahead and I need to lose this leech before then.

“Jordan’s a coward.” How Yagrin can see anything else in his brother, I’ll never understand. “He’s as rotten as the Order he serves.”

“Then why are we here and not dead?”

My stomach twists at his suggestion. “Jordan is the enemy.”

“There I must disagree with you. The Order is the only true enemy.” To my relief, he meanders in another direction, just in time for me to slide into Betty’s. But the tour guide is not there. I wait for a moment, then another, before hurrying off toward the cave myself.

After leaving town, I traipse around the base of the volcano. There has to be another way into that cave. I follow the strong wall of rock until I find an area where its foliage is loose. I peel back a curtain of overgrown vines and summon my toushana. Cold vibrates in my chest and I press it out through my hands, carving a decaying hole inside the mountain. When the dusty haze settles, I crawl through. Inside, only a shard of moonlight from the cave’s mouth cuts across the teal water. But even in the dimness, everything sparkles. An earthy pungency pricks my nose. Thick, salty air gusts inside. And all I see is earth covered in gems.

“I knew it!” But no sooner than I think I’ve found enhancer stones, I realize nothing here looks as if it’s ever been touched, and certainly not mined. I take a step, careful to set my foot firmly on flat ground. The whole place glitters. Brilliant stones in a rainbow of hues cover each inch of the rocky dome above. Blues deeper than the clearest ocean, greens brighter than any forest I’ve ever seen, yellows so shiny they look like gold, and regal purples. I can’t resist running my hands along the jagged walls as I walk. The majesty of it all drags me along, one foot in front of the other. This place feels like magic. My toushana stirs inside, sidling against my organs with something that feels like comfort. Gardens of gems cover the ground, clustered in pointed, rocky formations.

A narrow river cuts through the rocks before winding around itself and emptying into the cave’s mouth. The gondola route for tourists. But the cave goes deeper, meandering out of sight. I hurry that way, following a path lit by thin tapers on the walls. The path narrows and smooths. When I reach a gate that’s been welded shut, I use my toushana to get through it. Past a narrow cleft in the rock, over a barricaded passageway, the cave opens up again, this time to an underbelly of shiny rocks, barrels overflowing with gems, and drums of kor elixir. My heart rams my ribs. The stones here are arranged methodically in neat rows as if they were planted here. And much appears to be picked over. The precise colors of the stones are consistent from gem to gem, reminiscent of rings maezres wear. There’s enough here to make thousands of rings.

Cultivator rings hold magic, too.

Maezres use them to help bolster students’ magic. Many students. Over several years, which means they can hold much more magic than simple enhancer stones. My heart skips a beat and my dark magic stirs. I’ve found something I can use.

I touch a stretch of bright green stones so vividly colored it looks like grass made of glass. Carefully, I pull on the thread of cold humming through my body and stream toushana toward it. Black touches the stone’s glossed surface and it withers into blackened rot.

“No!” I stumble up and away and into a plot of red stones covered in soot with my thudding heart in my throat. I need this to work. I need something to hold the Sphere’s magic so I can take it myself. Studying the bed of blood-hue stones, I notice the ground around the whole plot is blackened as if it’s been burned. As if it’s been touched by toushana. I closely inspect the rocks caked in ash. My toushana stirs. I smooth my thumb across one stone and its red color gleams beneath. My toushana shudders again. I shiver with a warning chill like I haven’t felt in a long time.

Despite this mess, some of the stones are intact. Audior green. Shifter purple. Anatomer blue. Retentor colorless. I’ve never seen a red-stoned Cultivator ring in any of the Houses before. Which could mean…

Ice ripples inside me, my toushana two steps ahead of my mind. I have to know if I’m right. I rest a single fingertip on a red stone and watch, hardly breathing, as black seeps from my skin to form a thread of smoke. Instead of decaying the rock, it siphons inside, beneath the glassy surface. The cold in my chest teases with a sharp ache and I watch as the magic streams out of me and into the stone. It feels like an insistent tugging at the very marrow of my bones. My heart skips a beat and I close my fist. I should stop.

But my toushana still bleeds.

Rivers of black run between my fingers and into the rock. It tugs again, lassoing my heart. I tighten all over to restrain my magic. But it won’t halt. Deadly cold sludges through me, like a massive weight being pulled along by a shoestring, up through my chest and toward my hand that’s still connected to the gem.

I yank my arm back with all my strength, but the magic outside my body is stronger than a manacle. Panic rocks in my chest. I claw at the ground with my free hand and pull away with all my might. My bones scream. The world sways and I’m hot. So very hot.

My breath shortens.

Black glimmers beneath the gem’s red surface.

My magic. It’s taking my—

The world is heavy.

“Help,” I manage, when Jordan’s narrowed eyes find me.

Forty-Three

Jordan

Quell shrieks again and I’m at her side, trying to pry her hand from the stones on the ground. They appear to be sucking the toushana and life out of her. I then grab her by the wrist, tugging her arm backward. But the harder I pull, the louder she wails.

“Please, it hurts. I—” Tears bead in the corners of her bright eyes. I position myself behind her to hold her upright. She burns with fever.

“Quell?”

But she doesn’t respond. Her head bobs and her lashes dip.

“Think of arresting Beaulah and how good that’s going to feel.”

Her heart races and I feel it inside. The pulsing stone is swelling in size, as is the darkness within it. My mind races. Raw materials are more potent than refined enhancers. Once an enhancer is attached to something, it cannot be separated. Enhancers bind to surfaces because of their need to exist in balance. Like the Sphere. The stone is feeding on her toushana, trying to equalize the magic disparity between it and her. And she’s resisting, which only makes the enhancer work harder. She writhes against my chest.