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Morgana

“ W e should start with Damia,” Alastor says as the soldiers circle me like sharks. “She’ll be the easiest to block.”

“Excuse me?” Damia says. Her green eyes flash dangerously, and I’m sure I hear a hiss in the vicinity of her collar from Barb, her pet serpent.

“You know what I mean. Your power’s one of the most obvious. People know when it’s being used on them.”

“It’s true,” Leon points out. “Everyone else’s sensic magic has some camouflage, but people usually know they’ve got nothing to laugh about when you turn up.”

Damia squints, like she’s trying to work out if Leon has just insulted or complimented her.

I run through the soldiers’ sensic abilities, piecing together what they mean.

“So, Alastor’s truth-telling power makes people think they have a good reason to tell him things,” I say, ticking it off on my fingers.

“People just think they’ve forgotten something with Eryx’s ability.

Stratton’s power hides taste—you wouldn’t notice that unless you were expecting something different.

And people just think they’re dreaming naturally when Leon uses his power.

” I stop, turning to Phaia. “I don’t know what your sensic power is,” I say, surprised at the realization.

“We’ll get to that,” says Leon. “But for now, we’ll let Damia and Hyllus work on you.”

I wince. I’d forgotten about Hyllus. Despite his size, the man is so quiet he blends into the crowd of his comrades very well, but of course he’s no less formidable.

“Sorry,” I say to him.

He gives me a small smile. “I’ll come up with something obvious, so you know it when you hear it.”

I nod in thanks. His power makes people hear things that aren’t there—he used it once to save me from getting my eardrums blown out by a Temple bearer called Sophos. If Hyllus uses a deliberately strange sound to test me, it should be easier to focus on his magic and block it.

But first, I have to take on Damia. She squares up to me, that same disconcerting smile on her face.

“Sensic magic is hard to fully block without years of training,” Leon says.

“Some fae never bother. They just stay alert to the signs of sensic magic being cast on them and try to avoid making enemies. There is, however, a shortcut. If you can block the magic for a little while—a minute or two—that could be enough to distract or disable the caster. Sensic magic takes a lot of concentration, so distraction can be enough to break the spell. Got it?”

I nod, absorbing all the information. “So how do I block it just for a minute?” I ask.

“You have to fight the shape they’re trying to bend your mind into. Make it rigid, like a steel wall. Imagine that and nothing else, and you’ll buy yourself some time.”

I close my eyes, picturing a cold, hard surface stretching as far as my imagination will take it.

“ Now .”

Instantly, something is tickling my brain, dancing on my imagined wall with a feathery, intrusive touch. It takes seconds for the steel to start buckling under the sensation. Then I find myself wondering why exactly I’m getting the urge to?—

A deep belly laugh rolls through me, then another. I can’t help it, and once my muscles start spasming, they’re impossible to stop.

“I…ha…can’t…ha…” I try to splutter the words out, but they won’t come.

I’m doubled over, clutching my stomach as I look up at Damia.

There’s a little furrow between her eyebrows as she focuses on incapacitating me.

I couldn’t fight her now if my life depended on it—I can barely even breathe in enough air to release the next laugh.

“Stop focusing on the physical sensations,” Leon orders. “Remember it’s coming from your mind.”

But it’s no use. By the time Damia’s done with me, my face is aching. At least Hyllus’s test is a little kinder. He fills my ears with chirping birds and sweet melodies, but something about them is so tempting they’re almost as hard to keep out as Damia’s magic.

“Sorry,” he shrugs at me as I admit defeat.

The only upside is that the exercise has made me realize now what the music in the Lyceum’s halls must’ve been.

I doubt anyone else heard the exact tune I did yesterday.

This place is full of sensic magic, and sometimes it must latch on to you in subtle, hopefully harmless ways—like thinking you hear a familiar song on the breeze.

“Look, I’d probably be doing better if I hadn’t just used up all my energy with Gallis,” I point out when Leon deigns to give me a break.

“Precisely,” he says, offering me no sympathy. “And a good sensic caster knows that and will wait until you’re tired and at your most vulnerable.”

The harshness of his tone bites at me, especially as he seems to have forgotten the reason I demanded we do this.

“Is that why your magic is so effective?” I snap. “Because you only strike at people when they can’t defend themselves?”

Leon’s eyes narrow, but before he can say anything, Alastor interrupts.

“Sooo, seeing as you won’t be using my skills today, can I go? I’m not really entertained by all this,” he says, gesturing between Leon and me.

“You’re not?” Stratton asks the blond fae. “I am.”

Leon glowers at them both. “You’re all dismissed. We’re done for today.”

As they file out, Leon throws me a dark look. “ You asked to be taught, remember?”

“And you’re the reason I need these lessons in the first place,” I throw back.

His features tense, and I can’t read him, his gray eyes closed to me.

“Let’s just hope you’re better at mastering your celestial powers than you are at this, or making you hate me will have all been for nothing,” he says before leaving me alone in the training room.

I stalk through the Lyceum corridors, trying to cool off.

Whatever security this place has, Leon obviously thinks it’s enough that he’s not worried about me or Tira wandering the halls unaccompanied.

That’s good—it means that we probably won’t face an army when we make our move to leave.

Leon spouted all that stuff about keeping an eye on me, but he obviously doesn’t want to drag the mages into helping him hold me hostage.

And what about what he said in the training room?

“ Making you hate me will have all been for nothing. ”

What in the Gloamlands does that mean?

Well, it does tell me something. Leon definitely didn’t just bring me here for my own benefit.

He needs me to get better with my celestial magic because there’s something in it for him.

And Gallis knows it too. That’s why she started bringing up the moss earlier, when we’d been talking about twin-blessed celestials…

No, not twin-blessed. “Solari with multiple abilities,” she’d said. Multiple, not necessarily two.

Hadn’t Leon mentioned me maybe having other powers once? And then Gallis was talking about me being able to connect with the plants somehow. Something I’ve never even tried to do.

If it’s a new power they want, what is the real goal here? What exactly are they hoping I’ll be able to do?

Gods, I’m so angry I could kick something. Of course I’ve been suspicious of everyone here from the start, but it still burns to be proven so right. One day in this place and they’re not even trying to be subtle about the fact that I’m being lied to.

I stop, realizing my walk has taken me back past the huge library I saw yesterday. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m alone for the first time in weeks, maybe it’s the haunting melodies in the air, but I have a sudden clarity I’ve been missing for a while.

If I want answers, why don’t I go get them? No need to keep relying on everyone else to give them to me. Besides, the more I understand what I can do without relying on the fae to dripfeed it to me, the quicker I can use my power to escape Leon’s control.

Once I’m through the library doors, however, the doubt sets in again.

This place is so massive. I have no idea where to start.

I glance across the nearest bookshelf, but none of the names mean anything to me, and there doesn’t seem to be any mention of celestial magic or solari.

Of course not; that would be too easy, especially when my magic isn’t exactly common.

I’ve caught the attention of a few of the students, their eyes sliding curiously toward me and back to their books. Beyond them I notice a raised desk—much grander than the study tables—with a fae seated behind it.

He must be ancient; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fae before with such snowy white hair. His thin, gold spectacles balance on the end of his nose as he flicks through a book, stamps it with a seal, and adds it to a teetering pile by his elbow.

I suspect I’ve found the librarian.

“Excuse me, sir.”

The fae has to lean over his desk to get a proper look at me. Under the scrutiny of his dark eyes, I find myself clearing my throat. “I was wondering if you could help me.”

“You’re not a student or a mage,” he croaks.

“No sir, just a guest of the proctor.”

It’s basically true.

He blinks at me slowly, buying it for now. “Very well. Yes?”

I weigh up how to phrase my request. Could it possibly be as simple as asking? The thought is so foreign to me. I imagine the Temple seized all the books about solari in Trova and burned them many decades ago.

“Where might I find the books on celestial magic?”

The librarian sniffs. “Most of our books on that subject are in the proctor’s private collection, given she is our resident expert.

” He fixes me with a knowing stare. “However, our mages are welcome to borrow from it, and if you’re a guest of the proctor, you could also ask her personally for access. ”

Of course it isn’t that easy. I don’t want it getting back to Leon that I’m looking for my own answers, so this suggestion doesn’t help me, but at least the librarian hasn’t kicked me out.

I rock on my heels, thinking. If I can’t learn more about my magic yet—and I suspect Gallis won’t tell me what I want without clearing it with Leon first—what do I want to know more about?