Page 65 of Spark of Sorcery

My gaze leaps back to his. “You do?”

“It’s a firestone. They’re magical.”

“Do you … do you know what they do?”

He hesitates, then shakes his head. “Have you shown it to anyone else?”

“No, never. You’re the first one.”

His eyebrows lift the tiniest fraction.

“The thing is,” I say, “it started pulling me towards it again the night of the trial, and when I got back to my room, I found it was starting to crack.”

“It wasn’t like that before?”

“No, its surface was completely smooth before,” I say. “Now I think it’s cracking open and I don’t know why.”

“We should take it to the Head. He’ll know exactly what it is and why it’s cracking.”

I shake my head violently. “Uh, no. They’d take it away from me.”

“We don’t know for sure what it is. Or what it can do. It could be dangerous. It would be safer to–”

“–it called me, Thorne. It wanted me to find it.”

“That doesn’t mean it wants you to keep it.”

“It’s still pulling me now! It wants you to hand it back.”

He nods like that isn’t crazy and rests it on the floor between us. I pick it up.

“The cracks are growing bigger and more prominent by the hour,” I say. “I think it’s going to crack open completely any moment now. That’s why I need to be here with it in my own room tonight.”

“I understand.”

“So you’re not going to force me back to your tower? Or go off telling everyone about this?”

“I gave you my word,” he says stiffly.

“Right,” I say, “good.”

We stare at each other.

“And you’re not going to try and convince me to hand it in?”

“I’ve given you my opinion. If you choose not to follow my advice, I accept your decision.

“Good,” I repeat, a little surprised. Beaufort and I would be having a mega argument about it by now. But Thorne respects my opinion and my decision.

We stare at each other some more.

“You can go then,” I say, “there’s no need to stay.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“But–”

“Like I said, it could be dangerous. I’m staying here to be sure.”