“I’m sorry it took me so long.”
“Oh, bother that. We got there in the end, didn’t we?” He lit up with some new thought. “There are advanced techniques we can try. I’ve been teaching a couple of the fellows Russian stave movements. I was going to teach them to Gwendolyn, before she—” He stopped, that old sadness settling on him again.
“I’m so sorry.”
Agrippa shook his head, and the gloom vanished. “Don’t be. Now I’m going to train you, Henrietta. My dear girl.”
I was Henrietta to him at last. I wanted to drum my hands against the blasted obsidian walls, to scream and shout my triumph. He led us out of the room, calling for everyone. When they appeared on the stairs, they looked at us as though we were mad.
“It’s not dinner?” Magnus said, his disappointment evident.
“What’s Howel done now? Set fire to the library by mistake?” Cellini said, heading downstairs. Well, a rude comment deserved a proper response. The spell to channel a gust of wind was quick upon my stave. I blew Cellini down the last three steps, leaving him sprawled and amazed.
Magnus burst out laughing and clapped his hands. “Brilliant! Show us something more!”
I turned to find Blackwood, blank with surprise. I bowed, as one does before a duel. His eyebrows lifted with understanding.
Are you ready? I mouthed. He bowed to me in turn, accepting my challenge. In a flash, we each had a stave in hand. “Use the wind,” I said.
With a perfect movement, he cast a gust of air out like a fishing line, high above my head. It curved downward and struck me in the back, almost toppling me. I’d been purposefully slow to set him at ease. Before he could prepare his second attack, I swirled my stave, moving forward quickly. The wind swept his feet out from under him, and he landed with a grunt on the carpet. He sat up, looking baffled.
“Do you yield?”
Blackwood dusted his sleeves and extended his long, pale hand for mine. “Help me up, Miss Howel.” He smiled faintly.
Everyone started talking at once. Dee was offering himself as the next dueler when Cellini said, “How did you manage it?” He frowned. “You can’t have got that much better that fast.”
“It all suddenly made sense,” I said, keeping my tone light. I’d expected someone would bring this up. Really, my biggest surprise was that it wasn’t Blackwood pointing it out.
Cellini kept at it. “But what happened?”
“Stop complaining,” Magnus muttered, shoving him. “What are you, English all of a sudden?” Everyone chuckled at that, and began talking again. No one was interested in questioning this, to my relief. Feeling playful, I shot a small tongue of fire at Cellini. It exploded in smoke and embers right before his face. He coughed and glared at me. I shrugged. There was no use getting cross with me tonight. I planned on enjoying myself.
Magnus held his stave in the air and cried, “To Howel the sorcerer!” The others joined him, cheering away. Well, all except Blackwood. But he was smiling. As the boys rejoiced, Magnus put his lips to my ear and whispered, “You’re one of us now.”
—
THAT NIGHT, WHILE THE UPSTAIRS RESOUNDED with laughter and song, I snuck away from the celebration and ran down to the stables to find Rook. Perhaps it was the high of victory, but even the stables appeared transformed in some strange way. The world around me was reborn.
He was in the middle of rubbing down a horse when I knocked on the stall door. The animal nosed my hair, attempting a graze. Giggling, I waved my friend out and flung my arms around him.
“We’re saved,” I whispered. All the awkwardness between us melted away. It was as if our last argument had never occurred.
“I wish I’d seen it,” he said, twirling me about in a circle. “Can you tell me how you managed it?”
“One day, when this is all over, I swear I’ll give you every detail. It may surprise you.” Rook set me down. He looked wonderful. His eyes were bright, and I’d never seen him wear such a carefree smile.
“What?” He laughed, noticing my stare.
“Forgive me, but…you look so happy.”
“Then I look as I feel,” he said, picking me up by the waist. I mock-shrieked as he set me atop a saddle and returned to his work. “When a night’s sweet like this, how could I do otherwise? You’ll be commended, the greatest sorcerer of the age.”
“Second-greatest, to hear Magnus talk of himself,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Well, you’ll fight him for it. And to top it all off, my pain’s gone.”
“No!” I jumped off the saddle. “Gone completely?”
“Haven’t felt a twinge in days. Do unmarked people always feel this good? If so, how do they ever find the time to be angry?”
“This is the most wonderful news! It’s the medicine Lord Blackwood described, isn’t it? He’ll never let me forget this great favor of his.”
“Have no fear,” Rook said with a grin. “You owe him nothing. I’ve stopped taking the medicine.”
“What?” My smile faded. “Then how do you suppress the shadows?”
“Oh, I don’t,” he said. “See?” He waved behind himself as illustration, and I understood.
Upon my arrival, I’d thought that the stables’ different appearance was due to my excitement. Now I realized that half the yard lay cloaked in deep shadow. Not even the strong light of the moon could penetrate it. The horses were more silent than usual, standing watchful in their stalls.
“Don’t worry,” Rook said, his voice soothing. “I do it when no one’s about. It keeps me in good practice.”
“But I thought the shadows came only when the scars hurt.”
“So did I, but the most extraordinary thing happened. Just as I was going to ask Mr. Fenswick for the new potion, the pain stopped. For the first time since I can remember, the suffering left. Do you see? I hurt because I couldn’t use my power.”
Rook was no longer living in the prison of his own body. Tears blurred my vision as I wrapped my arms about him.
“Why are you crying?” he whispered.
“I’m so happy,” I sobbed, pressing my cheek to his chest. His heartbeat was loud and steady in my ear.
“Now I have everything,” he muttered into my hair. The air between us seemed to crackle with energy. It occurred to me that all I had to do was raise my head, and something would happen. I felt that he was waiting for me to grant permission. And though I’d promised myself no complications, I found I was slowly tilting my chin….
But the darkness was behind me. It was touching my skirt. It was reaching for me. It was wrong—
“I need to go back upstairs.” I broke from him so suddenly that he nearly tipped over. Part of me was screaming to stay; most of me had the uncontrollable urge to run. “The boys and Master Agrippa will wonder where I’ve gone.”
“Of course.” He didn’t sound put out in the slightest. “There’s time for talk later, after you’re commended.” Rook smiled at me.
His eyes were pure black.
You must get used to it. It’s his power, the same way fire is yours, I thought. For the first time, he’s free.
“I’ll come see you later,” I said, forcing a smile. Rook turned back to his work, whistling as he did so. Going inside the kitchen, I sat on a bench and passed my hand before my eyes. Honestly, I was acting like a child. Today I’d been given everything I could have ever asked for, and here I was, worrying. If Rook’s pain was finally gone for good, then that was worth everything.
Yet I couldn’t help but shudder as I returned to stand in the doorway and watch him at work, singing while the shadows ebbed and flowed about his feet.
The midnight bells chimed as Magnus and I skirted the edge of the ward, scanning the dark streets beyond the protective shield. “So you don’t believe,” Magnus said, “that the Ancients are demons from hell?”