“And you can consider all your secrets safe with me,” finished the nocterrian.
Brow arched, Cedric said, “Can I?”
Nox had that typical look of amusement on their face. “Did you or did you not come to me for help?”
Cedric pressed his lips into a hard line.
The nocterrian sighed as they rolled up the scroll in their hands. “So. What exactly is it that I can help you with, regarding your...you know?”
“That’s part of the problem,” Cedric admitted. “Idon’treally know. I don’t understand where it came from, why it showed up in the Sanctum. Why it all but disappeared in the months after, only to return now.” He gestured to his token, glowing dully against his quilted black doublet. “It hasn’t seemed to impact my ability to use normal magic, but?—”
“That’s the ‘normal’ way to use magic, is it?” Nox said, lips pursed.
“You know that’s not what I meant. I only mean that it’s different. It doesn’t feel controllable. I’ve only just learned how to keep it smothered when it flares up, but just that takes an inordinate amount of focus. And it’s worse whenever I’m around”—he swallowed—“certain people. Suffice it to say, the moments when it does flare are inopportune indeed.”
Nox hummed. “This may come as a shock, but there actually arecertain peoplein this palace who are a greater authority on uncontrollable power than I am.”
Cedric shifted his weight. “Yes. Well. I came to you.”
“Fair enough. My advice, then, is this: You need to practice.”
“Insightful,” Cedric deadpanned. “Can I get a serious answer, please?”
“I am being perfectly serious. You need to try to actuallyuseyour magic, not spend all your time smothering it.”
“I can’tpractice. Two weeks ago, I could barely summon a spark. Now, it’s awake but...” He grimaced, Elyria’s hiss of pain when he’d burned her lips ringing in his ears. He thought about the scorched dummy in the training yard, about the way he’d very nearly erupted into flame on the evening of the welcome ball.
Nox waited patiently for Cedric to continue.
“It’s a wild thing. Unpredictable and unmanageable. I need you to tell me how to manage it.”
“And I just did. Practiceusingyour power, knightling.”
Cedric narrowed his eyes at Nox’s casual use of the moniker. Kit was the only other person to ever call him that. “I. Can’t,” Cedric said through clenched teeth.
“Why. Not?” the nocterrian mocked.
Frustration heated the back of Cedric’s neck. “Because if someone sees, they’ll ask questions. Because if I lose control, someone could get hurt.”
Nox’s lips quirked. “Those seem like separate issues that might warrant unpacking. Luckily, I have a solution for both. Have you ever been to the training room on the uppermost floor of the western tower?”
Cedric’s brow furrowed. “There is no training room in the western tower. It’s all servants’ quarters and?—”
“I thought as much.” Nox stood up, red-black eyes gleaming as they extended a hand. “Come with me.”
“Wait, what are you—” Before Cedric could finish his sentence, the nocterrian had clasped their fingers around his forearm. Shadows burst from Nox’s feet, twisting around the pair of them, the library melting away in a rush of cold air and velvet darkness.
For a singular moment, when the floor dropped out from under him, Cedric felt as though he might fall straight into the void. But just as quickly, it was over, and level ground was beneath his feet again.
“Fuck, warn a man next time.” Cedric doubled over, gripping hisknees as he gulped down a panicked breath, trying to steady his walloping heart. “I’d forgotten just how much I hated that.”
“Oh, that was barely anything compared to shadowstepping us all through a stars-damned labyrinth,” Nox tutted, sweeping both their arms out wide. “As you can see, this place does, in fact, exist. And now that you are aware of that fact, you will be able to come and go as you please.”
Cedric lifted his head, only for his mouth to fall open as he took in their surroundings. He stood in the center of a mid-sized stone chamber; a tall window was cut into the far wall. Behind him was a plain wooden door—nondescript save for the large handle, which had a complex series of runes etched into the ring. Various training equipment lined the other two walls, including?—
He froze at the sight of Elyria’s ornate staff leaning against the left wall. When he inhaled, he noticed the faint scent of almond lingering in the air.
“So, this is where she’s been hiding,” he said. Why he’d been consistently unable to locate Elyria whenever he looked for her. She’d cloistered herself in a room that couldn’t be found, save for by those who already knew where to find it.
