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Had Fabian and Don once sat here, in this very corner, surrounded by floating candlesticks? I’d seen them use such similar magic before—so beautiful and ethereal that it made my heart ache for their presence for the first time in a long while.

Surprisingly, Quinn seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“I bet you miss them,” she said without looking me in the eye.

“Yes.”

There was nothing else to say. Quinn had made it clear that she didn’t miss anything about Alderwick the way I did, so it was pointless to ask.

When the silence stretched into sticky discomfort, Quinn sucked in a breath and held out a thick piece of parchment sealed with wax.

“Here. This is for you.”

Frowning, I took the paper from her, broke the seal, unfolded it, and—

A sensation like a rock dropped into the bottom of my stomach.

Dear Ms. Rayna Drey,

Congratulations! The Good Council has selected you to join an exclusive pre-elite training program, to begin as soon as you receive this letter. Your presence is hereby required at a special initiation ceremony tonight.

Please follow your fellow pre-elite outside so that you can begin this exciting new journey immediately!

Best wishes, your president,

Mr. Gleekle

P.S. These are confidential matters, of course. Tell no one.

My fingers trembled as I crinkled the paper into a ball in my fist, my heart scampering as if it could escape my chest.

An exclusive pre-elite training program… this was it. All this time—ever since Dyonisia had told me she wanted to forge me into a member of the Good Council in that flying carriage—I’d known they would want to give me yet another brand.

Another magic.

But I was supposed to have time to prepare. Coen was supposed to be here to whisk me away before a third brand could touch my skin. It wasn’t supposed to happen immediately. Not now. Not tonight.

“What’s wrong, Raynie?” Felicity asked, placing her palms on my cheeks.

I blinked at her, a voice from my memory rising to the surface of my mind.

Neither humans nor faeries are meant to handle more than one type of bascite at a time, Garvis said solemnly, like a ghost in my ear. The more magics you have, the greater the symptoms of paranoia, anxiety, confusion, incoherency… For many, it only takes two powers to drive them mad.

But I already had two powers. So far, I’d been lucky enough to evade those horrible symptoms of too much magic, but three would make me dangerous.

Like the exiled ones who had morphed into monsters in Hallow’s Perch.

“Raynie!” I jolted when Felicity plucked the paper from my hand. “What does this say? Don’t make me tickle the answer out of you.”

Realizing she was trying to make me smile, I forced a big one onto my face.

“Don’t worry. I’ve just been invited to participate in a little…activity, and then I’ll be back.”

Felicity squinted at me skeptically. “You promise?”

“Yes, I promise.” I swallowed the residue of those two words like they were ash on my tongue, all too aware of Quinn studying my conversation with a monkey as if it was a greater spectacle than the floating candles. “Listen, I need you to go find Cilia and Mitzi and make sure they take you back to the room, okay?”

I couldn’t let Felicity come with me. Beyond the fact that I didn’t trust Mr. Gleekle or his so-called training program, I wouldn’t trust myself the moment a third brand made contact with my skin. Not with her or anyone else.