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“Am I interrupting?” Obryn’s voice broke through her thoughts like a bucket of ice water.

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Aidric let go of her and they awkwardly turned to their Highmage.

Obryn exhaled sharply, and for once, his cold stare was set on Aidric and not Mira. “A word. When you’re both decent.” Like a dark cloud, he disappeared.

Mira didn’t want to tell the Highmage she had used the relic last night. Had Aidric already told him? He seemed to share everything with Obryn about the investigation. And yet this felt too private. Too personal. Eventually, Obryn would ask her how she had obtained her second signifier, and she would have to come up with a lie.

The Highmage’s face was stoic when they met him in the hallway.

“Is it taken care of?”

Aidric nodded. “It’s safe. Tanaka has it.”

The fact that he had sold a dangerous relic seemed to neither surprise nor bother Obryn.

“Corvin is furious the relic was lost,” he explained. “And I’m sure he will figure out soon who was behind its disappearance.”

Aidric looked unimpressed. “Let him. It’s already out of his reach.”

“Without the relic, he won’t be able to install permanent enthrallment spells in Wielders,” Obryn continued. “It appears we have foiled his plan of establishing a personal army for the moment. I will continue to monitor the situation, and if there is a need for action, you will be informed.”

He turned to Aidric. “I’m also here on behalf of the council to let you know your next assignment.”

Aidric stiffened next to her. They both knew what that meant. More killings.

“Where?”

Obryn pulled a scroll from his coat and handed it to him.

“Gleahthis,” Aidric read out loud as he unfurled the scroll.

That was two spheres away.

Even after all these years, he was still in shackles and she couldn’t do anything to free him.

Aidric kept reading the scroll. “They want me to take out a nest of Feeder demons…and several of Mercer’s former soldiers.”

“They have you going in alone?” Mira asked. “Surely this is retribution for getting the relic. Corvin knows it was you so this is your punishment.”

Before Aidric could answer, Obryn took a step toward Mira. “May I advise you, Miss Winters, to use this time to concentrate on your studies? You are, after all, still a student at Ivercrest, if I must remind you.”

It took all of her self-control not to snap at him. He was the one who had sent her on a secret mission with Aidric, and now he wanted to scold her for not studying enough?

Obryn fixed Aidric with a dark stare she couldn’t quite interpret. Perhaps it was a warning? Silver and black eyes locked in a silent battle, and neither one of them seemed willing to admit defeat.

“I need your assistance,” Obryn suddenly said as he turned to her. “My office. Now.”

She exchanged a look with Aidric, feeling like she had just made everything entirely more complicated between them by asking for a kiss. How long would he be gone this time? When would it be enough for Corvin? When would he consider Aidric’s debt paid? The answer was simple—never.

“Miss Winters?” Obryn insisted.

Aidric’s gray eyes were the last thing she saw before she flipped her coin and disappeared.

If it hadn’t been evident before, it was certainly clear now: Obryn despised her. In the following days, he assigned her a seemingly endless array of mundane tasks.

Surely there were other people he could ask to fill the shelves with fresh ingredients, make base potions, and clean used test tubes. Every time she thought he had finally run out of things for her to do, he handed her another long list.