Chapter 1: An Unexpected Reunion at Liadna

Lord Credias’ plump cheeks jiggled as he moved his lips.

Found you. Although there was still quite a bit of distance between us, somehow I justknew that was what he’d said.

A chill ran down my spine. Two years had passed since I’d escaped my marriage to the viscount. It hadn’t been long before he’d stopped sending people to Évrard to fetch me, so I had always assumed he’d given up on me. Yet here he was now, staring at me with suchcraving in his eyes.

Despite inhabiting a clay body, Master Horace made a sound much like a click of the tongue. “I figured out the trick here, little disciple. Those magical presences were spread all over the place as part of a trap laid for you.”

“A trap?”

“You know how that Ada girl was a spellcaster, but you couldn’t tell because of the contract stone she always had on her? It’s the same idea. That viscount scattered contract stones everywhere to throw you off his trail.”

While Master Horace was explaining his theory to me, something was afoot around Lord Credias. Several moans emerged from the cacophony of clashing swords. Ten soldiers standing at the front lines had begun to scratch at their own throats in anguish; one had burst into flames, while another was growing stone pillars from his shoulders. Every single one of them had been turned into a defective spellcaster.

“Watch... out,” I tried to shout at Cain, but I could barely get my voice out.

This wasn’t looking good. When I got down from my horse, there was so little strength i