Aria ........

She cut me off with a look as old as the hearth.

“You never do. Magic that wakes is most dangerous when it is angry and untrained. We hide it. We learn it. We control it. Or we burn.”

“Burn?” The word felt like a promise and a threat both.

She nodded once, then stood, measuring me with a mother’s steady gaze.

“We hide. We learn. We become small shadows until we grow.”

We left Serena piled on her pallet, breathing, mumbling curses at the light. ...