The magic fizzled and died, snuffed out of my hands with a whisper of thought. If he wanted to harm me, he'd had a dozen chances by now.

"What do you want, Alec?" I grumbled.

It was almost prophetic how I'd just been thinking about him, and he'd popped up like a jack in the box. Before he could answer, I fired another question at him.

"And where did you come from anyway?"

What I didn't ask was how long he'd been standing there and how much he had overheard. I ...