The icy grip caressed my spine. Without thinking I spun my staff and brought the crook down on the ground behind me. A high pitch yelped sounded followed by the sounds of a creature scurrying away. I glanced back and caught a dash of red disappearing into the barn.

Ralphine thought she still sat slumped in the alley, but she could see none of it. Power warped her vision from reality as it seeped further into her.

The worlds lay before Merye in hasty lettering: jagged, broken, and drifting erratically. She wanted to look up to glower at her fellow apprentices. Had they known this bore magic when she’d been tasked to review it?

At the end of the most secluded of the castle’s passages, Ullyne stared at me in desperation as she motioned toward the open chamber door. Divica’s chamber, and even from the corridor I heard she was in hysterics. Again.

Ralphine backed away, the heal of her boot catching on a cobble stone. Horror, shock, and dismay deadened her reactions and she fell eyes still looked on the sky. Magic freed from the wizard’s decanter swirled out from the library. A silent wave of power gathering until it collapsed over the city.

Pricking her finger, the knife stung. Blood welled about the blade. Snapping her teeth together, Eswild hissed at the expected pain.

Sige stood at the threshold voices washing over her. Here war lay behind, but they’d found new battles. Those of boasts and clashing bodies. Sige scoffed. Her hand moved to her belt sliding down at the missing hilt.