Page 103 of First Ritual

“Apothecary is my strongest affinity,” I countered absently. Mother be, I felt sick. There was something in me. Something I hadn’t agreed to being there.

A dark being that borrowed from death.

I wanted to vomit. More than ever, I could understand Wild’s desperation to be rid of the entity in him. Did the creature in me spread to him? Or had my magic merely woken a presence already contained there? I had a horrible feeling the former was true.

I clutched my head.

“What is it, Tempest?” he asked. “Tell me.”

I considered doing so. I could tell him.

My being shied away, however, I was afraid. I couldn’t share this before I’d figured out more.

Not with Wild.

Not with anyone. “Nothing,” I answered. “Tired. Are you done?”

“As done as we’ll ever be. I’m going to invite the council in to assess the results,” he said. “Can you last a few minutes longer?”

To get through this mess? Absolutely.

He helped me back to the chair, and I straightened as he cast forward his magic to open the door, announcing, “Miss Corentine’s affinity test is complete.”

Barrow was the first in, followed by Frond and Winona, then Opal, Delta, and the others. They congregated around a series of tubes on the wall that I hadn’t noticed.

Four tubes.

Whispering battle affinity into my legs first, I hobbled over. The four glass tubes were labeled. Apothecary, Battle, Divination, Grimoire.

“Tempest’s results,” Wild said, gesturing at the large tubes.

There were markers on the side—novice, proven, esteemed—but that wasn’t what everyone was staring at. The grimoire tube was empty of black, glass beads. Surprise, surprise. Yet while my apothecary affinity was filled with glass beads to the point halfway between proven and esteemed, and my divination affinity was filled just above novice, something seemed to have happened to the battle affinity tube.

I grimaced at the shattered tube.

“It exploded,” Birch gasped, sounding something other than militant for once.

The black beads had surged past esteemed to burst through the glass top of the battle tube and spill over the stone floor.

I glanced at Wild and caught his wry look. But my apothecary affinity was strongest. I didn’t understand this at all.

Which seemed as good a time as any to keep my mouth shut.

The council turned nearly as one to gape at me.

“What does that mean?” Opal said.

Cool. Not only did I feel like a freakshow because I had an alien in my magic, but the council was looking at me like I was one too. And they had no idea about the alien part.

Yet.

My gut told me they shouldn’t ever find out.

Varden, alone, was smiling. “Miss Corentine has a very strong battle affinity. Of unprecedented strength. We need bigger testing vials.”

“This isn’t funny!” Winona snapped. “Novice in divination. Proven in apothecary. Esteemed in battle. Where do we place her?”

If I wasn’t about to pass out, I’d laugh. All that, and they still didn’t have an answer?