Page 83 of Take Back Magic

Selfish.

“Yeah,” I tell her. “I will.”

“After everything?” Ayaka presses. “You have your sister back, and you have your freedom, and we all have magic. You will risk all this for a demon you barely know, plunge the whole world and every wizard in it into a fight we’re not prepared for?”

“Then we’llgetprepared, but if Bright Earth wants to separate me and Nariel so they can use us both more easily, that’s exactly what they’re not going to get.

“And more to the point: If High Earth or Bright Earth or anyone thinks they can take what matters to me whenever they please to threaten me, to threatenmagic, they’ll never stop. We’ll never be safe. So I am going to make sure they don’t get to take anything from me, ever again.”

Silence falls.

Brook’s eyes are wide. Ayaka’s expression, carefully neutral. Considering, probably, how best to handle the madwoman before her willing to risk it all.

The only way I know.

By the waterfall, Nariel said, “I’ll wait for you.”

He’d better have meant it, because I am going to take him at his word.

I’m coming for him whether he wants me to or not.

To my absolute surprise, Ayaka offers me her hand over the worn counter. Completely shocked, I look up, and the grim, sharp slash of a smile on her face would make me take several steps back under other circumstances.

“Thank you for your honesty,” Ayaka says. “I look forward to working with you.”

Ayaka knows about ruthlessness, too, and how to not give up space. I should have given her more credit.

It’s just that I’m not sure I can give myself credit for this. This is going to be dangerous as fuck.

But then, what else is new?

I take Ayaka’s hand and bow over it, giving myself a moment to get control of my face, of the surge of emotion there. “The honor is entirely mine.”

Beside me, Brook has a strange, knowing expression on her face.

She of all people must know I never make connections easily, so my sister will recognize what this means for me.

But she’s also never seen me fully engaged in life before, and after years of my passing through life in the background, now she’s going to. I’m practically crackling with energy.

It’s like I’ve been living in monochrome and can see color again for the first time, and it’s so sharp it almost hurts.

I took back magic.

Now it’s time to take back a demon.