The Master Magician

She used the tiny flame to caramelize the tops of her crème br?lée. Hearing Emery’s steps on the stairs, she blew out the fire rather than commanding it “Cease.”


“Smells wonderful,” Emery said, stepping into the dining room. “Ah, I got lost in myself. I should have set the table,” he added when he saw she had already done just that.

“I needed something to do while I browned this pastry,” Ceony said, grabbing a towel and carrying the kidney pie to the table.

Emery stroked her neck with the back of his fingers, sending cool shivers down her shoulders. “Thank you,” he said.

She smiled, feeling the slightest pink prickle her cheeks. Emery pulled out her chair and she sat, tugging off her apron and slinging it across the back.

Absent-mindedly, Ceony stuck her hand in her pocket and ran her fingers over the matchbox. She’d need to restore her bond to paper as soon as dinner concluded. Surely Emery wouldn’t give her a surprise test midmeal, not after she’d handled the Holloways’ party for him.

She stabbed a slice of kidney pie with her fork. In a way, the magic—the bond breaking—felt like cheating.

The man she had learned it from would probably agree, were he still alive.





CHAPTER 2




AFTER DINNER EMERY washed the dishes and Ceony hurried upstairs to her room, phosphorus in hand, to break her bond to fire. She resealed herself to paper while stroking Fennel’s hairless body, then took out her rubber buttons for examination. She wanted to use them to create sturdy padding for Fennel’s paws. They were close to the right size, so hopefully she wouldn’t have to manipulate the material too much. She could hardly ask for Emery’s assistance in such a task.

She paused, rubber in hand. Did she really have time to be doing this?

After learning the secrets of bond breaking in Mg. Aviosky’s home nearly two years ago—a secret only she knew—Ceony had awoken in a hospital bed. Her body, which had been sliced open like a Christmas turkey, was intact, having been healed by an Excisioner. The magician who’d saved her life was legally sanctioned to work with his material, but the idea of anyone using blood magic on her was horrifying, particularly at that time, only moments after she’d watched an Excisioner murder her dear friend.

She had awoken as a Gaffer—a glass magician—having changed her material to save her life. After rebonding herself to paper, she had forced herself to forget Grath’s bizarre magic for two months.

But hers was a mind that couldn’t forget. She remembered everything, down to the most minute detail: her first spelling test in the fifth grade, the recipe for kidney pie, even the shoe buckles Mg. Aviosky wore the first time Ceony met her on September 18, 1901.

She remembered the way Mg. Aviosky’s body had hung from the rafters of her house, her wrists swollen and her head lolling to one side. She remembered every piece of glass that had cut through her own skin—she felt them slicing through her now and shivered, rubbing the gooseflesh away. And she remembered the terrified look in her friend Delilah’s eyes well enough that, had she any skill in drawing, she could sketch it blindfolded.

So she knew exactly how Grath Cobalt had broken and resealed his bonds to become an Excisioner.

She had told Emery about her new ability in the hospital—proved it, even—without sharing the details. He had never asked for them. What little knowledge he possessed about her ability to shift materials had not sat comfortably. Understandable—Ceony had more or less achieved the equivalent of breaking gravity. She hadn’t shared her desire to delve into the other magics, what with their newfound relationship being as precarious as it was.

Initially, she’d planned to never test her new, unwanted knowledge, and she’d allowed him to think she still felt that way. While she didn’t think he would judge her, she couldn’t stomach the thought of disappointing him.

So a secret it had stayed.

At first she set strict rules for herself: no studies in other materials magics until her Folding studies had been completed, along with all her other duties as an apprentice. She’d only broken her rule a few times, for spells too alluring and interesting to pass up, like enchanting bullets or altering her image in a mirror’s reflection.

But now, with the test for her magicianship only a month away, could she really spare time to adhere rubber to her paper pup’s paws?

She closed her fingers around the rubber buttons. A part of her knew she was ready. She knew how to mold and animate creatures made of dozens of pieces of paper. She knew how to create the most abstruse paper illusions, how to construct fifty-four different paper chains, and how to make paper vibrate so quickly it exploded. She could probably teach her own apprentice!