A Sleight of Shadows by Kat Howard

Author:Kat Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Pleasantly full, Grace set down her knife and fork. “I see that Sydney wasn’t exaggerating when she raved about your cooking.”

Laurent smiled across his butcher-block table. It was set with the remains of shrimp scampi, a bright, fresh salad, and warm crusty bread. “Thanks. I like having something to do that’s not magic. It’s satisfying to actually make something and have it feel like it comes from me.”

“You’re good at it. But you didn’t invite me over so I could praise your cooking.”

“Oh, you could do it some more if you feel like you need to.”

Grace laughed. “I’d love some advice on bread baking when you have a chance. I’ve been too intimidated to try my own, and yours is wonderful.”

“Anytime. In person, or we can video-call. It’ll be easier if I can see what you’re doing. But you’re right. I wanted to talk to you about the kids I’ve been working with.”

“Things are going well?”

“They really are. I’ve got a solid group, who work hard, and who want to know more about magic, about the Unseen World. There’s one girl, Mia, who is just amazing. Soaks stuff up like a sponge and is always pushing herself to learn more. I’m really proud of them all, and I’ve been thinking about what happens next.”

“Next?”

“Once they fully come into their magic. The equivalent of graduation, I guess. It seems wrong, unfair, to just wish them well and turn them loose, particularly when part of the point of giving them this place to learn was also giving them a community to do it in. As fucked-up as the Unseen World can be, being a magician would be a lot weirder, a lot more alienating and strange, without it. So my question is, is there a place for them in the Unseen World if they want it?”

Grace looked thoughtful. “The main options for outsiders aren’t any different now than they were for you—to either attempt to found their own House in a Turning, or to choose to remain peripheral. Some do marry into Houses, and it’s possible that there are other options, but I’d have to do some research.

“And you don’t mean anything like that.”

Laurent smiled wryly. “I think—I hope—there’s an option that lets us do better for them. Because I do know what it’s like to come up as an outsider here, and I want more for them than that. What I’ve been thinking about, what I want to know is, can I invite them to join my House? There’s got to be some kind of precedent for that when new Houses get established as part of a Turning, right?”

“Yes and no. I suspected this might be part of what you wanted to talk about, so I did some checking. Rules for new Houses are a bit different, but usually different in a way that supports the establishment of the House, including populating it with members.”

“There’s another but, isn’t there?” Laurent asked.

“There is. Those new members are usually—almost exclusively—part of the Unseen World already.

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