The Witch Hunter

Nicholas says that magic isn't inherently good or bad, it's what people do with it that makes it that way. It took me a long time to understand that. Once I did, I realized it isn't magic that separates us from them, or you from me. It's misunderstanding.

I'm quiet for a moment, enchanted by the idea of something stealing over you, settling into you, and telling you, with absolute certainty, who you are and what you're meant to do.

I'll tell the others I lost you." His voice gruff, and in it I can hear all the emotion he despises, all the emotion he's trying so hard to contain. "And it won't be a lie.

Then and only then will you realize that your greatest enemy isn't what you fight but what you fear.

I look at him. He's the same Caleb I've always known. Restless, ambitious, always yearning for more. It's only now I realize how deep that plague of ambition has spread inside him. Like a disease, it rules him now: his thoughts, his actions, the things he chooses to see, the things he chooses to ignore. And, like a disease, one day it will be the death of him.

I understand the need for deception. I should; I live a life of it. Distasteful, perhaps. But necessary.

I circle around them, my sword pointed in their direction. "Hermes Trismegistus. Ostanes the Persian. Olympiodorous of Thebes---" I stop, feeling like an idiot. These necromancers and the ridiculous names they give themselves. They're always trying to outdo one another. "You five," I said instead. "By the authority of King Malcolm of Anglia, I am commanded to arrest you for the crime of witchcraft.

Do what feels right to you, in whatever circumstance you find yourself in, even if it seems improbable or even impossible. And have faith. Everything else will follow.

The warning is clear, but I back away anyway, breaking his hold on me. For a moment I think this is my real test: a test of strength and will and command and fear, every bit as real as the test in the tomb. A test not of Blackwell's design but one he contrived anyway: to make me choose between my best friend and my freedom, my family and my life.