Lyra kept her hands buried in her sleeves so the villagers wouldn't see them glow. Her kind of magic was outlawed here. She had learned to hide it, to fold it small and quiet. But lately something inside her stirred without warning, and the light spilled out on its own. Twice this week her fingers had flared bright as coals. She knew what happened to people like her when they were caught. She wanted only to break the pull that kept waking her power. It tied her to a man she had loved across lifetimes, a man she never chose, and until she cut that bond, she would never be safe. The pull woke now, sharp behind her ribs. Blue fire raced up her wrists. She turned to run for the trees, but a woman by the well already stared. The woman's mouth opened. A hand closed over Lyra's arm and yanked her into an alley. She looked up into hazel eyes ringed with amber. Jax. He had been trailing her for days, this broad-shouldered stranger who watched her like he knew something she didn't. "Cover it," he said. He shrugged off a dark cloak and threw it over her shoulders. Runes crawled across the fabric, glowing faint. The moment it touched her, the fire in her hands sank low. The light dimmed to nothing. Lyra gasped. "What is this?" "Old magic. It drinks yours." His voice was rough, low. "It'll hide the flares. It won't teach you to stop them." He glanced toward the well, where the woman had drawn others. "We don't have long." "Why help me?" Lyra pulled the cloak tighter. Her heart still slammed. "You don't know me." Something crossed his face, quick and pained. "I know you better than you'd like." The words hit her strange, like a door opening in a wall she thought was solid. The pull in her chest surged toward him. Her hands sparked again beneath the runes, and for the first time she understood. He was the bond. He was the one she was tied to. She stepped back. "It's you." "Yes." Jax didn't move. "And every time you feel me, your magic answers. That's why you can't control it. The bond feeds it." Behind them, boots crossed the square. Voices called for the outcast girl. Lyra had wanted to break the bond to be free. Now she knew the bond itself was the thing exposing her. Cut it, and the flares would stop. But the only person who could teach her to control the fire until then was the man she needed to be rid of. She pulled the hood up. The runes swallowed her light whole. "Then teach me," she said. "And when I don't need you anymore, I'll break what's between us." Jax's jaw tightened. "You can try." He led her out the far end of the alley, away from the shouting. The cloak hid her hands. It could not hide what she'd learned.