Lucian's exit left the library feeling emptier than it should have.
Raziel closed his book and stood, already calculating his next moves.
He needed to talk to Lucian properly, without an audience, but that would have to wait until he figured out what to tell him.
And he needed to keep working on controlling the tainted light before someone noticed something was wrong.
"The session is over," he said to Lara, keeping his voice neutral. "Get some rest."
"Raziel, wait—"
But he was already walking away, disappearing into the stacks before she could finish the sentence.
He didn't have the energy for more questions he couldn't answer.
He made it to the corridor before his thoughts caught up with him.
Lucian's fear a constant background noise he couldn't tune out. His power was corrupted.
The Inquisition was watching and now he had two people who knew more about him than was safe.
He turned a corner too fast and collided with someone coming the other way.
Books went flying.
"I'm sor—" Lara's voice cut off when she saw who it was.
Of course it was her. Of course she'd followed him.
Raziel was already on the floor, gathering the scattered tomes with mechanical efficiency.
Lara crouched to help, and her fingers brushed against his over a leather-bound cover.
The world disappeared.
He felt the connection snap into place like a live wire, felt her gift reaching into him before either of them could stop it.
For one terrible moment, his defenses meant nothing.
Then he yanked his hand back, breaking the contact.
Lara fell backward, gasping, her face pale and her eyes wide with something that looked like terror.
'She saw something. She felt something. Damn it.'
"Are you okay?" he asked, keeping his voice flat even as his mind raced through the implications.
"Yes. I'm fine." Her voice was strangled. "I have to go."
She scrambled to her feet and ran, leaving half her books on the floor.
Raziel watched her go, then gathered the remaining tomes and set them on a nearby window ledge. Someone would find them.
'If she opens her mouth, I'm finished.'
But there was nothing he could do about it now except wait and see what she decided to do with whatever she'd learned.
***
The next night, Raziel was in one of the practice rooms, trying to force his corrupted power into something that could pass for normal healing.
The plant in front of him was dying.
That was the point. The next trial required him to restore it using pure mana flow, and his mana was anything but pure these days.
Golden light flickered in his palm, shot through with dark streaks that had no business being there.
He pushed energy toward the plant and watched its leaves curl tighter, suffering under his touch instead of healing.
"Shit," he muttered, cutting the flow.
"That's not how you heal."
He turned. Lara stood in the doorway, watching him with an expression he couldn't read.
'So she came to confront me. Fine. Better to get this over with.'
"You're forcing it," she continued, stepping into the room.
"Healing is supposed to be an act of surrender, not power."
Raziel let out a short breath that might have been a laugh in better circumstances.
"Perceptive. That's the problem. The trial requires pure mana flow, and my power is contaminated."
She studied him for a long moment, and he could see her weighing her options.
Running to the Inquisitors.
Pretending she hadn't seen anything.
Or something else.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you already know something is wrong, and lying about it won't change that." He met her eyes.
"And because you might be able to help. You sense the flow of life. If you channel your energy, I can use it as a reference point to calibrate what I'm doing."
It was a risk.
But everything was a risk now, and at least this way he might get something useful out of the situation.
Lara nodded slowly and sat down next to the plant.
If she was going to help, he wasn't going to question her motives.
She closed her eyes and he felt her reach for that warm, pure energy that came so naturally to her.
It flowed toward the plant like water finding its level, gentle and unforced.
Raziel took a breath and reached for his own power.
This time, instead of forcing it directly into the plant, he used Lara's energy as a guide.
Her flow was pure.
His was tainted.
But if he could align them, channel his power through the same patterns she was using...
The golden light wrapped around his hand, still shot through with darkness, but more stable than before.
He directed it into the plant, following the path her energy had already laid out.
The leaves uncurled.
Color returned to the stems.
It wasn't gentle healing. It was aggressive, forcing life back into dying tissue through sheer will.
But it worked.
When the last leaf straightened, Raziel cut the flow and stepped back.
"It worked," he said, looking at his hands.
"That wasn't healing." Lara's voice was shaky. "That was brute force."
"It was what I needed to pass the test." He stood and looked at her, letting the novice mask slide back into place.
"Thanks, Lara. I owe you one."
He walked toward the door.
"Raziel!" She stood up, and he could hear frustration overtaking fear in her voice.
"Stop pretending! I felt what's inside you. That darkness. Lucian is scared of you for a reason. What is really happening?"
He stopped with his hand on the doorknob but didn't turn around.
"You have a dangerous gift, Lara. If you value your life here, learn to control what you see."
He paused. "And what you say."
"I just want to help."
"Some paths are walked alone."
He opened the door and left her standing in the dark.