I exhale. “Does he… does he have to be such an ass about it?”

“Yes,” William and Alice answer together.

Three hours later, with all five of us loaded up, Mariah pulls in past a gate to a long, long dirt drive and stops partway down the road when we reach a painted wooden sign that says VOLITION.

She beckons us out of the car. The chill in the air slices right through my hooded jacket and leggings. When she rounds the hood, the corner of her mouth lifts. “This used to be called Guthrie Plantation. It used to be Guthrie Plantation, ’til other crafters got together to buy it from the state in the twenties. Good thing, too, ’cause they kept it from turning into one of those ‘plantation venues’ white people book for weddings.” She wrinkles her nose in derision. “Getting married, right where we were butchered and assaulted, raped, whipped, and starved, families torn apart. Taking family photos on top of centuries of blood and death. Shit is fucking gross.”

I shudder, nodding in agreement. I look up the road, past the sign, but it seems to rise up toward the horizon.

Mariah follows my gaze. “It’s a whole lotta land. The big, historic house is still there. Lots of smaller homes preserved for our private use, and a couple new residence structures they built that the state heritage folks woulda never allowed.”

She beckons us forward, then holds out an arm. “Stop here.”

Sel’s brow furrows.

“What?” William asks.

He shakes his head. “May be my imagination, but I could have sworn I just felt… aether.”

Mariah smiles. “Just you wait.”

She steps forward and pauses, pulling out a pack of dried nuts and fruit and a small mason jar of water, unscrewing the top. Then she sets both down on the ground.

Gold mage flame sparks to life beneath her hands. Sel, William, and I each step back, startled. In a flash, it spreads like fire in a thin, hot line out from Mariah on either side, curving wide and rushing through the underbrush and trees out of sight.

“Mariah…,” I whisper. Alarm is a low sizzle in my belly. Mage flame doesn’t catch things on fire the same way normal fire does, but seeing the smoke and light flickering over the dry ground is still unnerving.

Mariah throws a smirk over her shoulder, the light reflecting in her glasses as she follows its path. “Wait for it.”

BOOM!

All at once, the midmorning sky turns a crackling, shimmering gold.

“A barrier,” Sel says, sheer awe plain on his face.

Mariah lightly touches the surface. I watch the gold ripple against her fingers.

“That’s it,” Alice declares. “I’m getting somebody to Oath me.”

I glare at her.