“That is very disturbing.” Alise looked both stricken and intrigued. “I wonder why this is such a secret?”

Nic snorted. “Aside from the fact that wizards are paranoid and pathological about keeping secrets, even if there’s no good reason?”

“There is that,” Alise admitted with a wry smile.

“I only know that the hunters cannot be killed by physical means, only magical, and they regrow entirely from small pieces. They have rudimentary intelligence, enough to pursue a task with single-minded relentlessness, and some of them can even speak. They can employ canned enchantments. They tracked me all the way to Wartson, captured me, and put that iron collar and chain on me in order to take me back to Convocation Center for punishment and retraining.”

Alise stared at her, face pale, her shock and horror apparent in the very stillness of her body. “But what happened then?” she finally asked.

Nic shrugged for the force of nature that was her wizard. “Gabriel happened. He also tracked me, then fought off and destroyed the hunters. After we returned to Convocation land, Gabriel hired an Iblis wizard to remove the collar, and he brought me home to Meresin rather than turning me over to the Convocation or to Papa’s wizard enforcer, who…” The realization struck her. “Jan.”

“Disgusting Jan found you?” Alise made a face.

“Yes, he and Daniel found me at an inn right when we arrived. I’ll bet he’s the one who told you about the collar.”

Alise shrugged a little, a mirror of Nic’s. “He told Papa, anyway, who contacted me. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known about any of this.” She lifted her chin, meeting Nic’s gaze, accusation in her wizard-black eyes. “You could have trusted me to help you, Nic. I know we haven’t always been close, especially in the last few years, but you couldn’t have thought that I would have turned my back on you. Or turned you in.”

Shaking her head, Nic picked up the box holding her correspondence and blank stationery, found the letter she’d started to Alise, and handed it over.

Clearly bemused, Alise took it and read the bare two lines, the second hanging in eternal forlorn inadequacy. She lifted her gaze to Nic’s. “Forgive you for what?”

“For not writing to you before this,” Nic answered. “I should have told you what was going on, should have trusted you, and I’m sorry I didn’t. But also for everything else.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “I haven’t been a good sister to you. I know I was insufferable when we were growing up. I was unkind when I banned you from our company when my friends visited. I wasn’t kind to you for our whole lives, really! I was so self-involved and snooty about being Papa’s heir, so full of hubris. And then, when I discovered I was a familiar, I cut you off. Because I was ashamed of myself, but that wasn’t fair to you. I never congratulated you on your wizard status, which is unforgivable. I really am happy for you, by the way, and I think you’ll be an amazing Lady Elal. But I don’t blame you for being angry at me, and I don’t expect you to forgive me for any of it.”