The magic lessons must have begun. I had never been around anyone else who could use magic, so I’d never known what it felt like. But the sensation was familiar, and I realized I’d felt something similar during the train robbery, only I’d attributed my reaction to the excitement of the situation and dismissed the idea that magisters would rob trains. If this was the way I reacted to magic being used nearby, then keeping my secret in a magical household would be impossible.

In Which I Receive Multiple Invitations

IN WHICH I RECEIVE MULTIPLE INVITATIONS

The sense of magic gradually became less shocking and painful as I became accustomed to it, but I doubted I could avoid reacting visibly when it was used. Surely magisters could control or block the sensations, or else they’d go mad. I knew very little about my magical heritage, but how was I to learn? I couldn’t ask to observe Lord Henry’s lessons with the children if I couldn’t mask my reaction, and a commoner like me couldn’t ask for instruction from a magister without revealing that I had forbidden powers.

When I entered the dining room later that evening, Olive and Rollo were in high spirits, while Flora made a great effort to appear bored. No one commented that I was pale or looked ill, even though I felt like I’d been put through a clothes wringer.

After grace, Lord Henry started the conversation by saying, “Olive, would you like to tell Miss Newton what you learned?”

“I lit a candle, all by myself!” she said, beaming.

“We have lights,” Flora sighed wearily. “I don’t see why we need to learn to light candles. We don’t even use candles.”

“It’s not about lighting a candle. It’s about channeling and controlling the power,” her uncle said. “The candle is merely an exercise.”

“It’s not as though we need to know how to use magic,” Flora said with a toss of her hair. “We have magical devices to do things for us. Nobody who’s anybody actually has to perform magic. That’s so old-fashioned.”