Han glanced sideways at his friend, who seemed to be deep in his own thoughts, oblivious to Han’s epiphany. Had Dancer known? Had he ever suspected? Was he really Willo’s child, or had they only pretended so he could be housed with the matriarch, the wisest woman at Marisa Pines?

Well, if they meant to target Dancer, Han would have his back, though he couldn’t say what help he could provide to a wizard.

Han was so involved in his own thoughts that he didn’t quite follow when Elena began speaking again in the rich cadence of the matriarch.

“This council calls forward Hunts Alone, whose flatland name is Hanson Alister.”

There was a long moment of silence while Han waited for someone else to answer. “What?” he said stupidly. “What did you say?”

“It’s you, Hunts Alone,” Willo said, taking his hands in hers. “You are Waterlow’s only living gifted descendant.”

C H A P T E R  T W E N T Y - S E V E N

GIFTED

“No!” Han said, pulling his hands free. “What are you talking about? I’m not gifted. You want Dancer.” He looked at Dancer for support, but his friend had the same look on his face as everyone else—mingled wariness and hope.

“But you are gifted,” Willo said. “Even at birth, you manifested so strongly that your mother nearly died in childbirth. I tended you both. I called in Elena Cennestre.”

Han shook his head, backing away until he came up against the sleeping bench. Elena came and stood in front of him. He felt cornered even though he towered over her.

“I made your bracelets,” she said, touching his silver cuffs. “They absorb magic—your own as well as any used against you. They protect you and also prevent you from using magic yourself, accidentally or on purpose. They keep you from giving off the aura of magic or storing it in an amulet. All of the gifted descendants of Waterlow have worn them, from that first child of Alger’s.” She paused, then added, “His name was Alister.”

Han lifted his arms and stared at his cuffs as if he’d never seen them before. He remembered when Gavan Bayar had jinxed him, and the flames seemed to flow into his cuffs and disappear. He recalled how the demon assassins in Southbridge had attacked him with magic, and it had seemed to roll off him. How despite Micah Bayar’s warning, he’d picked up the serpent amulet, feeling its sting but remaining otherwise unharmed. That same amulet had thrown the Southies against the wall.

Han Alister—streetlord of the Raggers, a wayward hustler with blood on his hands and a grudge in his heart and too many enemies to count—Han Alister was also a wizard who could shoot flame out of his fingers and fling jinxes and bend others to his will.