I frowned. “That’s . . . strange.” Magical teachers who are thinking about taking on a new student usually want to interview the student. The only explanation I could think was that she wanted some sort of payment. Still, there was only one way to find out. “All right. How?”

“She gave me an e-mail address, asked me to give it to you. I’ll forward it.”

“Okay. When was this?”

“Just this morning.” Luna paused. “By the way, there’s one other thing . . .”

I’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop. “What other thing?”

“She’s . . . not an independent.”

And if she were a Light mage, Luna would have told me already. “She’s Dark.”

“Yeah,” Luna said. She was watching me carefully.

“How do you know?”

“She told me. She didn’t keep it a secret or anything.”

“How did she get your contact details?”

“She said it was through the apprentice program,” Luna said, shrugging. “It was only my public mailbox.”

I was silent. “Is that a problem?” Luna asked.

“Yes.”

“You did just say we’d have to widen the search.”

“I said we might have to widen the search, and when I said ‘widen,’ I didn’t mean take anyone we could get. Let’s try some independents before we get crazy.”

“I thought you had been trying most of the independents.”

“Then we’ll find some others.”

“Okay,” Luna said. “But while we’re doing that, it won’t do any harm if we see how it goes, right?”

I looked at Luna. “Are you actually serious about this?”

Luna paused, then nodded.

“Luna, this isn’t a good idea. She’s a Dark mage.”

“Most of the people I hang out with are ex-Dark anyway.”

“Okay,” I said. “Bit of a difference here I don’t think you’re seeing. I was originally trained by a Dark mage, a really long time ago, and in case you’ve forgotten, it didn’t work out so well. And Anne and Vari’s experience was worse.”

“It’s not like the Council are so much better.”

“Maybe not, but they’re safer.”

“They didn’t feel much safer to me,” Luna said quietly.

That brought me up short. Luna officially became my apprentice two and a half years ago, but she got her feet wet in magical society the year before. And when I say “feet wet,” it was more like “someone trying to drown you.” Back then Luna had been a novice, inexperienced and vulnerable, and on two separate occasions she’d fallen into the hands of Light mages who had done a very good job of demonstrating to her that being a Light mage did not make you a nice person. Those sorts of experiences leave an impression.

But just because Light mages can be bastards, that doesn’t make Dark ones any less dangerous. “I don’t think you’re thinking this all the way through,” I said. “You’re twenty-four. In another year or two you’re going to want to take your journeyman tests, and that means going to the Council. You already know how much grief you get for being my apprentice, and I’m only ex-Dark. If you’ve been studying under a Dark mage directly, it’s going to be worse.”