Fretting about Idris, I settled into practicing the series. To my relief, I had no trouble getting it to remain stable. Even his computer program analogy began to make sense, now that I understood that the sigils and series were simply chunks of instructions, ways to shape potency for each step of the process.

I continued to practice and trace, losing myself in the focus and pausing only to grab a quick lunch that Faruk brought.

Shortly after the midday tone, Idris returned. I looked over at him, my brow furrowed, totally unsure what to say, if anything. He looked calm. Really calm. A curl of dread formed in my chest. Shit. Had he simply buried it all?

Idris smiled and headed my way. I returned the smile cautiously. He stopped a couple of feet away and leaned against the edge of the table.

“Thanks, Kara,” he said, his voice sounding as calm as he looked. “I needed that.”

“You’re okay?” I asked uncertainly. “Dude, I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings or anything. I swear.”

Idris ran his hand over his hair. “Yeah, I’m good. For real. I let everything get all blown out of proportion,” he said, opening his hands and shrugging. “I went and ran the stairs. Talked to Jekki and the reyza Juntihr. Everything’s straight now.” He gave me a sincere smile. “You don’t have to worry about me stalking you anymore.”

“It wasn’t that,” I said with a grimace. “I mean, not all that.” I paused. “Okay, that was a lot of it.” I gave him a wry smile. “But it was also that I don’t think I’m the one who can make you happy. I think I’d be a better wingman for you than a girlfriend.” I gave a snort. “Because, dude, have you not figured out that I have some major issues?”

Idris laughed. “Yeah, you do,” he said. “Anyway, I realized that I don’t need any girlfriend right now. Not until some of the shit settles.” He drew a breath and released it slowly. “And yeah, I care about you. A lot. And that’s one of the reasons it’s important for me to focus on what we’re doing here, with the ritual and everything else. Any one of us loses focus—you, Mzatal, me—the whole thing caves.”

Some of my tension slid away, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks,” I said. “Time to get back to work then.” He grinned in response and within a minute had surrounded himself with a ring of floaters.

Smiling, I watched him for a moment while I wondered what the hell he did to chill out so quickly. We both worked in focused silence for a while, me on my basics, and he on diagram diagnostics.

After about a half hour, Idris stood in the center of a complete diagram, looking it over and making minor tweaks. “This is one thing I love about working in the demon realm,” he said, “being able to use the floaters instead of chalk. I mean, apart from it being way more efficient, it’s so much easier to make adjustments.” He shook his head, let out a low whistle. “I still can’t believe you summoned Lord Rhyzkahl. On your own. With chalk.”

I lifted my shoulders in a self-conscious shrug. “I didn’t think it was that big a deal.”

The exasperated look he gave me told me exactly how naïve I sounded.

I cast my gaze over the shimmering ring around him, then looked back at him, frowning. “Wait. If I didn’t use chalk, then how the hell else would I do it on Earth?”

“Well, with floaters,” he said with a duh! tone. “But of course you haven’t finished the shikvihr, so that’s not possible for you yet.”

My bafflement increased. “You can use floaters on Earth? And what does the shikvihr have to do with it?”

He looked up at me, blinked. “Everything!” Idris took a big breath. “Okay, so you’ve seen the shikvihr, right?” He didn’t even wait for me to nod, simply hurried on, clearly excited by the topic. “See, there’s eleven rings to it. Each ring learned here causes a permanent enhancement to potency-holding and general skills usage. In the demon realm, you can dance the rings you know and use the specific attributes of those rings. With me so far?”

“Sure,” I said. “It’s like a magic kata-thing that trains mind and body and all that.”

A pained expression flickered over his face, but apparently I wasn’t wrong enough for him to correct the finer details of my analogy. “There’s an exponential increase between the rings, so it’s a huge advantage to learn as much as possible,” he continued. “And even though you can’t dance the shikvihr on Earth unless you know the whole thing, the passive enhancement does carry over, so it boosts summoning and warding and stuff.”

“So a summoner on Earth could have it, but it wouldn’t be anything obvious.”

“Yeah, but it’s not common anymore since it can only be learned in the demon realm from a lord. Plus, it’s a super big challenge to learn.”

Considering I’d never even heard of it before, I had to agree with him about its not being common. “But what does that have to do with using floaters on Earth?” I asked again.

He grinned. “Sorry. If you complete the full shikvihr here, then you can actually dance the shikvihr, floaters and all, on Earth. Once you’ve laid the shikvihr, you can use other floaters. No need for chalk and blood!”

Well, that sounded cool as shit. Looked like the damn thing was worth learning after all and not simply as a stepping stone for returning home.

Mzatal entered, glanced at me, then approached the diagram Idris had created, eyes traveling over it in assessment.

Idris made one final adjustment. “I’ve reset the parameters you wanted, my lord. How does it look?”

“Stable,” Mzatal said, nodding approval. “It will serve. Go lay it in the chamber now.”

Idris grinned and dissipated the diagram with several broad sweeps of his arms, then headed out.

Mzatal’s gaze followed him as he exited.

“Well, that whole confrontation went better than expected,” I said.

“Idris is an exceptional young man,” Mzatal said, his eyes still on the empty doorway.

“He’s amazing,” I said. “Crazy talented and, holy shit, really has his head on straight.”

Mzatal’s mouth tightened. “Unusual focus and talent.”

There was something he wasn’t saying. “What’s wrong?”

He finally pulled his gaze back to me, expression oddly troubled, which made no sense considering that Idris had done nothing but be generally Awesome.

“Katashi reported that Idris’s biological mother had only a smattering of arcane ability,” Mzatal said. “It does not fit.”

“Well maybe his dad kicked ass?” I offered. “Or maybe he’s a genetic mutant. I mean, is arcane ability always genetic?”

“No, not always,” he said. “Though many attempts to manipulate potential proved ill-advised. Perhaps a high-potency father, but one completely unknown to Katashi.” He shook his head slowly. “I cannot pinpoint the issue, but it gnaws at me. Especially after witnessing Idris’s process today.”

“Process?” I asked. “You mean, how he dealt with me telling him to back off?”

Mzatal nodded. “It was swift and definitive,” he said. “He considered, analyzed, and accepted. Another noteworthy aspect.”

I blew out my breath. “Yeah, I’ve never met a nineteen-year-old who could react that maturely.” I snorted. “Hell, for that matter I’m not sure I’ve ever met a thirty- nine-year-old with that much maturity.”

“Agreed,” he said. He dropped his arm over my shoulders, surprising me with the gesture, though only for an instant. It felt curiously natural and utterly platonic, and I found myself not minding it one little bit.

“In light of other suspicions,” Mzatal continued, “I believe Katashi knows more than he has told.” A hint of suppressed anger colored his tone.

“You train pretty much all summoners who come to the demon realm, right?” I asked with a slight frown.

“Most, yes,” he said. “The other qaztahl—in the past—have sent promising summoners to me, those whom they wished to excel. Some were not sent to me, though, if they were only to receive basic training.”