“At least not here.”

I sat back and crossed my arms. “Okay then, I’ll make you a deal. You tell me where and how you picked up what you did in the Quad, and I won’t yell ‘I love you!’ and plant a big, wet, sloppy kiss on your forehead in front of half the watchers on Mid.”

“I told you; I read it in a spellsong book.”

“Does Ronan Cayle know about your extracurricular reading?”

Piaras hesitated, then in the span of two seconds, he winced, grimaced, and looked queasy, as though what he was about to tell me was the last thing he wanted to say.

“Yes, he does. It was part of a lesson.”

I blinked. “What?” My voice was quiet, the kind of quiet that said Ronan better be glad he wasn’t in the room with me right now.

Piaras turned to face me and lowered his voice to a bare whisper. “Raine, I may be the age of a first-year student, but I’ve long known what they’re just now learning. Maestro Cayle did some testing with me to determine what level of study I should start at-”

Now I was the one who felt queasy. “And what I saw today was it.”

Piaras nodded. “I’ve been working on a confinement spellsong for the past two days in class. One of the things it works on is demons.”

“And after only two lessons you used it today.”

“When I saw that thing fly into the Quad, I had to do something.”

I froze. “Wait, you saw it fly in? It didn’t materialize until it snatched up Katelyn.”

Piaras’s brow furrowed in confusion. “I could see it.” He leaned forward and looked around me at Talon. “Could you see it?”

“I heard it.” The goblin wrinkled his nose. “I sure as hell could smell it. But no, until it popped up over our heads, I couldn’t see it.”

“Vegard couldn’t even see it,” I told Piaras. “And I could only see it because…” I didn’t want to finish that sentence, at least not out loud. I didn’t know it for sure, but I strongly suspected that my demon-sighting ability was the Saghred’s doing. I had a link with the Saghred; Piaras didn’t. So what did Piaras have that a senior Guardian, a highly trained, elite magical warrior, didn’t?