Madison hummed as she turned the stone over in her hands. The blue-green crystal felt heavy for its size. And warm, especially compared to the frost on the windowpanes or the hip-deep snow piling outside her workshop.

She wanted to run away from it. Lady Leighton's commission was a danger, how Madison didn't know, but it was deadly.

The storm rising outside her workshop wound together with the stone and the commission into a trap that threatened not just Madison's life and magic but the safety of the entire country as well.