Silver sagged back in his chair, his breath leaving him in a giant WHOOSH. He absently unwrapped the bandage he had brought from the bathroom and lined up the pad with the small hole in his skin, pressing against the not-quite-anyone’s-flesh colored sides to affix it.

Should he have asked Ms. Russo for help with his powers? Who could he trust? Before, he would have thought Aillen was trustworthy, but that was obviously incorrect, so how could he now trust complete strangers? He needed more information.

But how? Silver looked at the bulky, ancient computer in front of him. The internet had everything on it, right?

He shrugged. Couldn’t hurt to try.

Silver opened up a browser and clicked on the search bar. He hesitated, then typed in storm soother. Or was it all one word? The way Devon always said it made it sound like all one word.

He hit the enter key anyway. Search engines were smart – it would figure it out.

The first few links were for a cat-calming product.

Silver scrolled down. There was an herb, a wiccan spell, a teething product for babies….

He scrolled back up and took out the space. It gave him exactly the same list, except this time it asked if he meant it the other way.

Running his hands through his shaggy brown hair, Silver blew his breath out through his lips with a horsey sound. Maybe he should widen the search. He deleted soother and typed in worker.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Now it was trying to give him advice on some kind of computer program.

Frustrated, Silver closed the browser.

Clearly, magic was the only thing the internet wasn’t going to be able to help with. Books would probably be a better bet.

He sat up in his chair and stared across the room. Had the answer been literally right in front of him the whole time? He got up and walked toward the bookcases.

The case closest to the door contained mainly popular paperback novel-type books in a variety of genres, so Silver ignored those. He scanned the titles on the next bookcase and found them to be mainly mundane reference books, including two complete sets of encyclopedias.

The books on the third bookcase looked very similar to the second, but here he found some unusual titles.

Making the Most of Your Fae Heritage.

The Complete Atlas of the Duoverse.

Portals: Beyond the Trees.

Promising, but not exactly what he was looking for. These all seemed to be about the Fae and Faerieland.

Silver moved on to the fourth and final bookcase. Jackpot!

He pulled down a book called The Fundamentals of Stormsoothing. “So, it is all one word,” he murmured. He returned to his desk, hugging the heavy hardcover book against his chest.

A small cloud of dust emerged as he opened the book. It clearly wasn’t a super popular one. In fact, Silver had rarely seen anyone other than Aillen avail themselves of the books.

It was just one of those “amenities” that sounds nice when it’s offered, but no one really feels the need to use it. And what need would a full-blooded Fae have of a stormsoothing book? Stormworkers were all humans, as far as Silver knew.

He flipped past the title page, which attributed the writing of the book to someone named Lindsay Cook. Pausing on the copyright page, Silver noted that it had been written about ten years ago. He wondered if there were newer editions, or if the principals held within were unchanging enough to preclude that need.

He flipped another page, which was blank, and then another. Chapter one.

Silver began to read.