By the start of The Wayward Mage, Tessa has had some practice with her budding magical abilities. The maelstrom stone embedded in the palm of her hand has already sucked up two magical artifacts, which have each granted her some expanded abilities. Unfortunately, her teacher, the fully reborn Phoenix Wizard, Professor Branard has flown the coop after Tessa helped him finish his rebirth ritual and he has realized his new life. Now, Tessa feels like the only place she can turn to in order to learn how to use her fledgling powers is The Society.
While Tessa's new boyfriend, Carter, is a member of The Society and doesn't speak too badly of them, Brandard had nothing good to say about the group. The mixed feelings from those she respects makes her wary of her first real encounter with the group of magic users, and when the initial meeting has a few unexpected twists in it (including having the maelstrom stone sucking up yet another artifact), her uneasiness only deepens.
Meanwhile, with the help of her iron dwarf friend, Hiram, Tessa plans to visit Hiram's father's house to look for some old journals. It seems that Mortimer kept quite a lot of notes about his various dealings, so there is a good chance that whatever led to Tessa's dad's current incorporeal state might be hinted at in the older dwarf's writings. Of course, making matters even more unnerving is the fact that Mortimer's widow, the harpy Goldie, is planning on joining Hiram and Tessa for this visit. While she is not liked by the dwarf clan, she does have some claim to fetch her belongings from their once-shared-home. When she drops the bomb on the dwarven clan that there is a traitor in their midst, Tessa and Goldie are rushed away and Tessa feels like she might not be all that welcomed to return to the enchanting estates.
As Tessa digs into Mortimer's journals, hoping to find out what the dwarf knew about her father, she starts to realize that her house is being watched. On top of that, she notices that some objects in the house aren't where they should be and, it seems, her mom is becoming friendly with someone new. As Tessa's worries increase, she can't help but be suspicious of the new man in her mother's life, especially since she feels like she is getting close to understanding what happened to her father and, hopefully, returning him to the physical plane.
As the story progresses, Tessa takes note of missing pets in the neighborhood and strange behavior from her reformed lesser-demon friend, Steptoe. She also wonders what new assignment Carter is being asked to undertake at work and even helps her friend, Evie, deal with Hiram's stand-offish behavior when it becomes clear he hasn't told the young woman of his heritage yet. Oh, and then there is the ancient demi-god Malender that Tessa helped free, who seems to feel like he has a debt to her. His cryptic comments about the events surrounding the town and its people do little to put her at ease.
All of these various plot points come to a head when Tessa discovers exactly who the real darkness in her town is and how it has been manipulating her family for years. Can Tessa summon up enough power, courage and friends to confront this problem head on? And if so, will they all survive the final battle?
Like I said before, The Wayward Mage: Wayward Mages - Book 3 is a solid conclusion to this trilogy. While I'm interested to see where and how Tessa's world evolves after this point, if this book ends up being the last thing I hear about her and her family, it would be a good, solid ending. If you've already dug into this series, then you will definitely want to see how this book plays out. You won't be disappointed.
