ã€ŠPulseã€‹


 Prologue

    The city stopped.

    Luka felt the disruption as it happened, just as he was heading home from patrolling, and turned back towards the affected portion of the city. The sky was starting to light up with the rising sun, and he would like nothing more than to dismiss it, so he could make it to work on time. It was tempting to leave it to the Agents, but he was too close to simply ignore it. He could already hear the honking cars, and as he got closer, the frustrated voices. He could see the edge of the disruption, where the lights of the city turned to darkness, and people stood scattered in between the lines of halted cars with nowhere to go.

    It wasn¡¯t a clear line, but the magic would encourage people to leave the area, whether consciously or not. Once he stepped across it, however, all sound seized. It was a pure, complete silence. No distant traffic. No voices. No flutter of wings. Not even wind, or the subtle hum of electricity.

    It lay like pressure around his ears, and he ached for anything to pierce through the quiet, but even his steps were swallowed up by the magic.

    Next to the silence was darkness. It wasn¡¯t complete, not with the hazy light of the sunrise filtering through the gaps between buildings, but all electricity seemed to have cut out. Street lights, windows and neon signs had all gone dark. Except, when he thought he caught movement, and instead found the lights flickering at an intersection.

    They were all stuck on red, blinking above him like a warning.

    Luka already knew what this was. He had known as soon as he felt the disruption. Few things could give the city this kind of power, and even fewer would allow it to run wild. The intersection had to be the center, the point of origin.

    He looked around for the kid, who would be the cause of it all. He found him, curled up at the lip of an alley, arms around his knees and his head bend towards his chest. Luka placed his hands in his pockets and nudged him, gently, with his foot.

    ¡°Hey,¡± he said, relieved his voice still carried sound.

    This shouldn¡¯t be happening. It wasn¡¯t allowed to happen. The Agents should have already been here, doing their job, but they were nowhere to be seen. Young mages were never supposed to go through this alone and afraid, not only because it was cruel, but because the effects could be very, very dangerous. This? A block of the city blacked out and silent? This was nothing. Fortunate, even, given the lack of Agents. It would be a problem to explain it away, since the disruption was so public, but luckily that part wasn¡¯t Luka¡¯s problem.

    The important thing was that no one had gotten hurt. Young mages coming into their magic were time bombs. Sometimes, when they went off, the explosion was fatal. The mage was always fine, but being surrounded by dead bodies was hardly an ideal introduction to the world of magic. However, Luka would never describe any Stray left alone like this as lucky. He had to bury his anger, reserve it for the Academy where it belonged. It would do no good for this terrified kid.

    The kid stirred, and raised his head. He looked up at Luka with wide, desperate eyes, red and raw from crying.

    ¡°Do you understand what is happening?¡± Luka asked, even though he knew the answer. Legacies were prepared for this, and would never have been allowed to wander into the city to manifest. This kid was far too terrified, too lost. If only one of his parents were a mage, it wasn''t uncommon for that parent to hope their child wouldn''t manifest or simply forget it was an option. It wasn''t an equal chance, since the Legacies claimed the majority of the odds, which explained the oversight, even if it didn¡¯t excuse it. Aside from the panic, he looked like a perfectly normal kid.

    His clothes were good quality, and his hair carefully groomed. His face was pale from fear and panic, but underneath it all, his skin held a healthy tan.

    The kid shook his head. ¡°I¡­¡± he started, quiet and stammering. ¡°I just wanted it to stop.¡±

    ¡°Wanted what to stop?¡± He forced his voice to remain gentle, even though none of this mattered. He just needed to get him steady enough to go to the Academy.

    When mages came into their magic, it could present as sensations, sounds, smells. It was an effect of the body adjusting to the power, but if you didn¡¯t understand why it was happening, it could be overwhelming.

    For Luka, it had been like a fever burning him up from the inside, but the build-up had been brief.

    It wasn¡¯t always.

    ¡°The buzzing,¡± he answered, quiet and questioning, like he was no longer sure.

    Luka tugged at his pants and crouched down in front of him. Frightened eyes flickered to his face.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡± Luka wasn¡¯t naturally inclined towards comfort, and it wasn¡¯t easy for him to give these kids what they needed. Sure, manifesting had already broken apart their world, but they didn¡¯t understand it. It was up to Luka to explain, but he wasn¡¯t trained for it and reactions were unpredictable. ¡°Do you believe in magic?¡±

    He didn¡¯t answer immediately, but glanced around at the dark, empty piece of city, and the flickering red lights. ¡°What?¡±

    Maybe a piece fell into place, but this wasn¡¯t magic as normal children were taught it. Luka held up his hand, and after a moment, it started glowing. Tendrils of bright, red light swirled across his skin, tracing echoes behind in the air, when he moved his fingers.

    ¡°You¡¯re a mage,¡± he said.

    It was unlikely to make sense to the kid, but even though this wasn¡¯t his first Stray, he had never developed the vocabulary for this.

    The kid stared at his hand with wide eyes, and pushed himself into the bricks at his back. Despite what this kid had done, despite the evidence surrounding him, the demonstration did nothing to ease his fear. Luka closed his hand and the light faded. There was no right approach with these kids, but Luka always seemed to get it wrong. He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket, fumbling around in the depths of the fabric. He pulled out a small piece of paper resembling a business card and held it out.

    "You need to go to this place. Do you know where it is?"

    The kid scanned the card, then looked up at Luka and nodded.

    "They''ll train you. Make the buzzing go away."

    Luka straightened, and turned to walk away.

    "Wait," that quiet, uncertain voice said. "Don''t leave."

    "Sorry," Luka said. "I don''t get paid to deliver."

    As much as Luka knew he couldn''t just leave him, he really didn''t want to stay with him. Agents could show up any minute, and even if they didn''t, everything in him tensed up at the thought of walking with him to the Academy, of getting that close after all these years. He gave the kid a moment to respond, all the while he urged himself to walk away before it was too late.

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    "Please," the kid said, and the quiver in his voice was enough to make Luka''s compassion win over his anxiety.

    He turned back to face the kid.

    "Fine. Let''s go." He waited for him to scramble off the ground, before he started walking in the direction of the Academy. The kid was a little shaky, but it didn''t take him long to keep up with Luka.

    "What about¡­ this?" he asked. He barely looked at the city around him, but the meaning was clear. Luka should have already handled it, but he wanted to leave it to the Agents, to allow them to clean up their own mess. He considered the kid next to him, the strength he possessed. He didn''t want to push him, because he honestly didn''t know if he could handle it.

    On the other hand, giving him a chance to undo it himself, might help him deal with his new powers.

    "You can reverse it," Luka said.

    "What? No." The panic returned to his eyes. "I don''t even know how I did it. I..."

    "Relax," Luka interjected, before he managed to freak himself out again. "I''ll walk you through it."

    The kid nodded, although his fears and doubts were still plain on his face.

    "You want to try this?"

    He nodded again.

    "Close your eyes."

    The thing about these young mages, the ticking time bombs ¡ª Strays, who were left to explode in uncontrolled environments ¡ª was that their magic was incredibly hard to contain, especially at this stage, because the untethered magic of the city was amplifying it. Once the city got involved, the magic was well and truly out of control, and mages trying to stop it would have to battle the very city to regain that control. This kid didn''t have that kind of power, or that kind of finesse, but he was the mage responsible, which would help. Either way, he wouldn''t be able to do it alone, but there was no harm in letting him believe he could.

    "Do you feel it?" Luka asked.

    "I¡­ don''t know what I''m supposed to feel," the kid said.

    "You did this. It''s part of you. You need to feel that connection in order to break it."

    He shook his head. "I can''t feel anything."

    "Look for something familiar," Luka prompted, careful to keep his voice calm.

    He felt hopeless at explaining things that were second nature to himself, and had a hard time relating to these young mages. If he kept stumbling upon them, if the Agents kept neglecting their duties, he was going to need to find a better system than handing them a card with an address, which had so far proved to be inefficient every single time.

    While waiting for the kid to make some sort of connection with his magic, Luka started reining it in himself. If the kid could sever the connection, the city would no longer be able to feed on him, and the effects would eventually die out on their own, returning the city to normal. For now he tried to overwrite it, allow the natural pulse and rhythm of the city to grow stronger than the silence. It was slow, careful work, in order to not lose control over the magic.

    "The buzzing you''re hearing, it''s likely the magic around you. Focus on that," Luka offered, once too much time had passed without any noticeable change.

    "I don''t understand what I''m supposed to be feeling," the kid said again, the frustration quivering in his voice.

    Luka suppressed a sigh. He wasn''t a teacher for a reason, and had neither the patience or inclination for it.

    "Power. Strength. Warmth."

    He watched the kid''s eyebrows jump, and at the faint gasp, Luka trusted that something was happening. Hopefully he was finally familiarizing himself with his magic.

    "Sever the connection," Luka said.

    "No, I¡­ I''ve never felt anything like this before."

    An edge sneaked into Luka''s voice, serving as a warning. "You''ll learn to access your magic soon enough. What you''re feeling now doesn''t even come close to the real thing. Now, do it."

    He felt it happen, the loss of that connection, as a weight on the magic he had been weaving. It grew unstable, and he struggled to contain it, to bind it all together and normalize the magic around them. His heartbeats felt loud in his ears, until he let go, and an intense wave of sound crashed down around them, like water breaking through a dam. It washed out the sound of his heart, and replaced it with sirens, engines, people shouting, cars honking. Impossibly loud now, after the silence. The noise was both welcome and jarring. Luka took a moment to close his eyes and take a deep breath, while he resettled himself in the world.

    "Okay," he said, opening his eyes, "You did it. Now we go."

    He picked up the pace, leaving the kid to either follow or fall behind. He was still concerned about Agents appearing, now more than ever. At least if he had left the city for them to deal with, they would be preoccupied. The only thing they would be preoccupied with now, was finding the cause of the disruption and stopping whoever had done it. It had been too big for anyone to be able to do any real damage control, and they would be too late anyway, so they could only nudge the narrative. It would be half-way believable to blame an EMP, and if the news stations didn¡¯t arrive at that conclusion themselves, he was sure the Agents would force it, but that kind of thing would barely slow them down, and they might still manage to arrest Luka.

    The Academy was too far to walk to, so Luka ducked into the nearest metro station. He found a quiet place, and pulled a marker from his pocket.

    "Sorry about this," he said. "I don''t have time to do this gently."

    He wrote West Medford on the wall, grabbed the kid''s arm, and pushed magic into the words. The world warped around them, and reappeared as whitish walls and a couple of benches. They had unceremoniously been dropped off at a little waiting nook by the station. It was still slightly before the morning rush, and with time enough between departures that there weren''t many people around. The light was dim enough to shield them further from scrutiny. Luka didn''t particularly like the West Medford station, since it was outside in the open. He much preferred underground stations, not because exposure was less likely in an underground station, but he was more comfortable with the anonymity afforded by a dim and crowded platform. He did realize that he probably lived in the wrong city for that, but that was also why he mostly jumped at night, when there were fewer people around, and hardly any that were sober.

    The kid was busy vomiting from the unfamiliar vertigo of the jump, and they still had about a mile to walk before arriving at the Academy.

    "Sit down," Luka instructed. "Head between your knees. Let me know when you stop feeling dizzy."

    He sat down himself, on the bench next to him, and checked his phone. He had half a mind to drop the kid off in a cab, once he realized that walking to the Academy and back would make him irrevocably late for work, but of course he couldn''t do that.

    "What," the kid croaked, "the fuck."

    "If you''ve regained your ability to speak, you''re fine. Let''s go."

    They finally came upon the Academy half an hour later. It was known as the Collingwood Academy to those who weren''t part of the magical community. Academies were generally named after arbitrary mages for the sake of pretense (although the mages, of course, thought it to be a great honor), so they might fit in with other teaching institutions.

    To mages, the Academies were instead divided into districts, as no one were particularly interested in memorizing pointless names in order to distinguish them from one another. They functioned as part high school, part college, though the only college degree they offered, was one in magic. Which, suffice to say, wasn''t for everyone.

    The first two years were compulsory, in order to learn control, after which you would be left with a high school diploma and a choice to make. The only freedom the students had once their powers manifested was which of the Academies they wanted to attend, though most remained in their assigned district. Luka had transferred to this place from The Kovalevsky Academy in Russia, but that was before his training truly started, so he never considered himself a transfer, even when others did.

    The Academy itself was a collection of dark, gothic buildings, sitting on the edge of a nature reservation. It was enclosed by heavy walls tipped with spikes, and the only peek inside was afforded from the two gates serving as entrances. They were large, ornate wrought iron, one leading in from the street and one from the nature reservation. Luka had lived inside those walls for two years, and he could still picture it, even though he preferred not to.

    "This is it." He stared at the gate for another second, trying to ignore the grounds that lay behind. "Have a nice life," he said and turned away.

    "Wait. How do I get in?"

    "Someone will come get you," Luka said, and he was sure that eventually someone would. There was a lock on the gate, which could be accessed with the right magical signature. Luka could have let him in, if his signature was still active. Which it probably wasn¡¯t. Even if it was, the information was logged, and it would be better if no one knew he had been there.

    "Thanks," the kid called as Luka walked off, "for everything."

    Luka didn''t stop. He didn''t turn back. He was done, and now he just wanted to get to work before he was fired.

 Chapter one

    Two months later

    Bright blue arrows flew at Alice, tails of light trailing in the air behind them. The green glow of her own magic swirled around her arm, as she raised it to block them. The first and second arrow sparked against her skin as the magics clashed, but then vanished without leaving a mark.

    She didn''t see the third. It came too fast after the second. There wasn''t enough time for her to shift her magic, and the arrow lodged itself in her shoulder.

    She stumbled, while her mind raced. It would only be a few seconds, before the arrow would disappear, and her inner voice urged pressure on the wound, but she didn''t have time for that. She had to drop into a crouch to avoid another arrow, and she needed a plan of action. Her instincts took over, and instead of running away from Teagan, she charged towards her.

    Teagan preferred ranged attacks, but wasn''t bad at close combat. It was a close call, but Alice was just a little better. Even if it was entirely thanks to her magic, which was more suited for it. Teagan expected her to stay on the defensive, and was taken aback when she changed her tactic. Still, she had just enough time to extinguish the bow and instead conjure a blade. Alice blocked it with her arm, and slipped past her guard. She grabbed her wrist, spun around and threw her elbow back. The hit landed, but Teagan didn''t falter. She pulled her back against her chest and slung her arm around her neck. Alice shifted most of her magic up to protect against the pressure, allowing just enough to remain in her fingers to put pressure around Teagan''s wrist. She tightened her grip, until the knife started flickering. She closed her eyes for just a second, while she cracked the bone. She still didn¡¯t like the sound, but she had unlearned the feelings of guilt when she broke bones. Pain became meaningless, when it could be mended in a flash.

    Teagan bit back the scream, but Alice heard the thin whimper and the grunt of effort, as she steeled herself. She wouldn''t be able to conjure with that hand anymore, but that didn''t mean Alice had won. Alice was pushed back, and Teagan conjured a javelin spear, meant to keep her at a distance. Teagan''s focus wavered along with her magic, as she failed to ignore the pain in her other wrist. Alice moved forward, aware of the blade, as it solidified. It wasn''t the easiest weapon to handle one-handed, but Teagan was nothing if not determined. She swung high, so Alice dropped low, but the blade still caught her on the arm, cutting deep.

    Alice was close again, though, and she shifted her magic to her leg and kicked Teagan off her feet. She dropped heavily on the mat, and Alice knelt down on top of her. Teagan desperately conjured a dagger, but with only one working hand, there was not much more she could do. Alice caught her arm and settled her other hand around her throat, calling her magic. She let it swirl there, around her fingers, making it clear that she had the power to kill her.

    "Yield," she said, when Teagan only glared at her.

    "No."

    "Tea, you have no moves left."

    Teagan shook her head. "I''m not done."

    Alice took a slow breath. She could break her other wrist, but she didn''t want to be needlessly cruel.

    "What''s your plan?" She was aware of their audience, waiting for a resolution. She knew this wouldn''t look good to the examiners. They weren''t meant to be friends in this arena. There was no room for kindness.

    Some of the students were chanting, but they were too scattered to be coherent. It called attention to the empty seats, the large spaces between spectators. The arena should have been packed, but just like in the classrooms, there were too many absences. No one knew what was happening to all the disappearing students, and neither the Council nor the Academy was saying anything. They had watched their teachers slowly panicking, while assuring them that everything was fine. They had watched each other lose friends and family, with no explanation offered. There would have to be an announcement soon, but Alice suspected they were trying to get through exams

    first. She only hoped the year wouldn¡¯t end on a tragedy.

    Teagan bucked under her, trying to unseat her. It nearly worked, as she lost her balance, but it only resulted in Alice nearly choking her, as she scrambled to steady herself. Teagan did get her hand free, and nearly managed to stab Alice in the side, but she was already shifting her magic, and the resulting cut was shallow. This time, she did break her other wrist.

    Alice pushed herself up. She still had the power, and if Teagan didn''t yield now, she would have to knock her out. The Healers were standing at the edge of the arena, ready for when the match was called.

    Teagan struggled to get up with her two broken wrists.

    "Yield," she said, through clenched teeth. The Healers rushed over.

    Alice''s side was soaked in blood from her wounds, but it could be worse. The Healer still urged her to drink plenty of water or juice to replenish her fluids. She thanked the Mage, and stepped off the mat. Nick was there, and patted her shoulder, but he was watching Teagan. He¡¯d already finished his exam, and was wearing his uniform, if only barely. He wasn¡¯t wearing a tie, and the sleeves of his charcoal shirt were folded up to his elbows. She glimpsed the tattoo on his forearm; a laurel wreath circling a ¡°T¡±. Teagan wore a matching one with the letter ¡°N¡±. They¡¯d gotten them on their first anniversary, and while Alice had never had reason to feel threatened by their relationship, she still worried sometimes. Nick¡¯s hand lay on her like a friendly gesture, but Teagan was going to be upset, and Nick would have to pick a side. When Teagan¡¯s broken bones were healed, she walked towards them, but didn''t seem like she was going to stop.

    Nick was the one who grabbed her.

    "Tea," he said.

    She tore free of his grip. "Don''t."

    He guided her a few step away, but Alice could still hear them. "Don''t pretend you don''t know how this works. The fight was good, Tea."

    "I know," she snapped, but then relaxed into him, resting her head against his shoulder. "I know."

    Nick murmured something else to her, that Alice couldn¡¯t hear. When she pulled away again, she looked at Alice.

    Alice stepped closer, warily. "I''m sorry, Tea."

    "No, I''m sorry. I just¡ª"

    "You wanted to win."

    "I wanted to fucking win," Teagan said, but she was smiling now, if only faintly. "Well, I guess you deserve one last victory, before you leave."

    Alice forced a smile, despite the jag she felt in her stomach. Teagan reached out and tilted her chin up. "You look a little pale. Let''s go get some food."

    Alice nodded, struggling to find her voice. Teagan headed for the changing rooms, and Alice started to follow, but Nick held her back.

    "You have to tell her."

    "What?" Alice asked, uncertain.

    "What leaving the Academy really means."

    Neither one of them were supposed to know. She hadn''t known how to tell them, so she kept putting it off, hoping she would find some other way.

    "I--" She faltered, not knowing where to begin. "How did you--?"

    "My parents tried, you know, to live in both worlds. They did it for me, so my name would mean something, but they could never really settle into the fringes of magical society, and I don''t think you even intend to try."

    Alice bit down on her lip, but shook her head.

    "It''s okay," he said. "I don¡¯t want you to go, Alice, but I get it. A clean break is going to hurt, but not as much as living in the shadow of this place."

    "I''m sorry," she said. "I wish I could¡­"

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    "I know." Nick reached out for her shoulder, and pulled back his blood stained fingers. "Right. Go change."

    Alice took a step, before turning back. "I''ll tell her. Soon."

    Neither one of them pointed out that she would have to do it soon. There was only one exam left, and then they were done. Teagan and Nick would almost immediately start working with their mentors, but Alice had until fall, before she started college. It gave her a small window to adjust, and move out of one set of dorms and into an other. Alice had her life planned out, much of it decided before she even manifested, when her mother had still hoped she never would.

    Alice''s mother had taken the mandatory years at an Academy in India, had then married her un-magical father, and moved with him to America. For as long as she could remember, Alice had been told she was going to be a lawyer, and at some point, she had embraced this fate. Shortly before she manifested, Alice suggested that she might be open to her parents finding her a partner, and it hadn''t taken them long to find Ravi Mishra. Alice had been too young, at the start of it, to pursue it as a romantic relationship, and Ravi had been too close to leaving for college for it to make sense anyway. Love did gradually strengthen the foundation of their friendship, but it was still, for the most part, a friendship.

    When Alice manifested, she had clung on to the promise of a future with him, even as she had to lie to him. She couldn''t tell him about magic, so instead, she had to make up a sting of lies to justify her stay at the Academy. The past three years had been a deviation from the plan. Alice was only supposed to stay for the two mandatory years, but had been unable to let magic go that easily. So, she had stayed, and year after year, it had become just a little harder to make up the lies.

    This time, she really was going to have to leave.

    When she entered the changing room, Teagan was settled on one of the benches, already wearing her uniform.

    "What happened to you?"

    "Nick," Alice answered, but didn''t have a convincing lie in place, so she left it at that, while she pulled off her t-shirt. Nearly a quarter of it was dark with wet blood. She sighed. "I''m going to have to shower."

    The fight had left her starving, and she''d been looking forward to getting to the cafeteria. Even a quick shower felt like an unreasonable delay.

    "Sorry," Teagan said. "Did he give you a hard time about winning?" She said it lightly, jokingly, since they both knew he wouldn''t. He might be expected to be on Teagan''s side, since they were dating, but it would have been more likely for him to pay Alice a compliment. If he hadn''t been too busy making her feel guilty, at least.

    "Sort of." Alice shrugged, and pulled off her tights. They were only barely bloodied, so at least she didn''t have to write off all her clothes. "He reminded me, that I didn''t need the win." She turned to Teagan. "It really wasn''t¡­ I didn''t plan it."

    "Well, he was right. It doesn''t matter who won."

    They were judged entirely on their reactions in a fight, so even if you lost, you could still get full marks. The exam was meant to emulate a real fight, so authenticity mattered. If Alice had gone against her instincts, in order to allow Teagan to win, it would have been noticed.

    "I know, but it should have been you."

    Teagan swung her leg over the bench, and stood. "I''m disappointed, but that''s on me. I shouldn''t have underestimated you." She cupped her face. "You earned it."

    "Thank you," Alice said, feeling unworthy of the forgiveness. It still felt like she had made a mistake, even though it had been the only thing she could have done. Even if it might have cost them a good grade, she should have been able to give Teagan this.

    Her phone chimed, and she turned towards her locker. It was a reminder of a meeting she had in one hour. She clicked the screen off.

    "I''ll see you at the cafeteria?"

    Teagan nodded, and headed for the exit, leaving Alice alone to shower and change. Once she had washed the blood out of her skin and put on her uniform, she only had 45 minutes left and she started feeling nervous. She had no real reason to, since she was planning on leaving, but there was absolutely no good reason for the head of the Agents to want to see her. She kept trying to think of something she might have done wrong, but nothing came to mind.

    The food hall was close to the gym, and Alice was soon settled down beside Teagan and Nick with a tray of mushroom pizza and a salad, but she was rapidly losing her appetite. Her stomach growled in protest, and she picked out a slice of tomato.

    "I really don''t think you have anything to be nervous about."

    Alice looked up at Nick, glanced over at Teagan and then back to her fork, where the piece of tomato was still attached. She knew he was talking about the meeting, but a knot joined the nausea in her stomach, when she thought about what she had promised him.

    "That''s easy for you to say," Teagan was saying. "I''d be nervous too, if I got to meet Hadley Thomas."

    "Well, I don''t think Alice is interested in his autograph."

    The fork clattered on the plate, and Alice pulled her hands slowly into her lap. She wasn''t interested in his autograph, but few saw the Incident in quite the same light as Teagan. Most people thought Luka Lavrin was the hero, while Teagan firmly believed that the title belonged to Hadley Thomas. Either way, there was no denying that meeting with him was a big deal.

    Alice shook her head. "I just hate not knowing what he wants. He never talks to students."

    The meeting request had arrived in her calendar with no warning. She had believed it to be a mistake at first, but her e-mail to his office had been answered with a confirmation that he wished to see her. No other information was offered.

    Teagan got up and vanished, but returned a few minutes later with a pile of crackers. She pulled the tray of food towards herself and Nick, and handed him a second fork.

    "Thanks," Alice said, and started nibbling on a cracker. Eating helped, a little, and she was through most of the pile, when the fifteen minute reminder chimed on her phone. Mage Thomas'' office was on the other side of campus, in the administrative buildings, but it wouldn''t take her fifteen minutes to walk there. She took a last sip of water to wash down the dry crackers and stood. She had always meant to arrive early, and now she just wanted to get it over with.

    "Do you want me to come with you?" Teagan asked, when Alice hesitated.

    Nick nudged her. "No, she doesn''t."

    "What? It was a genuine offer."

    "A genuine offer to get close to Hadley Thomas."

    Alice couldn''t help but smile, as they continued to bicker. "I''ll see you after," she said, and finally took off.

    She passed the hospital and turned right at the library, an old habit to avoid the Council buildings. Even though the buildings were all done in the same bleakly gothic style, there was something especially intimidating about the way the Council buildings loomed over the Academy, and it was common for students to take the other way around. It was a small detour, as the administrative buildings sat beside them, and this way crossed over the crest inlaid in the courtyard by the entrance. Her heart started hammering, when she stepped over the shield and dragon. The glass tower shimmered in front of her, the sun casting a glowing path towards it. It was constructed to suit the surrounding architecture, with spiked towers and ornate steel work, while the stained glass was like plates of magic filling it in. She entered into a dizzying kaleidoscope of color, and then beyond, into the sudden darkness of the building.

 Chapter two

    "Hey, Luka. Some guy is looking for you," Darren called, coming into the room.

    Luka looked up and his eyes followed the direction of Darren''s thumb, pointing towards the door. Initial confusion turned into a dreadful resignation. Outside the door was a ghost of his past, and while Luka had always expected the phantom to reappear, he had hoped it would take longer. At least ten more years would be good. Twenty would be better.

    He sighed, and pushed himself up from his work station. The centrifuge still had about five minutes left, before he could continue to analyze the blood sample, which meant that unfortunately he had about five minutes to talk. He dragged himself away from his work, towards the hallway and a conversation he didn''t want to have.

    Hadley Thomas was pacing back and forth in the narrow hallway, and missed Luka walking through the door.

    "Thomas," Luka said, keeping his voice flat.

    Hadley spun around to face him. His eyes were wide, startled, and his breath unsteady. Luka was just as much a ghost to him, and it didn''t look like he had been all the way prepared to face him. His breath didn''t immediately slow, not until he forced it deep into his lungs. Luka watched him calm himself, and as much as he wanted to tell him to get on with it, he didn''t.

    "Lavrin." Hadley tried to match the flatness of Luka''s tone, but it was far too late for him to pretend he was cool with this. Luka also caught the small, but distinct crack in his voice, no matter how much he was trying to suppress it.

    Hadley cleared his throat. "I need five minutes," he said, already defensive. Even more so, because he had to know Luka saw his weakness. He hadn''t quite figured out what it was yet, but it was there. Hadley had always been a big fan of control, and right now, he was not in control. Not of the situation, but more importantly, not of himself.

    "I''m working," Luka said, "but I bet you also know where I live. Find me when I''m not busy."

    "I thought this would be the best way not to get a door slammed in my face," Hadley countered. The way he quivered, like he was on the edge of a fight or flight reaction, was distracting, but once Luka saw beyond that, he had to admit that he was not wrong. He considered his options for slamming the door to the lab in his face, but it wouldn''t have quite the same effect.

    "I really don''t have time for whatever this is." Luka took a step back towards the door.

    "Lavrin." Hadley stepped forward and grabbed his arm. Luka''s hand was already curled into a fist, when he suppressed the urge to hit him. Instead, he pulled himself free, and pushed Hadley back out of reach. Hadley stumbled back, wide eyed, and had to take another moment to settle his breathing. His hand twitched towards his bag, before his brain caught up and he placed his hand in his pocket instead ¡ª had he been worried enough about this meeting to bring a suppressor? Or maybe he was simply hoping to stab him with a pen. Luka read these impressions, but pushed them to the back of his mind. He wasn''t interested in Hadley''s scars. He wasn''t going to wonder what caused them. He wasn''t going to let himself think that he already knew.

    "I''m not interested, Thomas. I don''t care what the case is."

    Hadley stayed back, even increasing the distance between them, but his voice gained a harder edge. "You don''t know why I''m here."

    "No, but I know that you don''t want to be here, and I can see that you''re desperate. Which means you need my help. Or, should I say, the Council needs my help? Either way, I''m not doing it."

    Hadley looked at the door, and inclined his head for Luka to follow, as he walked further back. Luka didn''t really care if anyone heard them, but he followed him to a dark corner of the hallway.

    "We know you''re a Rogue. So, you can either help or you can get arrested."

    Luka shook his head. He wasn''t surprised, but he had to admit he was disappointed. It was too early for threats. They hadn''t even started negotiating yet.

    "Right. Come back when you can prove it. In the meantime, I actually have a real job." He made an sweeping gesture at the lab behind him. "I don''t have the time or the inclination to solve your problems."

    "Really. So you weren''t the one who left a Stray on our doorstep back in April?"

    "I don''t know what you''re talking about." Luka leaned into the wall, and folded his arms across his chest.

    "No," Hadley said, and his voice was finally finding its way to emotionless exasperation. "Of course you don''t."

    They watched each other, arms crossed in mirrored displeasure. Luka waited for further threats, but suspected Hadley might actually decide to return with a group of Agents to arrest him.

    "Fine," he said. "Pitch it." The quicker he could get this over with, the quicker he could get back to work.

    "What?" Hadley asked. "You know I can''t actually tell you anything unless you accept. It''s classified."

    "Nothing? You came here with something other than threats, Thomas. Or you wouldn''t have bothered asking."

    "I was hoping that coming here, asking you in person, would be enough."

    "No," Luka said. "Tell me what you''re authorized to offer me."

    Hadley looked him in the eyes, the first time he had made direct eye-contact. "Nothing."

    "Nothing," Luka repeated. Of course. The Council were too proud and too cheap for incentives at the best of times, and they were arrogant enough to think they could still command him.

    "They didn''t want me to do this at all, but I''m here anyway. Sticking my neck out, because I know you can fix this."

    Luka wished he would stop it with the evasive bullshit. "Fix what?"

    Hadley didn''t answer, but continued to stare at him.

    "Fuck you, Thomas. That''s my final answer. If you want to arrest me to secure my help, go right ahead. See where that gets you."

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    He pushed off the wall, but he didn''t expect that to be the end of it.

    "Wait," Hadley said. "Okay, just. Wait." He rubbed at his eyes, as he caved. Luka waited for him to decide how much information was just enough. "It''s some sort of disease, and we don''t know how to stop it. We think it''s a spell."

    He searched Luka''s face for some kind of change, but he remained expressionless. "It''s been spreading among the students. We''re pretty sure it''s killing them."

    "Fuck," Luka muttered.

    "Yeah," Hadley said, misunderstanding the expletive.

    "You realize you could have saved us both some time by leading with that."

    He shook his head. "It''s classified. I shouldn''t have..." said Hadley Thomas, stickler for the rules.

    "Whatever. I accept the fucking job, but I expect to at least get paid."

    Hadley looked at him with something close to relief. "If you even think about thanking me right now," Luka said, "I will punch you in the face."

    "I wouldn''t dream of it," Hadley said, but for a second he was almost smiling. Before Luka could really read a change in his mood, he bend down to the bag hanging at his hip, digging his hands into it. He emerged with a stack of papers and deposited them heavily into Luka''s hands. He dug further and handed Luka a pen, despite the pen that was visibly tugged into the pocket of his lab coat. Providing the pen was probably protocol, and protocol would not be breached.

    He flipped through the pile of papers, but Hadley flipped to the back.

    "Contract and confidentiality agreement. Sign here and here." He said, pointing to two lines on the paper. "It''s pretty standard," he continued, as Luka flipped back to the beginning. "As soon as you sign, I''ll go away."

    Luka glanced at him. If he was being honest, he didn''t really care what the contract said, but Hadley wanted him so badly not to read it that he started to care. The thing had to be at least 50 pages, though, and he didn''t have that kind of time.

    "You''ll go away as soon as I sign this?"

    Hadley nodded. "Yes."

    Luka flipped to the back, signed on both lines, and held out the pen to Hadley. Hadley reached for the papers, but Luka moved them out of his reach.

    "Where is my copy?"

    "Your copy?" Hadley asked, like he didn''t know exactly what Luka was talking about.

    "Of the contract," he said. "You must have a copy."

    "I don''t," he said. He still had his hand out, expecting Luka to return the contract.

    "No. I''m keeping this until I''ve read it."

    "You can''t," Hadley protested.

    Luka shrugged. "Too bad." He held the contract close to his chest and walked away.

    He heard Hadley sigh behind him, but he didn''t say anything else. Luka returned to the lab, and closed the door firmly behind him, before strolling back to his station, where he dumped the stack of papers on his desk. He was aware that he should put them away, since it was littered with terms like independent mage, the Council of Mages and probably also had a couple of magic¡¯s thrown in there. There was no easy way to explain why he was holding on to a contract, that labeled him as an independent mage, but he didn''t care. No one was likely to take a second look at it, and even if they did, it would save him the trouble of making up a convincing excuse for disappearing suddenly and for an extended period of time, if they all thought he had lost his mind.

    "Darren," he said to the man sitting next to him. "If that guy ever asks for me again, tell him I''m not here."

    The rest of the day seemed determined to hold out as long as possible, once the conversation got stuck in his head, and ran on an endless loop. He needed to say it out loud to dispel it, but he couldn''t track down Quinn. Not while they were at work. Quinn was supposed to save lives, and Luka needed to run more tests and write more reports than his distracted brain would allow.

    After work, Luka had managed to convince his boss that a family emergency required his immediate presence in Russia, and that he needed a couple of weeks off. He was now waiting in the parking garage, leaning against a black Audi that was far too expensive for a medical student, but just the right amount of expensive for a trust fund kid. While he waited, he ran over the details of the conversation with Hadley in his head, though there weren''t many. If he was being honest, he already regretted taking the job. He knew exactly what it was going to be like. The politics and paranoia working together to make the most impossible work environment imaginable. Even though he had signed the contract and the confidentiality agreement, he couldn''t expect information to suddenly be readily available.

    When he left the Academy ten years ago, the Council had been a ridiculous collection of old mages from older families, who were both stubbornly set in their ways and willing to go to great lengths to stay that way, and he expected absolutely nothing to have changed.

    He heard steps coming towards him, and glanced up.

    "So, I had a fascinating meeting today," Luka complained. He exhaled smoke, and threw his cigarette to the ground.

    The lights on the car flashed as it was unlocked, and Luka stepped around the car to the passenger side and opened the door.

    "What kind of meeting?" Quinn asked, still approaching.

    "The worst possible kind," Luka said. "A job offer."

    He got in the car and waited for Quinn to join him inside. It only took a second for him to take the driver¡¯s seat and close the door behind him.

    "So, the Academy?" It was just barely a question. The answer was obvious enough.

    "The Academy," Luka confirmed. "I should have known he wouldn''t have come unless he knew I''d agree. Three simple words was all it took for him to ruin my life, and he knew it," Luka said, barely needing Quinn there to complete his rant, but feeling better to have someone listen to him. He realized now that Hadley had been manipulating him, and while he was sure the intention was to withhold the information entirely ¡ª hence the threats and the pleas ¡ª he had always known what to say to get Luka to fold.

    "Tell me I made a mistake," he said. "I can still change my mind, if you convince me."

    "What are the three words?" Quinn asked.

    Luka closed his eyes and leaned back against the headrest.

    "People are dying."

    The words were followed by a pause, long enough to become palpable between them. Quinn exhaled slowly.

    "You didn''t make a mistake."

    "I know," Luka said.

    Quinn quieted, concentrating on navigating the rush hour traffic. Luka still found it strange, that Quinn insisted on driving, when he could cut 20 minutes off his commute by jumping. When Quinn had walked away from the Academy, he had walked away from his magic, too. He only started using it again, when Luka had nearly died on him. He still wouldn''t use it for anything else, and he claimed to like driving, so Luka no longer brought it up.

    "Quinn?" He wasn''t one to break silences, but he needed to know what he was thinking.

    "Sorry," he said. "I wish I could tell you to walk away."

    "Yeah," Luka said. Quinn didn''t want him back at the Academy either. He didn''t want him to be a Rogue, but getting dragged back into the Academy somehow seemed like the worse option. He had struggled to avoid their attention and just like that, he was back in plain sight.

    "I''ll burn the contract," Luka said, gesturing to the stack of paper on his lap. "Just say the word."

    Quinn smiled, but then he shook his head. "What kind of assholes would we be then?"

    Luka shrugged. "I''m already an asshole."

    "Yeah," Quinn said, "but I''m not."

    Luka smiled and leaned further into the seat. The city crawled by outside, while the afternoon sun made everything hazy and Luka was grateful for the air conditioned car.

    "It''s some kind of spell?" Quinn asked.

    Luka didn''t take his eyes off the city. "They think so, since they can''t figure it out, but I don''t know. I''ll have to see it myself."

    They arrived in the parking garage of Quinn''s building, and Luka walked up with him. He had created a gate between their apartments a long time ago, so it didn''t make much of a difference to him. Once inside, Quinn reached for him. His fingers brushed the back of his neck and slid into his hair.

    ¡°Luka¡ª¡± He hesitated, then asked: "Do you have to go home?"

    Luka had a feeling it wasn¡¯t the real question.

    "I should," he said, but he leaned into the touch. "I assume Thomas wants me to start tomorrow, and I should be prepared." By which he meant, that he was going to snoop on the magic community''s network for clues.

    "Okay," Quinn said and pulled him into a quick kiss. "You know I have a 24 hour shift tomorrow, but call if you need me."

    Luka kissed him back, slower, hands wrapped around his waist. He wasn''t in that much of a hurry to go home. "I will," he said, knowing he wouldn''t.

    The moment was interrupted by his phone buzzing with a text from Hadley, giving him a time and a place. The time being noon and the place being his office. Two texts followed.

    The first text read: "Don''t be late."

    The second: "And bring the contract."

 Chapter three

    "Ms. Malik, good. Please sit."

    Hadley Thomas sat behind his desk, and waved her inside. Alice closed the door quietly behind her, and stepped into the room. She was surprised by the size of the office, as well as the emptiness of it. Hadley had worked here for nearly ten years, but it didn''t show. The entire left hand wall was built-in shelves and drawers, and the furniture huddled together next to its oppressive size. The shelves held a few books, but were mostly empty. Everything, including the floor and walls, was gray or black, and the small window at the far wall did little to pierce the gloom.

    Alice tugged her skirt in at the back, and sat down in the chair. The leather creaked whenever she shifted her weight, and she tried not to move too much. She lifted her eyes, at last, to look at Hadley.

    She wasn''t sure what to think, or feel, now that she was sitting across from him.

    Ten years ago, Hadley Thomas, Luka Lavrin and Lena and Abel Knight had saved the Academy. They were students at the time, in their second year, and barely eighteen. Alice had only heard the story after she''d come to the Academy. She wasn''t a Legacy like Teagan and Nick, who had heard about it when it happened, and grown up with the legend. As a result, she felt less connected to it, which wasn''t to say that she didn''t feel anything at all.

    The story had been retold so many times over the years, that even the people who had been at the Academy at the time, barely remembered the truth anymore. Even just during the five years Alice had been at the Academy, she had heard at least four distinct versions of it, and it made it hard to be sure of the details. She didn''t actually know if Abel had died, or if Lena had, or if no one had. Nor did she know what the threat had been, or how they had managed to defeat it.

    What she did know, was that Hadley was the only one, who had remained at the Academy, and that Luka had somehow taken all the credit. Both Luka and the Knights had vanished, but Luka''s name was the one that still traveled through the Academy. Luka was the one who became the legend.

    Meanwhile, Hadley had become something else. There were people, like Teagan, who believed him to be the real hero. By staying, he had proven his loyalty to the Academy and the Council, but for many, the novelty of him had soon worn off. He had become notoriously reclusive, and refused to have any contact with the students. It was likely a result of too many questions he didn''t want to answer, and people eventually stopped trying. Which was also why this meeting was so strange.

    "How are you?" Hadley asked, distantly polite. His eyes were on his laptop, and he hadn''t looked at her yet. His desk was the only surface in the room that might be described as cluttered, but every file, every notebook and every pen was meticulously lined up in a way that made it feel as desolate as an empty desk might.

    Alice''s smile was automatic and completely lost on him. "Good," she managed.

    The harsh light from the screen highlighted the dark circles under his eyes, too deep to be from a single sleepless night. His skin was pale from spending most of his time behind a desk, and he appeared more thin than fit. He sat slumped, like the weight of the world wore him down, but beneath it all he was still handsome. He had a quality about him, something in his swept back hair and deliberate stubble, in his square jaw and gentle eyes, that made him look like the hero of the story. Only without the happily ever after, and she wondered more than ever what exactly had happened a decade ago.

    He put his fingers on the lid of the laptop and lowered it, his eyes finally finding hers.

    "You show a lot of promise, but you never signed up for a mentor."

    "No, I¡­" The words were right there, so close to the surface, that she was uncertain if she''d said them out loud. I''m leaving. It should have been easy, but this was Hadley Thomas. Hadley Thomas, who never spoke to students, who had nothing to do with assigning mentors.

    He was still watching her, waiting for her to finish.

    "I''m sorry, sir. What is this about?"

    He squared his shoulders and sat up straighter, like he had just remembered that he was a professional. He folded his hands in front of him, and his eyes drifted to a folder sitting next to him, before they resettled on Alice.

    "I have an offer for you."

    Alice stilled. Echoes of I''m leaving still floated around in her mind, waiting for her to tell the truth.

    "What kind of offer?"

    She thought the words would be ready to spill over when she asked, but Hadley hesitated. She was watching him closely enough to catch the slight shake of his head, either a tick or reluctance. When he spoke, it was slow and deliberate.

    "I want you to consider accepting Luka Lavrin as your mentor."

    Even sitting across from Hadley Thomas, the name was a shock. Luka Lavrin wasn''t just a legend, he was a mystery too. No one had seen him in years, and she never could have imagined this as the purpose of the meeting. She wasn''t sure she could believe it now.

    "Luka Lavrin?" Alice echoed, because maybe she hadn''t heard him right. "The legend?"

    She asked the question without thinking. She knew it was a mistake, even before Hadley''s expression confirmed it. For a second, she thought she could see traces of their shared history, as pain and resentment hardened his eyes.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    "Yes," he said, bitterness lacing his words, "that Luka Lavrin."

    By all accounts, Luka had gone rogue after the Incident. He didn''t even stay long enough to graduate. It was strange, for someone who had just saved the Academy, to vanish like that. The rumors were endless, but the memories were hazy, and it might never have been clear, exactly what happened. Alice didn''t want to speculate, but she could see that whatever had happened between the two of them was a sore subject.

    "It''s just... I thought he was gone. He''s not in Russia?"

    There were plenty of theories, but that was the common one. That he would have gone back home.

    Hadley took a deep breath. No doubt reliving the suffering of endless questions about Luka, that had caused him withdraw from the students in the first place.

    "No. Whoever spread that rumor didn''t know him very well."

    Alice only nodded, so she couldn''t make things any worse.

    "There are... conditions," Hadley continued, "if you accept." He forced his tone back to something more neutral, but it didn''t slide perfectly into place. "You should know that you are our first choice, but there are other candidates, if you decline. I will not be able to offer you any time to consider, as the matter is of some urgency."

    "Why?" Alice asked.

    "Why what, Ms. Malik?"

    "Why me?"

    I''m leaving. I''m leaving. I''m leaving.

    She couldn''t think. She knew she should decline, allow him to move on to a candidate, who actually needed this. Alice was a waste of effort, of a legend. She would never be a mage, and whatever Luka taught her would be lost. Except, she was their first choice and she didn''t want to hand the opportunity over to someone else. She wanted this.

    She was prepared to accept, despite everything, on the pure thrill of being chosen, but she needed to know why.

    "You meet the criteria," Hadley said, as if that was any kind of answer. She didn''t want to push him, but she needed a proper answer.

    "What criteria?"

    "Okay." He hadn''t even managed a return to his politely distant tone, and now he was letting weariness bleed through as well. "We are concerned that Lavrin might be... reckless. You have been chosen, because we believe you might balance him out, and because you''re talented enough to keep up with him."

    "Oh," Alice said. It was partly flattering, at least, but also a little intimidating.

    "You need to know that this is a temporary arrangement. He will be hired as an independent mage, and according to his contract, he is required to teach you for as long as the case lasts. After that, I suspect he will disappear again without a second thought. You are not receiving an education here, and if you decide to become an Agent afterwards, you will likely have to start over with a certified teacher."

    It gave her hope for a moment. Whatever the case was ¡ª and she suspected it had something to do with the missing students ¡ª it couldn''t possibly last more than a few months. It could be done by the end of her summer vacation, and wouldn''t have to slow her down at all. However, she also feared what this choice would mean for her. Law school had never felt like the right fit, but neither had anything else. She loved magic, but there was no Academy career that had resonated with her either. What if this was it?

    Working with Luka Lavrin was one thing, one very, very exciting thing, but working on the kind of case that only he could solve? She could help save people, make a real difference. But it could also be the thing that cemented her decision to go to law school, and Hadley had just removed the last obstacle.

    "I accept."

    Hadley shook his head. "One more thing, before you give your final answer. Lavrin will be difficult to work with. He barely accepted the job, and doesn''t want to be here. He doesn''t want an apprentice, and you have to prepare yourself for a certain amount of hostile behavior from him."

    "Hostile behavior?"

    It was easy to forget that there were real people behind the stories, and even easier to forget that she didn''t know those people at all. Even if she hadn''t felt the Incident as deeply as some of her classmates and even Nick and Teagan, she had a clear image of what she thought Luka should be like. Hostile behavior didn''t fit.

    "He can be¡­" Hadley paused, sighed, started again. "He won''t consider your feelings. He will be harsh. I''m not trying to scare you off, but I need to know you can handle it."

    "I can handle it." Harsh words didn''t bother her, especially if she knew it wasn''t about her.

    "Good. Now, I want to make it clear, that your job is to be his apprentice. I do not expect you to manage him, but I do expect your loyalty to lie with me. You will report to me regularly, and immediately inform me, if he does anything¡­ damaging."

    Alice halted, another red flag. "Damaging?"

    "To himself, to others. To the Academy as an institution. Anything that crosses the line."

    Hadley knew the real Luka, or at least, he had. There was no reason to doubt him, but just how volatile was Luka? And where was the hero they all believed him to be? The Academy wouldn''t allow him to be her mentor, if he was dangerous, but what kind of damage was Hadley imagining, and what did it mean, in this instance, to cross the line?

    "Sir?"

    "Don''t worry," he said, catching the worry in her voice. "He won''t do anything to hurt you."

    "But you think he will do something."

    "I know he will, which is why I need you to tell me about it."

    She wasn''t reassured, and she wasn''t sure she should accept the condition. She didn''t have a choice, of course, other than to reject the offer entirely. It just seemed like a very bad idea, given everything Hadley had just suggested, for her to spy on Luka from the very beginning. Clearly, building trust with him was going to be a challenge, even without additional complications.

    "Of course," she agreed. Maybe it was naive, in light of Hadley''s certainty, but she could allow herself to hope it wouldn''t come up. What she couldn''t do, was to let herself to surrender this opportunity on a technicality.

    "Excellent," Hadley said. "We will meet back here tomorrow at noon for the briefing."

    Alice felt dismissed and stood, agitating the creaking leather, as she moved. Hadley''s attention had already drifted back to his laptop, but Alice halted in front of his desk.

    "It''s about the missing students, isn''t it?"

    He didn''t even look at her, when he answered. "You will be briefed tomorrow."

    "You don''t think we deserve to know what happened to them?"

    "What I think isn''t relevant." Now he did spare her a glance, pointedly. "I will see you tomorrow, Ms. Malik."

    "Yes, sir."

    Stepping outside the office made the whole thing feel unreal. The hallway was quiet, not much different from the office. The walls were the same gray and the floor an ashy wood, but it was brightly lit, and colored glass panels broke up the colorless monotony. Even the subtle differences, were enough to make it feel like walking into an other world, or out of a dream. She looked at the plate of frosted glass sitting next to the door, and ran her fingers lightly over the letters.

    Hadley Thomas

    Director of Security Operations

    She bit her lip around the smile, that she could no longer suppress. She had concerns, of course, and it made her anxious to think about what the case was, but she had just become Luka Lavrin''s apprentice. It was an opportunity so unique, that no one would even have wished for it. It was so improbable, that no one would even have considered it an option.

    And yes, Luka might prove to be difficult and hostile, but it was an experience so uniquely hers, that she didn¡¯t care. She had survived her share of bullies, and she was sure that she would survive this very temporary arrangement. The only thing she dreaded, even with the reassurance of staying on schedule, was telling her mom.

 Chapter four

    Luka had been unable to sleep, unable to quiet his mind for long enough to drop into unconsciousness. Once he finally managed, once he was finally asleep, he became trapped in a dream. It was a cruel replay of past events, ones that he had tried for a long time to forget. Dreams weren¡¯t memories, but wild magic was like a bloodhound for anxiety and was only too happy giving the brain a nudge. It was ten years earlier and he was younger. They all were. The younger version of Hadley had been fixed in his mind until today, the version where his hair was longer and his face slightly fuller, where his skin was tanned and his build suggested muscles rather than just lankiness. Now this younger version of Hadley was just slightly off, almost imperceptibly affected by the changes he had seen in the present. Abel and Lena would, of course, always remain the same in his mind.

    The four of them stood on Academy grounds, placed in a loose circle in the courtyard. The vibrant colors of the crest shone from the ground between them, almost blinding. Everyone were yelling, as Hadley and Lena had tried to convince Luka to leave, to flee, while Abel was slowly coming around to his side. Fragments of the conversation played in his head, the plan being set in motion, and everything subsequently happening so fast.

    Time blurred, the dream shifted. He was somewhere else, in the courtyard behind the hospital. This was where the Soul Eater had been born, and they were leading it back here to die. The energy was stronger here, more tangible, and Luka hoped it would enable him to scatter it more easily.

    "Abel is down!"

    Luka heard Hadley''s voice distantly at the back of his mind. He didn''t react, too focused on the task at hand. They were so close. He wasn''t going to let anything distract him now.

    "Lavrin." Hadley was coming closer, his voice clearer. "We need you now, or Abel is going to die."

    Hadley had entered his field of vision, but only when Luka felt him grab his arm, did his concentration snap. He pulled his arm out of the grip and went back to work.

    "Lavrin!"

    "We have to finish this," Luka insisted. "We''re so close."

    Luka woke up with a start, with Hadley''s words echoing in his head. Images of blood, of death and monsters had haunted him every day since it happened, but the words had faded. Now they had returned, along with Hadley Thomas. Their meeting had triggered something in him, making his memories more vivid. He would have to be careful about nightmares. It was better to avoid sleep, than to let the wild magic haunt him, but that could only ever be a temporary solution. He threw his covers aside and got up to pace around the room. Restless energy was buzzing under his skin and his hands trembled with it. He shook them in a useless attempt to dispel it. When that failed to make any difference, he walked down the stairs and put a pot of coffee on. While waiting for it to brew, he focused on his magic, letting it rise to the surface of his skin.

    The nature of magic was to grow as the person grew. It would usually become noticeable around the age of thirteen, to those who knew what they were looking for, but much like puberty, it was individual from person to person. Though, as much as it afforded ambitious mages the chance to familiarize themselves with their magic, it wasn''t actually useful at this point. Every mage had that time bomb moment that made Strays so dangerous. Only, most mages were prepared for it, and could take precautions. It was essentially an activation of powers, the moment when they spilled over the edge, and became powerful enough to interact with the magic around them. Once the time bomb moment had burned out the magic of a young mage, it was time to teach them control.

    Luka hadn''t quite followed the usual path.

    Of course he had still been dependent on that moment, on his magic spilling over, but he had grown up at the Kovalevsky Academy in Moscow. He had been nine, when his parents died, and the Academy had essentially raised him and his sister. He had sat in on theory classes before he even fully understood what any of it meant. He had been shown simple things designed to grow his powers even as he barely had any. He developed a habit of making small cuts in his arms to practice his healing. Luka''s main guardian had been an Agent and a mentor, whose students had been an ever-changing background presence in Luka''s closest approximation of a home at the time. Later on, far too close to his magic manifesting and his subsequent departure to America, he had gotten close with one of these students. He had taught Luka spells, and had taught him that he didn''t need to bleed to test his control. Luka discovered that he could manipulate his own nerves, and he knew that it would only be taught to him as a way of dulling them, saving someone from pain. He didn''t mean to dull his nerves, though. He meant to flare them. It wasn''t quite the same as healing, and it did work a slightly different skill set, but it was good enough for Luka to measure his own progress and increase his powers. Over the years, he had adopted it as a sort of means of meditation.

    He closed his eyes, as the red glow of his magic formed swirls around his arms. When he used it like this, his magic felt like fire, burning him up from within. He clenched his teeth, and spread the pain further through his body. He was used to this exercise, used to biting back the screams, but it was supposed to be about restraint. This was pure frustration, and maybe he was burning too hot, too fast. He let out a strangled cry, and let go of the magic. He took deep breaths, allowing his body and mind to slow along with his breathing. He breathed slowly until his skin stopped prickling, and he expected to find a calmer, quieter version of himself on the other side. He frowned at the restless energy still pulsing under his skin, his thoughts still running in circles in his head. The exercise was supposed to clear his head, and it usually did. This time, it was only making him more frustrated. He reached for a knife on the counter beside him, but hesitated with the blade hovering over his skin.

    The coffee maker shuttered to a stop, and he snapped out of it. The knife cluttered to the kitchen counter, and he busied himself with finding a cup. Then he also pulled out a glass, and dug into a cabinet for a bottle of vodka. He poured coffee first, then alcohol, and drank one shot, and another, as his coffee cooled. His fingers drifted back to the knife. It was desperate, something he hadn''t done in ages, but all he wanted was a moment of peace from his own thoughts. It was bad enough that he had to walk back into that place, watching the crest beam up at him, as if it meant anything.

    He picked up the knife, and lined the blade up slightly off-center on his forearm. He tilted it into his flesh, watching the blood well up beside it, and cut slowly down his arm. He was careful to miss his main artery, since he wasn''t looking to bleed to death. He put the knife down, watching for a moment as the blood flowed from the wound and dropped to the floor. He healed it up, closed his eyes, breathed. His mind didn''t still, his thoughts didn''t settle. All he wanted was to see a black void behind his eyelids and all he could see was Abel dying. All he could think was that he could have saved him, but chose not to.

    One life for hundreds.

    That had been the price of being a hero.

    "Chert vozmi," he muttered, and went out in search of a distraction.

    He hadn''t meant to go out tonight, he really hadn''t. Not when he had just signed a contract to work with the Academy. He would have done it out of spite, or because he didn''t care, but the case was serious and he hadn''t thought distractions would be appropriate. But now he found himself on the streets and he could already breathe a little easier. It was late, or perhaps early, and the city was quiet as he walked though the streets. Most responsible people would be asleep, recharging for the next day. A few cars drove past him, most of them taxis. In the distance he heard the bass of a party. He passed an alley where someone was tagging an already crowded wall. He focused his attention on the quiet pulse of night life in the city, and let his feet guide him to wherever he needed to be.

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    There was a number of things he might look for, different tags on the walls signaling a need for a Healer, for help or for favors. It kept them safe from Agents, but it wasn''t a perfect system. A lot of Rogues died before a Healer could get to them. With enough money, Healers could be hired on retainer, but even then, Healers weren''t commonplace. Rogue Healers even less so. Luka had worked on retainer for a while, back when he had just gone rogue and needed the money, but had gotten out as soon as he could. He wanted to help, but he had lost control of his own life, of his time, and had at one point gone nearly a week without sleeping.

    In addition to the tags, he looked for signs of wild magic manifesting into something dangerous, which had it''s own unique signature. After all these years, Luka could feel it in his bones, smell it on the wind. It was like an electric charge in the air, the faint scent of ozone. Tonight, there was nothing. He passed some tags asking for favors, but favors could be anything, from something simple, like help with a spell or information, to things far more complicated and dangerous. The tags included symbols that said something about what the favor entailed, as well as degree of difficulty. Luka steered clear of favor jobs, even on normal days. He didn''t trade in favors, as they were rarely worth the reward.

    He eventually came to a stop in front of an apartment complex. It was built in a townhouse style, like wood-paneled boxes stacked on top of each other and painted in shades of bland beige. He had walked the silent streets, without paying attention to where he was going. Of all places, he found himself here. He considered turning around and going back home. He had an overwhelming need to turn around and go back home. Instead, he found the right name on the intercom, and pressed the button. The apartments were as dark as the streets, and when nothing happened, he pressed the button again. Finally a light appeared on the top floor, obscured through curtains.

    "What?" Sputtered the weary voice of Hadley Thomas through the intercom.

    "It''s me," Luka said. "Let me in."

    There was a moment of hesitation before the door unlocked, and Luka entered with a similar hesitation and started up the stairs. When he arrived on the top landing, the door was already opened and Hadley stood before him in a t-shirt and pajama pants.

    He waved him inside, and closed the door firmly behind him before speaking. "I really fucking hope this is important," he growled.

    Luka had known where Hadley lived, but he had never been inside. He had expected to find something closer to the Hadley he remembered here, but the place was spartan. It opened into the kitchen and living room, and he could see the down the hallway that led to the additional rooms, but all the doors were closed. The furniture was fine, but pragmatic. Maybe he kept personal items in his office or his bedroom, but then again, maybe not.

    "Sorry," Luka said, not sincerely. "Were you sleeping?"

    "Not well," Hadley said. He sat down on the armrest of his couch and pulled his hands through his hair, which only served to ruffle it further. He seemed calmer here, more comfortable and more genuine, perhaps because home made him feel safe. Although part of Luka still itched to touch him, to see if it was more than that. He hadn''t forgotten about the minor panic attack he had that morning, and he couldn''t quite believe it was still the events of ten years ago that affected him, but then again, maybe he could.

    "Lavrin, it''s 3:30 in the morning. What do you want?"

    He snapped out of his Healer brain, stopped trying to diagnose him from afar, and instead wished he had something to say. Something to explain that the reasons he was here weren''t all weakness and no logic.

    "I don''t know," he answered honestly.

    "Fine," Hadley said, and gestured across from him. "Let''s do this now."

    Luka sat down in the chair he had indicated, and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. Hadley clearly hadn''t been paying attention to him when he let him in, because now his eyes widened.

    "Whose blood is that?" he asked, suspicion blending with concern in his voice.

    "Oh," Luka said, glancing at the blood that had seeped into his sleeve and spattered on the front of his shirt. "Mine."

    He tilted his arm in, to stop Hadley from looking too closely at the scar running down his arm. He had healed it too quickly and too recklessly, and the scar wasn''t likely to ever fade.

    "Goddammit, Lavrin," he muttered.

    "I didn''t come here for you to judge me," Luka said.

    "Then you should have changed your shirt," Hadley commented.

    "So, what exactly is it you think we''re doing?"

    "What do you want? What do you need to make this work?"

    Luka hesitated. He specifically had not been allowed conditions ¡ª the opportunity to save innocents was expected to be incentive enough, and really, it should have been ¡ª but then he realized what Hadley expected. He thought he had come here, in the middle of the night, to bully him. To threaten him into giving him something he was in no position to give.

    He took a moment to consider, if there was anything that could make this situation better. He thought of Quinn, some guarantee he could give him, that this wouldn''t change anything. But it would, it was always going to. Even before Luka''s nightmares returned. He realized there really was nothing he wanted, and that it wasn''t why he was here. He watched his hands, rather than watching Hadley, but he could still feel his eyes on him. Flecks of blood clung to his fingernails, coloring the edges a dull red.

    "You have to find someone else."

    Hadley shook his head. "No. You don''t get to do that."

    "You were there, too. So was Lena."

    "I''m not you, Lavrin, and even if I knew where Lena is... She isn''t either."

    Luka rose from the chair. He needed to move, and paced the length of the living room. "I''m not the only one who can do this."

    "Maybe not, but you''re the only one I trust."

    Luka stopped. "You don''t trust me. Not anymore."

    Hadley got up, too, but he didn''t move any closer to Luka. "I trust you with this. I know you can do this. I don''t know why you''re fighting it so hard."

    Because he thought he was fine, and he didn''t like to discover that he wasn''t. Because Quinn would have begged him not to accept, if it hadn''t been for the dying students.

    "Fine," he said. "But the only way this is going to work is if we stay away from each other."

    "Agreed," Hadley said. "Too bad that''s not an option."

    "Why?"

    "I already told you the Council isn''t on board with this. You''re my responsibility, and I can''t hand you over to someone else. The Council won''t allow it."

    "Of course," Luka muttered.

    "Don''t start," Hadley begged.

    "What? You''re going to tell me that they don''t know exactly what they''re doing? Do you think they want this to work? Do you think they want to be saved by a Rogue?"

    "I think they want students to not die. I think the fact that they accepted it, however reluctantly, means they''re desperate."

    Luka shook his head. Hadley didn''t get it, but then, he never had. The Council did everything deliberately, and Luka wasn''t meant to succeed in this. That way, the Council could finally prove that they had been right about him all along, a ten year grudge that both parties had been holding on to, but had only damaged one reputation ¡ª and it wasn¡¯t Luka¡¯s.

    Only, if he did succeed, the Council would be prepared for that too, and he feared that it would challenge his freedom at the end of this.

    "I honestly don''t think they knew it would be this much of a problem. I''m not sure I did," Hadley added, but Luka said nothing. He was sure they knew. They had taken part in creating this conflict ten years ago, when they had asked each of them to fold, and only one person did. Nothing had happened to suggest a mend in their relationship, nothing except Hadley presenting Luka as a solution to their problem. Which was weak, at best.

    "It doesn''t matter," Luka finally said. "Just stay out of my way as much as possible."

    He didn¡¯t know what he had hoped to find in Hadley Thomas. That he had changed? That they both had?

    Back on the street, he felt no better than when he arrived. The trip had been a complete waste, not to mention a mistake, and only added to his frustration. He paused to hit the wood-paneled wall, just to hear the crack of bones breaking, and waited for the pain. He flexed his hand as well as he could, and something was definitely broken. He left it to its sharp pain, dulling more with every beat of his heart, and dug into his pocket for his phone, as he walked away from the building.

    He scrolled through his contacts, finding Quinn, but his hand hovered over the call button.

    He wanted to call him.

    He needed Quinn to talk him down.

    He needed to be reminded that he had a life outside all of this.

    If he was being completely honest with himself, that was the step he should have taken in the first place, before coming here. In the end, he put the phone back in his pocket without making the call.

 Chapter five

    Distractions could be dangerous, which wasn¡¯t a lesson you wanted to learn the hard way. It was fortunate, under the circumstances, that Alice was standing in an arena, under controlled conditions, and not on the streets, facing someone who actually wanted to kill her. Even so, they were attempting to simulate those real world situations, so she should have been alert and ready to fight.

    She was not.

    Alice startled, when the countdown reached the final ten seconds, and the audience started chanting along. She had barely slept, and her thoughts were a muddle. The conversation with her mother had not been a good one, and she hadn''t yet managed to process it. She had expected disappointment, but received an unwanted truth as well.

    Meanwhile, she had stalled Teagan and Nick until after their final exam, promising to tell them everything, when it was over, but they hadn''t exactly been gracious about it. On top of that, she had realized that they would have opinions, and that those opinions might very well take the edge off of her excitement. Then there was the growing unease she felt, as the morning ticked away towards noon and she would be introduced to Luka Lavrin.

    Together, all of it formed a nauseating lump in her stomach. She hadn''t eaten much since those crackers the day before, never really managing to reclaim her appetite. It wasn''t a smart move, and had only left her feeling weak and vaguely ill in advance of their last fight as students. At least neither one of them really needed a good grade, but Teagan would still want one, and Nick would no doubt welcome it.

    It was their final exam, before they could really call themselves Mages; they were already informally mages, as magic users, but the capital M was significant. With the capital M, it became a title, and Alice would be able to call herself Mage Malik.

    Nick had done the one-on-one with another one of their classmates, but now they had arrived at the group fight, and they were all on the same team. Unlike the one-on-one, where they were individually graded, this exam would give them all the same grade. Just to hammer home the point that they would rise and fall on their weakest link. Alice was already their weakest link on a good day, so she would definitely have to find a way to focus. She was in the top five of their class, but no amount of hard work could make up for the advantage they had as Legacies. Teagan and Nick were both far too ambitious to allow her to overtake them, even as she had advanced on most of their other classmates.

    It was only a formality for them to finish up. They already had the grade average to graduate and with mentors lined up, there wasn''t much left for them to achieve here.

    They would have to really mess up for the Academy to deem them unfit now.

    "THREE!" The crowd roared. "TWO!"

    Alice bent her knees, getting ready to charge forward. She was flanked by Nick on her left and Teagan on her right. They faced a Fighter, a Forger and a Healer. While Healers were rare, they weren''t necessarily an advantage. They didn''t fight, so aside from the support they could provide, they were a wasted player. They had to graduate too, of course, although they would have no problem getting work either way. No one cared if they had a diploma, as long as they could heal. The other two mirrored Alice and Teagan, but Nick was a Summoner ¡ª not as rare as Healers, but more rare than Fighters and Forgers.

    They were, however, considered the least useful of the four types, since their magic required some sort of physical construct for them to move. Nick was far from useless, though. Nick was an artist.

    One.

    An electric buzz marked the beginning of the match, and Alice ran. As the Fighter, it was her job to protect the others. Nick and Teagan were both more comfortable as ranged fighters, and would offer her support, but she did have to keep both of their opponents occupied. The Healer stood back, protected by her own teammates.

    First, Nick released the birds. The bright yellow of his magic ran through their bodies, pulsing like blood through their clockwork hearts. Alice wasn''t paying attention, but she had seen him build them, so she knew that they were all steel and copper and approximately the size and shape of a magpie.

    Alice charged at the Fighter, hoping the Forger would be unable to resist the temptation of attacking her, while she was distracted. The birds were circling them, doing further to ensure that the Forger wouldn''t risk splitting from his partner. When one of the birds dipped into her field of vision, Alice flared her magic. The blade still set off her balance, as it hit her across the back, but it drew no blood.

    The Fighter took advantage of the moment, and swung his fist into her ribs. Her magic was still flared, and burning out fast, but the force of the hit might still bruise. She stumbled back, creating space between them, and Teagan''s arrows flew into the space she had vacated. A couple of them hit the Forger, but the Fighter shifted his magic in time, and they fell away amid a cloud of sparks. The Forger didn''t leave to take advantage of their Healer yet, possibly because Alice looked ready to crack. She was saving her magic now, concentrating it around her hands and chest. She caught the blade, when he swung it, but the Fighter kicked out her legs from under her, and she landed heavily on the ground. She lost the connection for what could have been a fatal second, while she remembered how to breathe again. The birds attacked, claws and wings slicing at exposed skin, while a further shower of arrows rained down on them.

    Alice stumbled back on her feet, still struggling to catch her breath. It was too difficult for the birds to dodge blades and fists, and they retreated, once Alice was back on her feet.

    The Forger was finally wounded enough to fall back towards the Healer.

    Teagan advanced, which wasn''t the plan. Alice should have been able to take the Fighter alone, but her reflexes weren''t as good as they should be, and neither was her stamina.

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    She stepped up, ready to take the blows for Teagan, who did sink a blade into the Fighter''s lower back, but also took a bone-shattering hit to the shoulder. The birds were back with Nick, nestling into frames of legs and heads, that turned them into small dragons with vicious teeth and claws.

    Teagan was clutching her arm, and could barely conjure, and the Forger was rejoining the fight. Nick deployed the dragons at him, while Alice took care of the Fighter. He had counted Teagan out, and failed to notice, when she raised a short blade and stabbed it into his shoulder. The surprise was enough for his magic to falter, and Alice finally managed to land a proper hit. She aimed a kick at his stomach, and he doubled over, then she finished him off. She grabbed his arm, and dislocated his shoulder. She aimed her foot at his opposite knee, where something snapped.

    Nick redirected the dragons at the Healer, so she couldn''t bring him back into the fight. Then there was only the Forger left.

    Alice had paused to catch her breath, and when she turned towards him, he was already running towards her, blade in hand. He feigned towards her chest, instead aiming low and slicing into her leg. She was too slow to react, and hissed as he drew blood. She caught the blade, as he swung it again, but her magic was weakening and it cut slowly into her hand.

    Teagan was at her side, and kicked the Forger back. Alice got behind him, and slung her arm around his neck. She directed her magic there, just to make it clear, that she was in a position to break his neck.

    The Healer was aglow with magic, as the metal dragons clawed and bit into her skin. Nick called them back, and, seeing the state of her teammates, she raised her hands in surrender.

    Alice let the Forger go, and stumbled back. The cut in her leg was deeper than she''d realized, and was bleeding furiously, but the Healers were already running towards them.

    She swayed, and her vision blackened. She didn''t feel herself hit the ground, but she did feel the sharp pain in her leg, as the Healer worked on her. Nick was by her side, but

    Teagan was still being Healed herself.

    "She hasn''t lost a dangerous amount of blood," the Healer told Nick, "but she is dehydrated, and her blood sugar is low."

    The pain dulled, and she tried to get up. Nick put his hand on her, ready to support her.

    She still felt dizzy, and she wanted to throw up, but she was pretty sure her stomach was too empty for that to solve anything.

    "You good?" Nick asked.

    She tried to nod, but that only sent her head swimming.

    Teagan joined them, and reached for her other side.

    "Come on," she said. "Food will help."

    Alice groaned weakly, but allowed them to drag her up. Not that she had much of a choice in the matter. They carried most of her weight, until they could drop her off in a chair at the Food Hall. When they left to gather food, Alice dropped her head onto her forearms.

    They returned with juice and a heaping plate of food.

    "Don''t eat too fast," Teagan cautioned.

    "There''s no danger of that," Alice mumbled, reaching for the juice. She still didn''t want food, but she forced herself to pick at the offerings. They had grabbed fruit, a cup of yogurt, pancakes, scrambled eggs and toast. She tore the toast apart, and ate it in small bites, then stabbed idly at the eggs.

    When she finally felt solid enough to look at them, she found them watching her intently. Not so much with concern, as with expectation.

    "What?"

    "The meeting, Alice," Teagan said.

    "Oh." She plunged a minimal amount of eggs into her mouth and swallowed slowly. "Right."

    "When you''re ready," Nick added, but not in a way that felt generous. When he wasn''t tinkering with his clockwork creatures, his restless fingers were often playing with a coin, but even that sat still between his fingers now. Alice thought she might as well just drop the bomb, and get it over with. Maybe they would go easy on her.

    "I''m getting a mentor."

    "What?"

    "Hadley Thomas offered you a mentor?"

    "Yeah, but it''s not ¡ª I don''t know." Alice struggled to string her thoughts into words. She wanted to explain it well, but she hadn''t even finished processing it herself. "It''s a special case. I think it has something to do with the missing students."

    "So, you''re staying?" Nick asked, while Teagan said, "The missing students? Why¡­?"

    "No exactly," Alice said, answering Nick first. "It''s a temporary arrangement, and I think it''s the missing students, because they''re bringing in Luka Lavrin."

    "You¡ª" Teagan started, but faltered. Nick said nothing at all. Teagan found her words, and finished. "You said yes to this?"

    "They asked me to work with a legend. Of course I said yes."

    "Luka Lavrin isn''t¡ª he''s a Rogue, Alice. He''s dangerous."

    She wanted very badly to be able to say no, of course he wasn''t dangerous, and that the Academy wouldn''t allow this if it was dangerous. Except that Hadley had called him hostile, had said that he was likely to do something damaging.

    Alice reached for a strawberry, and forced herself to shrug. "I''m sure Mage Thomas knows what he''s doing."

    Not even invoking Hadley put her at ease. "I don''t like it."

    Alice glanced at Nick, who still hadn''t commented. "Nick?"

    "What does it mean, that it''s temporary?"

    She had hoped for some support, but apparently neither one of them were going to give it to her.

    "Well, I don''t know yet. The apprenticeship is only valid until the case is over, but¡­ I talked to my mom. She hoped that someday I would mean it, when I said I would leave, but now she knows that I won''t. I have made the same choice again and again, and she has decided to accept it. The only catch is, that she wants me to give up Ravi."

    ¡°Will you?¡± Teagan asked, while Nick repeated his previous question, "So, you''re staying?"

    "Right now, I¡­ I want to take it one step at a time. I''m excited about this opportunity, but I barely even know what it means yet."

    She didn''t manage to eat much more, suddenly feeling sick again. She''d thought they would at least be happy she was staying longer, even if they couldn''t be happy about the conditions. She excused herself, even though it felt like she needed to stay. The situation felt too fraught, like it needed the right words to fix it, but she didn''t know what the right words were. At least she didn''t have to lie about how awful she felt. Nick and Teagan looked between her and the considerable pile of food she was leaving behind with concern, but not enough to protest. The briefing was only a few hours away, but she could at least spend the time she had left asleep.

    While returning to her room, she was reminded of her hand. With everything else that had happened, the Healer never got around to healing it, and she was covered in so much blood that no one else noticed. The blood had clotted, but it only took her stretching out her hand to reopen the wound. She didn''t want to go to the hospital for a cut, even if she''d had the energy, so she just wrapped a cloth around it. She was still in her gym clothes, which were now irreparably ruined.

    She forced herself to peel them off, even if the blood tore off her like velcro. She should shower, before crawling into bed, wash off the blood so it didn''t stain her sheets.

    She should shower, because she didn¡¯t want to sacrifice the time after she woke up. Blood was, however, persistent, and her vision was blurry, and she didn¡¯t know how clean she would actually manage to get herself. She rummaged around in her drawers for one of her older sheets, and wrapped herself in it, the best she could do under the circumstances.

    She set a timer for half an hour before her meeting, already knowing it wouldn''t be enough, but unable to offer herself any more time.

 Chapter six

    Luka sat on a bench in front of the wall that circled the Academy. It was fifteen minutes past twelve, and the gates were right next to him, but he wasn''t going in. He was annoyed with himself, because despite his best efforts, he had still arrived on time. A disposable coffee cup sat on the bench next to him, containing the remains of a chocolate espresso, the drink he only ordered when he felt sorry for himself. He knew he was being childish, and that maybe, just maybe, he should have decided to act like a professional. On the other hand, he had given up all pretense of appearing professional, when he had chosen to swap his usual slacks and button-down for a pair of worn jeans and a t-shirt depicting a group of communists in party hats. He didn''t even remember where the shirt came from, only that it had been given to him as a joke, and he had yet to decide whether or not he was offended.

    He lifted a cigarette to his lips and inhaled smoke.

    If he closed his eyes and focused, he could feel the currents of magic around him, although they were vague. The Academy at his back was a distraction, numbing the magic in the air. It should have been extremely interested in the Academy, clinging to it like moths to light, but the Academy was warded. They couldn''t constantly worry about the untethered magic of the city wrecking havoc around campus.

    What that all meant was that the magic of the city politely pretended like the Academy wasn''t there, and that Luka''s senses felt off whenever he got near those walls. He couldn''t feel the details, there were no scents that didn''t quite belong, no lights without a logical source, no urgency of rush hour to set his pulse racing. All he felt was the oppressive wave of Academy wards at his back.

    Despite the wards, he felt the movement as much as he heard it, when the gate opened. He reached for his coffee, and finished it off.

    "You weren''t supposed to come looking for me," he told Hadley, without taking his eyes off the moving city.

    "I didn''t think you needed an escort to get through the gates," Hadley said.

    ¡°I was waiting for the cuffs." It was mostly a joke. Really, he had just wanted to make him wait, but it hadn¡¯t escaped his notice, that nothing in his contract protected him from getting arrested, and how much freedom of movement did he really need to solve the case?

    Hadley only sighed. "Don¡¯t be paranoid," he said. "Come on."

    Luka threw the cup in the trash, before walking past Hadley and through the gates. Hadley''s eyes lingered on the cigarette, and Luka noted his disapproval, but if he was going to get through this meeting, he was going to need to finish it.

    "Are we going to talk about last night at all?" Hadley asked.

    "Last night?" Luka focused on smoking, and kept his face neutral. Once the morning had sobered him up, he put all his faith in it being an unusually vivid dream. Of course he shouldn''t be so lucky.

    "Yes," Hadley said. "When you appeared by my apartment at three in the morning."

    Luka shrugged. "I have no idea what you''re talking about."

    And that was that. Hadley sighed, but didn''t say anything else. He hadn''t wanted to talk about it either. It was far more likely that he just wanted to remind Luka that he had gotten drunk and stupid, as if he wasn''t aware. He hadn''t even been that drunk.

    They walked in silence across the courtyard, and Luka sidestepped the crest inlaid in the tiles. Its vibrant colors fundamentally offended him, and even the motto underneath ¡ª "concordia" ¡ª was a fucking joke. By all rights, the thing should have been spattered in blood, and the motto should have been "pro se quisque". The only thing they had possibly gotten right, was the dragon perched on top, although it could have looked more intimidating. He could imagine Hadley rolling his eyes at him, but he was no longer paying him any attention.

    It wasn''t wholly unexpected, but still startling, how much the Collingwood Academy looked exactly the same. It still looked like some sort of gothic nightmare, with everything washed out in tones of gray, and dark green ivy crawling up the walls. The only thing missing from the picture was an ever present fog rolling in from between the buildings. The steel and glass tower still marked the entrance to the administrative buildings, and Luka still wanted to know how it would feel to make all that glass shatter.

    At the back of his head, the wards were starting to give him a headache, and on top of it all, his cigarette was burning out too quickly. He had always been aware of the effect the wards had. Closing off the flow of magic was like closing off the flow of air, and being left with a heavy humidity that settled in his lungs and made it hard to breathe. It was an adjustment, and the feeling would eventually fade, but after nearly ten years away, it was stronger than ever. Even on the short walk from the gate to the glass tower, he felt the need to pause and catch his breath. Instead, he forced himself to breathe normally, to remind himself that he could breathe here just fine.

    The feeling existed mostly in his head, but that didn''t stop the pounding behind his skull from increasing, and by the time they entered the glass tower, he was practically seeing spots. The sunlight filtered through the colored glass, and cast kaleidoscopic colors on the floor, which didn''t help.

    "Wait," he told Hadley, once he stumbled, and had to catch himself on one of the steel bars running along the structure.

    "Stop stall¡ª" Hadley stopped, and Luka assumed that meant he had turned to watch him. His own eyes were closed, and his fingers pressed into his forehead, even though that made absolutely no difference.

    "Are you okay?" It was a stupid question, and Luka didn''t answer.

    "Lavrin," Hadley said, more impatient than concerned. Luka didn''t want to answer that either, but apparently he wasn''t going to stop.

    "The wards," he murmured. "I''ll be okay in a minute."

    It didn''t bother new mages, because they really didn''t have enough magic at the beginning of their education for this to be an issue. It didn''t bother mages who were in and out of the Academy every day, but apparently coming back after so long was like starving your magic of the connection it had gotten so used to, and because magic was essentially a punishing entity, it fucking hurt. See, the thing about magic, at least in Luka''s experience, was that it was a bit like a parasite. Most of the time, this parasite was great, because it allowed you to do magic. Only, once in a while you were bound to do something the parasite didn''t like, and an angry parasite was a vengeful parasite. He hated the indignity of sliding to the floor, but he couldn''t stay upright.

    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    "The wards aren''t harmful."

    "Great," Luka muttered. "That''s very helpful. Thanks. I feel much better now."

    "No," Hadley said. "What I''m saying is that it can''t be the wards. It must be something else." Luka could feel his presence as he knelt down close to him. "Maybe I should take you to the hospital."

    "Don''t fucking touch me," Luka growled. He honestly didn''t know how long it would take to adjust. He was absolutely sure it was the wards doing this, but he was guessing about the rest.

    "Can''t you...?" Hadley asked, letting the question hang unfinished between them. Probably because he knew how insulting it was. Luka knew exactly what he was asking, because Luka was a Healer, and as a Healer, he never had to be in pain, right?

    "You know I can''t heal asshole magic." Asshole magic: When magic is the thing hurting you, and you can''t use magic to counteract it. See also: Whatever was killing students. Since they needed Luka, it couldn''t be healed away. Except he was already 90% sure it was a spell causing that, and spells could actually be counteracted with magic, which... gave him an idea. If only he could think. He shook his head, which caused a new wave of pain to shoot through his skull.

    "Fuck."

    He needed his magic to adjust, which meant that he needed to make it think the absence of untethered magic was natural, at least for a little while. He formed the spell through the fog in his mind, and hoped he wasn''t screwing something up, and whispered it out loud. The pressure faded, a bit, enough to allow him to function at least.

    "Fuck," he repeated, while tentatively opening his eyes. The colors still confused his vision, but at least there were no spots.

    He rose slowly off the floor. Hadley was hovering near him. His arms were crossed, but his expression was briefly concerned.

    "What did you do?" Hadley asked, and Luka knew it was more how dare you use a spell? and less are you okay now?, but he didn''t really care.

    "I fixed it," he said. "Sort of. Temporarily. Let''s get this over with."

    He walked into the dim hallway beyond the glass tower and all its colors, and started up the stairs.

    Inside Hadley''s office, he found a mirror of what he had seen in his apartment. The place was soulless. Hadley was a highly organized person, but he had always been comfortable with clutter. It used to drive Luka crazy, back when they were roommates. He looked at this room now, with everything in its proper place and perfectly lined up. Even the desk was tidy. There wasn''t a single item in the room, that didn''t actually need to be there. Except, of course, for his future apprentice. Two chairs were positioned in front of the desk, and she had settled into the left one. She looked back when they entered, and then rose from the chair. One of the things he had wanted to do before this meeting, was to be prepared for this part. He had narrowed down the candidates, and Alice Malik stood in front of him, as expected. Her complexion, features, and of course, her last name, placed her origin somewhere in India. Though her first name might suggest she was born in America. Her scores had been excellent, and he didn''t fully understand why she hadn''t already been assigned an Agent. However, her profile said she was cautious and meticulous, which made her a fitting match for Luka.

    As a further offense to him, she was still in uniform, and she was...

    "She''s bleeding," he said, addressing Hadley. If it sounded like he blamed him for this minor insult, well.

    "Sorry," she said, looking at her bleeding hand in surprise, like it wasn''t supposed to do that. A cloth was tied roughly around the wound, but it didn¡¯t do much to stop the bleeding, and only did a decent job of soaking up the blood.

    Luka took a step towards her and held out his hand. She looked at him in surprise, but presented him with her injury. It wasn''t like he minded healing people, but it was already a point against the Academy Healers. The red glow rose to the surface of his fingers, swirling lazily across his skin, as he touched the palm of her hand. The light brightened, focused on the damaged parts of her body, and stitched the tissue together. Luka saw her flinch at the shock of pain, and she tried to pull away from his grip. His hand tightened around her wrist, holding her steady. She was used to painless treatment, but Luka had never seen the point in the wasted energy.

    The glow of his magic faded, slowly, to nothing. All that was left of her wound was a pale scar and a lingering pain.

    "Healer," she gasped. Luka ignored her surprise, knowing that in all the stories, he wouldn''t be a Healer. He didn''t hear the rumors, detached from the Academy as he was, but he knew enough about their reputation to expect her reaction. Healers weren''t powerful, they weren''t fighters and they most certainly weren''t legends. There was no glory in naming him a Healer, so his identity might instead be altered into a Forger or a Fighter, or maybe even a Summoner. Whichever power suited the storyteller''s notion of what a legend should be.

    He extended his hand towards her, "Alice."

    Hadley sighed, "Great. You read her file. Of course you did."

    "You need a new password, Thomas."

    Hadley was required to change his password every three months, but he still used the same system he had when they were at the Academy together, so he had gotten it on the first try. They varied according to season and year, but to not make it too obvious, summer wasn''t just summer, it was Taurus. It was based on some ancient Roman''s idea of when the seasons changed.

    Alice took his hand hesitantly and shook it.

    "Mage Lavrin," she said. Her eyes studied him and landed on his shirt. She frowned at the print, which seemed fair, all things considering. She knew who he was, of course, and where he was from, so she might have gotten the joke.

    Hadley sat down behind his desk and immediately looked more comfortable, more confident, the illusion of control restored. His office was probably more of a home to him than his apartment, even though neither place looked like it. He sat tall, shoulders back, and his hands folded in front of him. "First, the contract?"

    "Right," Luka said. He rummaged through his bag, produced the stack of paper, and dumped it on the desk. "What exactly was your plan? Were you just hoping I wouldn''t notice the random kid following me around?"

    Hadley was carefully pushing the papers into a neat square, and cleared his throat. "I was maybe hoping you would be less inclined to make a scene in front of the," he paused to glance apologetically at Alice, before repeating, "random kid."

    Luka smiled, but there wasn''t an ounce of warmth in it. "I''m not making a scene, Thomas."

    Hadley sighed. "Lavrin, can we not do this..."

    "What?" Luka asked. "In front of the child? No, you''re right. What will she think?"

    "Enough," Hadley said. The attempted display of authority fell entirely flat, at least as far as Luka was concerned. It would be easy to push him further, if he wanted to, but he didn''t actually care enough to start a fight.

    "Just give me the case," Luka said. He wanted this to end. He wanted to get out of here, away from the Academy where he could breathe again.

    "Fine." Hadley retrieved a file from a drawer and slammed it down in front of Luka. "There''s some sort of outbreak at the Academy. People are getting sick, we can''t determine why, we can''t cure them. It''s not normal, and it''s no spell we know of."

    Luka flipped through the file. He wasn''t even going to point out that they knew around zero spells, so of course they wouldn''t know this one, "How serious is it?" he asked.

    "One student has died so far. That''s when we came to you."

    Luka''s eyes snapped up from the file. "What?"

    "We didn''t want..."

    "You said you were pretty sure it was lethal. Pretty sure, Hadley. You lied to me. You knew."

    Hadley froze, realizing his mistake. "Yes, I thought..."

    Luka threw the file down on the desk, and now he did want to start that fight. Hadley pushed his chair back, so he was at least out of Luka''s reach, but he knew Luka could do worse things without even touching him.

    "I really don''t care what your excuse is. I can''t believe this wasn''t important enough to call me in before some kid fucking died," Luka growled, his voice low. This didn''t even change things. He had known it was lethal, that the Agents couldn''t handle it themselves. It didn''t change the fact that he had been ready to back out. He knew there was a countdown before the first death, he just didn''t know it had already been exceeded. His head was pounding again, and Abel''s lifeless body haunted him when he closed his eyes.

    Luka scoffed. "You thought I would take it out on you."

    "Well, you..." He didn''t finish. He didn''t dare, Luka realized. He really was afraid.

    Luka grabbed the file off the desk, quickly enough to make Hadley flinch.

    "You''re a fucking coward, Thomas," he said, and left the office behind. He would have slammed the door for effect, if he hadn¡¯t expected Alice to follow him.

 Chapter seven

    "Ground rules," Luka said, the moment Alice caught up to him. "No uniform, and don''t call me Mage, Master or Sir."

    He was reading through the file while descending the stairs, but she had to wonder how much of it he could actually read, given how fast he was walking.

    "Anything else?¡° Alice asked, and it might have come out a little too sharp, a little too bold. She was still very, very tired, and it interfered with her self-control. Luka looked up from the file, and watched her. Then the hint of a smile cracked through his expression, only for a second, before he went back to reading.

    First impression? She had expected his charisma, and been warned about the hostility, but any doubts about how those qualities fit together were gone now. Luka Lavrin knew how to command a room, and how to make it look entirely unintentional. There was a quiet power to him, that was both off-putting and entirely captivating, as if he knew he was better than everyone else, but it was beneath him to point it out. She had no doubt he could be dangerous, since that kind of confidence didn¡¯t arise from nothing, but she suspected he was mostly content to cut with his words.

    He had certainly made a masterful effort to shut down any authority Alice imagined Hadley had over him, and forced her to reevaluate her own perception of him, whether or not that had been a deliberate choice.

    While Hadley might have looked like a fallen hero, Luka looked more like the antihero that had risen in his place. He had broader shoulders, a better posture, and a healthy complexion. Thick eyebrows, a sharp nose and hard eyes left his face looking severe, but Alice had seen that glimpse of a smile and thought, or hoped, that he wasn¡¯t all hard angles.

    Luka fell behind once they made it to the glass tower, and Alice opened the door for him. He lifted his eyes from the file, as if the colors in the room upset his vision. They probably did. She couldn''t imagine reading in this place. Outside, he stopped, flipping through the rest of the file, and offered it to her.

    When she reached for it, he flicked his wrist back.

    ¡°You¡¯re exhausted, and anemic.¡±

    Her fingers hovered, where the file had been. ¡°Yes,¡± she said. There probably wasn¡¯t much point in lying to a Healer. Especially one, who had already used magic on her.

    ¡°Do you want to sit out until tomorrow?¡± His pale eyes held the weight of a bored predator, as they regarded her. She felt a little like a wounded gazelle next to him, but she didn¡¯t hesitate on her answer.

    ¡°No.¡±

    He tilted the file back towards her. ¡°Read that, hydrate, and for fuck¡¯s sake, eat something. Meet me outside the gate, when you¡¯re ready.¡±

    Alice accepted the file, and nodded. She had to swallow the yes, Sir that was sitting on her tongue, when she remembered his rules.

    She watched him walk towards the gates, before she turned towards the food hall. She found a remote corner, where she wasn¡¯t likely to be interrupted, and started reading.

    She had grabbed a sandwich and some orange juice, eating in small bites, careful not to spill anything on the papers. The file was surprisingly thick for how little information it managed to hold. It was mostly data; timelines, projections and observations from the Healers. The affected students had described their symptoms, but there was no tangible conclusion.

    Before returning to Luka, she went back to her room to change out of her uniform. After five years of wearing it, she had grown accustomed to the style of skirts, blazers and button downs. Her change was little more than a shift away from the school colors ¡ª and the strips of green sown into everything to mark her magic type ¡ª and into a red tartan skirt and a black shirt with short sleeves.

    Luka was sitting outside the gates, smoking. He was on the ground, back against the wall, despite the five additional steps it would have taken to get to the bench. His eyes were closed, and he didn''t move when she approached.

    "How much did you know," he asked, "before you read that file?"

    There weren''t many people passing by here, but she didn''t know how he could know it was her.

    "Not much," she admitted. "I mean, we knew people were disappearing. We just didn''t know why, and the teachers wouldn''t answer questions directly. It was obvious they were stalling, trying to keep everyone from getting panicked, and honestly, with exams coming up, we just... had other things to focus on, I guess. We told each other that they would do something, if it was serious. Like, maybe people were just leaving. I don''t know. We were just telling ourselves lies to feel safe, I think."

    She wanted to drop down next to him, still feeling heavy and weary, but she remained standing. Eating had helped, but she felt like she was holding herself up on willpower alone, and if she sat down, she was unlikely to get back up.

    Luka nodded. "According to the file, patient zero died about a week ago. This was a couple of days after losing access to his magic. Since then, an increasing number of mages have complained about disorientation, unpredictable magic and, in the end, the same loss of control over it."

    Alice had tried to make sense of the case, while she was walking back to Luka, setting up the data in her head and trying to find the missing pieces, but it kind of just looked like a disease. Not like any magical disease she had ever heard of, but nevertheless, a disease. Some illnesses had build up a resistance to magic, and some conditions could cause magic to degenerate or act up, but those were all well-documented and treatable.

    This was something else.

    Whatever this was, it appeared to be infectious. They had tried to track the infected as much as possible, but the problem was that these were all students and their paths crossed more times than could be counted. The Agents assigned to the case had interviewed everyone who had been infected after patient zero, but had failed to find anything meaningful they had in common.

    "What do you think it is?" Alice asked.

    Luka lowered the cigarette from his lips, and exhaled smoke. "I need more data." He shrugged. "I agree with Thomas, that it¡¯s probably a spell, but I need to verify it.¡°

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Why would anyone do that?" If it was a spell, it meant someone had deliberately written it for this purpose.

    "Why does anyone do anything?" Luka countered. "There are plenty of people out there with reasons to resent the Academy, not to mention the Council."

    "Like you?"

    He smiled. "Like me." Luka dragged himself up off the ground. "Before you start thinking that I did this, let me tell you why I didn''t."

    "I wasn''t¡ª" Alice started to protest. It might have occurred to her, if only for a second. Luka was the best spellcaster anyone knew, and this kind of thing would require talent, she assumed. It was easy to dismiss, though, as the idea of Luka as a hero was still ingrained in her, and she couldn''t imagine that someone who had risked his own life to save hundreds, would now start taking those lives.

    "If I was going to take down the Council," Luka said, ignoring her. "I would take down the Council, I wouldn''t take it out on everyone else."

    "You''ve thought about it," she said, surprised.

    "Of course I have," Luka said, as if he assumed everyone considered taking down a government at least once in their lifetime.

    "I don''t want to pry, but..."

    "No," Luka said immediately, as if he had anticipated the question, which he most likely had. It had been lying in wait between them ever since they met, even if this was the first obvious opening. It wasn¡¯t the first time she had wanted to ask. "I''m not going to be one to tell you what happened."

    "It is important, though, isn''t it? It''s why you''re here now."

    Luka dropped the cigarette to the ground and crushed it under his shoe. "I''m here because Thomas thinks I can fix this, and because I can''t turn my back on people dying. None of that is because of what happened ten years ago. I realize it''s a novelty to you, that it''s an exciting story you tell each other, but I lived it. I don''t need to talk about it."

    "Of course," she said, but it was odd that he didn''t seem proud at all. They had done something remarkable, and he acted more like it was one of the worst things he had ever done. She understood that it had come at a cost, that they had all lost something, but they must have known the risk when they walked into it. "I''m sorry."

    "Don''t apologize. It''s fine. We needed to address this."

    He walked past her, back towards the Academy, and she followed. He seemed to hesitate before passing the gate, breathing deeply, as if he was bracing himself for something.

    She watched him step across, and saw him wince.

    "Are you okay?"

    He rubbed two fingers against his temple and closed his eyes. "The wards are giving me a headache," he explained. "It''ll take time to acclimate."

    "Really?" The wards were supposed to be harmless, but she knew that coming back to the Academy after a vacation could feel faintly like something between jet lag and a hangover. She hadn''t attributed it to the wards, though, only thought it had something to do with the concentration of magic, but it made sense.

    "Turns out it gets worse the longer you''re away," Luka said. "And ten years is a long time."

    "Are you sure we should be doing this now?"

    "Yeah. I need to get through this. Might as well get something done."

    They were heading for the hospital. From what Alice had gathered from the file, that was really the only data source available. If they wanted to find out what the Agents and Healers had missed, they would have to start there.

    "I have one question," Alice said. She didn''t know if she should leave him alone with his pain, or if answering questions would serve as a distraction.

    "Is it about the case?" Luka asked.

    It wasn''t. She almost lost her nerve (she had plenty of questions that were actually about the case, and could have asked any of them instead) but she carefully rephrased it instead. "Sort of. If this is a spell, and someone created it, doesn''t that narrow down the suspect pool quite a lot? Isn''t there only like a handful of people who would have this kind of skill with spells?"

    "Not necessarily," Luka answered. "Most Rogues learn spells. Some even get good at them."

    "You learned spells before you became a Rogue." She slipped in the personal question, closer to the question she had wanted to ask.

    "I learned in Russia, while growing up. The Council there isn¡¯t afraid of spells."

    "But the Council here is."

    "This Council is afraid of things they can''t control," Luka said. "It''s not just spells."

    "Okay," Alice said, "but if it''s such a weakness, why don''t more people exploit it? Why hasn''t this happened before?"

    "It''s not that simple."

    It wasn¡¯t really an answer, but he didn''t elaborate.

    They had arrived at the hospital building, and Luka stopped outside, putting a hand into his pocket. Alice thought he was going to pause to smoke again, but after a moment he sighed and continued walking. On the outside, the hospital was the same as the other buildings, all gray brick and gothic spikes, although it was perhaps more squat and pragmatic in its stature. A small glass cube had been annexed around the entrance, not unlike the glass tower at the administrative building, which had sliding doors to allow for easier access. On the inside, it was less like the other buildings at the Academy. Everywhere else, the gothic style had been preserved and there were a lot of arches and muted colors and elaborate carvings. Here, everything was white and clean, with glass and metal as the primary materials. Passing through the small arch that used to be the front door, was a little like stepping into another world.

    Alice hadn''t actually spend a lot of time here. Usually, the Academy deployed Healers when needed, like at the exams. They were also often present at training sessions, or would be called in if needed. You really didn''t go to the hospital unless you were sick, and even then, it had to be fairly complicated for a mage to actually be admitted. She had heard about shortages of Healers, but had often wondered how busy they could really be at the hospital.

    They faced the reception desk, where a young woman was smiling politely at them. There was a waiting area to the right, where a couple of Agents were bleeding and waiting for their turn. So, the hospital was perhaps more of an Agent thing. She followed Luka to the reception, where he leaned forward on the counter. "I need to see Dr. Garland," he said.

    "Dr. Garland isn''t available," the receptionist said.

    "Of course," he said. "I imagine she''s busy with the infection that''s inexplicably killing mages."

    "Um," the receptionist said. Her smile faltered and she looked around her uncertainly. It was obvious that she didn''t think they were supposed to know about that, and she had no protocol for it. It made Alice wonder how much the Council were actually attempting to cover this up. Luka obviously wasn''t an Agent, and neither was she, but the receptionist had barely glanced at their arms to look for the crest. Instead, she had looked to the Agents sitting in the waiting area. Alice had imagined all the Agents knew what was going on, but maybe not.

    "Right. That''s supposed to be a secret, isn''t it?"

    He dropped back and pulled his phone out of his pocket. She registered that he was calling Hadley, and then turned back to the receptionist. "Sorry," she said, smiling. "We really are assigned to the case, though. Mage Thomas arranged it, and it''s cleared by the Council."

    The receptionist shook her head. "All we were told is that the Healers dealing with it need to be left in peace. That includes Dr. Garland." She lowered her voice. "You''re not Agents, and he... Is that who I think it is?"

    Perhaps she was old enough to have been here ten years ago. Perhaps she had some idea what he looked like, and his faint Russian accent was another clue (along with the weird communist party shirt he was wearing, even if it seemed so at odds with everything else about him). Of course, it was also true that no one gossiped more than junior Council members, so perhaps word had already been spreading among the Academy staff.

    "Luka Lavrin?" She nodded.

    The receptionist bit her lip, thinking. "I can take you to Dr. Garland, but she''s not going to talk to you until she knows you''re supposed to have access."

    She glanced at Luka. "That probably won''t be a problem much longer. Thank you."

    Alice walked into Luka''s field of vision, and he paused in his conversation. "She''s taking us to Dr. Garland."

    "Oh, look," he said, aimed at Hadley. "The apprentice is more useful than you." He hung up, and followed Alice and the receptionist to the elevators. Apparently the floor was restricted, because after pressing the button for the third floor, she placed her fingers on a panel, and called her magic. It was yellow, Alice noted. A Summoner, rather than a Healer. The doors closed, and the elevator started upwards.

 Chapter eight

    The main thing Luka had gathered from his brief argument with Hadley was that they had yet to officially be granted access to the case because Luka had "refused to sign the contract, and only brought it back this morning" and "had stormed out of his office, before proper procedure could be followed", which all seemed like a convenient excuse for him to avoid doing his job, and also another somewhat desperate attempt to assert dominance. It still wasn''t working. The only impact it had, was on Luka¡¯s patience, which was already hanging on by a thread. Especially with the headache continuing to pound against his skull.

    None of it was unexpected, of course. He knew that working for the Council involved far too much bureaucracy. He knew that he would stumble on the politics, and that the Council would be fighting his every move. He had only expected it to take longer than an hour, and had hoped it would involve a bigger ask than basic access. When he pointed that out, Hadley told him that he "had the file", as if that was supposed to be enough. The Agents assigned to the case had done absolutely nothing, and neither, it seemed, had Dr. Garland, who was in charge of the patients. It would, at the very least, be interesting to meet the doctor and learn if they were withholding information, or if they were too scared of the infection to make the effort.

    It could be either, based on the file.

    The medical section had a lot of words, but nothing to indicate that they had used magic on any of the patients to see what was going on. It was a lot of external symptoms, and progression of the condition. It read like they had done an actual autopsy on patient zero, which was messy, invasive and not to mention, completely unnecessary. They failed to understand that this was targeting the magic, not the body, and descriptions of organs was not helpful in the least. The conclusion of the report seemed to suggest that despite being dead, he was perfectly healthy. There appeared to have been some strain on his system, before he died, but that was like saying he had died from exhaustion. It wasn''t particularly helpful, medically or magically.

    The elevator swished smoothly to a stop, and the doors opened to an anonymously white hallway. He followed Alice and the receptionist down the hall, past doors with warnings like "isolation" and "do not enter" attached in bright red letters. The receptionist didn''t slow, so neither did he. Alice hesitated, but didn''t stop. He might have felt better if she did.

    When they found Dr. Garland, she was coming out of one of the patient rooms. She was wearing a white coat, gloves and a mask that obscured her features. Her eyes widened when she saw them, then narrowed when she pulled off the mask.

    "What''s this?" She had a sharp face, probably made sharper by her stern expression.

    The receptionist introduced them as "Luka Lavrin and apprentice", and Luka glanced at Alice, wondering how much of the sudden cooperation had come from namedropping him. Even if it had occurred to him that it might be that easy, he wouldn''t have used his own name to get access. He knew it would be inevitable, that his presence wouldn''t go by unnoticed, but he would prefer if word didn''t spread too fast or too far.

    Dr. Garland and the receptionist were quietly discussing the mistake in bringing them here.

    "I need to examine the patients," Luka cut in, "in order to figure out what is going on here."

    Dr. Garland shifted her focus to him. "On whose authority?" she asked, and at the same time, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She picked it up and frowned at it.

    "Answer it," Luka said, "I''ll wait."

    She listened for a while, to what Luka really hoped was Hadley explaining the situation. She waved away the receptionist, who seemed relieved when she retreated back towards the elevators. She seemed a lot less relieved, when Luka said, ¡°Wait.¡±

    She stopped in her tracks, and regarded him with caution.

    ¡°Could you bring me some iron dextran and a syringe?¡±

    She nodded, then disappeared.

    "I understand that," the doctor was saying, "but I can''t let him examine the patients... I''ll give him all the information he needs, but... fine. Okay." She hung up, and gestured for Luka and Alice to follow her. She handed them gloves and masks, and told them to put them on.

    "We don''t know how it spreads, so we have to cover all of our bases," she said.

    Luka regarded the gloves and mask in his hand, but he had no intention of putting them on. This wasn''t a disease, and none of it would make any difference. This thing was sophisticated, and however it spread, chances were it was more unusual than usual. "It''s a spell," he said, "it spreads through magic."

    He tossed the items into the trash, and earned an indifferent shrug from the doctor.

    "I can only warn you," she said, "I can''t force you to listen."

    She led them into a room that held a couple of patients. "We have divided them into stages, these are the ones who are farthest along."

    "Tell me what you have done to examine them. I read your report, and it mentions physical conditions, but not magical."

    "We don''t know how it spreads," she repeated, as if that was an answer to his question.

    "So, you haven''t examined them?"

    "We have¡ª" she stumbled over the words. "We have observed them," she said. "We have worked to slow it down."

    Luka stepped up to one of the beds. "But you have not actually taken steps to figure out what this is, or how to stop it?"

    "We have been trying to figure out how to safely¡ª"

    "Yes," Luka interrupted. "I got that. Thank you."

    The girl lying in front of him was young, her dark hair fanned out on the pillow, and for a second he thought of his sister. They had similar features, at least asleep. He shook it off, since it was both an unwanted and unhelpful impulse, to think of them as people at this stage.

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    "Medically induced coma?" He asked, looking back at Dr. Garland, who nodded. He didn''t comment further, since it was now obvious, that they were reluctant to use magic on them. So, he didn''t point out that suspended animation would have been a better option, or that none of it was really guaranteed to slow this thing down. They were guessing, and guessing was a lot like assuming. Maybe this thing was actually incredible simple to fix, but no one had bothered to check. He sighed. "You may want to step outside," he told Dr. Garland.

    He heard the intake of breath as she was about to protest, the pause when she didn''t, and then her footsteps retreating.

    "Wait," Alice said, "You''re not thinking of..."

    "Using magic on them? Of course I am."

    She had stepped closer, but was keeping her distance from the bed.

    "You can''t. If you get infected..."

    "If I get infected, we have at least a couple of days to solve this before I die. These people were admitted when they started showing symptoms, and none of them were as far along as patient zero was, when he died."

    "But¡ª"

    "Alice," he said, nearly gently, trying to be comforting. "It''s fine. Trust me."

    Because of the coma, their magic was practically dormant, and he didn''t think it would spread to him. To be safe, he was going to cast a warding spell on himself. "You can step out too, if you want."

    Alice shook her head. "No. I''m here to learn."

    He could admire her determination, even though it wasn''t actually very helpful to him. She wasn''t a Healer, and she couldn''t do basic spells, so all she could do was observe. He would have preferred working in peace.

    There was a quiet knock on the door, and Luka looked over, expecting Dr. Garland, but it was the receptionist. She handed over the requested items, and retreated.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± he said, and she nodded once, before stepping back out of the room.

    Alice watched him with suspicion, as he filled the syringe.

    "Iron," he explained, even though she must have caught that when he made the request, and might even have made the connection. "Give me your arm."

    Still, she was hesitant, when she inched her arm forward. ¡°You really don¡¯t have to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Luka said, and jammed the needle into her arm, ¡°I do.¡±

    He might not have much use for an apprentice, but he had even less use of an apprentice, who might faint on him. Magic couldn¡¯t create something from nothing, but with the iron infusion, he had the materials he needed to speed up the production of hemoglobin. He called his magic, and got her levels closer to normal, then lifted some of her exhaustion while he was at it.

    When he took his hand away, she rubbed the injection site, but of course there wasn¡¯t a mark left on her.

    Now that the state of his apprentice was no longer grating on him, he returned his attention to the comatose girl.

    The warding spell would have been a lot more simple if not for the lingering headache, but he did the calculations in his head, hoping it did what it was meant to. The aim was to make sure no outside magic would be able to touch him, and as much as that could have been a very useful spell for magical combat, he could already tell that it would be a bitch to maintain. He muttered the words out loud, unable to focus on activating it inside his head. It sat at the back of his mind, as a thing he would need to keep monitoring, in case it weakened or he lost focus. He called up his magic, the red light swirling across his skin, and touched the forehead of the girl.

    He did a basic check first, just to assess her overall health. It indicated that, medically induced coma aside, she was fine. Although, he did note something around her heart that didn''t quite belong, a trace of magic that had no good reason to be there. He didn''t know what it did yet, but he could follow the signature to the contamination in her magic. Even though his abilities as a Healer were limited whenever he moved away from the body and into the magic, he was still able to see the connections. It immediately felt wrong. She was a forger, but there was something else too. Something that was growing stronger and suppressing her own magic. It felt like... It felt like untethered magic, the wild magic of the city, the very soul of it.

    This didn''t make any sense.

    He realized now what the connection to the heart did. With every slow beat, the balance shifted, just slightly. The spell was tied to her heart, counting down until the moment the untethered magic would take over her own. It would resent being trapped, it would resent the constrictions, and when it grew powerful enough, it would kill the mage, trying to escape the cage of their body.

    "What did you do?" Luka muttered, aimed at the insane genius responsible for this spell.

    "What?" Alice asked. Luka shook his head, still not able to fully understand the repercussions of this. "What is it?" Alice asked again.

    "It''s untethered magic," Luka said. "This spell is trapping it inside the mage, trying to control it. It''s like being handed a fucking tiger on a chain, and waiting for it to eat you."

    "I don''t understand," Alice said.

    "I don''t even understand." Luka took his hand off the girl''s forehead. He dropped his magic, and the protection spell. "It''s fucking brilliant. Fuck."

    "What¡ª Are you complimenting the bad guy?" Alice raised her eyebrows, trying to play it off, but there was genuine concern behind it.

    ¡°They¡¯re good,¡± Luka acknowledged. ¡°Better than I expected. After seeing Dr. Garland''s reluctance to get anywhere near these kids, I was hoping they were counting on that, and that it might actually be relatively simple to fix, but it''s not."

    How nice it would have been, if this had turned out to be five minute job. Getting a challenge instead, could be a welcome change from the routine he had settled into, if not for the Council and the lives at stake.

    "So, what now?"

    "I don''t know," Luka said. "I don''t know." He wasn''t done. He hadn''t even looked at the spell yet, but this was¡­ "You know what''s going to happen if we go poking the angry tiger?"

    "It eats us?" Alice suggested.

    "Yes. Or the mage. Or maybe we''ll get a brand new monster on our hands. That''s the thing. We don''t know. There''s a reason we call it wild magic. There''s a reason so many Agents are monitoring it. There''s a reason this place is warded against it. It''s unpredictable, and it''s dangerous."

    If you wanted control, you used spells; if you wanted chaos, you used untethered magic. Of course, most Agents preferred neither and only used their own magic. They could control untethered magic, and it was even in their job descriptions whenever they encountered Strays. But that was a smothering of magic, suppressing its wild nature. This was... something else.

    "So we can do nothing?" She was hugging herself, and her eyes weren''t meeting his. She was afraid of the answer. There was no way of knowing if it was contained to the people who had been admitted to the hospital, and she had exposed herself to it now.

    "That''s not what I said." He softened his voice again. He didn''t know if it helped, but at least he tried. "Do you understand what actually happened ten years ago? Do you know?"

    Now she looked at him, but it wasn''t with the level of excitement he may have anticipated. It wasn''t enough of a distraction from the fear of death, but that was a good thing. She had her priorities in order.

    "No," Alice said. "I barely know anything."

    He hesitated. He didn''t have to tell her. It was perhaps a useful comparison to bring some comfort, to assure her that he might be able to do something, but he still hated talking about it. "Okay, well. The short version is that a Soul Eater was deployed to kill all the mages within the Academy. We trapped it, and redirected the magic, basically dissipating it. It became too scattered, too weak to complete its objective. Now, obviously this is not the same thing. That wasn''t wild magic, and this is. But there''s a chance, a small chance, that we could do something similar to those not too badly affected. But her?" He nodded at the girl. "Probably all these people, are too far gone. We can''t do anything about this without the right spell, and to create that spell, we need to know exactly what we''re doing. Which we won''t."

    She shook her head, and he could see her starting to lose hope. "So, what are you saying?"

    "What am I saying?" Luka echoed. "I''m saying I need to take a look at that spell, but we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that without the person who created this thing, there''s very little we can do."

    "Okay," Alice said, her voice nothing more than a whisper. "Okay."

    Luka put his ward back up, and then constructed the spell that would allow him to gather some data about the elements of this thing.

 Chapter nine

    Alice drew gradually back from the bed, from Luka, as he stood over the girl. She backed further towards the wall, towards the exit, without meaning to. She still didn''t know if she could be infected by just being in the room, and although she took comfort in Luka''s lack of concern, she wasn''t sure she was brave enough to risk it. Maybe the chance increased the longer she was here.

    Maybe she was already infected. She had no way of knowing.

    Luka backed away, and ran a hand through his hair.

    "So?" Alice asked. He looked back, and seemed surprised by how far she had drifted off. She forced herself to take a step forward.

    "It''s intricate," Luka said. "I''m pretty sure there are redundancies, traps. A lot of elements that makes it harder to create a spell to counter it. We may very well set off something else, or it might just do absolutely nothing." He looked tired now, like the spells were already tearing at him. Or maybe it was the hopelessness of the situation. "We need to establish a timeline. A better timeline than the guesses made by the Healers."

    "What can I do?" She felt useless standing here, observing, but there was a part of her that wanted to get out. Maybe she could be more useful elsewhere.

    "How are you with spells?" Luka asked.

    Alice frowned. They didn''t learn spells. He knew that. "I don''t¡­" She let the words hang in the air, not sure what she had meant to say. Not sure she wanted to admit her ignorance, obvious as it may be.

    Luka was quiet for a moment, long enough for Alice to suspect he was suppressing a sigh or maybe even an eye roll.

    "Right," he said finally. He scrambled around in his pockets and his hand emerged with a marker. He looked for paper, but finding none, he scribbled on his hand. He spoke while writing. "This is a basic spell meant to determine when the infection originated. When we know exactly when everyone were exposed, we have some data to give to the Oracles. Maybe that will give us something to go by."

    He held up his hand. "This is your spell," he said. "I assume you can''t read spells either, so I suggest you copy it."

    "Um. Are you planning on giving me your hand for reference?"

    "No," Luka said, as if there was some obvious alternative. "I expect you to memorize it."

    "Right," Alice said, with absolutely no confidence. "Of course."

    "The hard part about spells is the construction. The symbol is just a focus. Once you have that, you just push a bit of magic into it, and it does all the work. Okay?"

    Alice nodded. "Luka?" She said, barely bypassing Sir. "Are you¡­?"

    He watched her, puzzled, then realized what she didn''t want to ask. "It''s safe. It hasn''t touched me. It hasn''t even tried to. With everything dormant like this, their magic doesn''t really activate. It has to, if it has to be able to touch another mage. The spell you''re going to be using is far less invasive than anything I''ve been doing, so it should be fine."

    She nodded, and exhaled out some of her tension. She still didn''t feel comfortable, but she could do this.

    Using spells was weird. She could feel the tether to her magic, the way it was taking power from her, but she didn''t feel connected to the magic at all. It felt separate from her, like writing with her off-hand. They went from patient to patient. Luka spend a couple of minutes at each bed, then moved on to the next, and Alice assumed he was keeping all the information in his head. Alice had acquired paper and a pen, and was writing notes in between. The time stamps weren''t exactly precise, it wasn''t like the spell just gave her a time and date. It was all bound into impressions, and she kept feeling heartbeats, which she didn''t fully understand. There was a sense of how long the spell had been alive in the mage, how progressed the contamination of their magic was. It wasn''t spreading at the same rate, but there was a steady rhythm to it. Sometimes it quickened, but for the most part, it looked like it spread faster during the day, and slowed during the night. If that was true, all of the people in this room had been infected within a day or two of each other. Which made sense, since they had been divided into stages.

    She went from unconscious student to unconscious student, and at some point she became numb to the whole thing. They stopped being people, and turned into impressions and data. Until they weren''t.

    Every single one of these people, were someone she might have walked past in the hallways, or stood in line next to at the cafeteria, but she had no name to go with the faces. It made it easier to pretend they were strangers, that this wouldn¡¯t touch her.

    Gwen Mason was not her friend, but she was her classmate. They had barely ever talked to each other, but they would have graduated next to each other. At no point had this felt safe, but she had felt disconnected from it. Now, she had to face the reality, that she was only a few links removed from someone infected. Had Gwen used magic near her lately? Near Teagan, or Nick?

    She looked around, scouting for more familiar faces, but there were several rooms of patients left. She couldn¡¯t skip ahead. It was a pointless exercise, a pointless fear. When she bend down to write the symbol on Gwen''s arm, her hand was shaking. She couldn''t keep the lines straight, and she was afraid of what might happen if she got it wrong. She turned to her piece of paper, turning it over and writing the symbol over and over again until her hand felt steady. It didn''t. She couldn''t stop shaking. The pen fell from her fingers, and clattered on the floor, but she barely heard it. She stared at the piece of paper, at the circles and lines and dots, none of them even. She couldn''t breathe.

    A hand touched her shoulder, just the barest pressure. She startled, realizing Luka had been saying her name, and he withdrew his hand.

    "I can''t," she managed. Her voice nearly broke on the words, and she fought to force back the tears of frustration blurring her vision.

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    "Do you know her?" Luka asked, nodding to the unconscious girl in front of her.

    Alice nodded. "Yes, but that¡­ shouldn''t matter. It doesn''t matter. I don''t even know her that well."

    "Alice," Luka said again. She was still staring at the piece of paper, because she couldn''t look at Gwen. Luka tugged it from between her fingers, and she turned to look at him.

    "You don''t have to do this."

    "No. This is silly," she said, with something approaching conviction. "I can do this. I have to do this."

    When she saw the sympathy in Luka''s eyes, it occurred to her that he understood. His sympathy came from knowing exactly how hard it was to experience tragedy at the Academy. She was in a position to help, and she wanted to, but how was she supposed to deal with the realization that people she knew were dying? Even if she had never talked to them, even if she didn''t know their names. They were all students of the Academy, and she knew them. She knew she had to do this, but she wasn''t sure she could.

    It wasn¡¯t sympathy she wanted. She wished he would lie to her, and tell her she just needed to push through. She wanted to know that it would get easier, even if it wasn¡¯t true.

    "Go," he said. "Take a break."

    She nodded reluctantly and stepped out into the hall. Her heart was beating fast and she focused on her breathing, trying to calm down and distract herself from thoughts of Academy students dying around her. She leaned against the wall opposite the room she had come from and closed her eyes. She breathed steadily in and out, and eventually managed to very nearly convince herself that everything was going to be okay. She expected five minutes had passed, and attempted to go back inside. She thought of Gwen, of going back in there and facing her again, and she couldn''t move. She slid down the wall and buried her head in her hands. Even though they were almost done, she felt useless.

    She tried to focus on the data they had, on the details of the infection, trying to be useful some other way. Setting up the facts in her head, she tried to make the entire thing fit into a coherent narrative, and discovered that it really didn''t. Something Luka had said didn''t add up. The spell was precise, it was riddled with traps, but no Agent would even know what to do with a spell in the first place. No one would try to create a counter spell. No one was ever going to set off those traps, so why put them in? In fact, why do any of this?

    She struggled to find a motive, to find any reason to attack the Council in this way. She was still struggling, when Luka emerged from the room. He slid down the wall next to her.

    "Are you okay?" He asked.

    "Yeah," she said. "I''m okay."

    "Good." He leaned his head back against the wall and sighed. "Do me a favor," he said, after a pause. "Go back to Thomas, and get him to put in an urgent request for an Oracle."

    "Sure," Alice said, and even knowing it was pity, she was relieved. As eager as she was to get out, she didn''t move. Luka looked so tired now, like he might not get up if she left him here. And then there was the thing still nagging at her, the thing that didn''t make sense. "Luka?"

    He made an affirmative sound.

    "Has it occurred to you how weird this is?"

    "Which part?" He asked.

    "All of it. Why waste all this energy on creating an intricate spell that no one would have the skill to even analyze? Why design a spell that takes more than a week to kill someone? If you wanted to hurt the Academy, and you had this kind of skill with spells, why not just brute force it?"

    "Right," Luka muttered. "That. Well, it''s harder to attack the Academy with brute force than you might think. As for the rest, it''s clearly deliberate. I haven''t figured out what it means yet, but I think we''re meant to solve it. That''s the only reason to give us time." His accent became clearer when he was tired, and now she could better pinpoint the hints of Russian.

    "So it''s a puzzle."

    "Yes," Luka said. "Maybe the clues are in the redundancies in the spell, but I''m not going to gamble with someone¡¯s life to find out."

    He sighed, and dragged himself up off the floor. "Either way, we have other things to go on for now, so it can wait."

    ¡°Is there a way to tell?¡± It was a quiet question, possible to overhear, if he wanted to. There was a part of her, that hoped he would.

    Luka paused in the doorway.

    ¡°Yes,¡± he said. He turned back, and reached out a hand to her. Even exhausted as he was. Even with another handful of students waiting for him.

    ¡°No,¡± she said. ¡°You don¡¯t have to.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    She nodded. She had to be stronger than this.

    Alice had felt strange, since Luka had injected her with iron and done whatever he had done to her. It wasn¡¯t a bad feeling, except that she imagined this was what being high felt like. She was too awake, and was stuck with alarming waves of invincibility. It was powerful in a way she wasn¡¯t used to. She got up from the floor as well, and as Luka entered the last room, she turned towards the exit. She felt bad that she couldn''t take some of the burden from him. The spells were wearing him down, but she was barely drained herself, having only done a fraction of what he had. She just couldn''t see herself going back in. Outside, she took a moment to breathe in the fresh air and appreciate the open sky and the heat of the sun on her skin. She sent a trivial text into her text chain with Nick and Teagan, to reassure herself that they were okay. She wasn''t exactly proud of her relief when they both texted back, but she wouldn''t be able to focus while wondering. Now she could turn her attention back to the case, and what Luka had said. If it really was a puzzle, did that mean the bad guy was just trying to prove he was smarter than the Agents? What would that accomplish? Maybe it wasn''t the most useful thing, trying to figure out a motive for this, but it was the thing her mind got stuck on. Why do this, and why do it like this?

    She was still stuck on it when she arrived at Hadley''s office. She knocked on his door, and he called for her to come in.

    "Hi," she said.

    Hadley looked up from his computer, and a look of surprise spread across his face when their eyes met.

    "Alice," he said, "back so soon?"

    "Luka send me," she said. "We need you to put in an urgent request for an Oracle."

    "You made progress?" He asked.

    "We have approximate time and date for the initial infection of everyone affected. We''re hoping it will reveal some sort of pattern."

    Hadley nodded. "Okay. I''ll call it in."

    "Thank you," Alice said, and turned to leave.

    "No, you might as well stay," Hadley said, "it shouldn''t take long."

    She settled into a chair, while Hadley made the call. She expected it to be a short conversation, and that she would be able to go back to Luka and reassure him that their request was being processed. Then the call was picked up, and he said, "Mage Van Aller." Alice''s attention sharpened on the call. He had called Constance Van Aller, the head of the Council. It hadn''t occurred to Alice that he might be that well connected, and as the conversation went on, he called her by her first name.

    "Has he confirmed it''s a spell?"

    It took Alice a moment to realize the question was meant for her, and she nodded belatedly.

    The tone of the conversation changed at once, the balance shifting to Constance¡¯s side. Hadley supplied brief responses, but wasn¡¯t left much room to speak. It sounded a lot like rejection, and Hadley¡¯s protests were halfhearted at best. When he clearly folded, Alice slumped back in her chair, feeling defeated. It was the only thing they had, one slim hope of getting anywhere, and now it looked like they were back to the start.

    "What happened?" Alice asked, when he hung up.

    Hadley shook his head. "Confirming that it''s a spell means it''s an attack, and if we''re under attack, the Oracles¡­" He faded out. "We might as well go find Luka. I''ll explain then."

    "I can tell him," Alice said, knowing just how productive it would be for Hadley to deliver the bad news.

    "No, it''s fine," he said. "I''m sure he''d rather yell at me in person."

 Chapter ten

    There were two kids left, and Luka was about to collapse.

    He could stop, he knew that. These were the most recent cases, and the infection didn''t date back more than a couple of days. There was a very slim chance they would tell him anything the others hadn''t. He just wanted to finish. He wanted to collect data from everyone, just to be sure. Just to be thorough. He was aware that the spells had eaten away most of his magic, and was starting to feed off other, more important things. He was aware that it wasn''t just the headache making him dizzy, and that the black spots in his vision were becoming harder to ignore. He sat down on the floor, before he passed out, and took deep breaths.

    He had dropped the warding spell ages ago, but it hadn''t made much of a difference. Although it had made it a little easier to focus, at least before the headache and exhaustion had overwhelmed him. While allowing himself a brief respite, he reflected over the things that were obvious.

    One: This had only hit students so far. There were no teachers, no Agents. Which made sense, since this had started with a student, and the students used more magic around each other, than they did around anyone else. Still, it was another hint that no one had done anything about this. Nothing except containment, which was typical of the Council. In his experience, their initial plans usually involved hiding from the problem and hoping for the best.

    Two: This was meant to target the Academy, probably to get to the Council, but if he was correct in his assumption that this was a problem with a solution, it wasn''t meant to be solved by them. Healers couldn''t solve this. Agents couldn''t solve this. The Council employed one person, who might have a chance to solve it, the only person allowed to do spells within the walls of the Academy. (Certain things, like the wards and suppressors, could only be accomplished with spells. It wasn''t a pleasant job, from what Luka had heard.) Either they hadn''t considered that, or they had dismissed it. Or maybe the Spellcaster had already given up.

    Three: He was definitely missing an important clue, because his head was pounding and he couldn''t think. He didn''t actually know if the wards were still as punishing as they had been earlier, because he was fairly certain that headache had been joined by another headache caused by excessive spell use.

    He registered the door opening, but he didn''t react. If it was Alice returning, perhaps he could convince her to do the last two. If it was Dr. Garland, he was determined to ignore her.

    There were two sets of footsteps, and if he focused, he could sense¡­ He opened his eyes to confirm, and sure enough. Hadley Thomas was standing in front of him, watching him as if falling asleep on the job wasn''t an acceptable use of his time. Even if he hadn¡¯t actually been asleep. He might wish he was asleep, but unfortunately, Hadley was very real.

    "You already got us access to an Oracle?" he asked, assuming he was there to escort them. "I''m not done here."

    "No," Hadley said. He went from looking judgmental to uncomfortable, but that could have been because of all the unconscious people. "You''re not getting access."

    "Fuck," Luka muttered. He was too tired for this. "Why the hell not?"

    "I would feel better about explaining this, if you looked awake."

    "Alice is awake," Luka said. She was standing against the wall next to the door, and Luka realized he was going to have to move to accommodate all the uncomfortable people.

    He pushed himself up off the floor, swayed, and crashed into the wall. Hadley''s arm had reached out for him, an automatic response, but had stopped short of touching him. "I''m fine," Luka said.

    He clutched the wall, steadying himself.

    "Would you sit down?" Hadley complained. "You look like you''re going to pass out."

    Luka shook his head, even though it sent it spinning. "I need air," he said. "And coffee."

    He wondered if he had any magic left, just enough to get him outside, but he didn¡¯t even bother checking.

    Hadley held out his arm to him, even though he looked like he would rather die.

    "Don''t touch me," Luka said.

    "Fine," Hadley huffed. "I''ll find you some coffee."

    He forced himself to walk, and really, once he started moving the dizziness wasn''t so bad. Alice stayed close to him, but he was pretty sure he wasn''t going to pass out. When they made it outside, the fresh air might actually have helped clear his head, if the bright light of the midday sun hadn''t seared into his brain. Hadley was waiting by a bench, and handed Luka the cup of coffee. He drank it too quickly, forgetting that he couldn''t heal the burns.

    "So?" Luka said, annoyed with himself as much as everything else now. "Start talking."

    He held the coffee cup between his hands, waiting for it to cool down. Hadley looked from him to the bench, and Luka swore he was going to smack him if he didn''t get to the point so he could go home. He was fine. His head was throbbing, and the light was still too bright, but he was barely swaying.

    He sat down.

    "Right," Hadley said. "I talked to Constance."

    Alice joined Luka on the bench, which made him feel less impaired.

    "Why the fuck would you call Constance?"

    No one on the Council liked Luka, but Constance Van Aller had made a point to personally banish Luka from the Academy ten years ago, even though she was already the head of the Council back then and barely needed to do anything in person. When she told him that she never wanted to see him within the gates ever again, she had probably meant it. There was no way she had approved of this arrangement, and he could have told Hadley she wasn''t going to be helpful. He sat back and waited for what he imagined would be a completely reasonable explanation.

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    "Because you said it was urgent," Hadley explained.

    "Right. Should I have mentioned that Constance hates me? Because I thought that would be obvious."

    "She didn''t say no because of you," Hadley said, sighing. "When you confirmed the infection is caused by a spell, it officially became an attack on the Academy. Under an attack, the protocol is to lock down access to the Oracles."

    Luka finished his coffee, and tossed the cup in the trash can next to the bench. "Great," he said. "Then we''re done here. I''ll send you my account number, so you can pay me for my time."

    He would have dramatically walked off, but even thinking about the effort of that exhausted him.

    "Lavrin."

    "I don''t know what to tell you, Thomas. It''s all we have."

    He must have decided Luka was being unreasonable, and probably assumed he was lying too, because he looked to Alice.

    "Well, it''s¡­ our best option. Sir. The spell has traps built in, so we can''t touch it. We can''t create a counter."

    Hadley looked back at Luka. "You can''t? Or is it just really difficult?"

    "Do you want me to try?" Luka asked. "Because I can guarantee you that I will kill at least half of those people before I succeed. We need the person who created the spell, Thomas, and we need Oracles to find them."

    "No." Hadley shook his head. "Sorry. It''s not up to me. Find another way."

    "Sure. We''ll just make guesses based on absolutely nothing. No problem."

    He lit a cigarette, and he could feel Alice and Hadley watching him, like he could somehow come up with a better answer on the spot.

    "Look," he said, resenting the attention. "I can''t do anything more today. Alice, you''re dismissed. I''m going home."

    Alice rose from the bench, but then hesitated when no one else moved. Hadley was watching Luka.

    "I''ll make sure he gets home."

    "Are you sure?" Alice asked.

    Luka ignored them, putting the cigarette to his lips while watching his free hand. He tried to access his magic, watching for a spark of red light across his skin. He knew it wouldn''t come, but what he wouldn''t give right now for enough power to give himself an energy boost.

    "I don''t need your help," Luka said, once Alice had left.

    "You need someone''s help."

    The obvious choice would be to call Quinn, but he would be at work, and he had promised himself not to. If he could have stayed away from Quinn entirely while on this job, he would have, but the least he could do was to keep Quinn away from the Academy. Luka didn''t know exactly what had happened to Quinn to make him leave this place. He didn''t know why he couldn''t come back, or why he didn''t want Luka to either. He suspected fear was part of it, but didn''t know what it was that he feared. Quinn wasn''t sharing, and Luka hadn''t gone digging. At least not yet. It had never been that important, but now that Luka was back here, the questions became harder to ignore. He wanted to know what he was trying to protect him from.

    "Fine," he said, finally.

    When Hadley led him to a car, he stopped. He knew, rationally, that the nearest station was a twenty minute walk away, but still. What was it with mages and cars? Why did they even have cars? After a minute, he got in. He was too tired to argue, and with any luck, he could just feign sleep for the fifteen minutes it would take to drive to his place.

    "So, you''re a lab tech now?" Hadley said, breaking the silence, and jolting Luka back to the conscious world. He wasn''t all the way asleep, although his plan to fake it had become a struggle to stay mostly awake.

    "I''m not doing this with you," he mumbled, huddled sleepily against the car seat. His accent started bleeding through his words. When he wasn''t paying attention, his pronunciation fell into more familiar patterns.

    "We have to talk about something. Otherwise, I''m afraid you''ll fall asleep in my car for the next twelve hours. Just be glad I opted for small talk."

    "What''s the other option?" Luka asked. His eyes shifted to the window, but they were driving on to the highway, which afforded him an unobstructed view of a beige brick wall that did absolutely nothing to keep him awake. Barely anyone had ventured out to tag it, and the one piece of graffiti he spotted was too faded to even read.

    "The harder questions." Hadley said, looking intently at the traffic. A car was honking further ahead. Luka turned his head to look out the windshield, but he didn''t see the thing that had offended the driver.

    To be honest, he was tempted to let the conversation play out, to find out what those hard questions might be, but Hadley should have known better than to play that game with him.

    "Really? Like how you didn''t tell me everything?" In fact, he had barely told him anything.

    "What do you want to know?"

    "Everything," Luka said. Had that not been clear?

    "You''re definitely going to have to be more specific than that."

    "Patient zero died a little over a week ago, from what I can tell. Which means he was probably infected a week or two before that. So, would you like to explain to me what the actual fuck you have been doing with all that time?"

    "I wasn''t in charge of the¡ª"

    "Like hell you weren''t. Aren''t you the strategic whatever-the-fuck of the Agents? You coordinate and monitor the cases, right?" Luka knew perfectly well what his title was, but he was determined not to acknowledge it.

    "We had to be cautious. Once we realized it was spreading, we¡­"

    "No, I got that from Dr. Garland''s refusal to use magic anywhere near them. I''m not asking what you didn''t do. I''m asking what you did."

    "I don''t know, Lavrin," Hadley said, frustrated. "We were discussing options. We were trying to determine how to safely proceed."

    "You needed me to confirm it was a spell. Did you even think about consulting the Spellcaster? No, because it''s better to risk my life, since I''m not an asset to the Council. Isn''t that right?" His voice turned hard, and he was almost raising it towards the end. His anger was usually a quiet thing, but goddammit, he was so tired. If his accent slipped anymore, he might as well be speaking Russian.

    "No," Hadley said. "No, that''s not¡­" His hands were tight around the steering wheel, and Luka was concerned that upsetting him while he was driving had been a mistake, but it felt distant.

    "We don''t have to talk," Luka said. "We can just sit here. Quietly." He was still angry, but at least he had won. He huddled into his seat, determined to enjoy the peace his victory earned him.

    Traffic tightened around them, as they got closer to the city. Most people still had a couple of hours left of their nine to five, so they moved with a more or less steady pace. They made it all the way to the bridge before Hadley spoke again, the towers rising above them like massive wish bones.

    "I didn''t bring you here as a sacrifice," he said, quietly. "That''s not what this is."

    Luka startled. He hadn''t expected him to speak again, and had been watching the city drift by, unthinking.

    "If you had stayed, you would have been the best Agent in the district, possibly the country."

    Luka shook his head. "They wouldn''t want me."

    "What I''m saying is, you didn''t need us. You could have handled that Soul Eater alone. I¡­ thought you could handle this, too. I really did."

    Was that why Hadley had sold him out to the Agents? The question popped into his head, but he didn''t ask. He didn''t argue the point either, even though it wasn''t true. The idea had been his, and maybe he hadn''t needed them. Maybe he had just needed any willing participants, but it mattered to him that it was people he trusted. He would have been less confident without them, his plan would have been less polished. He might have succeeded, even without them, but he wasn''t sure it would have occurred to him to try. Besides which, Hadley seemed to forget that the reason they had become friends in the first place, was because they had been competing for the top spot. Hadley had been very, very good, before he let the Council emasculate him.

    "I can," he said, which was mostly his pride talking. "I will."

    He had no ideas left, but at least he had plenty of determination.

 Chapter eleven

    Alice had received a text with a time and an address. Nothing more.

    It wasn¡¯t like she had expected an excess of communication from Luka, but there was something intimidating about the lack of pleasantries, or any word that didn¡¯t absolutely need to be there. Although, she might have argued that signing his name, would have been a helpful addition. Even pretty confident that the text was from Luka, she had texted Hadley for his number, just to make absolutely sure she wasn¡¯t being led into something shady by a wrong number situation.

    She hadn¡¯t known what to expect, when she arrived at the building, but it was fairly nondescript. Large window panes were surrounded by red brick, and a large ¡°156¡± was printed above the entrance. Balcony railings peeked over the edge of the roof, where the top floor was set back from the edge. It was hard to accept that it was apartments, that she was being allowed anywhere near his home. Somehow, she would have expected him to guard it like his greatest secret, but she scanned the mailboxes and found his name readily displayed: Luka M. Lavrin.

    She had been so nervous about finding this place, about getting here in time, that she was half an hour early. She felt jittery, as if the boost Luka had given her yesterday, was still lingering in her blood. She decided to knock on his door, regardless of the time, hoping to relieve some of the pressure she felt, being here. When there was no response, she waited five minutes, then tried again. Still nothing. It was only seven thirty, and she couldn¡¯t imagine where he would be, if he wasn¡¯t home, but since she wasn¡¯t supposed to be here until eight, she settled down to wait.

    She pulled out her phone, to occupy the time, scrolling through Vision. Most of her friends were still busy familiarizing themselves with their mentors, and posted only sporadically. Even Teagan and Nick had gone mostly dark. So it was good that she didn¡¯t need much of a distraction. It wasn¡¯t long, before she heard footsteps on the stairs. Luka approached, wearing a black t-shirt and shorts, detailed in bright blue. He was returning from a run, she realized, as she noted his disheveled hair and skin shimmering with sweat. She pulled her eyes away from his bare legs, from the tight shirt, not sure why it all felt so indecent.

    Of course he would have to exercise to stay fit, even if running was not the activity she would have picked for him. Given his silent aggression, she would have been far more inclined to believe in something where he was allowed to hit people. It was disappointing, in a way, to glimpse his humanity. She needed to believe in the myth of him and to think that he was superior. She needed to believe he was a superhero, because she needed to believe he could save the students. She knew they had no leads, no solution, but she had faith because this was Luka Lavrin. She didn''t know what to do if he turned out to be just like everyone else.

    "You''re early," he said when he reached her and grabbed his keys from his pocket.

    Alice shrugged. "I didn''t think it would be a problem."

    "It''s not," he said. He unlocked the door and went inside, she followed and closed the door behind her. "But you are going to have to wait here, while I take a shower."

    Luka led the way through the narrow cave of a hallway, and into the large main room, which held the kitchen and living room. A black metal stairwell led up to the upper level, where she could glimpse a bed between the low bookcases that replaced any real railing. The end wall was exposed brick between massive panes of windows, lighting up the room with the morning sun. Luka ascended the stairs, but turned at the top. "I expect a proposed plan of action when I''m done. And don''t touch anything."

    Alice raised an eyebrow. "A plan¡ª" The end of the question was pointless, as Luka was already disappearing from view. The sound of a door closing, made it clear that he wasn¡¯t listening.

    She had thought about the details of the case, of course she had. They had circled her mind until she could no longer see them clearly, instead blending together until everything looked more like a dream than reality. It was the motive that still stuck in her mind. Like a song she couldn¡¯t remember, it felt within reach. The bones of it was there, at the back of her mind, if only she could get the pieces to fit. It was about the Council, not the students, but targeting the students was the easier way in. Why? Because the Council was protected, but also because the students were more careless with their magic. It would spread faster that way, pose an indirect threat to the Council. So, it wasn¡¯t even about physically hurting the Council, it was enough just to discredit them. To watch them fail.

    Except, it worked slowly, because they wanted it to be solved. They didn¡¯t really mean for the students to die, they only meant for a Rogue to solve it. Was it about the Rogues? Raising their status in the eyes of the Academies?

    She moved around the loft while thinking. Luka had said not to touch anything, but she could look.

    The kitchen was huddled beneath the bedroom, the black cabinets and brick walls lending to the cave-like feel of everything under the low ceiling. Next to it, the living room felt vast. The larger walls were painted white, and the massive windows reached the full height of the apartment. One wall was mostly occupied by the staircase, but held a couple of pictures. They were shot at night, dim except for bright neon details. One was of a gas station, another of a diner. She briefly entertained the idea of stepping on the stairs for a closer look, but it felt forbidden.

    She glanced towards the bedroom, her fingers brushing the banister, wondering what the view would be like from up there, but she lost her nerve and turned away from the temptation of the stairs. The other wall was covered in bookcases, and she stepped closer, sliding her fingers over the spines of the books that were lined across the entire wall. Some were in Russian, the Cyrillic letters almost deceptively recognizable, but most of them were in English and on various subjects, mostly medical and mythological.

    Books also littered the coffee table, sitting alongside a slim laptop and a coffee cup, along with medical journals and printed articles. She discovered various materials on magic. Articles and small volumes on everything from potions to spells. She wondered if any of them worked. She wondered what kind of person would publish something like that to the public.

    She was still flipping through the articles, when she heard the door upstairs. She shuffled the papers back into a pile, and straightened up, hands in her pockets. Luka came down the stairs and steered towards the kitchen. Alice followed him and watched, while he measured up coffee grounds. His damp hair was combed back, and he had changed into a pair of black slacks and a dark pinstripe shirt. He wore the collar open and the sleeves rolled up, but that was the only casual thing about the outfit. Alice suddenly felt under dressed in shorts and a polo t-shirt.

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    ¡°You didn¡¯t mention a dress code,¡± she noted, hoping it was a joke and not a mistake on her part. He had only ever told her not to wear the uniform.

    She saw his eyes flicker to his clothes, but only for a second, before returning to the coffee.

    "What''s the plan?" He asked.

    Alice slid into one of the stools by the kitchen island, that separated the kitchen from the living room.

    "I don''t know," she admitted. "I kind of thought we didn''t have anything."

    "Not quite," Luka said, turning on the coffee maker. "There is a clue in the virus, but it isn''t in the spell itself."

    "So you cracked it?"

    Luka shook his head. "Not necessarily. It''s an idea. It''s something. I could be wrong."

    "Tell me," she urged.

    "The spell uses untethered magic, but the Academy is warded against it. Which means¡­" He gestured for her to finish the thought, but she wasn''t sure where he was going with this.

    "The spell wasn''t introduced to them at the Academy? But how does that narrow down the options?"

    Luka smiled. "You''ve never broken an Academy rule, have you?"

    "I¡ª" Alice didn''t break rules. She could ¡ª Nick and Teagan had roped her into skipping school, to underage drinking, to those little things that everyone did, that barely even felt like rule breaking ¡ª but she usually didn''t. "I''m not¡­" She didn''t know what she wanted to say, she didn''t know why it felt like an insult. Something about Hadley, maybe? Something about the way Luka treated him, like protocols and rules were unforgivable things.

    "Well," Luka said. "You haven''t broken this one."

    "I don''t understand," she said.

    "You will."

    The coffee machine stuttered to a stop, and Luka turned to pour the coffee. He poured another mug for her, and pushed it towards her. She wasn''t offered milk and sugar, but she could drink it black if she had to. He sipped his coffee, even though it must have been scalding.

    "Are we not going into the Academy today? Is that why we''re meeting here?"

    "No, we are. There''s one thing I want to do before we go to Mutiny."

    She almost asked about Mutiny, but something clicked in her mind. She had heard whispers of it, hadn''t she? Not enough to know what it was, but enough to know that it was something. Enough that it triggered something in her memory. Somewhere connected to the Academy, but not connected to the Academy. Somewhere without wards, where a mage might pick up a deadly virus from a spell.

    "You think it''s a trap?" She asked instead, cradling her coffee between her hands while waiting for it to cool. She didn''t like the idea of stepping off the Academy grounds, getting closer to the enemy. It was the part of this entire arrangement she felt least prepared for. Even though they were taught to fight, that was always people on their own level, always people they knew. This would be so very different, and she knew it.

    "Not the way you''re thinking."

    "What am I thinking?" She cocked her head. Luka was so confident in his ability to be right about everything. Even when he admitted he might be wrong about this idea of his, he didn''t really think he was.

    "Ambush," Luka said, and he was entirely right. She had pictured an attack. "Mutiny is frequented by a number of mages. There is no practical way to arrange an ambush. That doesn''t mean that any information that might be there will be free."

    No, of course not. They already knew this person was proficient with spells, and depending on how the virus spread, was it even safe to go there at all? She didn''t have to fear a physical threat, not as much as she needed to fear an invisible one. She feared her first confrontation, her first real, actual fight, but she didn''t even fully grasp the possibilities of spells. She wouldn''t know what she was getting into at all with those. She looked into the black void of coffee in between her fingers, clutching it harder, the heat making her hands sting.

    "You don''t have to come with me," Luka said.

    "No," Alice said. "I''m fine." She did have to go with him. She was his partner, and she had promised Hadley to stop him from being reckless. Whatever they were getting into, it seemed like one of those moments that might encourage recklessness.

    "I read your file," he announced, even though she knew he must have.

    "What does it say?" She did wonder, but wasn¡¯t sure she really wanted to know. It would be a purely analytical assessment of her value to the Academy, and even if she was at the top of the class, she knew what it meant to not be a Legacy.

    "It says a lot of things," Luka said. "That''s not the most relevant question."

    ¡°No?¡± She looked up from the coffee, now realizing this was a test. ¡°What is?"

    "Your mother was a Mage, but left her Academy as soon as she could. When you manifested, you were unprepared and almost died. Even at a disadvantage, you managed to befriend a couple of Legacies, and you made it to the top five in most of your classes. You''re a talented Mage, but you never requested a mentor."

    He said all this, answering only her first question. He wasn''t going to hand her the answer to the second one. She could see that he had expectations, and that she wasn¡¯t currently living up to them.

    "What does that tell you?" Alice asked.

    At this, Luka very nearly smiled. "Better. It tells me that they chose you, because of our differences."

    "Yes," Alice said. "Hadley told me as much."

    "What it doesn''t tell me," Luka continued, "is whether or not you have what it takes."

    Alice nodded. He thought she would ask the question, but he wanted her to answer it instead. What did Luka Lavrin value? She barely knew him well enough to guess.

    ¡°You¡¯re concerned about my weaknesses,¡± she ventured. ¡°The indecisiveness, the conformity.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m worried about your loyalty.¡±

    ¡°Ah.¡± It stung, once again, how right he was. ¡°Yes. Hadley asked me to¡­ keep an eye on you. To report back.¡±

    He said nothing to that, just let the silence stretch out until it became uncomfortable. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be caught between the two of you,¡± Alice admitted, then. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem like a nice place to be.¡±

    It was a mistake to tell him, but she wanted to earn his trust. She understood what Hadley was worried about, but she was going to be in the field with Luka. They needed to be able to trust each other. Trust started with the truth, even if it threatened to open a chasm between them. Luka remained silent. He had turned his back to her, and was leaning against the counter, sipping his coffee. She wished he would say something, so she knew what he was thinking.

    ¡°This thing between the two of you, it¡¯s going to be me who pays for it. I understand, that you don''t want to talk about it, but I really think some context would help. How can I earn the answers to my questions?"

    Luka turned halfway towards her, and she caught the flicker of a smile. "You want to earn them? Fine. Break an Academy rule.¡°

    She might have laughed, if it wasn¡¯t such an annoying move. Not only would he have ammunition against her, if he needed it, he was also corrupting her perfect record.

    ¡°I already have,¡± she said. "I used your spell. Does that earn me an answer?¡°

    He put his mug down an leaned over the counter. ¡°One.¡±

    ¡°You were friends once, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes. We were.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡±

    She caught the glimpse of victory in his expression, before he straightened up. ¡°That¡¯s two questions.¡±

    ¡°So, every time I do something Hadley would disapprove of, I get an answer to a question. Is that how the game works?¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s three.¡± He picked up the mug, rinsed it out and placed it in the sink. When he disappeared into the hallway, Alice faced her untouched coffee and sighed, before copying his movements.

 Intermission

    Ten years earlier

    Luka was squinting up at the sun, silently blaming it for the searing hot summer heat. He longed for a stirring breeze or the relief of air conditioning, but wasn''t likely to get either. The Academy hadn''t, in their attempt to modernize the institution, prioritized student comfort and so they decided not to splurge on air conditioning. He sighed dramatically and leaned back on his arms. He was sitting on one of the confusing installations designed for modernism and inclusion, he guessed. It was a clean-cut concrete table with organic, but suitably fashionable, wooden benches. Luka had placed himself on the table with his feet on the bench next to Hadley, who was attempting to study. It was supposed to be a study session to prepare for the test Monday, but Luka hadn''t been up for it to begin with and his motivation fell as the temperature rose.

    When Hadley pointedly ignored him, and he didn''t even earn a single annoyed glance away from the books, he started watching the people passing by. His mind idled and he let it wander to the different sensations he felt in the magical energies around him. There was never anything tangible, not on school grounds, but he still enjoyed the feeling of it. In a way, it was like white noise. A quiet, calming buzz at the back of his mind. Meanwhile, his eyes were lazily scanning the crowd, recognizing his peers from class or campus or not at all. There were simply too many to keep track of, and some were nature mages, who he never had reason to interact with.

    He finally spotted something that caught his interest, and he smiled at the distraction. He nudged Hadley with his knee, which finally made him look up.

    "Fresh blood," Luka said, nodding towards two people walking by.

    "What?" Hadley asked, following his line of sight. "Why do you care?"

    "They''re the transfers. Aren''t you interested?" Luka asked, scooting closer towards the edge of the table.

    Hadley took his eyes off them and looked back at Luka. "It''s because they''re twins, isn''t it?"

    The new students were clearly siblings, and might as well have been a couple of years apart, but there was something about them. Their similarities were too striking, their movements to perfectly synchronized for them to be anything less than twins. They had bronze skin, a shade of brown that spoke of a mixed heritage. The girl''s long, dark brown hair fell over her shoulders in gentle curls, while the boy''s was cropped short. Luka couldn''t see any more details from the distance, but he was positive they were twins.

    Luka''s smile brightened, teeth flashing. "Obviously. And no one ever transfers. Remember the last time we had a transfer?"

    "He''s hard to forget," Hadley said and the tone in his voice made Luka turn his head to look at him. There was no mistaking the look on his face.

    "I didn''t transfer." Luka argued.

    "No, of course not. You just cheated and started early at another Academy."

    "If you want the orphan perks, you have to lose the parents," Luka said, turning his attention back on the pair and plotting his approach. He didn''t have a habit of approaching people. He didn''t have a habit of interacting with people at all. It had been Hadley and him for two years now and he was perfectly satisfied with that arrangement. Still, he was too intrigued not to approach.

    "I really don''t understand your fascination with these things. What do you get out of it?" Hadley asked, predictably changing the subject. He was never fond of the cavalier way Luka talked about his parents, or rather lack thereof, but Luka had gotten used to the idea at some point during the last decade. If pressed on the issue, it was clear how much he loved them. On the surface, though, he had adopted a careless attitude. Because it helped. Because he had gotten tired of the sadness washing over him every time he thought about them. Of course for Hadley it was still a tragedy, a reminder of the mortality of parents.

    "Knowledge," Luka answered simply. He found it entirely useful to know as much as possible about mages, any and all kinds. If there was a chance that someone was special, he wanted to know about it. Twins were rare enough to begin with, and magic twins were even rarer. The literature on the subject was lacking at best, full of too many theories and too few conclusions, which meant that a unique opportunity had landed in front of him and he wasn''t going to miss out on it.

    "Isn''t it better to focus on your own powers and limitations? Unless you have a long lost twin somewhere, I still don''t see the point." Hadley mused. Either Luka wasn''t paying enough attention or Hadley''s tone made him sound like he was mostly talking to himself.

    "Who says I''m not?" Luka padded him on the shoulder as he stood up on the bench and dropped to the ground.

    "Come on," he urged. Hadley shook his head, but ended up walking beside him towards the newcomers after all.

    "So, what''s the plan? Walking up to them, and asking if they have any special twin powers?"

    Luka put his arm around Hadley''s shoulders. "You tell me," he said, "you''re the one with the social skills. I would probably work up to the interrogation, though."

    "You''re impossible," Hadley complained, and Luka could practically hear the eye-roll that accompanied the words. He smiled and untangled himself from Hadley.

    They introduced themselves to the twins, who no longer seemed surprised by the attention. They exchanged pleasantries, and Hadley offered himself up if they needed anything at all. Luka remained quiet beside Hadley, trying not to look like his socially awkward entourage, while watching them. They had the same bright eyes, peridot green, though he suspected they were really hazel. The brown barely showed, though, while the green shimmered. They were a stunning pair, but that wasn''t what drew Luka to them. Instead, he focused on the similarities in their features, convincing himself once more that they had to be twins, and not just siblings. When Hadley asked what class they were in, Luka started paying attention again.

    The Academy was a strange blend between high school, college and magic school. Generally kids were ready to be trained at sixteen, and someone had decided five years was the appropriate time for learning control. So, because of that, the students at the Academy graduated at twenty one, twenty two if they wanted the mentor year. Some were permitted to start college at an actual respectable school, but it was a privilege that had to be earned. Most people were just delayed in their education, if they wanted to go to college. This also meant that the class structure was more like high school, and that most classes were taken with the same people.

    The twins answered almost in unison, and Luka was pleased to discover that not only were they in the same year, but they were also in his class.

    "Perfect," Luka said, settling his expression on his most charming smile. "We can fill you in."

    One of the twins, Abel, had been glancing at Luka throughout the conversation, but now turned the full attention of those dazzling eyes on him.

    "Great," he smiled, and Luka felt his own charm pale in comparison. "Maybe you''ll have lunch with us?"

    "Absolutely," he agreed, and they made plans to meet by the cafeteria at noon.

    Walking away, he felt Hadley''s eyes on him.

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    "What?" he asked.

    "Explain to me again why we''re doing this," Hadley said, sounding exasperated. Luka suspected it had something to do with how things usually turned out, when he got excited about something, but this was different. He was only getting to know other people, which should be a good thing.

    "Shouldn''t you be loving this? Meeting new people. Interacting with someone who isn''t me," Luka asked with a smile.

    "Huh. Yeah." Hadley paused. "I think you''re making me unsociable."

    They walked for a moment, with enough seconds ticking by that Luka allowed himself to think that Hadley was over it, but then he ruined it.

    "Just, please explain to me why this is so important to you," Hadley said, and Luka sighed. His inability to let things go really was annoying.

    He prepared to turn to the truth, even though he never really liked telling Hadley his true motives. He somehow never seemed to approve.

    "You should know your enemy," Luka answered.

    "Enemy? What enemy? The threats aren''t coming from the Academy, Lavrin. It''s all wild, untamed magic and old legends."

    "You can''t possibly believe that."

    Hadley looked at him, mouth open, struggling for a comeback. Luka smiled at the win, feeling superior. "It''s almost adorable how naive you are."

    "No, but... it doesn''t happen. It hasn''t happened."

    "How sure are you about that?" Luka asked.

    "You think we''re corruptible. You think we''re all corruptible," Hadley said and the pure shock in his voice surprised Luka. It was true that he was naive, but this was bordering on denial.

    "Of course we are. Everyone has their limit, Thomas. Do you really think they would tell us about the cases where one of the Academy Agents snap? Do you really think they wouldn''t do everything in their power to bury that? The way we live, the way we''re taught, it''s too clean. Too neat. It''s unnatural."

    The conversation halted, along with Hadley¡¯s steps. He was looking into space and wringing his hands, as he did when he was avoiding an uncomfortable topic. Luka walked in a slow arch around him.

    "You never told me how your parents died," Hadley didn''t refocus, he didn''t move at all. Luka shook his head, and bared his teeth in a smile. He always found it tragically funny how people managed to blame the death on his parents on every issue he had.

    "No," he said. "It wasn''t corrupt mages. That would have made for a better story. An ally turning on them? There''s something poetic about that."

    "So, what happened?"

    Luka shrugged. "An accident waiting to happen. The Academy shouldn''t have sent them in, but they did."

    "That''s not an answer."

    Luka went silent as fragments of the past flooded his mind. The coping mechanisms were considerably less effective when he was actively thinking about his parents. He closed his eyes against the painful memories, only to see them more clearly behind his eyelids.

    "It has occurred to you that I don''t want to talk about this, right?" He said, finally. He cleared his throat, afraid that his voice had come out unsteady.

    "I just want to understand," Hadley said quietly.

    "Understand what? Me? Becoming an orphan is something that happened to me. It doesn''t define me."

    "I know that. But you can''t deny the fact that it has shaped who you are."

    "Okay," Luka said, in the end. Hadley turned his head towards him, surprised. There was a question on his face, left unspoken, as if he wasn''t sure if the conversation was over or just beginning.

    "Yeah. Okay," he repeated, nodding his consent at Hadley. "But not here."

    They were out in the open, too exposed, too crowded. This was a personal matter to Luka, and it would be handled personally.

    "So where?" Hadley asked, and he followed him as Luka led him across the Academy grounds. Luka could easily have taken him to their room, enjoying the privacy of a closed door, but it was too warm and too casual. There was one place, the only place, where Luka had figured out how to get to the roof. The hospital had roof access, but there was too much personnel in the hallways, too many questions raised. The other place was incidentally also the tallest building at the Academy.

    One of the Academy libraries had a book tower. Luka wasn''t sure whose brilliant idea that had been, but he wasn''t about to complain. This particular library mostly consisted of grand study halls and small group rooms, while other libraries were better stocked on books. The book tower held the only books, but it was tall. Bookshelves rose from the floor to the top of an impressive seven stories. All the floors were open in the middle, leaving a dangerous fall down through the entire tower, but admittedly, it was a very nice view. They reached the top. Getting to the roof required a bit of maneuvering and exiting through a window, which was only slightly reckless.

    "Really?" Hadley said with heavy judgment, once they were finally on the roof, and Luka enjoyed the breeze that only seemed to exist on higher altitudes. "You are dangerously dramatic, do you know that?"

    "Do you want the truth or not?" Luka asked.

    "I''m here, aren''t I?" Hadley muttered, sounding none too pleased about the situation.

    Luka grabbed a cigarette from his pack and flicked his lighter open.

    "Those things are bad for you," Hadley sighed, automatically. He knew the effect on a healer was meaningless, and yet he insisted on pointing out the damage every time.

    "Hardly," Luka answered.

    "Well, they''re bad for me," Hadley countered.

    Luka smiled, as he inhaled deeply, enjoying the smoke burning his lungs. He could feel the damage it did to his system, even though it was minimal, but had yet to heal it. He tried once, about a year after he started smoking, just to make sure he could, and hadn''t done it since. He glanced at the faint lines of scars on his arms. It was hardly the same, but he had come to terms with the more socially acceptable method of harming himself. In a way, it was more of a challenge, because it was all internal, but it was also more subtle and so painfully slow. Despite the nicotine flooding his system, it didn''t calm him in the same way healing a deep cut did. He enjoyed the flash of pain, the spilling of blood, the dramatics of it all. He enjoyed watching the flesh and skin close up before his eyes. It was an instant fix, while smoking was a slow burn.

    He still felt tempted every time he held a knife, to lower it to his skin and watch the blood well up beneath it, but he was done filling his body with scars that had no better story attached to them than, it calms me. He wanted scars he could point to and say, I''ve battled monsters, and I''m still here.

    He leaned on the low wall surrounding them, and based on the look Hadley gave him, he thought the brick might crumble at any minute. Luka was considerably less worried.

    "I don''t talk about what happened to my parents, because to be honest, there isn''t much of a story."

    "If you brought me up here to¡ª"

    "Thomas," Luka said. "I''m telling you everything. It might just be worth it."

    Hadley settled in, choosing to sit on the ground, leaning his back precariously against the brick work.

    "My parents were the top Agents at the Kovalevsky Academy, and they were always going on some job or another. When I was nine, it was the first time I ever heard them argue about an assignment. My mom didn''t want to go, but my dad managed to convince her that she had to. That they were doing it to keep people safe, to keep their children safe. At the time, I didn''t understand. I always thought my parents were invincible, that nothing could harm them. Not until something did."

    He swallowed around the sorrow lodged in his throat.

    "They didn''t come home that night. We were used to the long nights, of course, but when night turned to morning, the only ones who showed up were representatives from the Council expressing their regrets. It was a meaningless exchange. I was nine, I didn''t understand, and they wouldn''t explain it to me. It never managed to feel real without an explanation, without facts, but of course they never came home, and at some point I had to accept the truth.

    ¡°My sister and I were allowed to stay at the Academy, even after our parents were dead. It was highly irregular, but no one actually cared as much about the rules as they did about us. The Agent who took me in told me the truth eventually. It took years, but I finally convinced him to explain to me why this was different, why they had argued, why they had been reluctant. If there is any one thing, that has shaped my view of the Academy, that was it. They were sent on a suicide mission, and everyone knew it, even if they didn''t want to admit it. The Council was desperate, so they sent their best Agents, with plenty of backup, and it wasn''t enough.

    ¡°The threat, whatever it was ¡ª I didn''t care then, and I don''t care now ¡ª was brought down, barely. My parents completed their mission, but in the end they were alone. Their backup was all gone, their magic was all gone, and they were left bleeding out. By the time anyone else got there, there was nothing left."

    He paused, trying to steady himself. Trying not to get swallowed up by the memories.

    "And before you say anything," he added. "It wasn''t supposed to happen like that. The threat was dire enough that they obviously had to use their best Agents. What else were they supposed to do? But they were gathering forces from nearby Academies, Agents better equipped to deal with it, only the Council got impatient. They didn''t want to wait, or didn''t want to waste the resources, or whatever other excuse they could come up with. So, they changed the plans. My parents, alone, with low-ranking Agents for backup. Maybe they hoped they would make it, but it doesn''t change the fact that they effectively killed them. That was when I realized two things about the Council: They don''t care, and they are cowards."

    Hadley hadn''t been looking at him while he talked, but now he turned his head towards him. Luka watched him out of the corner of his eyes, but didn''t want to see the pity in his eyes.

    "I''m sorry," he said.

    Luka shrugged, and put out his cigarette. "I hope you''re satisfied with that piece of insight."

 Chapter twelve

    As it turned out, Luka wanted to go back to the Academy to see patient zero, despite the fact that he was dead. Alice didn''t fully understand what he expected to get from a dead person, that they hadn''t gotten from the living, but Luka insisted it would help with the timeline, so here they were. They kept referring to him as "patient zero", but the autopsy report had actually listed a name. Matt Young, the first victim of the infection, was stored in a cold basement underneath the hospital. It might have been a morgue, if not for the fact that they had no use for morgues at the Academy. Autopsies were largely pointless, when a healer could just touch someone in order to assess the cause of death. So, instead, Alice''s thoughts went to a freezer.

    When Alice was younger, her parents had taken her to India for Christmas, so they could spend it with her grandparents. She had been there for two weeks, living with her extended family in a city near Mumbai, where the average temperature in December was close to 90¡ãF. She had returned to the New York winter utterly unprepared for the sudden cold, and stepping off the plane had felt like traveling in time as well as in space, as if she was emerging in a completely different reality. Walking into this basement from the summer heat felt similar. Chills covered her skin, and she was afraid she was going to start shivering.

    Meanwhile, Luka seemed entirely unconcerned by the temperature, but stepped steadily towards the body. He stilled when he reached the head, his hand hovering inches above the skin.

    Alice tentatively stepped forward, occupied by the strangeness of the body. He was laying on a cold steel table, dressed in pale gray hospital scrubs, likely the same ones they had put him in when he was admitted. The unnatural stillness was the most unsettling thing. Even knowing he was dead, even seeing it in his gray complexion, she expected breathing. His veins looked too dark, blackened, but she didn''t know if that was normal. Luka still hadn''t moved.

    "Luka?"

    He startled, his fingers curling into the palm of his hand. He lowered the hand and stepped back.

    "What is this?" He asked.

    Alice looked between Luka and the body. She didn''t understand. "What?"

    He took another step back, and shook his head, as if he could change what he was seeing.

    "Get Thomas," he said.

    She really wanted to get out of this place before she started thinking too much. She was afraid thinking would lead to reflecting. Reflecting on how this was the first dead body she had ever seen, on how this had been a student only a few days ago, on how he was younger than her. But as much as she wanted to leave, she wasn''t sure she should.

    Luka looked like he had seen a ghost, which made no sense. There was no reason he should know this kid.

    "Go," he said. Alice hesitated, trying to assess his mood, but he was too still. She finally did what he told her, hoping it wasn''t a mistake, but relieved at the thought of having Hadley deal with whatever was happening.

    When she returned with Hadley, Luka had moved outside and was smoking. He was sitting on the ground, back against the brick wall of the hospital building, and he didn''t move when they approached. He looked like he was controlling his breathing, forcing air into his lungs in slow, measured breaths.

    Hadley approached him, and tugged his hands into his pockets. "What''s wrong?"

    "You fucking know what''s wrong," Luka said. "What the fuck is going on?"

    "No," Hadley said, taking a step back. Luka had looked upset, not angry, when he had made the mistake of getting close. "I don''t."

    Luka pushed himself off the ground, and Hadley retreated further. "That kid," he said, gesturing towards the building. "That''s the kid I brought in. He''s been here, what? Four months? How the fuck did he get to Mutiny? How the fuck is he the first victim?"

    "What?" His surprise looked real, but then, Alice didn''t know him well enough to be sure. "Really, Lavrin. I have no idea."

    Luka pulled his fingers through his hair. He looked more rattled than Alice had ever seen him, than she would ever have imagined he could be.

    "This is all for me," he said, aimed at no one. "Why?"

    He grabbed Hadley by his shirt and pushed him into the wall. "Why did you really bring me in for this? Who made you do it?"

    Hadley held his hands up in a pointless surrender. "No one," he said, his breath catching. "I made the decision. I convinced the Council. No one made me do anything."

    "No. Think, Thomas. Someone must have said something."

    Hadley shook his head. "No. There was no one."

    "Fuck," Luka muttered.

    Alice moved closer. She wanted to think that she would get between them if she had to, but she wasn''t sure.

    "Lavrin, you''re not making sense," Hadley said, trying to nudge Luka off, to get free of his grip. He wasn¡¯t really hurting him, just holding him firmly in place against the bricks at his back.

    Then Alice saw Luka''s hand curl into a fist, she saw him raise it. She managed to take half a step forward, before he slammed his hand into the wall next to Hadley''s head.

    "Fuck," he hissed. His hand was bleeding, and Alice was pretty sure she had heard something crack. Hadley scrambled away from him, putting distance between them.

    Luka opened and closed his hand a few times, but his fingers wouldn''t quite straighten out.

    "Hadley," Alice said, stepping closer to him. He was breathing hard, and his eyes looked unfocused. She had to repeat his name several times, before he paid her any attention, and let her pull him farther away from Luka.

    "You really don''t know what this is about?"

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    "No," Hadley said. "How does he know the kid was at Mutiny?"

    "He thinks that''s where the spell originated, but we haven''t verified it. We came here first," she explained.

    "And now he thinks this is all set up for him."

    "It seems that way."

    "What if he''s right?"

    "Could he be?" Alice asked. It seemed insane to think it could be true. It was far more likely that Luka was just being paranoid, connecting pieces that had nothing to do with each other. She didn¡¯t fully understand what was going on, but maybe it could explain why the spell was so complex, maybe it could explain why Matt was patient zero, but that was hardly enough to draw conclusions. Luka Lavrin was notoriously anti-Council. It made no sense for anyone to target him to get to the Council, since his very involvement in the case would be highly unlikely. If this was about Luka, someone had either set up the pieces perfectly, or someone was just really, really lucky.

    "I don''t know," Hadley said. "But it is one hell of a coincidence. People who have been here four months do not get invited to Mutiny."

    "Okay," Alice said. She watched Luka, who had finally healed his hands and was moving towards them. She shifted herself in front of Hadley, and put up her hand. Luka stopped short of contact, and remained there, an inch away from her palm.

    "Let''s go," he said.

    "Did you¡ª"

    "Yes," he said. "I got what I needed."

    "Okay," she said. "Go, I''ll catch up."

    He looked between her and Hadley, but backed up and turned away from them.

    "Hadley," she said.

    He nodded. "I''ll look into it, but I honestly don''t think¡­" He looked towards Luka, and Alice thought she could imagine what he was thinking. It didn''t feel right, but it had to be a coincidence. Even if it wasn''t, how could they ever hope to pick up the trail of it? If no one had manipulated Hadley into hiring Luka, the thing would have to be set up as a path constructed from small nudges and a lot of faith. Someone would have to know Luka, Hadley, and even the Council, well enough to predict their actions. And if he was right?

    Well, in that case, the dominoes had started falling, and all they could do was wait and see where they landed.

    "No," Alice said. "I know."

    She left Hadley, and hurried towards Luka. She caught up to him, and they stepped out of the gates together. She wanted to say something. She wanted to say a lot of things, but honestly? She finally understood the tension she saw in Hadley, when Luka was around. If he ever chose her as a target for his anger, she would be wary around him as well.

    She started to wonder if he had done something to Hadley, when their friendship ended. If that was the cause of the permanent damage between them. It was an awkward twenty minute walk to the station closest to the Academy. Luka wasn''t talking and even though Alice had plenty she wanted to say, she couldn''t work up the nerve. She spend the time studying the graffiti lining the walls they walked by. She noticed figures repeating. Maybe it meant something, maybe it was just tags, but she tracked them anyway. She started thinking they were some sort of code, as she noticed variations of the same sort of symbols between all the overlapping lettering, the individual tags nearly impossible to decipher.

    Once they arrived, the rest of the journey was blessedly quick. They had to jump to North Station first, to access the subway. It was a frequent trip and the amount of time "North Station" had been scribbled on the walls of the Medford West station made it look like insanity, but even with magic, they had to play by the basic rules of public transit: if the line didn''t go to your destination, you had to change.

    In the subway, he wrote "Government Center" on the wall and jumped. He didn''t offer his hand to bring her, but at least he waited for her on the other side. They walked across the red paved square towards City Hall, but then turned away and ducked into the shadows of a parking garage.

    She followed him to a door, into a white room lit by fluorescent lights, and through another door. Here they descended into the subway tunnels beneath the city.

    "Welcome to Mutiny." He said this in a way that sounded familiar, like once upon a time, he had been used to uttering those words. More importantly, he sounded almost normal.

    ¡°If you break the right rules, or express the right kind of dissatisfaction, you might get invited here. There are wards in place, to make it harder for the Council to find it, but it¡¯s not impossible. They would probably try harder, if they really understood what it was, but anyone loyal enough to the Academy to be on the Agent or Council track will never be directly told about it.¡±

    Lights flickered on, though Alice didn''t know if it was magic or if electricity was still working down here. The tracks were covered in dirt and dust, clearly no longer in use. The lights lit up the graffiti, which covered everything. Even the pipes along the walls had been painted, and part of the ceiling. It was nearly overwhelming, but looking closer, she noticed how the nature of it differed from the graffiti above ground. There were less words, and more symbols. More artwork, of massive beasts and city outlines.

    She remained at the edge, where the walls were colorless.

    "What about untethered magic?"

    Luka had walked right in, but Alice was still hesitant.

    "We know how to do magic without creating incidents."

    Luka was scanning the walls, the graffiti, looking for something that would stand out to him. Alice didn''t know how much of a help she could be. When he had turned full circle, his eyes came to rest on her.

    "You can come in."

    If any traps were triggered by entering, she reasoned, Luka would already have triggered them. She didn''t feel great about thinking it, but she did feel better about going in.

    "The thing about spells," Luka was saying, "is that they can''t sustain themselves, at least not for long. So, if the spell is here, and it hasn''t burned itself out, or something else is here, it''s going to need magic to activate it."

    Once she was inside, the graffiti became overpowering. With her back to the narrow entrance, she was surrounded on all sides by color. Even the ground had been painted in some places. It was like being trapped in a psychedelic painting and the effect was unreal, like she wasn''t really there. She tried to do what Luka was doing, to look at the individual pieces of art and symbols, looking for something strange.

    She thought she could recognize the language of spells, from the one Luka had her do at the hospital, but she didn''t know what any of it meant. She didn''t know what any of them did. She saw a bright blue dragon, the colors swirling almost like their magic. There were birds, foxes, cats, animals of the city painted like stained glass, multi colored and with sharp edges. Painted words, that blended into something bigger. Cartoons that likely meant nothing, inside jokes. Symbols, both known to her and not. There were dark shadows, with eyes and teeth that seemed to be glowing and a massive golden snake, that wound it''s way across one wall.

    Alice stepped closer, touching the painted golden scales. Up close they looked like coins, like glittering pennies.

    "Lucky Penny," Luka said, next to her.

    "What?" She asked, startled by his proximity.

    "Also simply known as the Serpent."

    "It''s real?" Alice hadn''t grown up around the mythology of the magical world. Her mother had stayed away from all things magical, as if she was afraid Alice might catch it if she believed, but her father had told her stories of Shiva and Vishnu, of the demons and spirits of Hindu Mythology. She never imagined it might be real. Not like this. Now she had to wonder how many myths were based on reality, and how many myths of this place and this age she simply didn''t know.

    "Why wouldn''t she be?" Luka said, but he was no longer focusing on Alice. He cocked his head and moved closer to the wall. She moved to follow, but he held a hand out.

    "Stay," he said, so she stayed.

    He was walking towards a hand print painted on the wall in bright green, words saying "try me" printed next to it. Could it really be that simple? Would it take no more than that for people to fall into a trap? Even if they thought Mutiny was safe, could they really trust the people who came here that blindly? Magic wasn''t ever safe, not really, and triggering someone else''s spell? It seemed reckless. Of course if the people who had access to Mutiny was anything like Luka, perhaps it was a common character trait.

    Luka had reached the wall, his fingers brushing against the paint. Alice couldn''t just stay back, not if he was going to do something stupid. She had hoped he would be thinking more clearly here. If the wards were still giving him headaches, his reaction was easier to understand. But they were far from the wards here.

    "Luka," she warned, walking towards him.

    He pressed his palm flat to the wall, and it was eerie how well the hand print fit.

 Chapter thirteen

    Luka had done the math, roughly, in his head.

    Once Matt died, the Academy immediately put everyone showing symptoms into a coma. It did make it a lot harder to establish a timeline, since the only data he could really trust was what he had gotten from Matt, and a data set of one was not a data set at all. By this best estimation, Matt had died a little over a week after he was infected.

    The reason putting the others in a coma worked to slow the thing down, was that the heart acted as a timer. If he accounted for that, he could estimate a vague average based on the progression of the comatose patients as well, but he would prefer to use that as a very loose guideline.

    Luka''s average heart rate would be lower than Matt¡¯s, given both his fitness level and his age, but on the other hand, Matt wouldn''t have been running around, trying to track down a murderer, before anyone else died. All in all, he figured he could give himself a week, maybe a little less to be sure. He would have to monitor his symptoms, of course, and adjust accordingly, but a week. A week from activating his magic, and until he would die. The effects of the infection weren¡¯t instant, he would have a couple of days without symptoms. Then he would start feeling disconnected, as the foundations of his magic changed. Two or three days after that, his magic would start acting up, becoming unpredictable. Then he would lose access to it altogether, as it tipped towards untethered magic. And then he would die.

    It hadn''t been in the autopsy report, but Matt''s veins were black. Like he had been poisoned. Or the magic had burned through his blood. Either way, this wasn''t going to be a pleasant experience.

    He understood that he looked unstable right now. He felt unstable, too. It was hard to explain why, impossible even, but he knew this was all set up for him. It made him look conceited, but he didn¡¯t actually want this. He would prefer any evidence, that he was wrong, but he didn¡¯t believe in this many coincidences. So, either someone wanted him dead, and they would get exactly what they wanted, or someone wanted his attention.

    He counted on the second option, counted on this being a test. For that same reason, he wasn''t actually afraid of this. This wasn''t a step towards his own demise, this was the next step in this sick game he was in. He lay his hand flat against the hand print.

    Alice grabbed his wrist and yanked his hand away from the wall before he could call on his magic.

    "Luka," she said. Scolded, really. She sounded very unhappy with him, and maybe he should have explained the entire reasoning behind the decision to her.

    "Do you want to explain to me what exactly you think you''re doing?"

    Right. He definitely should have. He pulled his hand out of her grip.

    "It''s not going to kill me."

    "No?"

    "No. If I''m right about this, they need me for something. They won''t let me die."

    "And if you''re wrong?"

    "I''m not wrong," he said. He looked back at the hand print, so sure it had been left there for him. Of course it could be exactly what it looked like, just a spell someone had left. Something that would make the art on the walls move, or something that would make you feel a very particular kind of high. A party trick, nothing more. But he could see the outline of the map in between the graffiti. He could see exactly what would happen when he poured his magic into the spell. It would lead him to the next part of the treasure hunt.

    "It doesn''t make any sense, Luka. You know that." She said it in the kind of voice, someone might use with a wild animal, if they believed being soft-spoken would convince it not to attack.

    Luka¡¯s hand ached to reach out for the hand print. "The only people I have pissed off enough to want me dead are on the Council. None of them would be able to do this."

    "This isn''t about you, Luka. It can''t be."

    Luka pulled his hands through his hair. Alice looked at him like he had lost his mind, but had he? He could see it, see the connections to him, but no one else could. Was he being paranoid?

    "Please just take a step back, and look at what you''re doing," Alice said. "Please stop this."

    "Alice." He could see that she was scared, that she had no idea how to stop him. She was going to try, but there was only one person with that kind of power over him, and it wasn''t her. "I have to do this."

    "You can''t. You of all people cannot be allowed to do this." She stepped up to the wall, holding her hand above the print. "I can''t let you do it."

    She pressed her hand to the wall, and closed her eyes. He admired the move, but in the end, she didn''t have the courage to go through with it. He waited for her to activate her magic, but she never did. He put his hand on her shoulder, and pulled her gently away. "It''s not for you," he said.

    "It''s not for you, either."

    "Okay," he said. He stepped back, away from the wall, towards the center of the tunnel. Alice followed, looking relieved. "Okay," he repeated. "Look, maybe this is enough for Hadley to get us access to an Oracle. If it is, we''ll do that instead, and I won''t have to do this."

    "Okay," Alice said. "Good."

    She pulled out her phone, but Luka stopped her, before she had even unlocked it. "Let me do it," he said. "I owe him an apology."

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    Alice nodded, and put her phone back in her pocket. Luka called Hadley, but put his phone on silent first.

    He took a couple of steps away from Alice, pretending to want some privacy so she wouldn''t be able to pick up on Hadley''s side of the conversation. It kept ringing, and Luka was concerned, that he wasn''t going to pick up at all, that he had finally crossed the line. When he finally did pick up, Luka wondered if he should apologize after all. He didn''t, but he gave himself credit for at least considering it.

    "Thomas," he said. "We''ve found the source." He said this knowing they had no way of verifying it without using magic, but Hadley didn''t know that.

    "Great," Hadley said. His voice was flat. Luka knew he was going for emotionless, but he also knew him well enough to see through it. He was angry. "What''s next?"

    "Well," Luka said. "We still can''t get anywhere without Oracles."

    "I can''t¡ª"

    "No, I know, but this is a solid lead. We just need an Oracle for an hour, then we can close this case tomorrow, and you never have to see me again."

    Hadley sighed. "Constance isn''t going to change her mind."

    "Great," Luka said. "Thanks."

    He hung up, and his screen immediately lit up with another call from Hadley, but he turned it off, and put it in his pocket.

    "He thinks he can convince the Council," he told Alice. "Go back to the Academy, see if there''s anything you can do to help."

    "Okay," she said. "What are you going to do?"

    "I''m going home," he said. "You''re right. Playing into their hands isn''t the answer. I''m going to look for another way, in case we don''t get an Oracle."

    ¡°I¡¯m not leaving you here.¡± She was suspicious, as she should be. Hadley had warned her, and she thought she had some sort of responsibility to keep him safe. Even if he hadn¡¯t, Luka had folded too easily, after acting too erratic. Her flaw was, that she wanted to believe him, and she looked relieved when he gestured towards the exit, and walked out with her. Luka knew how to lie, and he didn''t care enough to feel bad about lying to her.

    He only had to walk with her to the end of the street, before he would have to break off. He was going east, towards the waterfront, while she would need to head west to get to the subway station. He could have gone with her, and gotten a subway line that would take him across the channel, but the walk to the ferry crossing wasn¡¯t so long, that it didn¡¯t make sense. Besides, he didn¡¯t think Alice would know to question him on this.

    He knew she hesitated, when he crossed the street and left her on the corner, something inside her still telling her to be cautious, even though she had a job to do and the clock was ticking. It took him five minutes to walk to the waterfront, where he doubled back. He didn¡¯t retrace his steps, but turned onto a smaller street that ran parallel to the main road. Even if it didn¡¯t slow him down at all, he did think he was jumping through too many hoops for this. This was his case, and he shouldn¡¯t have to be deceptive to solve it.

    When he ducked back into the parking garage and descended into the tunnels, he knew there was a small chance Alice would be there. If she had decided not to trust him, it would be hard to explain what he was doing back here.

    When he turned the lights back on, he found Mutiny blessedly empty.

    It felt different like this, when all he could hear was the soft echo of his own footsteps. It was peaceful. It was home. Even now, with the tainted feeling of knowing that the infection had come from here, that someone had used Mutiny like that. It was supposed to be a safe space, but now they were going to have to fight to get that back. He returned to the hand print. It wasn''t unusual for mages to leave each other spells, and sometimes it would turn into games, contests, to out-do each other. It was part of how Mutiny worked. Showing off your own skills, while pushing others to get better, was how ideas were born.

    That wasn''t what this was. He was sure of it. This was taunting.

    He studied the outline of the map above him, but it was meaningless until he poured magic into the spell.

    If there was a way around infecting himself, he couldn''t see it. He wanted to out-smart this asshole, but seeing no other path, he settled for plowing ahead into the trap. He didn''t exactly have time for finesse, and he was far more interested in facing the bastard. He put his hand to the wall, and as he fit it over the green silhouette, he inadvertently and unwillingly thought about Hadley. This was exactly the kind of reckless action that had earned him an apprentice. Alice was meant to stop him from being stupid, but she wasn''t here. She had made the mistake of trusting him, of choosing to believe him, and had left him in a position to do exactly what Hadley had carefully tried to prevent.

    It felt a little bit satisfying. It felt victorious, like he had beaten Hadley at this game.

    "You tried, Thomas." He smiled, faintly.

    Hopefully it would be worth it. Hopefully one victory would lead to another.

    He poured his magic into the wall.

    The hand print lit up, green beneath his own red magic. Light trailed from the middle finger ¡ª a detail that would have been a lot more amusing, if they weren¡¯t dealing with a murderer ¡ª and outlined the map he had already discovered. The light turned from green to red, gradually, as Luka''s own magic started feeding into the spell, and was briefly an unsightly brown like the color of old blood. The graffiti on the wall had lined up to form the streets and borders of the map, but now he saw it clearly. He could tell where he was, even before a dot appeared and informed him that you are here. He glowered at the text, offended that his sense of direction was being questioned. An X appeared south of his location, near the edge of Chinatown. He filed away the location, and removed his hand from the wall.

    The infection had settled into his body. He felt the itch of it now, underneath the fading buzz of his magic. He had expected it to be a silent, unnoticeable killer, but maybe it was because he was a Healer. Because he could feel it burrowing inside him, tainting his magic with every heartbeat. He put his hand across his heart, but he could already hear the beats echoing in his ears. How many did he have left? Somewhere around 700.000? And he had already spent ten just standing here counting.

    He shook his head, trying to dislodge those thoughts. He couldn''t allow himself to obsess over the seconds. He knew what he was getting into. He knew he was getting cured. He just needed to follow the map. The light faded slowly, and he scanned the route one more time, deliberately ignoring how close it would take him to Quinn''s apartment. He wanted to lose himself in the case, so deeply, that the guilt wouldn¡¯t weigh him down. Quinn would hate what he was doing, but if Luka did his job right, he never had to know.

    Of course, if he was wrong, he could be dead in a week. Sooner, if he was walking right into a trap.

    He took a deep breath, and called his magic to the surface. The quick stab of pain he fired into his nerves should have calmed him, but instead it left an emptiness.

    Infecting himself with the virus reminded him of his own mortality, something he hadn¡¯t given much thought to in the last fifteen years. Vulnerability was foreign to him, and not very comfortable.

    It would be fine.

    He was sure his theory was correct.

    Pretty sure.

    Either way, there was no going back now. He was infected, so even if going to the X on the map might get him killed, not going definitely would. He steadied himself and climbed back up the stairs. In the space between the door to the tunnels and the door to the parking garage, he paused. Although in a lot of ways it was too late for it, he bit down on his hand, hard enough to draw blood. With it, he drew a lock next to the door. It wasn''t a spell, but there was a different kind of power in blood and intent. It would serve as a weak ward, but the symbol in itself should deter mages from entering. He healed his hand, and continued out of the parking garage, into an uncertain future.

 Chapter fourteen

    Getting back to the Academy took most of half an hour. That was thirty minutes, in which Alice had nowhere to go, but inside of her own head. Thirty minutes, of going over it again and again.

    His face had been completely calm, when he fit his palm to the hand print on the wall. Even with Hadley¡¯s warning, she could never have imagined that kind of cavalier attitude towards his own life. He hadn''t even tried to explain to her what he wanted to do. He had just done it. Like it wasn''t even a big deal, throwing his life away for a maybe, turning his life over to some anonymous villain.

    It was selfish of him, to risk his own life for this. It might look like confidence, but it felt like a delusion. If he was wrong, what then? He could have eliminated their only chance to fix this, and Alice would have blamed herself. She did blame herself, for not seeing it. For allowing him to go as far as to put his hand on that wall. If he had called his magic, for even just a second. If she hadn''t stopped him, when she did. She should have known, of course. That was the worst part. Hadley had warned her, and she knew enough of the Soul Eater story to realize that he did this sort of thing, and she should have anticipated it.

    She blamed Hadley, too. It wasn''t fair to put this responsibility on her. To put Luka Lavrin''s life in her hands.

    By the time she reached the Academy, she had decided to be angry at all of them, all at once. It was simpler than trying to decide who held the most blame. Besides, nothing had happened. They were going to find another way. So it was fine.

    Her fingers had just closed around the iron gate, when the thought struck her like lightning, sudden and paralyzing.

    "No," she whispered.

    She called Luka, telling herself she was wrong. She wanted to trust him, to think that he didn''t really want to infect himself. He had even presented them with another option, and Hadley had¡ª

    "No."

    Luka didn¡¯t pick up, even when she called him a second and a third time.

    It was pointless to call Hadley, when she was this close to his office. She pushed the gate open, and ran across the courtyard.

    She made herself stop in the hallway outside his office, to compose herself, but she was still breathless when she grabbed the door handle and found it locked. She knocked, just in case, but there was no response. She pulled out her phone again, hoping against hope that she had missed some sort of word from Luka, but of course there was nothing. With every passing moment, she became more sure he really had infected himself, because why else would he be avoiding her?

    She called Hadley, but of course he didn¡¯t pick up either.

    The moment Luka had made the decision to infect himself, he had gone rogue. She knew where he lived, but there was no way it was going to be that easy to track him down.

    There had been some sort of clue in the spell, but using that to find him would be desperate. Luka was important, for the future of those infected students, for the Academy, but she wasn¡¯t ready to throw her own life away for him.

    It wasn¡¯t like he had stopped working the case. He had just decided to do it alone.

    She didn¡¯t know whether to pace the hallway, or sink down on the floor. Her phone was still in her hand, but it didn¡¯t feel like she had any moves left. She would have to wait for Hadley, hope he could fix this mess.

    Exhaustion diluted the anger with every second that ticked by, until she eventually sat down. Her fingers traced the silver lines of metal inlaid between the wooden planks, while her mind wandered.

    She couldn¡¯t just dismiss Luka. She had taken on a responsibility, when she accepted to apprentice with him, and she did care. She wanted to help him. She wanted to save him.

    What could she do?

    She still wondered at the question of motive, even though she still lacked so many pieces to get it to click. The bad guy had set up a trap at Mutiny, which was supposed to be a safe space, and had infected someone who shouldn¡¯t have even been there ¡ª not just four months after enrolling in the Academy. It didn¡¯t add up. She imagined, that anyone who knew about Mutiny had needed it at some point in their life. They wouldn¡¯t disrespect it. If they hadn¡¯t been introduced to Mutiny, because they were dissatisfied with the Academy, then how did they find it? Luka might know, but she wasn¡¯t familiar enough with Mutiny to make any conclusions.

    She sighed. It was pointless, as was waiting for Hadley.

    She pushed herself up, and headed for the exit. When she turned the corner, she nearly crashed into him. Her hand instinctively reached out, and clutched his shoulder. She pulled back, nearly stumbling, but he caught her.

    ¡°Alice?"

    She steadied herself, and took two steps back, out of his reach.

    ¡°Mage Thomas.¡± The anger gathered itself back together, and rose above the exhaustion. She nearly made the decision to push past him, to try and figure this out herself, somehow.

    ¡°Did you tell Luka that there was a chance with the Oracles?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± he said, suspicion narrowing his eyes. ¡°I told him Constance wouldn¡¯t change her mind.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± She nodded. ¡°That makes sense.¡± Her voice felt steady, even though she didn¡¯t feel calm at all.

    When Hadley had gone straight to Constance Van Aller, Alice thought they were close. She thought he had some sway with her. She could understand following protocol, but not like this. Maybe, if he had gone through the person overseeing the Oracles, instead of the highest authority, exceptions could be made.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    The Van Allers weren¡¯t just Council, they were practically royalty. They had led the Council for generations, and from what Alice had heard, it wasn¡¯t all nepotism. They really were that good. Well-bred, well-trained and exceptionally powerful mages, raised for one purpose.

    At least until Constance and Marten had a son, who disappeared from the Academy. Someone probably knew why, but no one dared spread the word. If anyone could bend the rules, it would be the Van Allers, but they never would, because perceptions were more important.

    ¡°Why? What¡¯s wrong?¡± Hadley asked.

    ¡°Nothing.¡± She was desperate to get out, even as she was desperate for his help. ¡°I¡¯ll figure it out.¡±

    She tried to push past him, but he stepped into her path, and the hallway was narrow enough that she was trapped.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t we go into my office?¡±

    The relief of having control taken away from her, unraveled something inside her chest. She wanted to hold on to her anger, to her disappointment, and let them be the walls that kept her from breaking. She worried, as she followed him back down the hall, that she couldn¡¯t keep her fears in check.

    Hadley unlocked the door, and settled down behind his desk. Familiar, but no longer safe.

    ¡°Where were you?¡± Alice asked, as she took her own seat.

    ¡°In a meeting,¡± Hadley said. "Believe it or not, but you''re not my only responsibility."

    "Maybe we should be," Alice murmured.

    It was easier to blame him, to feel abandoned, than to admit that the person she was really angry with was herself. If she allowed herself to feel it, the burden of the case, Luka, everything, would push her to the ground and kick her teeth in.

    ¡°Excuse me?¡±

    Alice looked up. He didn¡¯t understand, not yet, but he wasn¡¯t so worried that he couldn¡¯t also be offended. ¡°Sorry. That¡¯s not fair. You warned me. I guess I should have listened.¡±

    He took a slow breath, and softened on the exhale. ¡°Tell he what happened.¡±

    ¡°You know what happened, don¡¯t you? You know what he¡¯s capable of.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand, Alice. What did he do?¡±

    She really should just tell him, get it over with, but she couldn¡¯t get the words out.

    ¡°He thinks it¡¯s personal. Did you find any evidence, that he might be right?¡±

    ¡°No. None.¡± He paused, almost as if waiting for her to continue, but she wasn¡¯t ready. When enough seconds had passed, that his patience couldn¡¯t take it anymore, he continued. ¡°I really was the only one involved in recruiting him, but I asked around, just in case anyone had heard anything. In case anyone had taken an interest in him, but there¡¯s nothing. Of course, whoever is doing this isn¡¯t Academy, and we don¡¯t know what kind of relationship he has with the Rogues.¡±

    Alice gathered her hands together, one thumb slowly stroking the other. ¡°He said no Rogues hate him enough to want him dead, but of course he thinks it¡¯s about getting his attention, so he wouldn¡¯t know who it is.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s possible,¡± Hadley allowed, but she wasn¡¯t sure he meant it. If no one had pushed Hadley to hire him, how could they be sure he would?

    ¡°Alice,¡± he nudged, gently.

    She nodded. She didn¡¯t look at him. ¡°Matt seemed to confirm that Mutiny was the origin, so we went. We think we found the spell, and that activating it would reveal a clue. I stopped him, but then¡­¡±

    ¡°You stopped him?¡± Hadley asked, as if he didn¡¯t understand what she was saying, but he had to. All the information was there, unless he didn¡¯t want to understand.

    Alice took a breath. ¡°Then he called you, and he said there was another way. He told me he would go home, that I should come here, see if I could help somehow. I know I shouldn¡¯t have believed him, but I didn¡¯t think he wanted to do it. I thought he would at least want to try finding an alternative. I was so determined to prove I was on his side, that I guess I forgot to be on my own side.¡±

    ¡°So you weren¡¯t there?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You weren¡¯t there, when you think he infected himself. You don¡¯t know for sure.¡±

    Her nails dug into her skin. ¡°No, I do know. Call him.¡±

    His phone was on the table. He reached over, and swiped his fingers across the screen, then the tone rang out. He had put in on speaker, so they could both listen, as it rang out. Luka didn¡¯t even decline the call, and it felt like it took forever, before it went to voicemail.

    ¡°Damn it,¡± he muttered, and hung up.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t see him,¡± Alice said. ¡°He didn¡¯t even hesitate.¡±

    ¡°No, I can imagine.¡± He picked up his phone, and it looked like he was typing something. ¡°You know, when the Soul Eater was unleashed, him and Abel were the only ones running towards the Academy, while it was being evacuated. This is exactly the kind of thing he would do.¡± He sounded distant, distracted.

    She was afraid to break the silence that followed, but she couldn¡¯t stand the way it surrounded her. ¡°What should I have done? Tell me what I did wrong.¡±

    He looked up from his phone. He clicked the screen off, before dropping it back on the table. His eyebrows tilted in sympathy.

    ¡°Nothing, Alice. I never meant to give you the impression that you could stop him from being reckless. I only meant for you to tell me, so I can try to do some damage control.¡±

    ¡°But this¡­ He¡¯s dying, and we don¡¯t know where he is. We don¡¯t know where the clue led him, or if he¡¯s walked right into a trap.¡±

    Hadley¡¯s smile was weak, but it meant something that he thought that was funny. ¡°Back then, I always thought I was protecting him from himself, but he never actually listened to me. He just stopped telling me what he was going to do. Luka doesn¡¯t want to die. He never did. If anything, Luka sees his mortality as a challenge. He¡¯s confident that he can win, even if it doesn¡¯t seem like it right now. I¡¯m not as worried about that part, as I am about what he¡¯s prepared to do next, especially if he¡¯s wrong.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Alice asked, not quite able to ignore the opening. ¡°With the Soul Eater?¡±

    ¡°Well. He won, didn¡¯t he? That should be more important than the things we lost.¡±

    ¡°I heard someone died,¡± she ventured, carefully.

    Hadley nodded. ¡°Abel.¡±

    The name did something to him. She could see it in his eyes, when the moment passed, and he returned fully to the present. She couldn¡¯t blame him for not wanting to remember that part of the past, and it was probably for the best. She needed to let go of her misplaced curiosity, and get back to the reality of the situation. She just hadn¡¯t expected Hadley to offer any piece of the past, let alone that much of it.

    ¡°So, what happens now?¡±

    Hadley sighed. ¡°I guess we have to track him down.¡±

    ¡°How?¡±

    There was a pause, while he glanced at his phone. If Luka had been the one he had texted earlier, she doubted there was any response. He wouldn¡¯t answer Hadley before her. He owed her, most of all.

    ¡°The Oracles.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± She rose from the chair. ¡°No. Don¡¯t tell me you got access.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± he said. ¡°I didn¡¯t. But this is different.¡±

    Luka had infected himself, because they couldn¡¯t get access to the Oracles. He was risking his life, because Hadley had to follow the rules, and now¡­

    She didn¡¯t want to argue the point, because they were going to find Luka, but she struggled to ignore the part where this could have all been avoided, if he had been willing to break the rules earlier.

    ¡°How is this different?¡±

    Hadley was rising from his chair. He hadn¡¯t really properly settled himself into the office, so all he needed was to slide his phone into his pocket to be ready to go. ¡°Look,¡± he said. ¡°Luka is an asset. He¡¯s¡­ valuable.¡±

    ¡°And finding the person who did this isn¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Of course it is, but that would have been a waste of resources, as long as we had Luka. Right now, we don¡¯t.¡± He went to the door, and held it open for her, his keys dangling from his other hand. ¡°Besides, unlike tracking down an unknown person, using unknown magic, at an unknown time, this will be quick. Constance doesn¡¯t even need to know about it.¡±

 Chapter fifteen

    Luka followed the map in his head, more than the streets he walked. He only started paying attention, once he crossed into Chinatown. He was looking for a building at the very edge of the area, and found it at the bend of a road curving back in on itself. It was like an overly ambitious cul-de-sac, with a lonely oasis of buildings in the middle.

    The walk had taken maybe ten minutes, but it didn¡¯t take more than that for the mood of the city to change. The day had been covered in clouds, but now they seemed to gather together, darkening with the promise of rain. The air thickened, as the pressure grew, until the humidity begged for a thunderstorm.

    He was at the lip of the alley, when the drizzle started.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± he muttered, directed at the sky and its terrible timing. Reminding himself that it probably wasn¡¯t a trap, did not make it feel any less trap-like, and the way the storm had rolled in felt exactly like the kind of omen he didn¡¯t want to believe in. As a mage, he fancied himself an expert on what was and wasn¡¯t magic, and the only way omens were a thing, was if wild magic developed precognition. The rain wasn¡¯t enough to derail his magic yet, but it would only be a matter of minutes.

    If this really was a trap, and he needed his magic, he had to get inside quickly. The building, the remnants of an abandoned Chinese restaurant, was boarded up. It might have been possible to scale the large wooden planks, but it wouldn¡¯t go unnoticed. He noted the graffiti painted on the inside of the windows, and assumed there was an easier way in. He turned back, headed around the cluster of buildings and into an alley behind them.

    He slowed, as he wound around carelessly parked cars, a trend that continued from the parking lot he had left behind. Despite every reassurance he could make to himself, that he would be fine, at least for the next four to five days, he was acutely aware of the rhythmic pounding in his chest, taking his life one beat at a time. Some part of him was still trying to keep track of his heartbeats, even though he knew it was useless. Sometimes, he really did think the decisions he made were foolish. Especially when a voice inside of him, that could only be either reason or anxiety, told him to slow down. The problem, in this case, was that slowing down would give him more time, but it would also surely kill him.

    Cracked concrete gave way to thin strips of weed, along the edges of the red brick walls. Nearly every surface within reach was tagged with overlapping graffiti. A few windows had bars or shudders, but the overall impression was that no one had cared about this place for a long time, which wasn¡¯t unusual for any alley, but it did add to his discomfort.

    Then, to make matters even worse, the drizzle turned into proper rain. The good news was, that the rain would disrupt the other mages too, but there were no rules against putting a bunch of bullets in him and seeing how long he would last with a limited ability to Heal.

    At the end of the alley, he reached the back of the building he had been sent to, along with the metal door that would grant him access. He was close enough to touch it, when he heard a crash behind him. Turning, he faced a line of canine creatures. More wolf than dog, with too many sharp edges for something domestic and a shoulder height that easily reached his waist.

    They weren''t of the city. These were organic, made of wood and earth and stone, of marble teeth and granite claws. Their eyes glowed with the same yellow light, that trailed through their bodies like shimmering sunlight, but nature mages should have no power here. The small offerings of weeds certainly weren''t enough, and even though there was a small park set near the front of the building, it was mostly paved. There was a far larger park less than ten minutes away, but that shouldn''t be close enough.

    This shouldn''t be possible. Of course the same rain that might soon cause Luka to have little to no magic would only strengthen these creatures. The rain was still light, but the pressure in the air made his pulse spike, a distraction he didn¡¯t need right now.

    He scanned the buildings for the mage, in case they were hiding on one of the fire escapes, or even a rooftop, but he couldn''t see anyone. He called up his magic, and felt it gather under his skin. He knew his best chance was too throw as much magic as possible at them, before the rain crippled him.

    Only for a second, he considered doing nothing. Maybe doing nothing was an option, if they weren''t meant to kill him. But the gleaming teeth and the claws grating against concrete felt unmistakably threatening.

    The rain started falling faster, and he knew he had to act.

    The second he made the decision, the beasts started moving in unison. They stalked towards him with a predatory grace that would have been admirable, if he wasn''t dangerously outnumbered. Not to mention cornered, as he was pressed in between the walls of three buildings. Already encased in shadow, it became like premature night in the alley, under the heavy, gray clouds. There was a slim opening behind him, and maybe it led out to the street, but he wasn''t looking to flee.

    Enough metal was within reach, to serve as a lifeline, and he reached out for a gate. He had to sidestep twice, before his fingers could graze the steel. There were four of the creatures and, even though they hadn''t been bestowed with the ability to growl, they all bared their teeth. The spell was already primed in his head, and he drew out a sharpened rod. The creatures charged, nearly in sync, and Luka threw up a shield. The rod clattered to the ground, as his concentration wavered, but it was good enough. As long as he got a second to pick it up.

    The creatures smashed into his shield, one by one, the force of them pushing him back across the concrete. It took effort to maintain the spell, especially with the rain, but the dogs were tireless.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    He''d made the wrong choice, going for the gate, moving away from the building with electrical wiring running along the wall. He needed that now, to persuade them to stop pouncing him relentlessly. They would hold out longer than him.

    Gritting his teeth, Luka threw himself in the other direction, and slammed his hand against the wall. Fortunately, the alley was narrow enough that it worked. He called his magic, pulled electricity out of the wall, and wove it into the shield. Raindrops provoked sparks and sizzles, but the dogs didn''t understand, and the Summoner either didn''t notice or didn''t care. One of them charged, threw itself against the shield in a blinding flash of light. It landed, with a heavy thud, on the ground. The yellow light of the Summoner burned out. The other three backed up and anxiously paced back and forth.

    Luka stepped forward, pushing them further back. The rod was still out of his reach, but another step would help.

    He knelt down, trying to be quick, but the metal slipped out between his fingers, and one of the creatures jumped off the wall, and launched itself over him. The Summoner knew, that the shield would only cover his front, and knew that he wouldn''t be able to defend himself from both sides.

    He finally closed his fingers around the rod, but he didn''t turn around. Two of the dogs still paced in front of him, and he couldn''t take his attention off the shield.

    He let the other charge at him from behind, ready to flare his magic at the moment of impact. It wasn''t a great plan, as the rod required just a little more range, but there were too many factors in his head and his mind only worked moment by moment. Even flaring his magic, the teeth and claws still managed to dig into his flesh. It could still tear him apart, he would just mend the damage the instant it was inflicted.

    He managed to get the rod - spear, really, now that he had his hands on it and could alter it - into its neck, but it didn''t matter unless he could shatter the thing inside it that made it alive. It did give him some leverage, to wrench it off his back. He had to drop the shield, while struggling to angle the spear down into the creature''s gut and, hopefully, through the heart of it.

    He met resistance, and with the snapping teeth he couldn''t get enough force behind it. He reached back, raising spikes of concrete from the ground, as the other two attacked. They were both speared, but only one of them lost the yellow glow of magic, as the heart shattered inside it.

    Teeth closed around his arm, and he cursed, ripped it free, brought both hands around the metal rod and pushed. He fell back, when the thing died, giving himself a second to breathe.

    The last one was struggling to get off the spikes, but it wouldn''t be long before it succeeded. He was just about to Heal, when the rain finally let loose. His magic flickered, like a real life glitch, and then it was gone. He had to get up, and he had to stop the final creature, before he bled out.

    It was on the other side of the spikes, looking for an opening, but then jumped on top of a car. It could clear the spikes, if it jumped from there, and take Luka down in the same leap.

    Instinctively, he threw up a shield, but nothing happened. His magic wasn''t responding.

    "Come on!" he growled through gritted teeth, while backing away. He shook his hand as if that would help, as if the problem was just a loose connection somewhere in his arm.

    The rain kept pouring down with no regard for his complications.

    The creature leapt.

    Sharp stone dug deep into his flesh, as teeth and claws sank into him. He tried to think, but it was hard when his focus was on the creature and the blood spilling from his arm and shoulder and chest. His instincts told him to stop the bleeding and take care of the pain, but the rain already threatened to put a stop to those efforts. He crashed into the wall, managing to dislodge it, but that only earned him a few seconds of respite and a sore shoulder.

    The spear was still buried in the heart of the other, and he couldn''t get to it. He had very few moves left, and even less magic.

    He needed a plan and fast, but nothing came to him. In the split second he had, before it would leap at him and subsequently tear him apart, his instincts set in and his mind started working again. He jumped to the side, just in time for the claws to slash at his arm, rather than his face. Luka stayed low, while he spun around on the ground to face the beast. It hadn¡¯t anticipated the hard landing, and hit the wall at an awkward angle. It managed to bounce off the wall, but something inside the creature cracked at the impact. It was loud enough and sharp enough to pierce through the white noise of the rain. It sounded like a bone snapping, and maybe it was whatever the equivalence was. Luka guessed wooden logs, as the obvious choice. When it landed, with more grace than was entirely fair, one of the legs hung limp at its side. It wouldn''t feel pain, but that didn''t mean it could walk on a broken limb.

    He backed towards the door. With only one of the dogs left, there was a chance. His hand was slick with blood and rain, and when he got it around the door handle, it nearly slid off the cool metal. He gritted his teeth, watching the dog with half of his attention, while pushing the door open. It didn''t budge.

    "Fuck," he muttered. It was either locked or blocked, and every nearby window was barred. Luka trailed his fingers against the brick wall, hoping against hope that it would lend him some strength, cancel out just a fraction of the rain pouring over him. If he could access even just an ounce of magic, he might live. If not, well. He''d fight to the death, but he didn''t like his odds.

    He scrambled in his pocket for a key, a focus, like writing subway stops on walls to travel, and then he fucking prayed. Not to any god in particular, since Mages tended to think they were the gods themselves. The story that their magic came from dragons was wide-spread, but even if that was true, knowing humans, the power was stolen and no dragon god or spirit was going to waste any time or effort on answering his prayers.

    He pushed magic into the key, into the door, not sure if it worked. It was actually untethered magic, rather than internal magic. The reason the Council still allowed traveling was probably that it was such a common function, that it barely counted as wild magic. It only triggered the purpose of a specific place or item, nothing more. In the same way that public transportation centers were made to transport people, keys were made to unlock things. The rain drowned out most sounds, so he couldn¡¯t hear if the lock clicked. The dog limped, struggled to adjust to three legs, which was the only reason he still had any time left, and this time, when he pushed, the door gave.

    The heavy door slammed in the face of the creature, when Luka let it go and sank to the floor. Diluted blood dripped from him, along with rain water. He had to Heal, but he barely had the energy to make the effort. He wouldn''t bleed out for a while. He could give himself a minute to breathe, before he needed to dive deeper into the building, and find the people who were trying to kill him.

    Maybe even two.

 Chapter sixteen

    Oracles were so rare, they made Healers seem common. They weren¡¯t even counted among the four types of magic, because no one was sure it was even a type in the same way. Alice didn¡¯t know how rare they were, she only knew that she¡¯d never seen one. As soon as a mage was determined to be an Oracle, they disappeared from the Academy.

    For special training, it was said.

    For their protection, it was explained.

    No one really knew what it meant, because anyone who knew what they could do, didn¡¯t talk about it. What Alice did know, was that they could trace magical signatures and were extremely valuable to the Academy. When they were, very briefly, taught about the Oracles, they were told that Oracles could find any mage by tracking their signature. All they needed was an anchor point; a recent time and place when the mage had used magic. Some people still believed they were a myth, a fairy tale the Council had made up to keep mages in check, but Alice had always believed they were real.

    Now she was on the verge of seeing one for herself. She followed Hadley, and was surprised when he led her to his car. Since the Oracles were such an important asset to the Council, it would have made sense to keep them within the wards of the Academy, even though no student had ever seen one. At least, as far as they knew. Some said their appearance changed as they used their magic, but Alice didn''t know if it was true. She had perhaps imagined some sort of secret basement, where they all lived. She certainly hadn''t imagined them living in the city, which was the direction Hadley was driving in. When they crossed the bridge, and got off the highway, he turned towards downtown.

    He stopped in front of a hotel, and allowed the valet to take his car. Hadley held the glass door open for Alice, as they entered. She was still confused about what they were doing.

    The hotel was all dark wood, decorated with gold. It had a Victorian feel to it, and it was¡­ a lot. Almost to the point of extravagant.

    "A hotel?" Alice asked, keeping her voice low.

    "A famously haunted hotel," Hadley said, as if that explained everything.

    "Okay, but that still doesn''t make sense," she insisted. She couldn''t imagine any practical way of keeping the Oracles at a hotel, while keeping them safe, and not attracting suspicion. She couldn''t believe the best option they had come up with, was booking open reservations at hotels, haunted or not. Even if they moved them around, relocating them on a regular basis, that was a lot of work.

    "Doesn''t it?" he asked her, and she instinctively resented the tone of his voice. It was too much like a teacher, trying to trigger a memory of something she didn''t know. Luka didn''t have the patience for that kind of teaching method, and she really thought she had escaped it.

    "Does it?" she asked, bothered by whatever she was missing.

    Hadley didn''t answer. He approached the front desk, where a young woman looked at them with a polite smile, asking what she could do for them.

    "Room 304," he said.

    "Sir," she said, with an acknowledging nod. "The room isn''t available."

    "It is now."

    She cocked her head slightly, taken aback.

    "There''s a lockdown."

    "I know," Hadley said. "Look, it''s life or death for one of our Agents."

    "Okay," she said. "ID and clearance."

    He slipped her his Academy ID, and leaned over the desk.

    "I don''t have time to take this through the proper channels," he said. "Especially not with the lockdown. But Mage Van Aller cleared it."

    "I can''t¡­"

    "You''re welcome to call her," Hadley said, and took out his phone. He scrolled through his contacts, and held it out to her.

    "No," she said, waving the phone away. "It''s fine. Mage Thomas. Sir."

    She eyes Alice. "Two?"

    Hadley nodded. "Thanks."

    She disappeared in the back for a moment, and when she returned, she handed Hadley a key card and two delicate silver chains. Hadley handed one of the silver chains over to Alice, and headed for the elevators. The chain had a small key charm attached to it. Hadley pulled it over his head, and Alice copied him.

    "For the wards," he explained.

    The elevator took them to the third floor, and the doors opened to an empty hallway, even though Hadley had never pressed the 3rd floor button.

    "Are you ever going to explain any of this to me?" Alice asked.

    "The significance of the haunted building should be obvious to you. Haven''t you been taught about urban legends?"

    "Right," Alice said. "Yes. I think it was covered in the ''stay away from wild magic'' portion of the syllabus, where we were told to stay away from wild magic."

    Hadley sighed. "So, that''s a no."

    "We have been taught not to create magical incidents, and how to deal with them when they occur, which mostly came down to leaving them alone and calling an Agent. That''s it."

    Hadley fell silent, and instead unlocked the door to room 304. The lock beeped when the card was inserted and flashed a green light at them.

    "The short version," he said, opening the door, "is that urban legends, specifically those with a set geographical location, become power centers. The added interest, the telling and retelling of the story, the myth and mystery shrouding the place makes it loaded with an unusual amount of magic. You should be able to feel it."

    She nodded. Her magic had danced under her skin since they entered, and a faint but constant buzzing had been present in her ears. It had initially made her nervous, thinking she might have gotten infected with the virus, but had reasoned it was unlikely. She hadn''t been using her magic, and no one had been using magic around her either. She thought it was just wards or something. She hadn''t expected it to be the building itself.

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    "Well, as an added bonus, no one will wonder why the magic is more intense here. No one will examine the cause of it, because the cause is obvious. No one will notice that on top of being a power center, this building is housing several Oracles."

    The room opened into a small seating area, but it was empty. She followed Hadley further in, to the bedroom, and saw who she assumed was the Oracle. She sat on an unmade bed, looking up from a book as they entered. Her hair was nearly white, falling in soft waves to her chin, and her eyes were a pale, periwinkle blue, only barely holding on to any color at all. With her milky skin, white tank top, and light gray sweatpants, she looked washed out, like a watercolor ghost in an oil painting. Alice wondered if it was an Oracle thing, if that was what they all looked like. Pale and colorless.

    The girl marked her place in the book and smiled at them, showing perfect teeth.

    "You have something for me?" she asked, and looked excited at the promise of something to do.

    Hadley nodded. "I need you to locate Luka Lavrin."

    She shook her head. "Hadley," she sounded disappointed. "You know how this works."

    "Right," Hadley said. "Of course. Luka Mikhailovich Lavrin. Healer. Last seen around an hour ago at Mutiny." He paused. "Is Mutiny enough, or do you need the address?¡°

    She flashed him a smile. "It''ll do."

    They watched her as she crossed her legs beneath her and straightened her spine, taking up a position as if she was meditating.

    Hadley turned to Alice. "This might take a while," he said quietly. "You had questions?"

    Alice glanced at the girl. "I have several," she said.

    They went back to the seating area and settled down in a pair of worn armchairs. The fabric was velvety, and run through with stripes in shades of reds and green. Alice fiddled with the stitching, as she settled on a question.

    "Who is she?" Alice asked. It was far from the most pressing question on her mind, but it seemed like the right place to start.

    "We call her Mira. When a mage is revealed to be an Oracle, they give up their identity and are placed in one of our safe locations for their own protection."

    "So, she grew up in a string of hotel rooms, alone?"

    "She has a handler. They all do."

    "That''s not..." She glanced at the young girl. She couldn''t even imagine. "You do this a lot?"

    "What? Break the rules to get access to the Oracles? No. I have the clearance to talk to them, so I often deal with them. Mira is too young and inexperienced to pick up the subtle magic of Strays, so it doesn''t matter if we borrow her."

    "I can pick up their magic, but it''s taxing and inefficient," the girl cut in. Alice could glimpse her through the opening between the rooms, but she hadn''t moved. She was sitting in exactly the same position with her eyes closed. Her magic was strange. It wasn¡¯t neon lights swirling across her skin, it wasn¡¯t the shimmering sunlight of nature mages, it was¡­ iridescence. Her magic contained every color she didn¡¯t, catching like rainbows in the light.

    "You''re supposed to focus on the task," Hadley told her.

    "I am," she said. "And I wouldn''t have to interrupt, if you were accurate."

    "So, what exactly is she doing?" Alice asked, lowering her voice even further.

    "Well, I don''t know exactly how it works," he said, sending Mira a look she didn''t see. "But from what I gather, she''s using the information to track everyone matching the description, and following the different paths, eliminating them until there''s only one left. Of course, in this case, we know he used his magic, which makes the process easier."

    Alice nodded, not entirely comforted by the information. It was good that they could locate Luka, but until now she hadn''t really believed they were that easy to find, to track. She hadn''t bought into the idea that each mage had a signature, because if that was the case, how could anyone ever do anything against the law? They could just be tracked and found, couldn''t they?

    "We could track whoever did this," she said. "We know where the source is. Go back far enough, and we have them."

    Hadley shook his head. "No. In theory, yes. But there are too many variables. We don''t know the when or who, only the where, and magic traces fade with time. There would be nothing left by now."

    "Oh," she mused. So there were limits to the Oracles. It was both distressing and reassuring.

    A little more than five minutes passed before Mira stirred. Alice wasn''t watching her, but heard the rustle of sheets as she uncrossed her legs and planted her feet on the ground.

    Alice got to her feet, impatient to move, to act on whatever information the girl was about to give.

    She didn''t speak, but came into the sitting room, and grabbed paper and a pen from a desk by the wall. At first, Alice thought she was writing an address, but it took too long. In the end, she handed it to Hadley.

    "Your guy has been throwing around a lot of magic," she said and sat down on the bed again. She picked up her book, and just like that, seemed to sink back into her own little world. Alice felt sorry for the girl. The isolation had to be taxing and horribly lonely. She couldn''t imagine living her life trapped in a lifeless hotel room, void of any personality or care. The chair she had been sitting in was an old, worn thing, barely holding together. She wanted to ask Hadley if this was what their lives were like, but not in front of her. She didn''t want Mira to hear the pity in her voice, the hopelessness and incompetence she felt at seeing how the most important assets of the Academy were treated. She shook off the feeling for now, and looked over Hadley''s shoulder at the piece of paper, which turned out to be directions. Hadley handed it to her.

    "Go," he said.

    A sliver of panic pierced her heart, as the words hit her. He intended for her to do this alone, barely trained.

    "I''m¡­ going to need an address. I can''t follow this." The directions were from Mutiny, so she guessed it mapped Luka''s route. She wasn''t like Luka. She didn''t have a map of the city built into her head, so she didn''t know where she was going.

    Hadley took the paper back, and glanced at it. "It''s just at the edge of Chinatown. Near the gate, I think."

    She wanted to yell at him. It wasn''t good enough. Luka would have been able to give her an exact address, he would have given her useful directions. He would have¡­ She took a breath. That wasn''t the important thing right now.

    She needed to go. Now. Except¡­

    "Hadley, if he''s throwing around magic¡­" If he was throwing around magic, it meant he had been wrong. They weren''t trying to recruit him. They were trying to kill him.

    "He''ll be fine," Hadley said, handing the paper back. "He always is."

    She nodded, but couldn''t quite make herself start moving.

    "What if he''s hurt?"

    Hadley shrugged, as if it was pretty pointless to send a Healer to assist a Healer. "Fine," he said. "I''ll send for a team."

    "Thank you, sir." Alice said. He nodded at her once, and she strode towards the door.

    It was frustrating, waiting for the elevator, and even worse, waiting for it to reach ground level.

    When she made it out of the lobby, rain was pouring down, and she started running.

    She only vaguely knew where she was in relation to Chinatown, but she knew she had to go south.

    The rain was in many ways the last straw for her, but she couldn''t linger on that. She couldn''t allow herself to despair yet. She didn''t think Luka was helpless, not even in the rain, but it was just another thing that seemed to lower the odds of finding him alive.

    She focused on running.

    She made it to Chinatown in a little over five minutes, but she didn''t know where to go now. The directions weren''t clear. There was no mention of street names. It relied heavily on landmarks, directions and certain sensations. It became clear that Mira hadn''t just been watching Luka, she had walked the route with him. Maybe even feeling the things he felt, seeing the things he saw. It was difficult, because Luka possessed an internal map of the entire city that was intricately detailed, and Alice had a feeling he could walk the city blindfolded and get exactly where he intended to go. He didn''t necessarily walk the most logical route or the simplest route. So, she was following along to directions like "follow the red brick road to the red facade".

    She was on the red brick road, but she didn''t know what kind of red facade she was looking for. She turned a corner and saw it. A house painted bright red. Now she just had to find a car with a bow, and then she was nearly there. There were plenty of cars, but no bows. She turned in a circle, and then she spotted it. A bow had been spray painted on a wall across the street, right above the roof of a parked car.

    The directions said more, but ended with "the end of the alley", so into the alley she went.

 Chapter seventeen

    Luka leaned his head back against the door, closed his eyes, and listened.

    Water dripped from his clothes and his hair and his skin, but that wasn''t what he was listening for. He knew he needed to move, that they wouldn''t wait forever, before they would come looking for him.

    So far, there was only silence.

    The beats of his heart were heavy against his rib cage, but at least they had slowed. He had more bite marks and scratches than he cared to count, and blood still mixed with the water, although it became less watered down as the minutes passed.

    Now that he was finally paying attention, his entire body and soul screamed at him to stop the flow of blood steadily leaving his body. His magic burned under his skin, only a few minutes away from self-preservation, of leeching away his magic to keep him alive. It was an annoying feature of healing magic, but he couldn''t deny that it had saved his life more than once.

    He called up the magic, and it danced across his skin, closing the shallow wounds first, while he assessed the damage of the deeper ones. If anything important had been severed or nicked, it would require more than minimum attention. He had several deep gashes around his chest and shoulders, one uncomfortably close to his carotid artery, but nothing was in immediate danger of killing him. His magic was probably just responding to the trauma of it all, of the scope of it, rather than the severity. Not that it wasn''t bad. It just wasn''t¡­ on the verge of death bad. The worst damage was on his arm, where the claws had slashed deep enough to hit bone. He healed every scratch and every bite mark, but the bruises and the aches would have to wait.

    He pushed himself up, with the effort of someone twice his age, who smoked and drank as much as he did, but lacked the ability to heal the damage, and stumbled to his feet.

    Even though he really wanted to turn back, leave this place and this mission behind, along with the entire fucking Academy, he stepped further into the dark interior of the building.

    He first entered into an industrial kitchen, a leftover from the building¡¯s life as a restaurant. With the front of the building boarded up, and the dark clouds looming outside, raining misery down on the city, there wasn¡¯t enough light left inside to make out details. He experimentally flicked the light switch, not entirely expecting anything to happen, but pale white light stuttered on in patches. The kitchen was run down and dirty, but in one piece. The tiles on the floor were cracked in places, and remnants of something broken, but unidentifiable, were scattered across them. He dripped water as well as blood on the floor, as he attempted to shake some of the rain from him, but his clothes continued to cling to him like a clammy second skin. It was annoying, the way the fabric scraped against his skin, but it couldn¡¯t be helped. Not even magic had an easy solution for that, and he was supposed to preserve his power.

    He left the kitchen, and walked into the dark restaurant floor. He turned on the lights, and found it empty. A couple of chairs had been abandoned and stood in separate corners, facing nothing. There were no other furniture, and definitely no people or creatures of any kind. He started to wonder if the dogs had been the only trap. If he had endured, made it through it already, but then where was his prize? The nature mages had to still be in the building, and regardless of what their task was, their job wasn''t done.

    "Don''t tell me that was it," he called into the empty space of the building, throwing caution all the way out of the window. "Because I''m not impressed."

    If all else failed, taunting was the sure way to get yourself killed.

    He waited, but nothing else happened. He was starting to think the nature mages really hadn''t stayed, but he was still determined to search the place. He had been led here for a reason, and there had to be some sort of clue that would tell him what to do next. He found a set of stairs and climbed them to the first floor, which contained a room filled with stacked chairs and tables. Legs sticking up like stalagmites dominated the view, but it seemed unlikely that anyone would brave the maze unless they absolutely had to. The building seemed empty, and not even the graffiti held any significance. He returned to the ground floor, and the empty restaurant.

    He froze in the door.

    Two figures stood near the middle of the room, turned towards each other. He really should have sensed them move, or heard the low murmur of their voices, but it seemed like both his senses were dulled by the white noise of the rain outside. They were dressed in dark suits and muted ties, green on one and reddish-brown on the other, but the thing that made Luka frown were the masks. They wore animal masks over their faces, a deer and a fox, respectively. They were intricately designed, made from beautiful swirls of black metal and wood, clearly created with care for their wearers. Ears and antlers mingled with their hair, which, on both of them, was remarkably well-suited for the animals they were wearing. The only visible traits of their faces were jaws and chins, their eyes were shrouded in dark shadows, and every other feature was covered, making them mostly anonymous. Luka noted their height, build and hair color.

    Their discussion was cut off as soon as Luka entered Deer Mask¡¯s line of sight. His head jerked towards him, and Fox Mask followed the movement with a slow turn.

    Deer Mask lurched forward, but the fox was already holding him back. ¡°No.¡±

    The deer turned back, briefly, before he pulled himself free. Fox Mask stepped into his path, putting himself between the other mage and Luka.

    ¡°Let me handle this,¡± he demanded, but Luka felt the stare from Deer Mask, the promise of violence. He wasn¡¯t going to listen to his partner.

    ¡°How sure are you, that he¡¯s right?¡± He jerked his head towards Luka. ¡°He might pretend to be a Rogue, but he still looks like an Academy dog to me.¡±

    Luka took offense at that, even though it wasn¡¯t entirely wrong. He didn¡¯t want to have anything to do with the Academy, yet here he was, fighting for it. He might as well have the crest tattooed on his arm.

    Fox Mask shook his head. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± he said, softer now, more of a plea. ¡°We don¡¯t get to make that choice.¡±

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    Deer Mask called his magic, and pushed him out of his way.

    Luka took a step further into the room. Deer Mask was the Summoner, the one who had controlled the dogs. His magic shimmered yellow across his skin, like the play of light and shadows when sunlight filtered through leaves. The thing that made Luka guarded, was the fact that he was a Summoner, with nothing to summon. There was nothing in this box of brick and concrete for him to move or touch. He didn¡¯t know where the last dog was, but he imagined it was still outside. Luka tensed, wondering what he was planning to do.

    It didn''t take long before he found out.

    There was a crash from upstairs, and the sound of glass shattering. Luka turned back towards the stairwell, expecting the dog. Instead, a large bird, constructed primarily of mismatched feathers and bark, soared through the air. It was heading for Luka, even as he realized that this creature wasn''t meant for battle, but was only a distraction. They hadn''t expected a direct fight, Fox Mask had made that clear, and it seemed that the dogs really had been the trap. The bird had talons, but they were nothing compared to the vicious claws of the beasts. It had a beak, but that was nothing more than a polished piece of wood. It was probably a scout, there to keep an eye on Luka''s approach, so they wouldn''t be caught off guard. He reached for the wall, feeling for pipes behind the drywall, and pulled out enough metal to form a sword.

    The bird circled above him, and Luka backed slowly towards to the mage. The bird swept down, trying to find an opening, but Luka waved it off with the blade. Meanwhile, Deer Mask was edging towards the kitchen.

    Luka was distracted by the bird long enough for Deer Mask to move into the kitchen, and reemerge. The bird dived again, and this time, Luka had found the pattern. He swung his blade at it, and severed it in two. It fell to the ground with a dull thud of wood hitting carpet. He lowered the sword, and looked at the pile of bird for a second, before turning his attention towards the mage. A knife was flying at him, and he narrowly ducked out of the way. It embedded in the wall behind him with more than natural force. Luka dropped the sword and walked towards Deer Mask. If this was all he could think of, there was really nothing to worry about. He deflected another knife with a shield, and moved within reach of the other mage. He held on to the last knife, and stabbed it towards Luka¡¯s middle. Luka caught his arm, and with his free hand, curled his fingers around his throat. His magic flared, as he shot pain through his nerves. The mage screamed behind the mask, collapsing, writhing on the floor as his entire body was consumed by agony. Luka regretted not training the skill more, to gain the power to do it from a distance, but as long as he could get within reach of another mage, incapacitating them was insultingly easy.

    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fox Mask stride towards them. He had finally decided to join the fight, and maybe even make it a proper challenge. Blue neon light spilled from his hands, a sword materializing at his side.

    He was an urban mage.

    "Let him go," the fox said. He had to raise his voice over the screaming, which clipped some of the threatening edge from the words.

    "I don''t think so," Luka said. "He seems pretty intent on killing me, so I don''t see how that works in my favor."

    "He can''t do much to you. Not in here. But I can." He leveled the sword at his throat. "Let. Him. Go."

    Luka released the nature mage, leaving him gasping, whimpering on the ground. Luka knew he''d lost any advantage he had. He could have threatened to kill Deer Mask, but he somehow didn''t think it would go over very well. They were all on edge at this point, and a misstep would certainly get him killed.

    "Fine," he said.

    He backed away from them both, but the sword followed his movements.

    "You''ve made your point," Luka said. "Take your friend and go."

    Fox Mask didn''t move. "Have we? Because I no longer think we have."

    The blade swung, and Luka spat a curse, as he had to dodge underneath it to keep his head attached.

    Luka was all too aware that his magic was running low, while Fox Mask was just getting started.

    He searched for the blade he had abandoned, but the fox was doing a good job of blocking his path from it. He made a dive in the opposite direction, making the mage follow, distancing him from his friend. He waited until he attacked again, slipping past him and grabbing the sword off the ground. Fox Mask quickly drove him back, making him retreat from the deer, who had fallen silent on the ground.

    The blades clashed, one magic against another.

    Fox Mask attacked relentlessly, while Luka did his best to defend. He was driven back towards one of the walls. He knew he had to do something, before he found himself cornered. He put up a shield, offering magic he couldn''t afford. He took a hit on his shielded arm, and pushed the sword away from himself. He took advantage of Fox Mask having to shift his balance, and got a hit in, his blade sinking into his hip. Fox Mask hissed, but recovered quickly. Luka made the mistake of thinking it won him time. Blue neon bit into his sword arm, and he faltered for a moment, almost losing his grip on the blade.

    Fox Mask let go of the sword in his hand, before it even detached from Luka''s arm, and replaced it with two shorter, narrower blades. He parried Luka''s sword with one, stepping close, and buried the other in his gut. It was bad enough that Luka healed it instinctively.

    Mistake. He didn''t have the magic to spare.

    The mage had somehow gotten him cornered, which was mistake number two.

    Fox Mask dropped one of the blades, and it vanished before hitting the ground. With his free hand, he shoved Luka against the wall, and pinned him with his forearm against his chest.

    "Now, we''ve made our point," he said.

    He slid the remaining blade between Luka''s ribs, clean through his body. It didn''t hit anything important, but Fox Mask twisted the blade, withdrew it and stabbed him one more time, before releasing him. This time it pierced through his lung. He gasped as the pain settled within him, as his lung suffered. Luka felt the blade wink out of existence, the blue glow vanished from his body, and his blood started flowing freely. He clutched his side, trying to apply pressure despite his weakening hands, and slid down the wall. He left a red streak in his wake, and collapsed on the floor.

    Fox Mask crouched down next to him. "If you do manage to survive this, here¡¯s a hint," he said. "In this story, the emerald road leads to Wonderland."

    The mage stepped away from him without a second glance, like it wasn''t even worth it to watch him die. He listened to the footsteps pause, then multiply, as he helped up his partner. The lights vanished shortly after. At first, Luka thought his vision had failed, but then realized that an unused building with the lights on would be too much of a beacon, and apparently they wanted him to die alone and in the dark.

    He had enough presence of mind to heal his lung, but that required the rest of his magic and then some. He had nothing to spare for the puncture wounds, and those wouldn''t kill him within the next ten minutes. For a minute or two ¡ª or maybe more, he didn''t know. He just knew that blood started pooling around him ¡ª he sat bleeding on the ground, trying to get his weary mind to cooperate. He had been in his position enough times, that the process should be automatic, but he still took the time to weigh the risk of using magic he didn''t have against the chance of surviving until help arrived.

    Help, he hadn''t called yet.

    He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, trembling hands trying to navigate his password and then his contacts. Spots danced across his vision, and he knew he was running out of time. His fingers froze, hovering over the screen.

    Someone entered the building, calling his name.

    Alice.

    His vision blackened, before he could make a sound. The phone slid out of his hand, while he waited for her to find him.

    Sight vanished, then sound, and in the end, feeling.

 Chapter eighteen

    The end of the alley was a dark and narrow cage. There was a slim opening that maybe led out to the other side, but Luka hadn¡¯t run. She could picture him cornered here, by whatever the piles of dirt and wood used to be. She knelt down next to one, rummaging through the remnants of it. Based on the hint of muzzle and claws she found, she guessed they were supposed to be some sort of wolf or maybe a large dog. There were roots winding through it, tied into a heart, veins, identifying it as the work of a Summoner.

    She frowned.

    A nature Summoner in the middle of the city? She looked up at the sky, the dark clouds above. The rain had slowed, but not stopped, and was making ripples in the shallow puddles surrounding her. She dipped her fingers into one of the pools, intending to wash her hands clean of dirt, but her skin came away tinted red. It was too dark, too wet, to determine how much blood had been spilled.

    She straightened up, and turned towards the door. The blood should make her rush inside, but she was too afraid of what she might find. She was afraid she was too late, but she was also afraid that she wasn¡¯t late enough. If the people who had attacked Luka were still here, what chance did she have?

    Hadley had promised backup, but she didn¡¯t know when it would be here, if it was even coming at all.

    When she pushed the door open, she tried not to picture Luka dead on the floor, lying in a pool of his own blood. Felled by injuries he was unable to heal, lacking the energy after the battle, after the rain. She inched it open, for fear that it would make a sound, for fear that she was walking into a fight.

    The door only whined gently, and the inside was dark, so she stepped inside. She stopped, when she cleared the doorway, and closed her eyes and focused, but heard nothing.

    The building was quiet.

    "Luka?" she called into the empty space.

    No answer.

    She hit the light switch, and light flickered on.

    Next to the switch, there was a small symbol written on the wall. A gate to somewhere else. She pressed her palm to it, and called her magic, but nothing happened. She needed the key, of course, to activate it, if the mage hadn¡¯t closed it already. At least it made her feel more certain, that they were gone.

    She looked around, finding herself in an industrial kitchen. Drops of blood stained the floor, and led out of the room. She followed the trail to the front of the restaurant, which had obviously been closed for a while. The trap had been set here, because the building was abandoned. She stepped slowly forward, her feet hitting the carpet of the dining area.

    She spotted the dark shape slumped on the floor, but it didn''t immediately register as Luka. He looked dead. Blood streaked the wall above him, but blood was still spilling from his wounds, making the pool around him bigger. She hurried over and dropped to the floor, half slipping and half kneeling in her haste, and felt the still warm blood sticking to her bare legs. His phone lay next to him, the screen still alight and the phone still unlocked. She grabbed it, rather than scrambling for her own, and called Hadley. She waited impatiently for his voice to cut off the beeps, and put her fingers at Luka''s neck.

    His pulse was weak, but at least it was there. She murmured his name until finally the nature of the silence changed in her ear.

    "Luka?" Hadley asked.

    "It''s me," Alice said, "I''m going to need that backup right now."

    She heard faint noises on the other end, but got no response.

    "Hadley?" she asked, afraid the connection had been broken, or the signal didn''t come through okay.

    A moment more passed, then Hadley seemed to return to her.

    "They''re on their way. What happened?"

    Alice had to fight the urge to snap at him. He had been reluctant to send a Healer, and now she might have to watch Luka die. She watched the life spill out of him with every drop of blood, adding to the growing pool around them. She took a breath and kept her voice level.

    "I found him, but it''s bad. He''s unconscious, he''s bleeding heavily and he barely has a pulse. I don''t know what happened to him."

    "If his heart stops, you need to perform CPR," Hadley said. "Keep him alive until the Healer gets there."

    "I know, I know." Every time his pulse beat, she was afraid she wouldn''t feel another one. "Look, I have to hang up. I need to focus, and I need both hands."

    She just heard him start to say her name before she broke the connection. She put the phone down outside the circle of blood.

    "You''re the one with the medical training and knowledge, Luka. I don''t know why you would think this is okay," She muttered, gently. As much to occupy herself as hoping he heard her. Hoping her voice might reach him distantly, might anchor him in the world.

    "Can I move you?" She asked, knowing no answer would come. "I don''t even know if it''s okay to move you."

    She had taken a first aid course once, but that was years ago. She was also pretty sure it hadn''t quite covered what to do in case someone was rapidly bleeding out in your arms. Her mother was a doctor, and would know what to do, but calling her with something like this didn''t seem like an option. She wished she had paid more attention, or watched more medical shows on tv. Even though they were inaccurate, it had to be better than nothing. She kept her fingers on his pulse, and a hand pressed firmly against the most severe wound she could see. He had been stabbed, she thought, in the chest, but she had no idea if it was near anything vital. She had no idea, if there was a more pressing concern than the blood loss. The beats were weak and she was sure each one came slower than the last.

    She decided to move him when and if she needed to. She would give the team time to arrive. She could do that. The most important thing was keeping pressure on the wound, she knew that much.

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    She panicked, when she realized they might not know where she was. If all they had were Mira''s instructions, and Hadley''s vague idea of where the building was, they might waste precious minutes finding the right place.

    The door in the kitchen slammed closed, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

    All in all, it took them maybe five minutes to arrive, but they were the most stressful five minutes of Alice''s life.

    "In here!" She yelled. "Just follow the trail of blood," she added, though not loud enough to be heard.

    A group of three people entered from the kitchen. One of them, she assumed the Healer, rushed to Luka''s side. She saw the hesitation, before the Healer called her magic. Luka was infected, and she knew it. It took her a few seconds to weigh the risk against the ethics, but every second was priceless for Luka.

    Alice was pulled away from Luka by the others, who gently guided her backwards and got her standing, allowing the Healer space to work. She had managed to postpone the shock, while she had something to focus on, but now she started shaking. Her legs felt weak. Her skin felt burdened with the blood covering it. She leaned against the wall, and registered one of the mages talking to her. The woman was looking at her intently, scanning her, while asking her questions, but Alice could make no sense of them. The third member of the group, a man, had withdrawn some steps. He looked like he was pretending to look for a threat no one was particularly worried about. The nature mages were long gone, and Alice had no reason to think they were coming back.

    She closed her eyes, trying to focus on the words.

    "---e your name?"

    "Alice." Her voice sounded weird to her. Distant. She wasn''t sure she had said it out loud.

    "Good," she heard, before the woman''s words cut out again. She managed to put something together about Hadley having briefed them, but they didn''t know much. Which they wouldn''t, she thought. No one did. No one but Luka.

    "How is he?" she asked. The Healer was still sitting over him, and they were both surrounded by the red neon glow of magic.

    The Healer didn''t speak, and while Alice knew she needed to focus on the task before her, she couldn''t accept silence as an answer. She clutched the woman standing in front of her.

    "How is he?" she asked again, her voice quivering ever so slightly.

    "He may have lost too much blood," the Healer said. "I don''t know yet."

    "No," Alice said. "You got to him when his heart was still beating. You can heal him. You have to."

    "I can''t create something from nothing. If he was conscious, maybe he could¡­¡° she trailed off, shaking her head slightly. "I don''t know."

    "You don''t know? What do you mean, you don¡¯t know?"

    The woman holding her pulled her away from Luka and the Healer, pushing her back towards the kitchen.

    "You have to let her work," she said.

    Alice pulled away from her. She turned and walked outside, away from them. Away from everything. She needed air and space and a reassurance she was not going to get. She paced in front of the door, and found her phone, once her frustration failed to settle.

    Hadley answered the phone after the second ring.

    ¡°He was wrong,¡± Alice said, trying to be pragmatic, because they still had a case to solve, but her heart wasn¡¯t in it. Her heart was inside, beating in time with Luka¡¯s slowing pulse. ¡°They wanted him dead.¡±

    She didn¡¯t really want to hear Hadley say it, but he did anyway. ¡°Apparently.¡±

    ¡°They might have succeeded.¡± It was still raining, but not enough to wash away all the blood on her hands.

    ¡°Alice¡ª¡±

    ¡°The Healer said we might be too late. He might have lost too much blood.¡± She realized that she didn¡¯t actually want to hear his answer. Either he still thought Luka was invincible, or he just didn¡¯t care that much.

    ¡°Were they really on their way, when I called?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Hadley asked, but he sounded more distracted than surprised.

    ¡°I saw the hesitation. They knew he was infected.¡±

    ¡°Of course they knew. I couldn¡¯t risk a Healer unless it was vital.¡±

    ¡°If he dies, we have nothing.¡±

    Hadley sighed, but she couldn¡¯t read his mood over the phone. ¡°I know. I assure you, I wasn¡¯t gambling with his life.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± she said, "but I think you forgot that there''s a person beneath the legend." She might have been tempted to do the same, if she hadn''t just been forced to bear witness to his humanity.

    She might have failed Luka, but so had he.

    She hung up. She regretted making the call, regretted thinking that Hadley would offer her reassurance. She stood in the silence of the alley. Diluted blood still swirled in the puddle she was standing in, or maybe it was new, since she was still dripping with it. Going back inside was more than she could handle, so she waited. For something, anything, to happen, so the moment might stop seeming frozen in time. She felt like she was in limbo, like the fate of her future, all their futures, was about to be revealed.

    But the wait was endless.

    An eternity later, Alice was seated in the back of a car, heading back to the Academy. They had folded down the seats, so really, it felt more like sitting in the trunk, but it had made it easier to get Luka inside.

    Luka was alive, barely. He was lying next to her, his head in her lap, still unconscious. The man from the team was driving, while the woman was sitting in the passenger seat. The Healer was sitting with them in the back, the red glow of magic still flowing between her and Luka. Alice didn''t pay too much attention to it, but thought maybe he still had minor injuries that needed healing. In the end, the Healer had managed to stabilize Luka, and Alice had been assured that with some rest, he should be fine. They were going to the hospital, despite Alice''s protests. She had tried to insist that they took him home, but was brushed off. They had orders, they said. Alice thought of the detachment she had heard in Hadley''s voice, and it frightened her that she didn''t know what he was planning. She watched Luka silently, having given up discussing with the team a long time ago.

    She ran her hand idly through his damp curls, comforted by the silky texture of his hair. He hadn''t woken yet, hadn''t even stirred. She kept her other hand on his chest, making sure he was breathing and his heartbeat was strong. It was strange, seeing him this vulnerable and fragile, and a part of her felt like it was a betrayal. Like she shouldn''t be there, shouldn''t be seeing him like that. But she had saved his life. She had earned it.

    Her emotional state was still fragile, she still felt frayed, and focused instead on Luka. He was alive, and strong, and he was going to recover from this.

    She wasn''t conscious of time or space, not until they slowed down and passed through the gates into the Academy. They didn''t enter through the front gates, but through another entrance that led directly to the hospital. Cars weren''t generally allowed on Academy grounds, except for here and on the parking lot near the dorms.

    Once the car stopped, Alice barely had time to react, before Luka was pulled away from her. She got out of the car, still dazed, and followed them inside. They were barely past the entrance, when a hand on her shoulder halted her. She turned around and faced Hadley.

    "What''s going on?" She asked. "They said they were ordered to bring him here, but if he''s fine, then he can go home. He should go home."

    "He''s infected, Alice." Hadley said gravely.

    "I know, but..." she started, but Hadley wasn''t done.

    "We can''t let him leave."

    Alice frowned. "What are you saying?"

    His eyes turned hard, and an icy dread settled within her. She didn''t let her expression change, careful to look confused, but neutral.

    "He has to be isolated with the others. You should be able to understand, why we can''t let him keep working this case. The risk it too great."

    "So, instead of letting him work the case, and possibly die, you want him isolated and drugged, and no one working the case?"

    The second the words left her mouth, she knew what he was going to say. She turned away from him, refusing to look at him, when he transferred the burden to her shoulders.

    "You''ll work the case," he said, predictably, but she hadn''t been ready for the feeling the words would invoke in her. She felt damned, lost. Afraid. Her nails dug into the palms of her hands. She couldn''t speak.

    "You''ll have all the help you need." Hadley continued.

    She nodded, not trusting her voice. Not knowing how to say no. She walked past him, into the hospital.

    She wasn''t going to do anything until she saw that Luka was safe. She couldn''t do anything until she had time to deal with the shock of it all. She felt Hadley''s eyes follow her, but he didn''t try to stop her.

 Intermission II

    Ten years earlier

    Luka and Abel ducked out of the summer heat and into the cool tunnels underneath the city.

    They had skipped class to get Mutiny alone. Neither Hadley nor Lena approved (Hadley would never be told specifics about Mutiny, but he also wasn''t stupid. Lena knew about Mutiny, she was just a far better student than Luka and her brother), but they would take notes for them anyway ¡ª and really, how important was Intro to Ethics anyway?

    Honestly, Luka could out-school most of the teachers at this place anyway. The only reason he was here instead of Russia, was because he was following his parents'' dream to live in America.

    And, at the times when he was most honest with himself: Because he hadn''t been able to stand living in their shadow.

    While American ethics differed somewhat from Russian ethics, they still had yet to cover anything in the syllabus he didn''t know.

    Abel slung his bag in a corner, tugged off his tie and unbuttoned his Academy shirt, leaving himself in the tank top he was wearing underneath. Abel was careless with most aspects of his life, including his appearance. He cared about how he looked, it was just that he sometimes seemed to forget. So he let his hair grow out and his ties remain untied. He picked his socks at random, so they didn''t necessarily match. Today, one was patterned in reds and blues while the other was green. Luka hadn''t changed since his morning run, and was still in training clothes, plastered with the Academy coat of arms like everything else.

    "No internal magic rules apply," Abel said, as they took their positions in front of each other.

    "Yeah, I know."

    Abel was the only person Luka had met, who actually thought Healers had the advantage in a fight. Most Forgers and Fighters and Summoners believed that their own power, their own strength, more than made up for the advantage of being able to heal throughout the fight, but not Abel. Of course Luka wasn''t exactly a normal Healer, but even so. He remained oddly flattered by the unfamiliar wariness towards his powers.

    "Ready?" Abel asked.

    "Always," Luka replied, smiling brightly at the promise of a challenge.

    A beat later, the fight begun. Luka charged first. Impatience was a vice he couldn''t quite shake, and Abel, knowing him too well, already had a shield up.

    Luka held the symbol of the spell in his head, and applied the magic to send a burst of power at Abel, designed to knock him back, but his defenses absorbed it. Abel stepped around him, eyeing him, while he bend down and drew a pole from the ground. Luka smiled at the choice of weapon. Abel''s weakness in these duels was always a reluctance to do harm. Mutiny duels differed, with different rules for different people. Abel and Luka always played for first blood, and Abel wasn''t going to get much blood from a stick.

    He dodged an attack and an attempt to trip him, and retreated to put some distance between them. He knelt, lightly touching his fingers to the ground, letting Abel believe he was going for a weapon of his own. Instead, the ground exploded around Abel, shards of rock and cement and dust rising around him. Luka focused on the shards. He couldn''t hold them all, and the rest clattered to the ground, but he held enough that Abel was surrounded by sharp edges. While he conjured another shield around himself, Luka sneaked around him.

    He drew a blade from the wall, and let the rest of the stones drop to the ground. Abel started turning, but Luka grabbed him, put the blade to his throat.

    Shield spells required constant focus and attention. It dropped the moment Luka ambushed him.

    He hesitated too long, and didn''t get to draw blood, before Abel triggered a spell of his own and the blade vanished from Luka''s hands, reappearing in Abel''s. Luka took an elbow to the ribs, and he hissed a curse at the pain. No blood, though. He dodged another attack, but Abel tackled him to the ground, while he was still wondering if one of his ribs were cracked.

    Abel pinned him down, lowering the blade to his neck. "Do you yield?"

    "Never," Luka said, smiling up at him.

    "You''re out of options," Abel countered.

    Luka shrugged as well as he could, pinned underneath him. "It''s all about intent," he said. "I don''t believe you''re going to hurt me, so you haven''t won yet."

    "You have no idea what I''m willing to do to you," Abel said, gripping the blade tighter.

    Luka flashed him another smile. "Stop flirting," he said. "Finish it."

    Seconds ticked by, while they stared each other down.

    "No," Abel said in the end, shifting his weight off him. "I''m not going to¡ª"

    Luka pushed him off, and rolled over him, reversing their positions.

    "See? Intent."

    "Are you going to cut me?" Abel asked.

    "Only if you make me," Luka said. He tilted his head, a smile still playing in his lips. "Do you yield?"

    Another moment passed, before Abel surrendered. "Yes," he said, rolling his eyes at Luka.

    Luka stepped off him, and offered him a hand.

    "Again?" Luka asked, and Abel smiled.

    Luka stepped away to check his phone, and found increasingly alarmed messages from both Hadley and Lena.

    "Fuck," he spat. "Something is happening. We have to go back. Now."

    "What?"

    "I don''t know." He put his phone in his pocket and gathered his things. "Come on."

    Even if they hurried, it would take more than 15 minutes to get to the Academy. Once they made it to the West Medford Station, Luka called Hadley.

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    "What''s going on?" Luka asked.

    "Where the hell have you been?" Hadley asked. "No, forget it. Don''t answer that."

    It wasn''t like Luka would have answered, even if it was one of the least important things to worry about right now.

    "Some kid decided to set a Soul Eater loose, and it seems like his dying wish was to take the entire Academy down with him," Hadley continued.

    "The entire Academy?" Luka asked, incredulous. Soul Eaters couldn''t be stopped, so if this kid wanted them all dead, they would all be dead soon.

    "Or his entire class, who knows? He was found dead in the courtyard behind the hospital. He didn''t talk to anyone about what he was going to do, at least no one who will come forward."

    "So, what''s being done? Where are you right now?"

    "No one knows what to do, so we''re evacuating. If you''re at the gates, Lena and I will join you in a minute."

    "We''re on our way."

    He hung up, put the phone absently back in his pocket.

    "A Soul Eater is on the loose, possibly targeting the entire Academy," he explained to Abel.

    "The Academy specifically, or everyone involved with it?" Abel asked.

    "Don''t know, I assume the latter."

    "Well, shit."

    "Yeah," Luka agreed. "Thomas and Lena are meeting us at the gates." They were still more than 10 minutes out, but he hoped it would be enough time.

    "What difference does it make?" Abel said. "If it''s targeting all of us, there is no escape."

    "I know," Luka said. "I guess the best we can hope for is that it''s only after whoever drove the kid to do this."

    He set off at a sprint, and Abel followed.

    Soul Eaters were a last resort, a way to unleash your magic on something threatening. The catch was that it would always take the mage down with it, but it was a good way to save others if you were dying anyway. It was never meant to be used as a way of committing suicide, but unfortunately, that was exactly what depressed teenagers with a vendetta were doing. Technically, the thing that killed the mage was the act of summoning the Soul Eater, as it stole every ounce of magic the person possessed.

    Soul Eaters were pure magic, living entirely for the dying wish of their mage.

    Soul Eaters survived until their purpose was fulfilled.

    They were limited by the power of the mage, but not much else. And it wasn''t like killing a lot of mages would necessarily take a lot of force.

    Depending on the intent of the dead kid, it could apply to mages within the walls of the Academy, but they might as well all be hunted down one by one until they were all gone.

    And no one could stop it.

    Unless.

    Luka''s mind was working furiously, trying to hold on to the idea that was forming in his head. He struggled with the details, wanting for more information, that he just didn''t have. No one knew much about Soul Eaters, which was why any semblance of a plan he could come up with might not work.

    They made it to the Academy. Hadley and Lena were waiting outside. Luka took an involuntary step towards the gates, his hand gripping one of its steel bars, as if getting a little closer to the scene would allow him to see what was going on.

    He just needed the final pieces to fall into place.

    "I have an idea," he said, turning back towards the others.

    They were already moving away from the Academy, but their retreat was halting, as they waited for Luka to follow.

    "What? Lavrin, we need to go." Hadley stopped, but he could see the waver in his step, the reluctance to stand still growing with every second. "There''s nothing we can do.

    There''s nothing anyone can do."

    Abel and Lena had stopped too, but seemed no more willing to give in to Luka''s whims, when their life was on the line. His own survival instinct wasn''t happy with him either, but he fought it, forcing his mind to stay sharp. He very nearly had a plan. The Soul Eater was unstoppable, everyone knew that. It was born with a singular purpose, and it would not stop before it fulfilled that purpose. The problem with that theory was that no one actually knew. Luka had never heard of anyone who had stood up to a Soul Eater and tried to stop it, and if no one had tried, there was no knowing if it actually could be stopped. He idly pulled his fingers through his hair as he thought.

    "We all know what Soul Eaters are," he said, thinking out loud.

    "Yes, they''re an unstoppable force. Which is why we''re leaving," Lena said, pulling on her brother¡¯s arm to get him to move, but Abel was intrigued. Before, the desire to survive had been winning. Now, he moved slowly closer to Luka, as his curiosity won out.

    Abel never had the strongest survival instinct either. He was like Luka in that regard, but tragically lacked the Healing to follow through with it. Which was why it was a good thing he, unlike Luka, had someone like Lena to stop him from doing stupid shit. Luka had Hadley, but Hadley''s heart wasn''t always in it. He was too fond of letting Luka learn his own lessons through trial and error and pain, or too tired of arguing about Luka''s every ill-advised impulse.

    "They''re the essence of the caster, every last drop of power they have, but really they''re just energy," Luka continued his train of thought.

    "The faster you get to the point, the better," Hadley said, the rising urge in his voice was a point of distraction. One Luka did his best to ignore.

    "I''m going to draw on the energy," he said. "Repurpose it."

    "You can''t. Even if that was possible, that amount of energy¡­ You won''t survive."

    "Not if I do it alone," he said. The others were scattered around him, and he tried not to think about how the distance between him and each of them seemed to correspond to their willingness to help. Abel had moved closer, while Hadley had moved further away. Hadley was no longer the nearest person to him, and there was a distant part of him that felt betrayed by that. Hadley didn''t trust him. Not with his life.

    "It makes sense," Abel said, and became the supportive voice Luka desperately needed. "I think it can work."

    Luka fully intended to go through with the idea, regardless of their support, which was why having someone on his side was a huge relief. Breathing came more easily to him then, as resolve set in. Everything was better with a mission, a challenge for him to focus on.

    "We''re going to need a spell to make the energy malleable."

    The plan finally solidified in his mind, the pieces put together hastily but with confidence. Luka assigned the roles, and each of them nodded, though Hadley and Lena looked hesitant. They glanced at each other, as if considering whether they wanted to stick together on this, but neither said anything. Lena would never leave her brother, and Luka would like to think that his friendship with Hadley was important enough for him to stay. Lena was going to stay with Luka. He was nervous about asking her to help with the spell, but she was the best one. He needed to know if she saw any flaws in his hasty construction. Meanwhile, Hadley and Abel were tasked with luring the Soul Eater back to the small courtyard, where it had been born, and holding it, while Luka worked the spell.

    He was ready for it, when it came. His magic swirled around his hands, and he nodded at Lena to help with the creature. He spoke the spell out loud, so the others could follow along.

    The Soul Eater was constructed entirely out of energy, and painted the sky a pale neon blue. It flickered, shifted, like electricity come alive. Although it wasn''t solid, it had a distinct draconine shape. Its body was long and serpentine, ending in a sharp tail. It had strong legs with sharp claws and spikes running down its spine. It was unclear why the Soul Eaters always looked like dragons. Maybe people just universally thought dragons were the coolest creatures ever, maybe it was somehow symbolic. As far as Luka knew, no one were entirely clear on how the energy manifested or why it manifested as it did.

    The Soul Eater was tied to the casters very life force, hence the name. There was absolutely no reason why it should always manifest the same way in all people, unless it wasn''t about them at all. That was where the theory had started, that the reason Soul Eaters looked like dragons, was because that''s where the magic came from. It was born from dragons, and it died as dragons. Luka liked the idea that magicians carried the souls of dragons inside them, even though he knew it was nothing more than a fairy tale.

    The creature wasn''t happy about being contained. It squirmed and thrashed, and Luka noted its erratic movements, as it tried to escape the hold. It wasn''t immediately his problem, and he closed his eyes to focus on his words, rather than his friends. He felt the energy of the creature, and would know if it came any closer to him. He spoke the words slowly, deliberately, and the Soul Eater howled. He hoped it felt its power dwindle. He hoped the spell was working.

    He lifted his hand towards Lena, who started her own spell. It was supposed to move all the way around the loose circle they were standing in, from Luka to Lena to Hadley to Abel. Of course it never got that far. It had all been too perfect, too easy, and then everything started going wrong

 Chapter nineteen

    Alice was graduating today.

    She realized this after she woke up in a hospital room next to an unconscious Luka, but not before she read her texts. Teagan and Nick echoed each other¡¯s excitement in the texts, and Vision was blowing up with people getting ready for the event. It was late¡ªlater than she¡¯d expected¡ªand the ceremony would start in a little over an hour. She never meant to fall asleep at the hospital, and her body ached from sleeping in a chair.

    She felt more tired than she had before falling asleep, as much as that shouldn¡¯t be possible.

    She reached out for Luka¡¯s still form, just to reassure herself that his heart was still beating. The feeling of his failing pulse remained in her fingertips, but she wished she could overwrite it with the steady rhythm under her hand now. He was being kept sedated, but she still hated seeing him like this. She wanted him to be strong, to be invincible.

    Luka was a legend, but looking at him now, Alice realized it wasn''t fair to hold him to those standards. She had no doubt that he was very, very good, but the legend of him was based on something he had done a decade ago. It didn¡¯t make him superhuman, it only made him someone who had once done something extraordinary.

    It was disappointing, because she needed him. She couldn¡¯t do this alone.

    She couldn¡¯t save him from the virus that was tearing through his body. She couldn¡¯t save any of them.

    A lock of his hair was curling towards his eyebrow, and she swept it back, only barely grazing his skin.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get you out of here,¡± she said. Not because it was a promise she was in any position to keep, but because she had to. Somehow.

    ¡°You can¡¯t.¡±

    Alice startled. She wondered how long Hadley had been hovering in the doorway.

    She took one last look at Luka, took one more moment to memorize the rhythm of his heartbeats, then left his bedside. Hadley stepped into the room, but Alice turned her back on him to gather her things.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t forget that he¡¯s a person,¡± he said.

    It sounded like an apology, but one that was too self-serving to land right. Alice had exchanged her wet clothes for a pair of scrubs that had been provided by one of the Healers, and her clothes had reappeared, washed and dried at some point during the night. She shoved them into her bag before turning back to face Hadley.

    ¡°I just¡­¡± When possibility turned into definite silence at the shake of his head, Alice realized he didn¡¯t have an excuse, but he still couldn¡¯t admit that he¡¯d been wrong. She brushed past him on her way out, but stopped dead when he caught her arm.

    ¡°Alice,¡± he said, almost pleading. ¡°I didn¡¯t do this.¡±

    ¡°Let go of me.¡± Her voice was flat with suppressed anger. ¡°Please.¡±

    He released her.

    She was mad at Luka too, but it was harder to be angry with someone who was heavily sedated and also dying. Meanwhile, Hadley was the one who had allowed Luka to get to the brink of death because of his protocols and was now holding him hostage. Luka had infected himself with a plan in mind, and even if all the evidence suggested that he had been wrong, they didn¡¯t actually know because they couldn¡¯t talk to him. Hadley was the one who had transferred the responsibility to her.

    She walked away from him, down the hall, and into the elevator. She couldn¡¯t quite breathe, not until the doors closed behind her and the tension lifted. Her mind was cluttered with every single thought she didn¡¯t want to focus on. She didn¡¯t want to think at all, but least of all about what happened next. She couldn¡¯t bear to think about all the lives that had been put in her hands or the fact that she didn¡¯t have a plan.

    She had to save Luka, but she couldn''t do that without Luka. She simply didn''t have the information she needed to do it.

    And what if Luka was right? What if it was all for him?

    What could she possibly do then?

    She returned to her room, but paused when she opened her closet. She had never intended to go to her graduation. Her parents weren¡¯t going to be there, so she¡¯d decided to skip it, even before getting the apprenticeship. Then, she figured she would be too busy with the case, but now...

    She was supposed to get back to work, but since she was rejecting every single thought about that, going to the graduation started looking like a much better idea. The only problem was that she had never gotten a dress for it. There was no formal dress code, but traditionally, graduates were supposed to wear their color. Her dress wouldn¡¯t have to be fully green (and certainly not neon green), but it would have to contain some green. She flipped through her dresses and sighed. She didn¡¯t wear a lot of green when she wasn¡¯t in uniform, but Teagan would have something.

    She texted her, and then headed for the showers. There was a line of people rushing to get ready, but when they saw her hospital scrubs and the blood, they let her through.

    She thanked them and claimed a shower stall. The water wasn¡¯t warm, and she would have showered quickly, but some of the blood proved stubborn. She tried not to focus too much on the vaguely reddish tint of the water and instead let the idle chatter from outside mute her own thoughts.

    When she returned to her room, Nick was lounging on her bed, while Teagan was leaning on her desk. Nick wore black slacks and a black shirt, but gold jewelry, including a pair of laurel branches pinned to his collar. Teagan was in a deep blue dress with beading that might have been branches but looked more like lightning striking down the skirt. Their conversation halted when Alice entered, and she remembered that things were still tense between them. She¡¯d been too busy to worry about it, and then too burdened, and now she honestly didn¡¯t even care anymore.

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    ¡°Hi,¡± she said, just to break the silence.

    ¡°Alice¡ª¡± Teagan took half a step towards her, the instinct to reach out warring with her guilt.

    The bed creaked as Nick sat up. "We have been meaning to apologize, but you''ve been MIA since the briefing."

    "We''ve decided to be supportive," Teagan said.

    "And we''re sorry," Nick added.

    "But," Teagan continued, sending a pointed look at Nick, "we want you to be careful, Alice. The way this sounds, it''s not an apprenticeship; it''s throwing you to the wolves."

    Alice nodded, because she did feel like she had been thrown to the wolves. Although not before Hadley had handed her the entire case.

    "Are you okay?" Teagan asked.

    "No."

    "What happened?" She asked, but in a way that sounded a lot like What did he do? and Do you need me to hurt him?

    She told them the shortest possible version. From the case being about the missing students to finding out it was a spell that made them sick, and finally to Luka being put in a coma after infecting himself. She skipped past the part where Luka had spilled nearly half his blood volume in front of her.

    "Hadley put me in charge," she finished, "but I don''t¡­ I don''t know anything. If there is another clue, Luka is the only one who knows what it is."

    They shared a glance, and Alice thought maybe they were starting to regret their decision to be supportive.

    ¡°So, what are you going to do?¡± Teagan asked.

    Alice turned away from both of them and towards the closet, where Teagan had hung her dress.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. ¡°Today, I just want to graduate. Tomorrow, I guess I¡¯ll have to think of something.¡±

    Only the bodice of the dress was green, dark, and velvety, while the skirt was a shimmering gray.

    ¡°Thank you for this.¡±

    ¡°Any time,¡± Teagan said.

    She shrugged out of her robe and put on the dress. Teagan stepped in to help with the zipper on the back, then added several pieces of jewelry. They were rose gold rather than silver, but it suited the warm gray of the skirt, while the emeralds matched the bodice.

    ¡°Alice,¡± Nick said. ¡°You know that Hadley can¡¯t put an apprentice on a case alone.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s going to stop him?¡± Alice asked. ¡°He¡¯s in charge, and the Council won¡¯t care. They just want it solved.¡±

    ¡°If Luka is the only one who can solve it, then let him solve it.¡±

    She glanced at him, trying not to move too much, while Teagan was putting the finishing touches on her look.

    ¡°What are you saying?¡±

    "I''m saying that Hadley doesn''t need to get involved. Go to the hospital, get Luka off the drugs, let him deal with Hadley."

    As good as that sounded in theory, it wasn''t going to be that easy. "I can''t do that. He''s going to have people watching Luka if he isn''t still there himself."

    Nick shrugged. ¡°We¡¯ll help you distract them.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    He smiled and looked at Teagan, who nodded. She couldn¡¯t believe them. Even Teagan was willing to deceive Hadley to help her. How could she ever have considered leaving them forever?

    ¡°Fine,¡± she said, allowing a smile to touch her lips.

    Once Alice had been deemed ready, they left for the graduation ceremony. It was close to starting now, but the entire day was dedicated to the event, so there was plenty to do otherwise. The ceremony itself mostly involved Headmaster Bailey making the same speech he made every year about how inspiring their journey was, and then he read out the names of every graduate. There was no walk, no diploma, no handshake. The whole thing was fairly uneventful, but it was also brief. There were a few more speeches, and then they got to move on to the party.

    Alice struggled to pay attention to any of it. The more she thought about Nick''s offer, the worse it seemed. She loved that they would do that for her, but they could really get in trouble if they helped with this. Maybe not Teagan, since she was Council Legacy and Hadley was only moderately powerful, but certainly Nick.

    She slipped off, moving back towards the hospital. She didn''t think Hadley would still be there, but at least it would give her the chance to check out the security situation, just in case she was going to have to do something really stupid. She rode the elevator up, and it opened on an empty hallway.

    Her heels clicked against the floor, echoing around the deserted floor. Luka should have been in with the early stage infected, but he had been granted his own room. Not that he would notice or care.

    She felt the anxiety settle back into her chest when she approached the door, as if the anticipation of seeing Luka triggered the full weight of responsibility on her.

    She wondered, briefly, if there was any chance he might wake up on his own. If Hadley had underestimated the amount of drugs his magic could burn through once it was back to full power. But it would take days to find out, and it was days she didn¡¯t have.

    She halted in the doorway, surprised to find that not only was Hadley still there, he seemed to have relocated his office to the hospital room. A wobbly folding table had been placed at the end of the bed and was displaying three neat piles of files, and Hadley sat next to the bed with his laptop. It was a rare display of concern, or maybe guilt, that Luka was unlikely to let him get away with if he made it out of this, but Alice didn¡¯t understand. There was no reason to stay with him since he was being kept in a coma. There was an argument to be made for making sure he didn¡¯t burn through the drugs, but any Agent or Healer could do that.

    Did he think it would absolve him?

    He looked up from his work when she entered. Alice went straight to Luka¡¯s side, so she wouldn¡¯t have to face Hadley while talking to him. She watched the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed steadily.

    "It''s not okay," she said, keeping her voice low and neutral, "to put all this on me."

    "I know," Hadley said, "but¡­"

    "You said I could have everything I needed."

    "Ye¡ª" Hadley paused, sensing the trap. "No."

    "I want Luka."

    "No," he said again.

    "Why not?"

    Hadley moved to the other side of the bed, leaning against the windowsill. Alice kept her eyes on Luka. "I need it approved, which isn''t going to happen."

    "No, you don''t."

    "What?"

    She finally looked up at him. "This was your call. The Council hired him to solve this. They don''t care about his safety. You do."

    "I¡­" Hadley faltered. She waited for him to deny it, sure he would. She had watched them circle each other like predators since the moment she met them, pretending they wanted to strike, when what they really wanted was to go back. It was obvious, at least to her, that the betrayal they each felt for each other was rooted in affection. She saw longing in between the lines of their hostility, and she saw it now. Luka was safer when he was unconscious, and it was easier to allow the longing to seep through the cracks.

    She still didn¡¯t understand what he thought he would gain from staying here, but maybe it was simple nostalgia. Maybe it was all the care he could afford to show.

    It would have been more admirable if he wasn¡¯t the reason Luka was here in the first place.

    ¡°You think this is protecting him? It isn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Do you really want to expose yourself to the virus because of him?"

    He looked so sure that it was a winning argument, but he didn¡¯t get it. Nothing mattered if Luka didn¡¯t solve this. Maybe they had contained the virus, but they couldn¡¯t know that for sure. Not for weeks. Maybe there was a way to cure it if they became desperate enough to try, but too many people were already victims of this.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said. ¡°Because I trust him, and you should too. You know he won''t die until everyone else are safe."

    Hadley remained silent, except for a sharp exhale. He looked tired, like it was a bone deep affliction. Like it was becoming a part of him. The deep shadows under his eyes looked like bruises, and it was more than just concern. Luka''s presence had been messing with Hadley''s sleep since the beginning. Nostalgia couldn¡¯t fix reality; time didn¡¯t always allow wounds to heal, and she didn''t think it was the case that was leaving him sleepless.

    "Fine," he said at last. "Go get a Healer."

 Chapter twenty

    Hospitals, even at the Academy, smelled sterile and chemical, as if the smell was as integral to the building as its foundation. That wasn''t Luka''s least favorite things about them, even as it made him feel slightly sick. His least favorite thing was that blend of hope and despair that burrowed under his skin whenever he entered one. People dying. People recovering. People on the verge of either. Mages died in hospitals as well as normal people did, even when there wasn''t a killer virus on the loose, because sometimes there simply wasn''t anything to do. Sometimes things couldn''t be Healed.

    That was one of the reasons he didn''t work as a Healer, or wasn''t a doctor like Quinn. Being a lab tech was different, the lab felt less like a hospital even as it was buried within one.

    He didn''t move yet, even though every fiber of his being wanted to escape this place. His eyes remained closed, even as the images of his dreams ¡ª his memories ¡ª haunted him, but he refused to open them. He refused to acknowledge that he was in an Academy hospital, and opening his eyes was going to make it too hard to ignore the facts. He thought back to his last minutes, trembling hands reaching for his phone, scrolling through his contacts. He had meant to call Quinn, but had he called Hadley instead? Or Alice?

    He was aware of the presence in the room, hovering over him. It was only a matter of time, before he would realize Luka was no longer asleep.

    "Ubljudok," he muttered, giving up the pretense.

    "Don''t do that." Even if he was barely alert enough to recognize Hadley''s voice, the sheer tone of it was unmistakable.

    He knew very well what it meant. He just hated it whenever Luka switched to Russian, because it made him feel excluded.

    "You''re a fucking idiot. Is that better?"

    Luka opened his eyes to the searing white ceiling. He blinked, and tried to find something not white to look at, but there was nothing. Hadley was outside his field of vision, and he still refused to move. He should test his muscles, the soreness of his body, try to determine how long ago he had been Healed. How long he had been here.

    He found that he didn''t want to know. His head was aching, but he couldn''t determine if it was still the wards bothering him, a product of magic fatigue, or something completely different. If he had known, that might have been some sort of clue. He had entered the restaurant at around midday. The light filtering through the windows now was bright and relentless, and he guessed it was early afternoon. He didn''t believe it was still the same day. They wouldn''t have taken him to the hospital if it was, so he had lost at least 24 hours.

    "Why am I here?" Luka asked. He shouldn''t have been here at all, let alone for a full day. Keeping people for observation was normal, but only if they weren''t Healers themselves. Healing wasn''t just a matter of pouring magic into an other person and hoping for the best. You had to know where the injuries were and how to mend them. Stitching a wound together was different from putting a bone back together, and making an accurate full body assessment took a lot of energy. Healers missed things, and often people were held overnight to make sure everything had been Healed correctly.

    Rules were different for Healers, whose magic and bodies were so closely connected, that he would have woken up the second he was sufficiently healed. Even with his magic mostly gone, he should have broken through the unconsciousness earlier. Yet, he remembered nothing. He felt his magic clearly under his skin now, restless energy buzzing through his veins, further proof that he had been here too long.

    He tried to sit up, so he wouldn''t have to carry a conversation lying down.

    Hadley moved over to his side, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Easy," he said. "You''ve been out for a while."

    "Yeah, and whose fault is that?" Luka growled, pushing himself up despite Hadley''s hand on him. He didn''t have the energy to tell him to remove it, so it lingered there until Hadley either deemed him steady, or he became uncomfortable with the contact.

    "Yours," Hadley said, sliding his hands into his pockets, and taking a step back. "Do you remember what happened?"

    Luka frowned. The question of how he ended up here still bothered him. He should have been at Quinn''s. He was pretty sure about that. "Did I call you?"

    "No," Hadley said. "What''s the last thing you remember?"

    "I remember getting fucking stabbed." And there was something else. Foxes and deer, and something about wonderland? It wasn''t clear, but something about it clung to the back of his mind. "How did you find me?"

    They had removed his shirt, but hadn''t replaced it. He ran his hand across his ribs, feeling the lingering aches where the knife had entered. The scars were raised, the physical reminders of his pain far too tangible. Quinn wouldn''t approve, but Quinn was nothing short of an artist, only ever leaving the faintest lines on his skin when he Healed him.

    "We tracked you down."

    "Of course you did," Luka answered, distracted by the ghosts his own wounds. Things were clicking in to place in his mind. The phone had been in his hand, ready to dial Quinn, but then Alice had been there. "How?"

    "That''s not important," Hadley said, and the way his eyes shifted; Hadley had broken the rules for him. Oracles, most likely. Luka might have been proud, if he wasn''t too busy being angry. Something was wrong. Something important. He shouldn''t have been unconscious for this long, unless¡­

    "You drugged me." The amount of effort it took to drug a Healer was staggering. Drugs laced with magic, and enough of it to kill a normal person, administered every couple of hours, or the mage would burn through it. His fingers went to his neck; no suppressor.

    "We didn''t want to risk the suppressor for the first day, in case the Healer had missed something. If Alice hadn''t convinced me to wake you up, you''d be wearing one."

    Of course. Because if he was wearing one, he wouldn''t be awake right now. The fact that he was awake, meant that they had realized how much they needed him.

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    He swung his legs over the side of the bed, trying to assess his capacity for standing. His pants were also gone, but his underwear remained. Despite his state of undress, he felt lucky that no one had attempted to dress him. Academy hospitals didn''t have patient gowns, so at least he wouldn''t have to suffer the indignity of that, but usually if mages were kept for observation, they were issued patient scrubs. The thought of someone forcing him into any kind of clothes while he was unconscious made him cringe. He caught sight of a pair of scrubs folded neatly on his bedside table.

    "Lavrin," Hadley said, as Luka placed his feet flat on the ground. He pushed his hands into the mattress at his sides, and shifted his weight. "Lavrin."

    "What?" Luka snapped. His muscles felt weak. He was physically fine, or at least he should be, but he had been lying down for too long. Between that and the drugs, his body wasn''t responding the way it should be. He could stand, he was reasonably sure, but he wouldn''t be able to get past Hadley if he tried to stop him.

    "You''re not getting out of here."

    He reached for the scrubs out of spite, and started pulling them on. "You need me, or you wouldn''t have woken me up." The scrubs were the same slate gray as the uniform jackets the Academy students wore, and while he could appreciate the muted color, it remained an uncomfortable reminder of his past.

    "We need information. We need to know what you know. You''re still infected, Lavrin. I can''t let you leave."

    "Fuck you," Luka said. He pushed himself up, wobbled, grabbed the wall for support. His heart was pounding too hard, and it put him on edge. He hadn''t forgotten, hadn''t stopped counting, but he didn''t know how many beats he had lost.

    Beat.

    Hadley took a step towards him, as if he was going to do anything to him.

    Beat.

    Luka held up the hand not currently occupied with the wall, and Hadley stopped.

    Beat.

    "Back off."

    Beat.

    Hadley straightened to stand a little taller, and his brown eyes turned steely.

    Beat.

    Like a drum at the back of his mind.

    "I could have you sedated again."

    "And I could knock you out before the command even left your mouth."

    They stared at each other, waiting for the other to give. Hadley''s threat was worthless and they both knew it. He had already admitted that they needed Luka, and even in his weakened state, Luka managed to intimidate him. He could see it in his eyes, the way he studied him, waiting for sudden movements or the glow of magic. Luka stepped around him, and he did nothing to hold him back.

    In the door, Luka took hold of the door frame and turned back. His head still hadn''t quite fought through the haze, and he didn''t trust his coordination.

    "How much time did I lose?" he asked, even as he feared the answer.

    "Lavrin¡­" Hadley didn''t quite look at him, and he started fearing the worst. How many days lost would it take for his resolve to falter? How much was too much?

    "How much fucking time, Thomas?" Luka growled. He needed to hear it now.

    "Two days."

    He did the math. Two days sedated, plus the hour between infection and losing consciousness, where his pulse had been fairly high. Maybe it evened out, maybe his average would lie slightly below two days. He would know more when he started feeling the effects, but maybe he already was. He couldn''t tell the disorientation of recovery apart from the disorientation of the infection. So he had four or five days left. Probably.

    "Lavrin?" Hadley asked, and he realized that he had probably been standing still for a while.

    "Stay away from me," Luka said wearily. "Until this is over."

    "I''m your handler," Hadley said, as if that meant something. What exactly had the Academy done for him? What had Hadley?

    "I don''t care," Luka said. He was leaning against the door frame now, realizing that he was going to have to stop stalling and start moving eventually, but his mind wasn''t cooperating.

    "At least let me help," Hadley insisted. In his voice, the offer sounded like a command. Hadley might be his handler, but he couldn''t tell him what to do. He couldn''t force himself on him, unless Luka needed something from the Academy. Every prolonged silence made the drums of his heartbeat sound louder, and he needed to get out of here. He needed to do something proactive, so the beats wouldn''t feel so damning.

    "What makes you think I would ever want your help?" He said, viciously. "Don¡¯t you ever think that maybe we wouldn¡¯t have lost Abel, if you hadn''t been so skeptical? Don¡¯t you think we would have solved this thing by now, if you hadn''t confined me here for two days? You can''t help anyone, Thomas. You never could."

    He didn''t bother turning towards him, and the words only cut deeper for it. They echoed in his mind, and tasted bitter in his mouth. It was cruel, unnecessarily so, and he didn¡¯t even mean it. He still blamed himself for Abel''s death. He didn''t think Hadley''s presence had been the one to doom him, that had been all Luka. He almost regretted his words, but shook it off, and focused on finding his way outside. He just wanted to get far away from this place.

    The fresh air felt better, made his head clearer, but the sun was jarring. He craved a cigarette, and cursed himself for walking out without getting his possessions back. Now, brilliantly, he had no money and no smokes. Not to mention his keys or phone. He turned a corner and stopped at the sight of Alice, leaning against the wall. He wondered why she hadn''t been inside with Hadley, but then remembered his words. Alice wanted him out. Hadley did not, and must have wanted her to wait outside.

    He didn''t know how to deal with Alice, except that he didn''t want to deal with her at all. He never asked to be her mentor, and now he didn¡¯t know how he could stand it at all. He wanted solitude. Besides, he was inclined to blame her for coming to find him, when he was better off not being found. She went to Hadley, she allowed him to make decisions about Luka, to drug him, confine him, attempting to protect him from himself. But Luka didn''t need protection from himself. He had survived this far on his own merits, and he would persevere long after he had cut ties with the Academy once and for all.

    He stood frozen on the corner, trying to make a decision, and Alice eventually looked up from her phone. She smiled when she saw him. He knew it was too late, but he walked past her, toward the gates.

    "Hey," she called after him and followed. "Putting you in the hospital wasn''t my idea. I wanted them to take you home. I pleaded with Hadley to wake you."

    "I don''t want to hear it."

    "Luka," she protested. "I''m not happy with Hadley either, but he was only trying to help. We saved your life."

    He turned sharply, pinning her against the brick behind her. She winced at the impact.

    "I''m done with your help," he said. "I told Thomas to leave me alone, and I suggest you do the same."

    "You can''t do this alone," Alice said. Her voice turned insisting, commanding.

    Anger, impatience and defiance mixed a dangerous cocktail within him. Luka slammed his fist against the wall, and his knuckles split against the rough brick. A stinging pain washed over his hand and he felt blood run down his fingers. Instinct told him to heal it, but he managed to stop himself. Instead, he took a deep breath and slowly let his hand fall away from the wall, ignoring the scarlet imprint it left behind and the blood that continued to flow from his wound. The pain managed to ground him and he saw the world a little clearer. The drumming in his head quieted, the frustration ebbing away.

    "Watch me," he said, biting down the response he had ready on his tongue. The response that was designed to wound her as well. He walked away, and this time, she didn''t follow.

    He let his mind drift back to the problems of the case, and trusted his feet to take him where he needed to go. This turned out to be a mistake when he almost walked into a wall.

    He stopped and frowned at it, at the offense that it caused him, to find it unexpectedly in his way. Whether he used his magic or not, it was always at the back of his mind as a presence that connected him to the city. He should be able to walk blindfolded through a crowded street without bumping into a single person, not nearly collide with random walls. The fact that his radar seemed to be malfunctioning was cause for deep concern. He didn''t like the thought, that this might somehow be related to the infection, to the erratic magic caused by it.

    To ease his mind, he decided to blame the headache pounding against his skull and the general problems his concentration suffered from, at least for now.

 Chapter twenty-one

    Alice leaned into the wall at her back and closed her eyes, while her nerves and her heart settled themselves. She refused to fear Luka Lavrin, because he snapped at her. He wasn''t going to hurt her as long as his anger wasn''t for her. All the anger belonged to Hadley, who had made the bad calls, who had failed Luka in order to keep him safe.

    Hadley, who had yet to emerge from the hospital.

    Alice sighed. "Why did I let you talk to him alone?" she muttered under her breath. It had been a bad idea, she had known that. Luka was going to wake up angry, but Hadley had insisted. She looked in the direction Luka had headed, and could still see his retreating form heading towards the gates. She turned back towards the hospital, and went inside. If Luka had hurt him, he only had himself to blame. And there was a part of her, the part that was still angry, who wanted to leave him. She just couldn''t quite do that.

    She found him in Luka''s room, staring blankly into space.

    "Hadley?" she said, gently. With the mood Luka was in, she would have understood if he was upset or angry. She even expected it. He looked more like he was searching for some emotion to feel, but came up empty. When she spoke, he looked up, and a frown built slowly on his face.

    "He''s a bastard," he said. Emotions washed back over his face, and he looked more tired than ever. Luka had cut him, somehow, she suspected. Left him bleeding. He looked like moving was an obstacle he couldn''t quite overcome.

    "I know," Alice answered. She wasn''t sure she could imagine, really. She had seen Luka attack him before, but he had always seemed to absorb it. Like he expected that from Luka, like it wasn''t really personal. He had always been able to move past it.

    "What did he say to you?" She wasn''t sure she wanted to know.

    Hadley shrugged. "It doesn''t matter. We still have to help him."

    He rubbed his fingers against his temples, slowly waking up, but looking all the more pained for it. She knew he had barely slept since Luka was admitted. She knew he had basically moved his office to Luka''s room, so he could personally monitor his condition, and had barely left his side. It was hard to keep blaming him, when she saw how much he cared, but it was even harder to agree with his choices.

    "We do," Alice agreed. She placed a hand gently on his shoulder. "It doesn''t matter that he doesn''t want our help, and probably doesn''t deserve it. He''s going to get it anyway."

    He looked up at her, and she offered him a reassuring smile. Hadley nodded.

    "He definitely doesn''t deserve it," he muttered. Alice suspected the comment wasn''t meant for her, but she still couldn''t help but wonder what Luka had done to him.

    "Whatever he said to you, it wasn''t¡­" She wanted to say something comforting, but she didn''t know them well enough. She didn''t know their relationship well enough. She had no idea. "He just wanted to be left alone."

    "You know," Hadley said. "For a long time, it was just Luka and me. Then these twins transferred in." Alice realized he was talking about their time at the Academy. She sat down on the bed, keeping her hand on him, while he talked.

    "He had this thing, this curiosity about anything magical. Know your enemy, he said. Like everyone was a potential threat. He wanted to know if twins were special somehow. He was fascinated. Abel was such a perfect match for him. He was reckless like Luka, careless, but he was softer. Kinder. They made each other better, but they made each other worse, too. His sister, Lena, was to Abel what I was to Luka. We grounded them, made sure they never went too far. When that day came, when the Soul Eater was set free on the Academy, we couldn''t talk them down. They were going to do it with or without us, and we weren''t going to let them do it without us. So, when Abel dies, whose fault is it? Abel made the choice, but Luka pushed him to it. Lena and I both failed to stop them, and maybe we didn''t believe in the plan enough. Maybe we didn''t give everything we had to it, not like they did."

    "Hadley¡­" What did you say to something like that? It was a ten-year-old wound that had never healed. Nothing she could say would make it better. "It wasn''t anyone''s fault."

    "When it comes down to it," Hadley said, as if she hadn''t spoken, "I will chose the few over the many. I wanted us to run. I wanted us to live. Luka wanted everyone else to live. Maybe I''m too selfish to save people, maybe that''s why I can''t seem to succeed."

    "Hadley, listen to me." He twitched, seemed to return to the present, and she was reasonably sure she had his attention now. "Self-preservation is not a character flaw. Do you really think Luka would have done it, if he thought it would kill him? He''s not selfless, he''s just arrogant enough to believe he never has to make the choice between the many and the few." She hadn''t known Luka for that long, but even infecting himself wasn''t about making a sacrifice. It was about playing the game, so he could win.

    "No, I know," Hadley said. "But that''s not the point. After the incident, I realized we did everything we could. I thought I had come to terms with that, and moved past it, but then Lavrin tells me that maybe I was the weak link, and I''ve been sitting here thinking back, wondering if I didn''t do enough. Maybe he saw something, and that''s why he left. Maybe he couldn''t forgive me for it, and I¡­ don''t know."

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    He took a deep breath, and there was an audible shudder on the exhale.

    "Hadley," Alice said softly. It was hard seeing him like this, hard not knowing what to do. Hadley was supposed to be the strong authority. The person, whose job it was to solve problems. She relied on him to be confident and reasonable, and that was exactly what they needed right now. If he started to doubt himself, she didn''t know how they were going to make it through this. "That doesn''t mean it was your fault."

    Hadley shook his head. "He''s right not to trust me. I wanted to save him, but I don''t even know if I can."

    "Look at me."

    He acted on the command, and Alice looked at him firmly. She was only slightly startled to have the full force of his vivid brown eyes on her, almost amber in the light, and focused on choosing her words carefully. She studied him, trying to see all the facets of their relationship, but it was too complex. She had seen Hadley fear Luka. She had seen him fight to protect him. She had seen him love him. She knew there was betrayal, and anger, and hurt. All of it too vast for her to imagine. How would she feel if Teagan betrayed her? Or Nick? If they turned their backs on her for ten years without a word, without an explanation? It was inconceivable.

    "Luka is pushing us away," she said. "You know he''s just picking the words he knows will hurt the most, so he''ll be left alone."

    It wasn''t sufficient, but it was the truth she arrived at. A truth she could believe, and hoped Hadley might too.

    "I know, but I also know he doesn''t lie."

    "Prove him wrong, Hadley. We can''t do worse than not trying at all."

    He startled at the words, and Alice saw the lingering pain in him. She had said the wrong thing.

    She didn''t like this Hadley, the one not in control. This Hadley was a minefield of pain, and she had no idea how to navigate it.

    "Right," Hadley said. His hands clenched into fists in his lap. Alice shifted her hand to his forearm, hoping he wouldn''t need anything else from her to find his way back. He breathed slow and deep, and seemed to relax. "Okay," he said. This time he sounded more like himself. Like he knew what to do.

    "Give me your phone."

    Alice unlocked it and handed it over, no question. "His things are in the bedside table," he said, as he tapped away at the screen.

    Alice opened the drawer, which held a phone, a set of keys, a black marker, a pack of cigarettes, a plain black Zippo lighter and a credit card.

    "That''s it?"

    Hadley shrugged. "Everything we found in his pockets."

    He didn''t even carry ID. Would he even be identified if he died, or would he just disappear? Alice shook the thought from her head, gathered his possessions, and stuffed them into the crossbody bag she had slung over her shoulder. It had taken nearly a day for Luka to burn through the sedation, once they stopped it, which spoke volumes about how weak he had been. She had wanted to stay by his side until he woke up, but Hadley had insisted that he would contact her when he started coming out of it, so she had managed some hours of sleep and a change of clothes. Hadley handed her phone back to her. It was open on a map, with a little red dot moving slowly away from the Academy.

    "Find him. Bring him back, but don''t bring him to me. Just find out what he needs and tell me. I''ll do whatever I can to help, but all communication goes through you now."

    Her eyes flickered back to Hadley. "Do you really want him to know about the tracker already?"

    "Say you were shadowing him. If he doesn''t buy it, we''ll take it from there."

    Alice nodded, following the path of the dot on her screen. He didn''t have enough of a head start for her to see where he was heading. He was still on his way to the station, where he would make his first jump. She considered the marker in her bag, and wondered how he was planning on getting anywhere.

    "I''m on it," she said. She paused, watching Hadley one last time before leaving. He still looked damaged, but it wasn''t like pointing that out was helpful. She suspected he needed time to put himself back together, and she was going to leave him to it, making a mental note to check up on him later.

    She turned away, and left the hospital.

    She checked the map, even though there was really no point. He was still maybe five minutes away from the station, at which point he would have to go to North Station. His path became neither relevant, nor interesting, until after that point. She was nearly half-way to the station herself, when she started paying attention. After North Station, he appeared at the Government Center station. At first, Alice assumed he was heading back to Mutiny for some reason, but he was going south. If he was going back to the restaurant, he could have jumped to the China Town station. She followed his progress, as he walked for about five minutes and then stopped. She stopped and frowned at the screen.

    He was in a shopping district, surrounded by clothing retailers. Which might have made sense, except he had no money, and the building the dot seemed to settle inside was, as far as she could tell, an apartment building. She knew it wasn''t his apartment, unless he had more than one. She hurried the rest of the way to the station ¡ª North Station was written on the wall in blood, because of course he would do that ¡ª and followed him to the building.

    When she arrived, she found herself in front of a massive glass tower, rising far into the city skyline. Doormen and valets were standing at attention outside the building, idly chatting while waiting to be needed.

    She was hesitant to walk inside. There were too many people she needed to get past, and no clear idea of how to do it. Instead, she consulted her map and found a nearby cafe, where she settled in to wait. She hoped that whatever errand he had there was quick, and she''d be able to get to him without trying to get inside.

    After more than an hour had passed, the coffee and cookie she had bought were long gone, and she couldn''t justify staying much longer. The dot stubbornly refused to move. She sighed and left her table. She could do this. She was resourceful. She could be charming, if she had to be. She entered the building, trying to look like she belonged. Of course, that illusion quickly shattered, as she stepped inside the building. The floors were bright and glossy white, the walls paneled in dark wood. To her left was a seating area in delicate creams and dark browns. She stepped further inside, and came across a desk with a concierge standing behind it, but it was okay. She had prepared for this.

    "Hi," she said, smiling politely. "I''m looking for Luka Lavrin."

    "He''s not a resident," the man said. He had a Russian accent, heavier than Luka''s.

    Alice was slightly thrown off by his answer. He hadn''t said he didn''t know the name, and now she had to figure out how she could know he was here, if she hadn''t followed him.

    "Oh, no. I know," she said. "I''m a colleague, and he wasn''t at home. So, I hoped I might catch him here instead." It was a gamble. She had no idea why he would be in this place, what he could possibly be doing here. Especially if he wasn''t a resident, but he had to know someone who was.

    The man looked at her with narrowed eyes. "One moment," he said. He picked up a phone, and Alice waited as the call went through.

 Chapter twenty-two

    After taking a shower and getting dressed, Luka settled down to wait.

    He regretted leaving his phone behind, but he regretted leaving his cigarettes behind more. He had searched the apartment, but Quinn had no stash of smokes anywhere.

    Quinn should be home in a couple of hours, and Luka considered spending the time sleeping, but he couldn''t shake off the loss of two days. And then there was the thing about wonderland.

    His memories had gotten clearer, and he had made sense of the deer and the fox; the people who attacked him were wearing masks. They had known who he was, and now he was even more sure that it was personal. They were waiting for him, but there had been a point to it. They hadn''t been there to kill him. There had been a clue. Wonderland, and emerald roads? Or was he mixing children''s tales? He remembered getting stabbed. He remembered Fox Mask saying something. He knew it was important, but he couldn''t seem to hold on to it.

    He got off the couch, and made his way to the library.

    Quinn''s apartment had two bedrooms, several walk-in closets, three and a half bathrooms, a library and an open kitchen/living room space. It was located on the 52nd floor of a massive steel and glass skyscraper in the middle of the city. The decor was very white and very stylish. Luka would have called it soulless, except he knew the man who lived here, and knew it was more about indifference. The main selling point for Quinn had been the indoor lap pool attached to the fitness center. He had hired an interior decorator, and given them free reign and an open budget, so he wouldn''t have to make any decisions.

    The bedrooms were better, embedded with some colors and personal touches, but the library most of all. It connected to the living room, not even separated by doors, but it was still like walking into a completely different space. The furniture was darker, the large windows covering the north wall hidden behind curtains. There wasn''t a lot of wall space in there, so it was really more of a reading room, with comfortable chairs and soft rugs. The largest wall had floor to ceiling bookshelves, but the guest room held even more books.

    Quinn had a large glass board in there, dark navy with brass fittings to fit the style, and Luka thought writing things down might help.

    The phone rang.

    He considered ignoring it, but the concierge knew he was up here, so it had to be for him.

    "Yeah?"

    "Devushka zdes," the concierge said. His name was Aleksander, though he went by Sasha, and had taken a very instant like to Luka. As far as Luka could tell, it was entirely based on the fact that they spoke the same language, and Sasha had never spoken anything other than Russian to Luka, which was absolutely fine. The guy was a little too friendly, but Luka didn''t have enough people to speak Russian with, and sometimes it was a relief to scrape the rust off his mother tongue. The girl he was talking about could almost only be Alice, who must have followed him here. He knew he hadn''t been careful enough, but he honestly didn''t think she had been that close behind.

    "Alice Malik?" Luka asked.

    There was a pause on Luka''s end, as they had a short conversation.

    "Da. Ona govorit, chto u neye tvoi veshchi." Which meant that she had brought his phone and, more importantly, his cigarettes. Which also meant that he couldn''t dismiss her, not if he wanted any of them back.

    "Spuskayus," Luka said, and hung up the phone. He would go to her, rather than allow her to come up.

    When he arrived downstairs, and found Alice standing in front of Sasha, he could practically see all the questions written on her face, as her eyes reflected all the perfectly polished surfaces. He waved her into one of the seating areas, which was empty at this time of day. Besides which, most people who wanted to sit around, did so at the resident club.

    He held out his hand, and she dug into her bag, emerging first with his phone, then his keys. He pocketed both, and held out his hand again. The marker came next, then the lighter, and in the end, a crumbled pack of cigarettes.

    "Thank you," he said. "You can go now."

    "Luka, we need to talk about this."

    "Do we?" He wasn''t allowed to smoke inside, so he walked out to the street. Alice followed.

    "Yes," she said. "Luka, I''m sorry, but I tried. Okay? I really did. But you were dying, and I didn''t know what to do."

    He inhaled smoke. Exhaled.

    "I lost two days," he said. "This whole thing could have been over now, except I have a fucking partner and a handler, who think they know what''s best for me."

    "Luka, you were dying," Alice said, in a frustrated whisper.

    "I know," Luka said. "You want forgiveness? You want gratitude?" He shook his head. "I don''t have either to offer."

    "I want to help you solve this," Alice said. "That''s all."

    "Okay." He tossed the cigarette, and stamped it out. He wanted to immediately light another, but he restrained himself. "Then let''s solve this."

    He had plans of his own. He had intended to see Quinn, since the near death and the loss of time had left him more rattled than he cared to admit. He would have put off telling him about the infection for a couple of days, hoping he might be able to solve it quick and that Quinn would never have to know. But now those couple of days were up, and they needed to talk. He had wanted Quinn to get him something that might keep his heart rate down, so he had a chance to get through this, but maybe this was better. Maybe getting back on the case as soon as possible was exactly what he needed.

    "Catch me up." He was still haunted by wonderland and the emerald road, but he had been out for two days. Maybe there was another clue, he could cling to for a while.

    "Oh," Alice said, "Um."

    "Nothing?" Luka asked. He realized they wouldn''t have woken him up, if they thought they could do it without him, but nothing?

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "I thought we needed you. I thought getting Hadley to wake you was the most important thing. I would have gone back to the restaurant, but I¡­"

    "It wasn''t that kind of clue," Luka said.

    "So you have it? You have the next clue?"

    He might, if he could remember it. "Go home," he said, hoping annoyance might cover up how useless he felt. "We''ll pick this up tomorrow."

    ¡°Fine,¡± Alice said. She retreated a step, but then stopped. ¡°I get that you¡¯re mad at me, but maybe I get to be mad at you too.¡±

    Luka eyed her. ¡°I¡¯m not stopping you.¡±

    He headed back inside. The talk with Quinn was back on, and Luka called him on his was back up to the apartment.

    "Luka?" Quinn asked when he picked up the phone. "Are you okay?"

    "I''m great," Luka answered. "Can you do me a favor? Preferably without attitude."

    A hint of a smile crept into Quinn''s voice, although Luka was sure he hadn''t entirely shed the worry. "You know I can''t promise that."

    "Yeah. I do." It had become something of a running joke between them, ever since Quinn realized that when Luka asked for a favor it was either because he was already in danger, or whatever he asked for would get him there.

    "What do you need?"

    "Beta blockers."

    "Beta blockers?"

    "Or something else that lowers the heart rate. I don''t care what." Luka didn''t know drugs in as much detail as Quinn did. He knew what he needed to know as a lab tech, but as a Healer he didn''t much care.

    There was a pause, then a very suspicious, "Why?"

    "I''ll explain later. Right now I just need to know if you can do it." He could definitely do it. That wasn''t the real question. It was more about willingness. It wouldn''t be the first time Quinn forged a prescription, and beta blockers was an easy one. They weren''t addictive and prescribing them to Luka wasn¡¯t even a lie.

    "Yeah, fine." Quinn relented. "So, I''ll see you at home?"

    "I''ll be here."

    "You''re at my place?" Quinn wondered, since Luka never spend any significant amount of time there on his own. It wasn''t that he didn''t like the extravagant luxury of the place. It was that it never felt like his, but most of it didn''t feel like Quinn''s either. Every time, it felt like stumbling into some stranger''s apartment. Someone he couldn''t recognize in Quinn. It made the experience of being there alone too uncomfortable to bother with.

    "I am."

    "And further questions are pointless?"

    "Most definitely."

    "Luka?"

    He made an affirmative sound.

    "Weird request aside, are you sure you''re okay? You sound off."

    "Yeah," he said, then forced himself to tell the truth. "No. Not really."

    "I can¡ª"

    "No," Luka said, knowing he would offer to leave work for him. "No, it''s fine. Finish your shift."

    He hung up. With his keys back, he could let himself into the apartment, and was glad he didn''t have to ask Sasha for another favor. He would ask questions, and Luka had work to do.

    While waiting for Quinn to get home, he filled the glass board in with every piece of the puzzle he could think of, hoping to highlight the missing pieces. In the end, he had more questions than answers.

    He knew that the person behind this wasn''t working alone, the masked duo had made that clear. He knew nature mages and urban mages were working together. He suspected it was somehow about him, and had all but confirmed it during the attack. Meanwhile, things he didn''t know: Why send a nature mage into the city, was that supposed to be part of the clue? Was the restaurant significant in some way? Why were they trying to get to Luka? Did he know this person? He had tried to think of anyone he might have crossed paths with, someone who might have done this, who seemed capable of it, but came up empty.

    And then there was the goddamn clue. It had to refer to a place, but how? He left the board, and settled down in the soft chair with Quinn''s laptop. He searched for the history of the restaurant. He searched for locations with reference to wonderland. He searched for emerald roads, and did come up with the Emerald Necklace, which was a series of parks threaded through the city. Something he really should have realized without looking it up. It could make sense with the nature mages, but he still failed to see the significance of wonderland.

    He wrote the Emerald Necklace on the board, but didn''t feel like he had made any breakthroughs. Right now, his options were narrowed down to 1.100 acres of parks, and more notably, the surrounding city.

    He sighed, and pulled up a map, tracing the path of parks, but it was useless. If he was meant to literally "follow the emerald road to wonderland", he would need to walk the path in person. Hopefully, his plan to talk to a nature mage tomorrow would yield something useful.

    Quinn came home. Luka heard the key in the lock, and went to meet him in the kitchen. He was craving coffee anyway, and grabbed a cup from a cupboard. Quinn had one of those coffee makers that used capsules, and Luka still didn''t understand why there were so many different kinds of coffee. Quinn had at least seven to choose from, and Luka picked one at random.

    "Hey," Quinn said, when he joined him in the kitchen. He put a bag down on the kitchen island. It smelled like food, and Luka remembered that he hadn''t eaten in over two days. Next to it, he put an orange bottle of pills. Luka turned, putting his cup down by the bottle.

    Quinn was watching him with a burning intensity, like he could somehow guess what was going on just by picking up on physical clues. His eyes lingered on the embroidered logo perched on Luka''s chest, which suggested Luka had changed here. Luka was pretty sure it was meant to be a ram skull, or something close to that, and he didn''t even want to think about the price tag. His own clothes weren¡¯t cheap, but they tended to be logo free.

    "I''ll take that explanation now," Quinn said. He crossed his arms and leaned back on the counter.

    So, Luka told him the heavily edited version of events, sipping his coffee underway to distract himself from the smell of food. He told him about the infection, about what it did. He told him about Mutiny, about infecting himself to get the next clue. He told him about the restaurant, about getting attacked, about Alice getting there in time, and calling in Healers. He told him about the two days he had been in the hospital.

    Quinn was quiet for a long time when he finished. Disapproval probably didn¡¯t even begin to cover what he felt anymore.

    "I don''t even know where to start," he finally said. "You couldn''t have called me before making the decision to slowly kill yourself?"

    "No," Luka said. "I didn''t need you to talk me out of it." Because he could have, and he absolutely would.

    "How long?"

    Luka shrugged. "Maybe five days."

    Quinn nodded. "Great," he said, but Luka could tell he was struggling to stay composed.

    He reached for him, putting his hand on his arm. "I just need to find the guy, and he''ll cure me. I''m sure of it."

    "You know I trust you, Luka, but how can this possibly be about you?" His face was turned away from Luka, his fingers tiredly rubbing his eyes and temples. He was unusually still, unusually distant. Normally, Luka might have been okay with that, but right now he wished he would react to his touch.

    "I don''t know," Luka said. "What I do know is that this is set up like some sort of twisted game, and it''s starting to look a lot like it was made for me. And if it''s a game, there''s a way to win it."

    "Right," Quinn said. "But it also means you might lose."

    Luka shook his head. "I don''t lose."

    "Okay," Quinn said. "Okay. Wait here." When Quinn was out of the room, Luka reached for the bottle. He shook out a couple of pills and swallowed them with coffee. When Quinn returned, he was carrying a gun.

    "Take this," he said, and put it on the table in front of Luka.

    "Why the fuck do you have that?" Luka asked, inching his fingers away from it.

    "That''s not important. You said you can''t trust your magic right now, and I want you to be safe. Take it."

    Luka reached for it, feeling the cold steel under his fingers. He checked the safety, and tugged the gun into his pants.

    "You''re leaving now?"

    "Only if you want me to," Luka said. He hadn''t planned on it, but if Quinn needed space, he would give him space. It wasn''t like Alice didn''t know where he was, so staying off her and Hadley''s radar was no longer an issue.

    "No," Quinn said. "No, I don''t want you to leave." His body language was still too closed off, and he wasn''t really looking at Luka. It was unfamiliar on him, and it didn''t suit him. Luka turned away from him and finished his coffee.

    "Please tell me you have eaten since getting out of the hospital."

    Luka shrugged. "I''ve been busy."

    "Honestly, Luka." Quinn shook his head, and started unpacking the food.

 Chapter twenty-three

    Every instance of progress with Luka felt like taking two steps back. He had agreed to work with her, but Alice had no doubt he would be keeping her at arm''s length and withholding information. She could accept his dismissal for today, but she wasn''t about to let him do little more than humor her.

    With the way things were going, she was never going to earn his trust, but she wished there was a way for her to prove worthy of just a fraction of it. While heading back to the Academy, she wondered if there was some offering she could make. She was mad at him, yes, but she could get over that. Luka, meanwhile, had held on to his grudge against Hadley for ten years, so she was going to have to make some sort of gesture, if she was going to preserve their partnership.

    He clearly thought, they would have made some strides in the investigation, during his coma, but how? He had the only clue they were likely to get, and without that, she simply didn¡¯t know how to move on. She had the rest of the day to figure it out, and intended to try, when her mom disrupted her.

    She answered the phone with some measure of trepidation. Her mom had finally accepted her decision to stay, but the condition ¡ª giving up Ravi ¡ª had yet to be met. She had talked to Ravi, but when he had rather boldly asked if she was calling things off, she had said no. She told him that they should talk about it, when they saw each other.

    Whenever that was going to be.

    Since then, she¡¯d been too busy to really worry about it, but she had a feeling she was about to.

    ¡°I talked to Ravi,¡± her mom said, very quickly confirming her suspicions.

    ¡°Mom¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, just listen.¡± Alice quieted her protests, even if she would rather make her arguments in advance. She was already mapping out the entire argument in her head, trying to find a way to win it.

    ¡°I understand. You think you should be able to have it all, but I¡¯m asking you not to pull him into this.¡±

    ¡°What about him?¡± Alice asked, because she didn¡¯t know how to end it without explaining why. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t he have a say in this?¡± Maybe it wasn¡¯t fair to him, to force him to make the choice, and maybe she had already told too many lies, but the alternative was more lies. Harder lies.

    ¡°No, Alice.¡± Her mom said. ¡°It could break him. It¡¯s fine to learn magic exists, when you can feel it under your skin and it seems like the most natural thing in the world, but normal people aren¡¯t meant to understand magic. Their minds will want to reject the very reality of it.¡±

    ¡°Dad is fine,¡± Alice argued. He didn¡¯t really understand magic, and tried not to engage in conversations about it. He was probably doing some pretty serious compartmentalizing, where all the magic parts were left abandoned in a dark corner of his mind, but he was coping.

    ¡°Your father had to very suddenly accept a reality, in which his daughter¡¯s magic spontaneously tried to kill her. He¡¯s not fine. But yes, the adrenaline probably helped his mind adjust.¡±

    ¡°Plenty of Mages tell their spouses. It¡¯s a whole thing.¡° It was sort of a thing. The Council didn¡¯t like it, but had to, for practical reasons, trust in the confidence between spouses. Especially if their children manifested.

    ¡°Maybe most people can handle it, but this isn¡¯t something you can take back.¡±

    ¡°Who?¡± Alice asked. ¡°Who couldn¡¯t handle it?¡±

    Her mom paused, for just a second too long. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡±

    ¡°It does matter, if it¡¯s what I¡¯m basing this choice on.¡± She hadn¡¯t even wanted to tell him, at least not yet. She shouldn¡¯t, not before they were married, but of course they probably shouldn¡¯t get married, if she was never going to tell him. It was impossible to decide what to do, without knowing how he might react.

    It was very possible, that her mom had a point, but how could she know?

    This was between her and Ravi.

    ¡°He¡¯s twenty-four. If he has to start over, he needs to do it soon.¡±

    There was a lot she could say to that, like he was only three years older than her, and she would have to start over too, but apparently that didn¡¯t matter. She was still stuck on the former point, though. That leaning about magic could break a person. She didn¡¯t want the change of subject to work, but still decided to keep it tugged away for later. It wasn¡¯t worth it to have any of this conversation now. It wasn¡¯t like Ravi was¡ª

    ¡°Is he on his way here?¡±

    ¡°He said you sounded weird, the last time he talked to you, so he wanted to come see you in person.¡±

    It was a long drive, so she had time to think, but she didn¡¯t have time to see him. She wouldn¡¯t be able to focus.

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­¡± She bit down on her lip, before she could make some useless excuse. ¡°Couldn¡¯t you have reassured him?¡±

    ¡°You have to deal with this, beta.¡±

    ¡°And if I can¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°If you love him, you shouldn¡¯t burden him with that world.¡±

    She nodded her frustration. There was nothing she could say to that, even if she didn¡¯t agree.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she said, without really meaning it. ¡°I¡¯ll think about it.¡±

    She didn¡¯t go back to the Academy. There was no point. Even if the alternative was spending at least three hours in the city, but it was an opportunity to go back to both Mutiny and the restaurant, just in case they had missed something.

    In Mutiny, she looked for some sort of signature around the hand print, and other images painted in the same color, but came up with nothing. It was to be expected, since the bad guy wasn¡¯t stupid, and he had wanted Luka to infect himself, but she had still allowed herself to hope that this was a game with more than one solution.

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    She headed for Chinatown next, back into the alley, and through the softly creaking backdoor. She walked slowly through the kitchen and into the floor of the restaurant, dreading the sight of old blood. She didn¡¯t want the reminder, of just how much of it he had lost, of just how close he had come to death.

    There was none.

    It was like they had never been here. Even the carpet, which should have been soaked through and nearly impossible to clean, didn¡¯t have a drop of blood on it. She knelt down on the spot, just to feel the fibers under her fingertips, but they were soft. It wasn¡¯t an illusion, or if it was, it was a very good one.

    The Agents had been here, and they had cleaned the place up. She went back to the door, to the gate they had drawn on the wall, but it wasn¡¯t there anymore. She had no doubt it had been done with the best of intentions, but it had effectively erased any and all evidence that might have been there.

    She didn¡¯t feel like talking to Hadley, but she texted him. She had softened towards him, seeing how upset Luka made him, and learning more about why they could cut each other so deeply, but it didn¡¯t change the fact that she had been put in the middle of the mess of them.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t mention cleaners had been sent to the restaurant,¡± she wrote.

    He responded quickly. ¡°It¡¯s procedure.¡±

    ¡°Did they find anything?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Alice frowned at her phone. They should have found something of note, she knew that much from what she had seen.

    ¡°What about the gate? Or the remains of the dogs outside?¡±

    The rain could conceivably have washed the evidence of what they had been away, but certainly not the piles of dirt and bark and stone that had no business being in an alley in the middle of the city.

    He sent her an attachment, and when she opened it, she realized it was the report from the cleaners. She skimmed through it, but it didn¡¯t tell her anything she hadn¡¯t already known. There was mention of the remains of some natural creature, likely a bird based on all the feathers, found inside the building, which was odd. The ones outside could be explained by the rain, but inside?

    A nature mage shouldn¡¯t have been able to work magic inside the building, but maybe they hadn¡¯t. She looked around, and it was at least plausible that the nature mage had been outside, or near enough to a window to get power from the rain.

    There was no mention at all of the gate.

    ¡°What happened with Lavrin?¡± Hadley asked.

    Alice debated her answer, but then simply wrote, ¡°We¡¯re getting back to work tomorrow.¡±

    It was evasive, especially since she was clearly at the restaurant, but it was as close to the truth as she wanted to get.

    She took one last lap around the building, even moving up to the second and third floor, just in case, but either there had never been anything there, or the cleaners had been far too thorough.

    It hadn¡¯t quite taken two hours to search both locations, but she was out of options and out of ideas, and anyway, she needed to prepare herself for her conversation with Ravi. At least her mind was more at ease now, that she had made the effort to find another clue. Even if she had failed, she could tell Luka that she had tried.

    She found a coffee shop, texted Ravi her location, and settled down to wait.

    When Ravi arrived, she had already had two cups of coffee, and the second one hadn¡¯t even seemed like a good idea, when she ordered it. She stopped Ravi with a light tough to his arm, before he settled down in front of her.

    ¡°Can we walk?¡± She didn¡¯t know what she was going to say to him, and she didn¡¯t like the intimacy of the coffee shop.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Ravi said. They stopped at the counter, while he ordered a coffee to go.

    ¡°You talked to your mom?¡±

    Alice nodded. ¡°She¡¯s very concerned for your future.¡±

    He made an affirming sound. ¡°Should she be?¡±

    Sometimes, it was nice that he was so direct. It was refreshing in a world, where most people tried to avoid conflict. Sometimes, it was very annoying. The barista called his name, giving Alice a second to settle her thoughts. Once she had completed her obligatory years at the Academy, she had to make up a story that allowed her to stay and postpone college. She told him that she had taken a job as a TA, and that she was trying to figure out if she really wanted to study law. That was two years ago.

    She claimed to have deferred college since, even though she hadn¡¯t applied until last fall. Students from Collingwood Academy had an unusually high acceptance rate, and with her 3.8 GPA, it hadn¡¯t been a problem getting in, but now she was glad that she had still been mourning, rather than celebrating, when she got the acceptance letter. She had told no one, so the news had never reached Ravi.

    She waited until they were out on the street, feeling safer in the anonymous crowds.

    ¡°It¡¯s not¡­ about you,¡± she said. ¡°Not the way you think. It turns out I¡¯ve been deferring college for too long, and I had to reapply. Only, this time I didn¡¯t get in. I¡¯m on the wait list, so there¡¯s still a chance, but I¡¯ve been trying to come up with some other solution. I never wanted you to support me, not even for a little while, and I need¡­ I need to find a way to be independent, before I can commit to us.¡±

    She paused, awaiting his reaction. She was getting better at lying, and it frightened her. It shouldn''t be so easy for her to explain away her secrets. She was stalling again, and she knew it, but at least, if he couldn¡¯t accept her terms, that would make it easier.

    ¡°I get it,¡± he said. ¡°I do.¡±

    It sent guilt, rather than relief, tingling down her spine. She didn''t deserve his easy forgiveness, because he was forgiving the wrong things.

    ¡°But,¡± he continued, ¡°would it make any difference, if I moved here? If we split all the expenses equally?¡±

    ¡°Ravi, no. You just got that job, I can¡¯t let you keep making these sacrifices.¡± Or let him move here. The lies were already overwhelming, and if they lived together, they would surely topple over and bury her alive.

    ¡°Someone has to.¡±

    Alice startled. He hadn¡¯t sounded angry, but it felt judgmental all the same. She was used to his patience, but maybe she had finally reached the end of it.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to pressure you, and I¡¯m never going to, but something has got to give, Alice.¡±

    Alice took a long, slow breath. She wanted nothing more than to agree, to make a sacrifice for their shared future, but how could she?

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how to do that right now.¡± It wasn¡¯t the right answer, but that much had been obvious, even before she spoke the words. ¡°I¡­¡± She should offer him an out, even if he wouldn¡¯t take it. If he¡¯d wanted out, he would have just broken it off. She should force him out, really, but she still couldn''t do the one thing she was supposed to do. She couldn''t set him free.

    Ravi took mercy on her, when her pause turned to silence. ¡°We can revisit this in August, when we know for sure if you got in.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Alice said, accepting the offering. ¡°Yeah, okay.¡±

    He gave her time, the thing she kept wanting, but could no longer be allowed to claim. Unless it was freely given, she amended. Even if he was only giving her a few more weeks. She would have a solution by then. She promised herself that.

    They walked back to his car, the tension lifting. Even if they were both still frustrated, setting time limits was something familiar. Maybe long ago, they should have stopped believing there would ever come a time, when they didn¡¯t push a deadline.

    Ravi drove off, leaving Alice with a longing to be back behind Academy walls. It was easier to feel in control of some aspects of her life there, even if she wasn''t. The day had felt endless, but now she could finally head home.

    Nick and Teagan were posting on Vision, which was how she knew they were at the library. She tracked them down to one on the study rooms, let herself in and collapsed dramatically on the couch, her head landing in Teagan''s lap.

    "Rough day?" Teagan asked, combing her hair away from her face.

    "Rough day," Alice confirmed, then asked, "what do you think happens to people, who can''t handle the truth about magic?"

    "Can''t handle how?" Nick asked.

    Alice shrugged. "In any way. My mom suggested it might break some people, but also, I guess, people who just see something they shouldn¡¯t."

    ¡°The Oracles,¡± Teagan offered. When Alice and Nick only looked at her with question marks written on their faces, she continued. ¡°There are rumors.¡±

    ¡°Maybe they drop them in a Coven,¡± Nick suggested. ¡°But if they break¡­ no one is going to believe them anyway.¡±

    Alice hummed some sort of answer. She was tired. She didn¡¯t actually want to think about this, or anything. If only it were easier to shut off her brain, and be unconcerned for just an hour or two. Tomorrow, there would be plenty to worry about.

 Chapter twenty-four

    Luka had arranged to meet with one of the Agents from the nature mages. Technically, Hadley was in charge of coordinating all Agents, including the nature mages, but there was a small division of administrative staff on the nature side of campus. Since their Agents didn''t have a lot to do as a general rule ¡ª they mainly worked to secure the borders to the Academy and preserve nature ¡ª he had elected to go over Hadley''s head with this. More to the point, he had decided to go over Hadley''s head, because he was still mad at him.

    They were sent to something called "the Gazebo" to meet this Agent.

    Luka had exactly zero expectations about this gazebo, but was in no way surprised when they arrived. Nature mages had an abundance of time, and also an aversion to everything processed. They could construct houses, but everything was done by hand (or magic) to make it easier for them to connect with the material, even after it was no longer rooted to the ground. The Gazebo wasn''t a construction at all; it just looked like one. Thick trees were arranged in a perfect circle, alternating between willows and something that reached higher, the crowns tangling together to form a roof. Luka didn¡¯t pretend to know much about trees, but he was familiar with the weeping willow. Their branches fell almost to the ground and effectively closed off the space. There was no obvious entrance, and they had to sweep aside the leaves to enter.

    Inside, if it even qualified as being inside, everything seemed green tinted, as sunlight filtered through the leaves. Patterns of light danced on the floors, which was some sort of firm, red earth. The space was massive enough, that it had to have a purpose outside of leisure. The name suggested it was the only one of its kind, and given its size, it could easily double as an arena or a lecture hall, even if the acoustics had to be terrible. At the moment, it was interspersed with little huddles of chairs and couches arranged around wooden tables. Nature mages in pairs or groups were having low conversations, while some solitary people were reading or studying. Luka had no idea who they were meeting, and considered going back out to call the administrator, when one of the mages got up and approached them.

    "Luka Lavrin," he said, already smiling. "What an honor."

    He held out his hand, and Luka took it, working hard not to let out a sigh. He didn''t usually associate with nature mages, and had no idea his fame traveled.

    Although, he had saved the entire Academy. Not just the urban side.

    "Field Eriksen," the guy continued, and Luka could only assume he was offering his name. He looked young, but had to be at least in his mid-20''s to be an established Agent. It didn''t help Luka''s perception of him, that he dressed like he was on his way to an indie music festival in the woods. Brown shorts, a faded tunic-style shirt, and several leather straps and braided strings tied around his wrists.

    "Legacy?" Luka asked, because it seemed obvious.

    "Oh, yes," Field said. "I thank my parents every day for their collective imagination."

    Luka nearly smiled, despite himself. He didn''t like that he judged people on their appearance, but he was only human, and he could relate to being dealt a slightly awkward name, even though his issues weren''t as obvious. Especially not to Americans, who were mostly unfamiliar with Russian naming customs.

    He gestured to Alice, who seemed to still be lost to the gazebo. "Alice Malik, my partner."

    "Well, it''s nice to meet an urban mage who appreciates natural beauty."

    "It is stunning," Alice said, still unable to take her eyes off of the ceiling. Luka was far less impressed with the show of combined landscaping and magic. Nature had probably done most of the work. All they had to do was position some trees.

    "So," Field said. "I wasn''t given any details. How top secret is this, exactly? Should we sit, or should we walk?"

    "Alice?" Luka asked.

    She looked between him and Field, as if she might have missed something. "What?"

    "I don''t care who knows," Luka explained. "You''re Hadley''s proxy, right?"

    And yes, he knew he was being unfair. He just hadn¡¯t worked back up to caring.

    "No," Alice said firmly. Then sighed, resigning herself to being the responsible one. "We should walk."

    Which was exactly the decision he expected her to make, the decision Hadley would have made. The same decision he would have made, if he had wanted to look professional.

    "Great," Field said, ignoring the brief moment of awkwardness and stepped forward to hold back the leaves for them.

    Field steered towards the border of the Academy.

    It wasn''t walled on this side, instead marked by a row of trees. Luka knew they were proficient in keeping intruders out, or walls would have been set up regardless of their feelings on the matter, but he had no idea how. Things he didn''t know bothered him. Especially things that could potentially work to his disadvantage. Like, facing a nature mage and having no idea how they fought. It just didn''t bother him enough to ask. If he needed to know, he would figure it out on his own.

    "You have questions?" Field said, and for a second it felt like he was reading Luka''s mind ¡ª but no, they were here to ask different questions.

    "What do you know about nature mages going rogue?" He had been referred to Field, not only because he was an Agent, but also because he knew most of the nature mages at the Academy. Luka had been assured, that if anyone could answer their questions, it would be him. For urban mages, going rogue was either defiance or necessity. Either they just played around with their magic, trying not to get caught, or they did what the Agents were supposed to do; protected the city. They kept an eye on wild magic, Strays and the various creatures that occasionally appeared. And tried not to get caught.

    Luka imagined that nature mages might have similar issues with the Academy, but certainly not to the same extend. Nature magic was ancient, and afforded more protections. Despite the parallels between their powers, nature magic tended to be seen as the order to urban magic''s chaos. The creatures were quiet and peaceful. The mages preserved and protected their element. Maybe it was because nature magic had existed so long before civilization evolved enough for the mutation to occur, but apparently the Council decided that urban magic couldn''t be allowed to roam free. It wouldn''t be allowed to exist without rules and regulations to keep the destructive nature of the magic down. Because urban magic was all teeth and sharp edges and nightmares. It was tearing things down and building on the rubble of what came before.

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    It wasn''t exactly a fair assessment, but it was what they got.

    "Not a lot," he answered. "I mean, it doesn''t really happen."

    "What if it did?"

    "Did it?" He glanced at Luka, who only shrugged. "Look, don''t take this the wrong way, but we don''t really need to."

    Luka didn''t know what part of that he could possibly take the wrong way. "Need to?"

    "Well, we don''t get kicked out of the Academy."

    Luka frowned. "No one gets kicked out of the Academy." At least not officially.

    "No, I know. But people are¡­ encouraged to leave, right? That''s what I''ve heard."

    Luka swallowed down his answer, before he got too defensive. This wasn''t about him. Everyone assumed he had left on his own.

    "No," Alice cut in. "Of course not. The Council are trying to contain Rogues. Not create more."

    "Right, okay. Well, anyway. Nature mages might leave the Academy, sure. But not to oppose the Council," he said. "At least, not as a general rule," he added, fishing for more information. Luka smiled lightly, determined to withhold as much information as possible. This guy was direct, but maybe a little too direct. Luka had yet to form any actual feelings about him, but right now he was leaning towards offended.

    "If you had to use magic in the city, what would you need?" Luka asked, moving on.

    Field had a charming smile; wide, carefree and dimpled. "Well, if I had to use magic in the city, that wouldn''t actually be a problem." He caught Luka''s eye and halted. "But this is not about me."

    "No," Luka said. "Go on." Never turn down information freely given, even if he wasn''t currently in the mood, and it clearly showed. Unless Field had just remembered who he was talking to, and didn''t want to give out his secrets to urban mages. Still, Luka forced his face to relax itself into something more neutral, perhaps a little kinder.

    "I have trained myself to use magic outside of my element. It''s a research project I''m working on." They had reached the line of trees, and Field reached out his hand to run it along the trunks as they passed.

    "And it works?" Luka asked, suddenly interested enough to suppress his annoyance, even if the glint of pride in the other Mage¡¯s eyes made Luka want to challenge him to a duel.

    Field nodded. "Not as well, but well enough."

    "And the Council approved this?"

    "Yeah," Field said. "They didn''t believe in it, but they didn''t mind that I tried."

    Luka shook his head in disbelief. If the Council couldn''t see the implications of this, if they couldn''t see the possibilities¡­ Unless they could, and just wanted to keep it to themselves.

    "Can anyone else do it?"

    "Well, it''s not like it''s a secret. I''ve been talking about it, sharing my techniques. I haven''t taught anyone, it''s still far too soon for that, but theoretically, someone could have done the same thing. I just doubt it, since no one has told me about it."

    "Okay," Luka said. "But if you couldn''t do that. If you needed a source."

    "Yes. Right. I guess the obvious things: parks, rivers, that sort of thing. If we''re talking structures, it gets trickier. Properties with large gardens, maybe. Buildings constructed mainly of wood might work, but it would be difficult."

    "What about abandoned buildings?" Luka asked.

    "I don''t really know. I''d guess it depends on how overgrown they are, how much nature has taken over the space."

    "Great," Luka said. "Thanks for your time."

    "Wait," Alice said. "Could you create a space for yourself in the city, so your magic would be easier to use?"

    "Like, plant things? Sure. I guess."

    "No, like¡­ rain showers."

    "We can''t control the weather," Field said. "The amount of power that would require, it''s¡­ very nearly impossible."

    "Very nearly?" Luka asked.

    "Maybe if you had, like, a lot of mages, and a rain shower already coming in, you could time it to your advantage, but¡­ I don''t know. It''s a lot."

    Luka looked at Alice. "Any more questions?"

    "No," she said.

    "Wait," Field said. "I can help."

    Luka instinctively wanted to dismiss him, but he glanced between Alice and Field. Maybe it wasn''t a terrible idea. "You can go with Alice."

    "Luka," she said. "That''s not¡ª"

    "Yes, it is," Luka cut her off. "The last time I found them, I nearly died. We''ll be faster if we split up, and you''re not going anywhere alone."

    "Fine. Is there a plan?"

    "Yeah," Luka said. It was coming together, at least. "Just give me five minutes, and a wifi connection." He looked around, at how far from any actual structures they were. He wasn''t going to plan this in the middle of a grassy field on his phone. Field followed them back to the urban side of the Academy, and into the library, where Luka commandeered a computer. He still believed the restaurant meant something, and that they should start with abandoned buildings. If that yielded nothing, they would search wider. Besides, he already knew where he needed to go first.

    Luka was plagued by a constant adrenalin rush that wouldn''t let go, no doubt triggered by the countdown still running uselessly in his head. It had taken residence under his skin and left him feeling jittery. When he sat down in front of the computer, had to force himself to sit still, it became all the more obvious. His hands trembled along with his entire body, but it was the lack of fine motor skills that frustrated him the most. He clenched his fists, trying to shake it off, before raising his hands to the keyboard, hoping Alice and Field didn''t notice.

    According to the city''s homepage, there were nearly 400 distressed buildings in the city. It provided a list of those buildings, every one that wasn''t occupied, and was either boarded up, burned, or otherwise deteriorating. There was no way to narrow that number down, but they could at least start in the inner city. Mutiny had been a necessity, but Chinatown had been a choice. For now, they had to assume the main base of operations was at least reasonably close. Luka wanted the Emerald Necklace, but he obviously couldn''t claim the entire thing, since it included the majority of parks in the city.

    "You take the rivers and the Common," he said. "I''ll take the south areas." It didn''t cover much of the necklace, but it did cover most of the inner city, which was were they were going to start the search. He didn''t like that he was sending Alice into the parts of the search that lay closest to the restaurant, but he had a hunch.

    One of the buildings listed had a familiar address, and Luka was pretty sure it had been an old hospital. A quick search confirmed it. It used to be an asylum before it was abandoned. Maybe wonderland really was a reference to Alice in Wonderland, and he was meant to descend into madness.

 Chapter twenty-five

    The problem wasn¡¯t that Alice had been paired with Field, it was that Luka had separated himself from her again, and it was making her edgy. He could admit to nearly dying, but not that he was in any kind of danger. On top of that, she doubted that he was being entirely forthcoming about the plan.

    On the other hand, Field was a welcome change from Luka and his misplaced anger. It was a relief to be able to focus on the mission, on getting to know their new ally, and to push away her worries for the time being. She didn¡¯t know much about nature mages, and she barely even had to make an effort to learn. Field didn¡¯t need much prompting to hold a conversation and that, too, was a relief.

    They were already in the city, and had split off from Luka, who had sworn he would send Alice proof of life every 15-20 minutes.

    She wasn''t sure he had been serious.

    The nature of her conversation with Field changed, once they had drifted away from Luka, which was when she realized Field had deliberately steered clear of the topic. Field had told her about his family, and Alice told him about Teagan and Nick. He had something of a "man of the people" vibe, and didn''t seem to have any really close friends, although he clearly knew a lot of people. He was a family person, though. He was the oldest of three (one brother, one sister) and the only one who had come into his magic.

    This surprised Alice, until he explained that nature magic was dying. It wouldn''t die out, probably not ever, but the stronger urban magic became, the weaker nature magic became. At least, unless they could discover another way of making themselves useful, which was how he had started experimenting with his magic. He wanted to save nature magic, to fundamentally change it enough that their power and range might return. He wanted to save other children of Legacies from facing the disappointment his siblings had. The disappointment hundreds of children had felt.

    ¡°He¡¯s not what I expected,¡± he said, finally releasing the tension.

    ¡°He¡¯s not in the best mood.¡± Alice wasn¡¯t sure he deserved the gesture. ¡°The more time passes, the more students are going to die from this.¡± She didn¡¯t add that Luka was running out of time himself.

    Field nodded. ¡°Of course, but you¡¯re confident?¡±

    Did they seem confident? Either way, she nodded. ¡°One way or another, Luka is going to fix this.¡±

    Regardless of her confidence, she knew that he would fix it on sheer willpower, if he had to.

    ¡°You must be quite the mage yourself."

    She nearly laughed, but he seemed so sincere, that she managed to suppress it. He must not know, or understand. She had been in the top five of her class, so it wasn¡¯t like he was entirely wrong, but he was also so far from being right.

    ¡°Honestly? I¡¯m only here, because I was planning on leaving,¡± she told him. ¡°I never signed up for a mentor, which was why I wasn''t already assigned one when they hired Luka.

    Of course there''s more to it than that, but it wasn''t like I was chosen entirely on merit.¡± She shook her head. ¡°Not to downplay my achievements, but it¡¯s not¡­ I¡¯m grateful for the opportunity, but they wouldn¡¯t have ruined someone they believed in.¡±

    ¡°Ruined?¡±

    Alice shook her head, having already said too much of the wrong thing. She wasn¡¯t so mad at Luka, that she wanted to ruin whatever image Field had of him, but he had to know, didn¡¯t he?

    ¡°I don¡¯t mean that,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s just complicated.¡±

    Field made a sound of acknowledgment, but didn¡¯t push the issue. "Anyway, you''re the boss,¡° he said instead. ¡±Where do we start?"

    "Well, I figure we''ll cross the bridge here, move on to the east side, and circle back to the Common." Alice had already nudged them in that direction, and they were nearly at the water. She headed for the narrow path running through the dam, rather than the bridge towering over it. The path was more accessible and led straight into a park on the other side. She had thought, that maybe they should start Downtown, near the restaurant and Mutiny, but instead she told herself that there was value in ruling out neighborhoods.

    ¡°You can really use your magic in the city?¡± She asked.

    ¡°I can. Our elements are a mental barrier, more than anything. Really, anyone can break through it, if they try hard enough, but practice makes it easier.¡±

    Alice nodded. She didn¡¯t want to feel the relief. She didn¡¯t want to think she was safer with him here, that Luka might be right. She also didn¡¯t want to think that maybe they weren¡¯t safer at all, because the Rogues had beaten the best Mage she knew.

    She slowed, when they stepped on to the footpath. Maybe thinking less was the secret to getting through this.

    "You don''t see any beauty in that?" Alice asked, nodding to the bridge that rose above the water to their left. It was mostly an attempt at covering for her hesitation, but it helped that the bridge was imposing, especially standing below it like this. There was something graceful about the architecture, the way the cables were suspended from the towers like rays of sunlight. The towers that looked like wishbones, like it could bring the entire city luck.

    "I never said that," Field said, studying the bridge. "I just think most urban mages tend to forget to slow down and appreciate nature. Most of them don''t even leave the cities unless they have to, because the loss of power makes them uncomfortable."

    "It doesn''t make you uncomfortable?"

    Field shrugged. "I think the difference is, that we don''t need to feel invincible. We don''t consider the world a threat."

    "Not even now?"

    "No. I don¡¯t want to diminish the loss of a life, but I trust that nature has a way of righting itself. Even if sometimes, it needs a little help.¡° He bumped his arm gently against hers, and she nearly smiled. It was a nice thought, if they could manage to help nature along, before everyone died.

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    "It must be nice to be so carefree.¡°

    "Oh, it is." Field smiled. "I don''t know why I''m letting myself get dragged into this."

    "Well, I don''t know what to tell you. You''re the one who''s altering the nature of your magic, just to see some action. I think you might be a little bored with safety."

    When Field laughed, she couldn''t help but smile. "I think you might be right."

    They reached the other side, pausing to dodge some joggers running along the path in the park. She glanced at Field, who looked every bit like a modern day sun god. His hair shimmered gold in the sunlight, his skin was tanned from spending most of his time outside, and when he smiled, she could swear the world brightened just a little. She shrugged it off as some sort of nature mage charisma, because otherwise she would overthink it too much. She caught a glimpse of the crest tattooed on his arm, and when he caught her looking, he held it out to her.

    "May I?" Alice asked, and Field nodded.

    She could feel the sun on his skin, even through the heat of her own fingers, as she traced the crest. It was a simpler version, than the one the Academy carried on buildings and courtyards and on every piece of stationary, the one the students carried on their uniforms. Rather than the dragon perched on top of the shield, it had two keys crossed in front of it. The shield was the same, the color blending from gray to brown and four diamonds, like stained glass windows, representing the colors of magic.

    If she focused, she could feel the magic within, although she couldn''t say what it did. She knew they used it as identification and access to restricted areas, but it could easily be more than that. She had never thought she would get one of these.

    Now she wasn¡¯t sure.

    ¡°What does it feel like?¡°

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel like anything,¡± he said. ¡°Not anymore.¡±

    ¡°But doesn¡¯t it feed on your magic? It must.¡±

    ¡°Not enough to make an impact, not unless I¡¯m actively using it.¡±

    When her phone buzzed in her pocket, she let her hands fall away from his arm. The joggers were long gone. The path was clear. They had a job to do.

    The text was from Luka, and simply said, ¡°Still alive.¡±

    They walked into the park, keeping their eyes open for anything that looked off. It wasn''t an easy task, considering their targets could literally be anywhere, but they did their best. They walked on, in focused silence, through the city. Every time they reached one of the abandoned buildings, they slowed. They circled it slowly before cautiously making their way inside. Some of the buildings were mostly fine, if neglected. Some were clearly still being used for storage, although no one was bothering with any upkeep. Others were decaying, infested with rot or weakened from old age, and were too fragile to search properly. Then there were the ones that had suffered fire damage, and still smelled like smoke and ash. Floors and walls were crisp, falling apart at the lightest touch.

    "I know we just have to find the right building," Alice said, "but this is starting to look like a long shot."

    "Could you tell me more about the case? Maybe I can help narrow it down, if I know more."

    "I don''t see why not," Alice said. "But... there was supposed to be a clue. I think Luka has it, but maybe he doesn''t know what it means yet."

    "A clue? Like a treasure hunt?"

    Alice grimaced. "Exactly like a treasure hunt. The bad guy is¡­ I don''t know. Weird. It''s like he wants us to figure it out." She shook her head. "Do you want to take a break? I''ll fill you in."

    They found a place to buy some food, and brought it to the waterfront to eat. They sat down on a bench facing the water, watching the sun shimmer across the surface. The day was hot, and it was nice to sit in the light breeze from the river. They were heading back over the water after this, to the last part of their search. They had found absolutely nothing suspicious, but to be honest, the bigger chance probably lay at the center of the city. Even if she hadn¡¯t wanted to admit it. It had been justifiable to search from the outside in, because despite the evidence of an attachment to the inner city, it would be too obvious for the Rogues to have their headquarters there.

    But then again, maybe not.

    While they talked, she got another text from Luka with the exact same words. Still alive. He had been true to his word, and sent them regularly.

    "Find anything?" She texted back.

    "No," came the swift reply.

    "Luka doesn''t have anything either," she told Field. "Any ideas?"

    He had listened to her talk, asking occasional questions, but otherwise making no comments. She hadn''t bothered leaving out the part where Luka almost died, since he had already mentioned it. Rather offhanded, but still.

    "That nature mage¡­ Do you know what he looked like?"

    "No," Alice said. "Luka never said."

    "But he was a Summoner."

    "Yeah. Do you think you might know him?"

    "There are a lot of Summoners, but I just wonder if he''s from this Academy. Otherwise I might have missed someone who was secretly plotting to take down the Academy, and I just can''t imagine anyone¡­"

    "I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s that simple," Alice said. ¡°But I get it. They would have to be good liars, though.¡±

    "I know. It''s just so strange, you know? I guess we all want to believe we could spot a traitor, but you just never know."

    "No, I guess you''re right." Alice said. She wondered if she should start doubting people, but honestly? Teagan was determined to become a Council member. There''s no way she would be a traitor, and Nick? He was loyal. He was devoted to Teagan, and he wanted to be an Agent. She really had no reason to doubt either of them. "It could be an angle, though. Find the Summoner."

    Field nodded. "If Luka can give me a description, I can look into it."

    Alice moved to the railing, and looked at the water below her. It was calming, but water also had a draw, even on urban mages. "I keep coming back to the clue," she said, when Field joined her. "It''s not that kind of clue. That''s what he said." She had almost forgotten about that, because she had been distracted by Ravi, but now it came back to her. That meant he knew what it was.

    "You said he may not have figured it out yet."

    "Yeah, I know. But why wouldn''t he share it?"

    "Well, the first victim was about Luka, as was Mutiny. If this is about him, if he''s the key, maybe it''s personal."

    Alice nodded. "Maybe. But the last time he kept something from me, he nearly got himself killed."

    She looked at her phone. The last proof of life text had come in 5 minutes ago. He was fine. She knew he was fine.

    "Right," she said. "Let''s finish this."

    The rest of the city offered exactly as much suspicious activity as it had so far. They hadn''t made it through all their buildings yet, since there were quite a few in the inner city, but they had checked the park, and found nothing. By the time it became early evening, they chose to give up. Luka was still sending regular texts, but no updates, so she assumed he hadn''t found anything either.

    "Right," she said to Field, after another dead end. "I think it''s time to declare this mission a failure. Unless Luka has found something, we need to figure something else out."

    "Yeah," Field said. "I think you''re right. I''ll look into the nature mage angle, but I''m guessing a backup plan would be good."

    Field collapsed onto a set of stairs leading up to a residence. Alice sympathized, and joined him. They had been on their feet most of the day, walking for far too many miles to count. Field leaned back on his elbows and tilted his face towards the sky. The top two or three buttons on his shirt were unbuttoned, allowing light and shadows to paint hills and valleys in between his collarbones and his neck.

    "Do you know what we need?" Field asked.

    Alice directed her eyes towards the street, following the foot traffic as it passed them by. "What?"

    "A drink. You in?"

    She might have noted that alcohol couldn''t possibly be what they needed after walking all day through the city in the relentless summer heat, but she was 21, and had been instructed by Teagan to never turn down a drink. Besides, a drink sounded rather good. A cool breeze washed over her, signaling a change into early evening, and she smiled.

    "Sure."

 Chapter twenty-six

    When it came down to it, Luka didn¡¯t bother following their emerald road.

    Maybe he should have, at least for appearances or to pick up on any clues left there, but he was running out of time as well as patience. The drumming of his heartbeats were like a headache pulsing in his head, and whether it was the truth or not, he thought he could feel his magic yielding to the wild magic in his veins.

    The closer he got to the building, the more sure he felt, like there was a pull between the spell and its creator. That part, he knew, was a trick played on his mind by his desperation, but it was something to hold on to.

    It took him the better part of an hour to walk there. He could have jumped, but he didn¡¯t trust his magic or maybe he just didn¡¯t want to trust it. It was dangerous to take something for granted, if it could fail any minute. He had put alerts on his phone for every 15 minutes, and stopped to text Alice that he was still alive. The main purpose was to make sure she wouldn¡¯t bother him, when she suddenly decided she thought he might be in danger.

    Almost as soon as he turned onto the street, there could be no doubt about which building he was looking for. Sitting, as it did, in between glass towers like a relic of a forgotten age, and looking every bit the early twentieth century haunted house that it was. It was a wide, squat, four story building in red brick. Vines crawled up the walls, wild and untamed. The ground floor was boarded up, but he didn''t consider that a major problem. He reached into his pocket for the bottle of beta blockers, and shook a couple into his palm. He swallowed them, before locating a loose board, and creeping inside.

    He reached for the gun settled against his lower back, as he moved through the dark hallways. He walked in the direction of a dim light, and his surroundings became clearer as he neared it. He turned a corner, into a wider hallway, and was faced with a figure in a dark suit and a mask. A wolf this time. He leveled the gun at him, noting the way it trembled in his hands. The man raised his hands lazily.

    "No need for that," he said. "Follow me."

    He put the gun down, but not away, and followed Wolf Mask. He was led up a set of crumbling concrete stairs, and further into the building. There were no shutters on the windows up here, and everything was brighter. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls in thick ribbons, and most of the ceiling lay crumbled on the floor. Where the sunlight hit, moss was growing in patches, while dust motes were dancing in the air. He glanced into the rooms they passed, and found the abandonment of single pieces of furniture: a chair, a small cupboard, a lamp. Wolf Mask stopped, swept his hand towards the room in front of him, and retreated. Luka hesitated, before moving forward.

    The light inside the room was cold and dim. A curtain covered the window, and colored the man in washed out monochromes.

    "The great Luka Lavrin," he said, stepping out of the shadows. The light from the hallway cast a dirty white glow that could barely be called a light at all, but it served to make his features slightly more clear. His hands were placed casually in his pockets, making the point that he didn''t consider Luka a threat. He had led Luka here. He was in control. "What an honor."

    "I was under the impression that I was expected."

    "Oh, I certainly hoped you would show up." When the man smiled, it was wide and predatory, showing off his teeth. If it was meant to look friendly, it utterly failed. On the other hand, the man was a murderer. Maybe it wasn''t designed to look friendly at all.

    "So it was personal," Luka stated, staying put in the open door, "I was wondering about that, once it started looking like a treasure hunt."

    The smile widened, a brief twitch of his lips, but it never fell away entirely. Luka studied his face, trying to see if he could place him. Everyone knew Luka''s name and reputation, but based on the man''s age, they could have been at the Academy at the same time. Of course the Mutiny crew had been fairly tightly knit, and he should have recognized him if they had been there at the same time. He didn''t. Which meant he had to be at least a couple of years younger or older. Colors bled out in the room, and all he could tell for sure was that he had dark hair, black in the dim light, and stubble shadowed his jaw. When his eyes caught the light, they looked pale gray, but were probably light blue.

    "So why am I here?" Luka asked, having lost patience with this game several moves ago.

    "I brought you here, to offer you a chance to help."

    "Help you?"

    That smile, that never quite went away, widened again. "I''d like to think you''d be helping yourself, as well."

    Luka''s eyes narrowed. He wanted to refuse, but he knew now that if he didn''t get the cure he would die. This guy held all the power, and he knew it.

    "What do you want me to do?"

    He stepped aside, a gesture inviting Luka to enter the room. It was an annoying feature of this meeting, that every move Luka made, put the other man in control.

    He walked into the room.

    ¡°Leave us,¡± the man said, which was when Luka realized someone else was in there. He only caught a glimpse of the kid, as he passed by him, but he felt the weight of eyes on him.

    The door clicked closed, and Luka turned.

    "First,¡° the man said, ¡±I want you to infect Hadley Thomas."

    "Why?"

    "Because, Luka, I didn''t get you hired so you could be the hero. I got you hired, so you could show the Council that they have been backed into a corner with no way out. I want them desperate and afraid, and in order to achieve that, I need the infection to spread closer to home. You have access to Mage Thomas, who is close enough, and that way none of my people blow their cover."

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    "What use will I be to you as a traitor?"

    "Oh, I¡¯m not worried about that."

    Luka silenced, trying to envision his future. So, he infected Hadley. He became a traitor. Would Hadley protect him? He had no reason to. Nothing besides a sense of nostalgia, and misplaced loyalty. So, Luka would die either way, and the only remaining question was if treachery was worth it for the cure.

    "Come on, Luka. I know about your history with the Council. That''s why I chose you. Don''t you want to take them out?" He spoke the last words slowly, punctuating them by stepping further into Luka''s space and was now officially invading it.

    "No," he said. "Not like this."

    The man tilted his head. "You know they won''t show you the same kind of loyalty. You''re a Rogue, and you know how they feel about you, as reckless as you are. They''re like a cat chasing a mouse, Luka, and next time they might just decide to snap your neck rather than to play with you."

    "Maybe. Which is why I have to be better than them."

    "Okay. Sure. I admire that." He swept his arms out wide. "I guess you''re free to go."

    Luka took a step back. As much as he wanted that cure, he still had time. He still had time to find another way, even though he knew there wasn''t one. He knew that, and he couldn''t concede to giving up his life, or the life of another student, which was why he stopped, even before the man spoke again.

    "Just," the man said, putting his hands back in his pockets. "Consider one thing for me. If the Council was truly capable, you wouldn''t have been forced to sacrifice the life of your friend. Abel, wasn''t it?"

    "I know they aren''t capable," Luka growled. "I know they don''t deserve any better. I''m still not joining your fucking crusade."

    "Really? You''d give your life for that? To be the better man?"

    "Fuck you."

    He really wanted to punch that fucking smile off his face. Magic flowed to his hands, red sparks dancing across his skin.

    "There it is.¡° He was actually so confident that Luka wouldn¡¯t hurt him, that he could allow himself to be amused at even the threat of violence. He really was a smug bastard.

    Luka clenched his fingers into fists. His magic felt off, further reminding him of his deadline. "You didn''t have to kill innocent people to get what you want."

    "But it is so very efficient, isn''t it? Besides, I''m not killing them. The Council is."

    Luka swept forward, catching the man by his neck, and slamming him into the wall. Plaster rained down on the both of them, dusting them in white.

    "You don''t get to wash your hands of this," Luka said. "You targeted Matt Young to get to me. He was fifteen." His fingers tightened around his neck. The man appeared unconcerned, but Luka could feel his pulse rising, he could feel the restricted airflow. A green glow appeared under his fingers, coloring their magic a muddled brown. The magic pushed back against his fingers, as if hardening the skin underneath. He was a Fighter, but Luka could have guessed as much, even if the spell at Mutiny hadn¡¯t revealed it. Healers knew how to fear pain; Fighters didn''t.

    "Revolutions require sacrifices, Luka. It''s unfortunate, but necessary." His voice was scratchy, but he was perfectly composed. Luka removed his hand. "You can''t tell me this isn''t what the world needs."

    Luka hated that he was right. Returning to the Academy had only reinforced what he already knew. Their world did need this, and maybe this really was the only way change could happen. He only wished that it wasn''t. "So what''s the plan?" Luka asked, backing away.

    "We force them into a situation where they have no choice but to negotiate, or step down."

    "And when they don''t?" Maybe this guy was naive enough to think that putting pressure on them would be enough to make them fold, but Luka knew better. There was no way this would end peacefully. Once Luka infected Hadley, it would be as good as a declaration of war.

    The smile returned, sharp and dangerous. "Then they will burn."

    "You believe you can take them down," Luka said flatly. As creative as it was to recruit nature mages, from what Luka had seen, they didn''t have the force to take on the entire Academy in a fight. Not even if they managed to spread the infection within the Agents. They would make their move long before the infection would incapacitate any of them.

    "Yes," the man said, answering the question despite the fact that Luka clearly hadn''t posed it as one. Luka studied him, trying to figure out if his confidence was genuine, but it really did seem like he believed his own words. Whether the arrogance was earned, remained to be seen.

    "What happens to me, if I accept?"

    "You already have." The man put his hands on Luka''s shoulders. Luka froze, but at least he didn''t flinch. "I will personally cure you, of course. You''re no good to me dead, Luka. I''ll even cure everyone else, too, once we get what we want."

    Luka didn''t want to die. That was what it came down to. Certainly not in three days, or however long he had left. Maybe things would have been different, if he thought he could crack the spell, and find the cure. Maybe things would have been different, if he really believed his principles were worth dying for. At least, if he committed treason, he could run. At least, there was a chance the Council would lose and he wouldn''t have to.

    Either way, he was right again: Luka had already accepted.

    Even though the students didn''t deserve this, the Council did, and he wasn''t going to let another innocent person die for this. The Council, on the other hand, could burn for all he cared.

    "Okay," he said at last. "So, what happens now?"

    His canines were long and sharp enough, that they added to the danger of the smile.

    "Once you have completed your mission, you get a text with a location. I''m giving you 24 hours, but considering your other deadline, I trust you''ll do it in less."

    "Great," Luka said. "Have I at least earned your name?" He hated being in a deficit of information, and this guy knew far too much about Luka already. At least with a name, Luka might be able to make up some of the difference.

    "John," the man answered with too much confidence and a twitch of his lips.

    "Cute," Luka answered. "You know, trust goes both ways."

    The man smiled. "Well, I guess you have a point."

    He held out his hand in a formal greeting. Luka stared at it for a moment, before finally reaching out to grasp it. His eyes flickered back up to his face, so he could read him.

    "Garrett," he said. This time it felt more genuine, familiar, like this was how he was used to presenting himself. It might still be a false name, but at least it indicated that he had carried it longer. Luka nodded and withdrew his hand.

    "You have a thing about touching, don''t you?" Garrett observed.

    "I wasn''t hugged as a child," Luka answered, almost automatically. Once he had chosen to embrace his identity as an orphan, appearing nonchalant about it became easier.

    "No, I suppose not," Garrett said. "How old were you when your parents died?"

    "Nine." If he really knew his history, he should have known that detail as well. It was all part of the legend. Which made him wonder why he pretended not to.

    Garrett nodded. "Welcome to the team, Luka."

    He patted Luka on the arm on his way out, and then he was gone. Luka didn''t follow, but remained in the dim room for a moment. "Fuck," he muttered. He glanced around one last time, hoping Garrett had left something behind, but found the room as empty as before. He ran a hand through his hair, upsetting a cloud of plaster dust. He brushed it off his shoulders as well, and turned to leave.

    Once he stepped out of the building and back into the world, he was forced to face reality. His time was running out in more ways than one, and he was ready to do what he had to, but it wasn''t going to be easy.

 Chapter twenty-seven

    The first drink may not have been a terrible idea, but the fourth (fifth?) definitely had been. The sun was no more merciful today, and even behind shades, the sun burned her eyes. She could practically feel the way Luka looked at her, although her head was pounding, and she was keeping her eyes closed as much as possible. Luka was, of course, ever the morning person, so it was barely eight. By the time Alice had made it back to the Academy, it was way past midnight, and even through the haze of the hangover, she could feel the lack of sleep.

    "I could heal that, if I wasn''t infected," was all he said.

    "You know any other Healers who''ll do it?" Academy Healers did not heal hangovers, and of course Alice had chosen to befriend a Forger and a Summoner, but no Healers.

    "Probably," Luka said, "but we don''t have time for that."

    Alice groaned, but followed him. She figured they would be heading for the nature side of the Academy, to get Field for another day of searching buildings, but he was headed in the opposite direction. She wasn''t really focused on where they were going, not until they entered the shimmering kaleidoscope of the glass tower.

    "Wait," she said, stopping in her tracks. "Where are we going?"

    "I need to talk to Hadley."

    When she stopped, she had hoped he might do the same. He hadn''t, and was already heading up the stairs. Alice had to jog to catch up, jostling her poor brain. "Stop, Luka. Please."

    She was breathing too hard, harder than she should. Luka stopped. He was still on the stairs, paused in between steps. He didn''t snap at her, but he looked like he wanted to.

    "Why?" she asked.

    "Because it''s over, Alice. We''re not going to search 400 buildings hoping to find something. There''s no next move. We lost."

    "What about the connection to you? What about the clue?"

    "There was no clue."

    Alice had to take a moment for her sluggish brain to catch up. There had been a clue. He had mentioned it.

    "No. You said there was a clue."

    Luka shook his head. "I thought the building was a clue. The nature mage. I was wrong. I think we have to accept that they were luring me there to kill me. To get me out of the way."

    Another thing occurred to Alice. "Field said he could ask around about the nature mage. Maybe he even knows who it is. If you could describe¡­"

    "I can''t describe any of them. They were wearing masks."

    Alice really wished her mind had been clearer for this. "Okay, but¡­" That couldn''t be it. There had to be something else they could do, but she had no idea what.

    Luka started back up the stairs.

    "We can''t give up."

    "I''m not giving up," he said.

    He reached the landing, and seconds later, so did Alice. "He doesn''t want to see you," she said.

    Luka slowed, but he didn''t stop. "He''s going to have to."

    Alice gave up. Hadley was just going to have to fight this battle on his own. She trailed behind Luka, but kept back, when he knocked on the door. Luka barged in without waiting for a response, as was his style, while Alice moved slowly forward. She paused in the doorway, wanting to see how the conversation progressed before she ventured inside. She was in no condition to mediate today, and she mostly just wanted to go back to her room and sleep, but she couldn''t. Luka was her partner, and she had made promises to Hadley, and this was as much about her as it was about them.

    She leaned on the frame of the door, and caught Hadley''s eyes.

    "Alice," he said, with some relief. "Come in. Close the door."

    When he addressed Luka, the chill in his voice sent a shiver through the summer heat. "Sit down, Lavrin."

    Luka remained standing.

    Alice sat, grateful for the plush chair.

    "We''re done," Luka said.

    "Well, I think you made that perfectly clear the last time we spoke."

    "With the case, Thomas. We''ve done what we could. We failed."

    Hadley looked to Alice. She didn''t really know what to say, so she gave him sort of a half shrug.

    "So, what? You''re telling me you give up?"

    "No," Luka said, "I''m telling you it''s your turn."

    "To do what?"

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    "We''re not going to find them, Thomas. We''re not going to find the cure, either. The only way to save everyone is to allow them to come to us." He said the words carefully, and Alice turned to look at him, anticipating the explanation. This part he had yet to share with her.

    "How?" Hadley asked, when he didn''t continue.

    "Negotiation."

    "No." His tone made it clear it was his final answer, but Luka didn''t back down.

    "Thomas," Luka protested.

    "No. They''re terrorists. We''re not negotiating with them."

    "That''s no longer an option, Thomas. I know what they want."

    "You know what they want? How?"

    "Because I''m not an idiot. This isn''t about hurting the students of the Academy. This is about politics. They''re Rogues, and I''m pretty sure this is actually a protest against Academy restrictions."

    Hadley pulled a hand through his hair. "So, you''re saying you sympathize with them, because you want the same thing?"

    "No. I understand them. You don''t, because you have no idea how all those rules affect us on the streets."

    "That might have been a better argument, if you didn''t constantly break those rules."

    Luka snorted. "If the Agents wanted to, they could arrest us on sight. No one would care. No one would protest. We walk a constant line between breaking the rules enough to let us do our jobs and not so much that the Academy is willing to spend resources to pursue us. None of which might matter, if you cross an Agent with time on their hands."

    Hadley scowled at him, the tension between them growing thick enough that Alice considered cutting in. There was only one problem with that. She had nothing to say that might help, and she wasn''t sure they would listen even if she did. She could see the point, that luring them out might be the best option. She was surprised it had never been brought up before, but she could tell Luka had anticipated the reaction, the refusal. They needed to be desperate for him to even suggest it, because he needed some leverage to push the decision through.

    "Okay," Hadley said, his hands steepled in front of him. "Do you want to know what those rules are good for? Fine. Our job, above all else, is to ensure the safety of mages. That becomes a lot harder when Rogues are running around unsupervised."

    Luka moved to speak, but Hadley silenced him with a gesture. "I know. You don''t believe you should be supervised. But that''s exactly how something like this is allowed to happen." He glared at Luka, daring him to protest. "The other thing is that without rules, going rogue might suddenly seem a lot more attractive to those people, who only choose the Academy because it''s the easier choice. We''re already struggling, Lavrin. Our forces are spread thin. We can''t afford more people going rogue."

    "I don''t give a fuck about how the Council justifies it. You think I don''t know that one of their greatest qualities is justifying their fucked up actions? That''s not the issue here. People deserve to be free, Thomas. Regardless of how badly the Council needs Agents."

    "So, what do you suggest, Lavrin? If you have it all figured out." Hadley asked, lowering his hands.

    "Independents," Luka answered. He had thought about this for a long time, that much was clear.

    "Really? How is that different from working for us as an Agent?"

    "There is no badge."

    "We both know the badge isn''t the issue."

    "Maybe not," Luka admitted, "but what the badge represents certainly is. It''s a leash around your throats. The Council tells you where to go, what to do. There is no refusing."

    Hadley cocked his head. "This is about your parents."

    "No. This is about the things I''ve seen these past ten years as a Rogue. The destruction the Agents leave behind."

    "Your parents were heroes, Lavrin." Luka started protesting again, but Hadley didn''t let himself get cut off. "They did the right thing."

    Something in Luka cracked. Alice could see that he didn''t want to engage in this conversation, but his tone shifted. She had never known Luka to shout, but there was a difference between his argumentative anger and his dangerous anger. His voice dropped lower, taking on a threatening growl. "The right thing? Since when is the right thing to let your children grow up alone?" He cut Hadley off before he could answer. "Don''t. We''re not having this conversation."

    Hadley fell silent. Alice felt stunned. She knew his parents were dead, but she had no idea his issues with the Council were connected to it.

    In the end, Hadley shook his head. "If I went with you on this, and pushed for a negotiation, how would we even contact them?" He emphasized the ''if'', making it clear that he was definitely not going along with this, but was willing to humor Luka all the same.

    Luka shrugged. "If this is really political, they''re going to be watching you. All you have to do is release a statement, and they will come to you."

    "A statement? No," Hadley said. "No. I won''t do it. Neither will the Council."

    "Fine," Luka said, spreading out his hands. "Maybe you should start figuring out how many people you''re willing to sacrifice before you start sacrificing your power instead." He leaned forward on Hadley''s desk. "Or maybe you should earn that badge of yours and go out and do the work yourself."

    Hadley shot up from his chair. "That''s enough. Get out."

    "Sore spot?" Luka asked, straightening up slowly. "So the office job isn''t a perk. It''s a consolation prize."

    Hadley moved around his desk, and Luka caught him when he got within reach, slamming him into the wall.

    "You want to take a swing at me?" Luka muttered, but the room was silent enough that Alice caught it. "Go ahead and try, but you know I''m right."

    "You bastard," Hadley hissed.

    Alice was half-way out her chair, and when she saw the way Luka was smiling, she jumped up and put herself between them.

    She pushed Luka back, but he wasn''t moving. "Luka," she snapped. At one point, Alice had worried that she was a pawn in their game, but her mistake had been in assuming they were playing chess at all. It was a game of chicken, and Alice wasn''t even in a car. No, she was uselessly screaming at them from the sidelines. She poured magic into her arms, and pushed harder. Luka grunted under the pressure, but backed up.

    "You need to get out," she told him. Her head was still pounding and using her magic made her nauseated. She couldn''t handle it, if they charged at each other again. Luka backed out, but he didn''t take his eyes off of Hadley. When the door clicked closed behind him, she turned her attention to Hadley. He didn''t look like he was focusing on anything.

    "Hadley?"

    He shook his head, coming back to the here and now.

    "I''m really going to need you two to work through these issues," she said, retreating to the chair.

    "I told you¡ª"

    "I know. You told me to keep him away from you, but if you think Luka is that easy to stop, you''re welcome to try."

    "Right," Hadley said, slumping into his own chair.

    They sat there, lost in their own thoughts and misery. Alice knew she should take off, but she wasn''t exactly eager to follow Luka, and what could she even do? He had given up.

    Maybe she should try convincing Hadley negotiating was the right move, but she wasn''t convinced it was.

    Besides, she wasn¡¯t going to move until the nausea settled.

    "What about a trap?" She asked, startling Hadley out of his thoughts. "Make plans to negotiate, but make it an ambush."

    "They''ll be expecting it," Hadley said. "We would have to say too much to even make the announcement. I''m not sure it would be worth it."

    Alice nodded. Her fingers were still tingling from the spent magic, and she suddenly became very aware of it. Aware of the fact that she had used magic. In front of Luka.

    "Oh, god," she said, looking at her hands, as if she would be able to see the infection spreading. "What did I do?"

 Chapter twenty-eight

    Luka was at the station, wavering on whether or not to make the jump. Part of him still feared his magic, and what would happen, if wild magic swept in while he was mid-jump. Then again, maybe he was overthinking it. His fingertips pressed into the wall, when his phone buzzed.

    He expected Alice, or maybe Hadley, but it was an unknown number.

    "Well done," the message said, along with a link to a map. The pin was at the very edge of the city, and from what he could tell it was a scattering of buildings surrounded largely by cemeteries and forest, and it was going to be an absolute pain to get to.

    He sighed, and did his very best to plan a route, which went something like this: The usual jump from West Medford to North Station, jumping from there to the absolute farthest point, at Forest Hills, from which he would have to switch to bus stations, which meant asshole magic. Traveling by bus stops tended to be more erratic than train and subway stations. This was because buses leaned very heavily on luck. Buses were notoriously late, or early, and never seemed to be present when you needed them. This shouldn''t affect Luka much, when he traveled by magic, but the erratic nature bled into the magic, and made jumping risky, even if he could trust his magic. It could both negate the magic entirely or it could work, but place you somewhere you had never intended to go. Even then, the route ended with a 15 minute walk.

    He made the journey, mostly without incident, forcing himself to make the first jump, after which they became easier, and finally arrived at an old farm house, held together by rotting white-painted wood panels. The windows were boarded up, which was hardly even a surprise anymore.

    A guy in a suit and a fox mask was waiting in front of the door, and Luka wondered if it was the same fox from before. He wasn''t taken inside. Instead, Fox Mask knocked on the door, and Garrett emerged. He smiled when he saw Luka, wide enough to show off his long canines. "Walk with me," he said.

    Luka didn''t particularly want to walk anywhere with him, but he complied, falling into step beside him.

    Since their last meeting, Luka had imagined Garrett in monochromes. It was only now, when he was in close proximity and surrounded by natural light, that colors bled into the image Luka had of him in his mind. His eyes were steel gray, but they weren''t colorless. Copper streaks shot through the gray and circled the iris. His hair was dark brown, but with a golden sheen where the sunlight reached out and touched it. He had it tied back when he saw him before, but now it fell in thick curls to his jaw. He had noticed the tattoo on his neck, but now that he cared enough to pay attention, saw that what had previously seemed like little more than a shadow on his skin, was a crown. Another tattoo was emerging from his sleeve, trailing words down the inside of his bicep. He could tell it was a quote, but with half of it hidden, he couldn''t identify it.

    For all the subtle colors in his features, there was nothing subtle about the way he dressed. He was in dark blue pants, but the short sleeved shirt he wore was furiously patterned in golds and reds and browns. It quickly became obvious how he was leading these people.

    While he perhaps seemed too young, he possessed the confidence of someone who knew he was attractive and knew how to use it to his advantage. His eyes were framed in black, which made them look paler than they were. His lashes were thick and long enough to bring attention to his eyes, but it was possible he was also wearing eyeliner. It was all a costume, though. The colorful shirt, the jewelry dominating his fingers and wrists and neck. It was supposed to make him look effortlessly handsome and charming, but also a little curious, and it worked. It caught people''s attention, drew them in, enough for him to convince them to stay.

    "You know, I really hadn''t expected you to take your apprentice down too, but I''m impressed."

    Luka had nothing useful to say to that, so he said nothing. He was aware that this friendly act Garrett was putting on was a dangerous thing, and he had to be careful to stay on this good side.

    "How many people do you have working on the inside?" he asked instead, shifting the conversation to something he could use. He could have guessed there were spies within the Academy, and perhaps even the Council, but it was too obvious for guesses. Garrett had to have a lot of influence, but not so much that he could take down the Council from the inside.

    "Is this another one of those trust things? I am awful at those." Garrett mused. "I''m not going to tell you that, Luka. I know where your loyalties lie, and it''s not with me."

    "Have I not played my part convincingly?" Luka asked, sarcasm bleeding into his voice. "Here I thought I did so well, showing my devotion to the cause."

    Garrett flashed him another one of those dangerous smiles. "Please don''t take me for a fool, Luka. You''re nothing more than a hostage, kept in line through blackmail. I need you, but don''t make the mistake of thinking you can do anything to make me trust you. It will save us both some time."

    "Fair enough," Luka agreed.

    They were making their way to one of the adjacent cemeteries, he guessed, as the road came to an end, and he could glimpse a small chapel through the trees. The road was paved, but it was still odd, walking along this forest trail with Garrett. They had to both be uncomfortable, this far from the city. They left the clearing of the trees, and for a moment the sun seemed too bright. Emerald lawns and perfect rows of trees surrounded the lines of headstones all around them. A pair of crows were perched on the graves, like keepers of the dead. Garrett headed for the chapel, and Luka followed his lead. The chapel sat on a raised platform, and a low wall ran in a semicircle around it, broken by the few steps that led up to the entrance.

    "What are we doing here?" Luka asked.

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    "Business," Garrett said, and handed him a folder he had been carrying. "It''s not as personal a betrayal this time, I promise."

    Luka took the folder. "No, I mean, why are we here?" He emphasized ''here'' as in, the cemetery, surrounded by the dead.

    "Ah," Garrett said, smiling. "Privacy. I assure you, my threats are more subtle than this. Besides, if I wanted you dead, you would be."

    "Privacy?" He raised an eyebrow, lifting his attention from the contents of the folder. It was profiles of Agents. There was a picture attached to each file, and a list of basic information.

    Garrett said nothing. Luka returned to the folder, flipping through the papers.

    "They don''t like my involvement, do they? Your¡­ followers?" He asked. He was starting to put the pieces together. They were targets, for whatever reason. Luka was meant to take them out. "You know Fox Mask nearly killed me."

    "He won''t hurt you again," Garrett said. "None of them will."

    "And yet, we''re having this conversation all the way out here." Luka closed the file, and handed it back. "No."

    Garrett didn''t take it. He placed his hands in his pockets. "You''re not exactly in a position to refuse."

    Luka shook his head. "I''m not killing anyone."

    "I''m not asking you to kill anyone, Luka. These people have been tasked with keeping an eye on you, and I can''t have people following you. How you deal with them is up to you."

    "Wow," Luka deadpanned, "Thanks."

    "You know the Council doesn''t trust you," Garrett said, "They aren''t sure they should trust your apprentice either. Even Hadley Thomas is too close to you to really be trusted in all this. Now that you''ve infected them both, they might have a better standing with the Council, though."

    "They don''t know I betrayed them," Luka said, a touch too desperately. Hadley wasn''t stupid. He would know.

    "They will." He padded Luka''s shoulder, and Luka had to restrain himself from shrugging off the touch. "Let''s head back."

    They took the same path back, walking in between the heavy trees. There was something claustrophobic about forests, how they made the world disappear. Sound bounced off buildings, the evidence of people ever present, but it was swallowed by trees, forming a weird silence around them. He was tempted to break it, but forced himself to consider the three Agents, Garrett wanted him to get rid of. He might have asked Hadley to get them reassigned, but he didn''t dare assume that was still an option. He could threaten them, hurt them, kill them, but the thought left a bad taste in his mouth. He could ignore the job, instead making himself harder to follow, harder to track, and just hope everything worked out. That was the stupid, naive solution, and hardly viable. He wondered if they would accept bribes, but figured they had been chosen for their loyalty.

    He wasn''t left with a lot of options.

    The old wooden structure came back into view.

    "Did you know that this farm was built as an utopian experiment?" Garrett asked. If Luka was being honest, he barely even knew where he was, let alone the history of the place. "It failed, of course, since utopia is hardly lucrative."

    "Is that the lesson here? Peace is a pipe dream, so why even bother?"

    "Maybe." He walked him to the front door, where Fox Mask was still posted. There were more buildings across the road. They looked more habitable, but still run down. He wondered why they had chosen to stay in the massive two story house that looked like it was falling apart. "Get Lewis," Garrett told Fox Mask, who disappeared inside.

    Garrett faced Luka. "I want you to think about what you want from all this, Luka. You can stay stuck in the middle, if that''s what you want, but it''s not a good place to be."

    "I want the infected mages to survive," Luka said.

    "Most of them will, but is that all? When everyone are cured, you''re done?"

    "Yes."

    Garrett''s smile widened. "Right. Well, think about it."

    "I don''t have to. You say you want a revolution, but that''s not entirely true, is it?"

    Garrett shrugged. "What is it that you think I want?"

    "Chaos. Bloodshed. Destruction. Am I close?"

    "And you want peace? I know you''re not that naive, Luka. You know what the Council has done, you''ve been persecuted as much as any other Rogue. I know you''ve seen what they''re doing to the Angels. What they''ve done to every other creature of magic. Do they deserve peace?"

    Fox Mask reappeared, with another man in tow. He couldn¡¯t be sure it was the same guy, he had gotten a glimpse of before, but the hostility in his eyes felt the same. Luka assumed this was Lewis.

    He was in the same dark suit as everyone else, but he wasn''t wearing a mask, and his tie was multi-colored, almost a match for Garrett¡¯s shirt.

    "Maybe not," Luka answered, ignoring the newcomers. "I just don''t think you care about any of that. I think you want to watch the world burn, and you don''t care who burns down with it."

    Garrett shook his head. "I want to see what will rise from the ashes," he said. "Imagine a new world, where we make the rules. Imagine a new order, where everything isn''t decided by people born to power."

    "Garrett," Lewis said. "Can we get this over with?"

    Garrett appeared to ignore him, but led Luka to a bench sitting against the wall of the house. "Please, sit," Garrett said. "You understand, of course, that I can''t allow you to be conscious for this."

    "Sure," Luka said and sat down. He hoped this was about the cure, but he didn''t know what else could possibly be happening. He didn''t like the idea of being knocked out, but he accepted the necessity of it. It didn''t even unsettle him as much as it probably should have. Garrett was a murderer and a liar, but the mutually beneficial thing they had going on between them, created a weird sense of trust.

    "For the record, I''m still against this," Lewis said.

    "Noted," Garrett said. For the first time, Luka heard a dangerous edge in his voice, and he watched him closely. "Now, do your job, before I decide your attitude is becoming a problem."

    "My attitude isn''t the one that''s a problem," Lewis said, squaring up to Garrett.

    Luka watched the power struggle unfold, fascinated. He wondered who this other guy was. He looked tiny next to Garrett, too young to have earned the kind of respect it took to speak to Garrett that way. There was something about the way he was dressed; similar to the others, but different, mask-less. Either he wasn¡¯t someone worth recognizing, or he was someone Garrett really wanted people to recognize. Even if he had cared to, Luka couldn¡¯t keep up with the Council children, so he didn¡¯t know.

    "Troops giving you trouble?" Luka asked.

    Garrett didn''t shift his attention to him, but held up a hand meant to silence him, to signify that he should stay out of this. He moved closer to Lewis, trapping him against the wall, his hand resting on his chest. The green glow of his magic swirled around the hand pinning him to the wall. Luka saw Garrett¡¯s arm shift, as he pushed more deliberately, and could only imagine the pressure threatening to crack ribs. Lewis winced as the pressure turned to pain, and Luka could hear him breathing hard. The wood was audibly groaning at his back.

    "Lewis," Garrett said slowly. "Knock him out. Now."

    Lewis nodded, but didn''t look pleased about it. He rubbed his tender ribs, once Garrett released him, and stopped next to Luka. His hand reached out to touch his shoulder, and Luka had to force himself not to flinch, not to fight, as magic surged between them. Luka felt himself be dragged under, and as much as his own magic wanted to retaliate, he had to suppress it and let the darkness overtake him.

 Chapter twenty-nine

    Hadley called a Healer, and it was confirmed that Alice was infected.

    The Healers had started doing random checks on the faculty and administration, just to make sure the virus hadn''t spread beyond the students, and the Healer took the opportunity to check Hadley, even when he assured her that he hadn¡¯t been exposed. Only, as it turned out, Hadley tested positive as well.

    A spell had been constructed to confirm the virus, so no one would get infected during checks. It didn''t have to be Healers doing it, but it was the most natural choice. If uniformed Agents started doing it, they would risk people being intimidated. The Healer slapped a red plastic bracelet around either of their wrists, along with a suppressor, which Hadley waved off. Apparently they had started worrying about capacity, if they started admitting everyone, so they just made sure they couldn''t infect anyone else.

    Hadley told her to test him again, that it didn''t make sense for him to be infected. Alice had used her magic on Luka, she had touched him. Hadley hadn''t. He hadn''t used his magic around anyone, and no one had used their magic on him, unless¡­

    Luka had picked that fight with him. It had been deliberate, because he needed to get a rise out of him. Because he needed to get close to him, so he could¡­

    "No," Alice insisted. "He wouldn''t do that."

    "Are you absolutely sure about that?"

    She shook he head. "He''s not a traitor."

    "Do you know where he was yesterday?"

    "Of course I do," Alice said. "He was¡­" There was a look on his face that made her pause. "What?"

    Hadley turned his laptop around, and pushed it towards her. It was open on a map, and she recognized the tracking app he had installed on her phone. "Look," he said.

    It displayed the date as the day before, and she took a moment to wrap her head around the red line that marked his path. It was obvious he hadn''t checked any of the buildings he was supposed to, but she didn''t know what that meant. She spotted the place they had separated, and followed his movements from there. He had walked parallel to the river for a while, where he had passed several buildings of interest, without a single deviation. When he broke off, and headed south, he walked in a straight line to one single building.

    When he left again, he had headed home, but at no point had he jumped, which was also odd, but not if he didn¡¯t trust his magic. Was he further along, than he had led on?

    ¡°What is that?¡± Alice asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s an old, derelict hospital. Does that mean anything to you?¡±

    ¡°No.¡± It wouldn¡¯t; he hadn¡¯t shared the clue with her. The clue he had clearly lied about. She didn¡¯t know how one abandoned building would be more significant than an other, or why he had sent them around the city pointlessly searching them, when he had known where to go all along.

    Keeping her occupied, of course, but he could have used any kind of misdirection to do that. He certainly hadn¡¯t needed to drag Field into it.

    "He found something," Alice said.

    Hadley pulled the computer back. "Or someone."

    "You think¡­" Alice started, but she couldn''t make herself finish.

    "Yes," Hadley said. "I think he found the guy. I think he didn''t say anything, because he''s working with him."

    She wanted to argue. She wanted to defend Luka, but she just couldn''t explain what he had been doing yesterday. She needed to talk to him, to get an explanation, but looking at Hadley now, she didn''t think she would get the chance.

    ¡°They tried to kill him,¡± she said, nearly a whisper, as she knew the argument wouldn¡¯t land. She was surprised he needed the reminder, but even more surprised to find that she needed it herself. Luka had gone back to them anyway. There was no denying that, but this time he had made it out alive.

    ¡°Did they?¡± Hadley asked. "Maybe it was a test, maybe it was simply misdirection.¡°

    Alice closed her eyes, forcing herself to view the images that had been haunting her. No. It didn¡¯t add up, not from either perspective.

    "What are you going to do?"

    Hadley shrugged. "I have people on him. They''ll find him."

    "And then what?" Alice asked, horrified. He''d already sent people after him. He''d put the tracker in him. Had he ever trusted him?

    "That depends on what they find."

    "Hadley, please," she begged him, even though he wasn''t listening to her anymore. "Even if you''re right, there has to be a reason. He''s trying to get the cure."

    "He infected you, too," Hadley said. "You should be more upset."

    "I infected myself."

    "Which wouldn''t have happened, if he hadn''t deliberately infected himself."

    Alice tugged her sunglasses out of her hair, and put them back on. She felt sick, but it was no longer just because of the hangover. She couldn''t listen to any more of this, and got up from the chair, slower than she would like. "I can''t be part of this, Hadley. Call me if you decide he deserves better."

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    Outside, the sun remained relentless, and she tugged herself into a shaded corner and called Luka. He didn''t pick up. She called him again, and again, hoping urgency would make him pay attention, but he never picked up.

    "Come on, Luka," she muttered. She still had the tracking app on her phone, and she opened it. He was somewhere at the edge of town, and she couldn''t even begin to guess what he was doing there.

    Except maybe she could.

    A few scattered buildings were surrounded by cemeteries, and somehow she didn''t think he was there to visit old friends. Buildings, surrounded by nature. Urban mages, working with nature mages.

    She called him one more time, before giving up. There was no way she could get there before Hadley''s Agents. Especially not when everything was still making her queasy, and she couldn''t even think about making a jump. Let alone all the jumps she would have to make to get to Luka.

    She texted him a warning instead, the best she could do, and considered her next move.

    Alice had believed Luka, when he said that he had been wrong, that the clues were a trap to get him out of the way. She had been relieved, honestly, because he had triggered it and he had survived, which had to mean it was over. Now she knew it had been a lie. She didn''t want to believe that he had deliberately infected Hadley, but now that she thought about it, he would have done it.

    When she connected the dots, she could see the plan he had made.

    He would follow the clues, allow himself to get infected. He trusted that he would be led to them eventually, and he knew they needed him for some purpose. So, despite evidence to the contrary, they wouldn''t kill him. They probably wouldn''t even let the infection kill him. Yesterday, he was finally led to them, and they asked him to infect Hadley. He had no choice, because he needed to play their game to get the cure, so he did it.

    She didn''t know what happened next.

    She didn''t know what she should do.

    Luka hadn''t included her, hadn''t even told her what he was going to do. It felt like a breach of trust, more than the infection bleeding away her life, one heartbeat at a time. More importantly, Hadley had been right. Luka had been employed by the Council, and no matter his intentions, he had defected. Infecting Hadley was a direct attack against the Academy and the Council. Luka Lavrin was a traitor.

    Alice had to decide which side she wanted to be on, in the end.

    She wanted to sleep.

    She wanted to sleep so badly.

    Instead, she went back to Hadley.

    She hadn''t closed the door behind her when she left, and it was still open. She knocked softly on the door frame. Hadley looked up and watched her expectantly.

    "I''m sorry," she said. "You''re right. I think he did it."

    Hadley nodded at her, and she took it as an invitation to come in. "I also think you''re making a mistake."

    "In what way?"

    "I checked the tracker. He''s with them right now, isn''t he? If you send people after Luka, they''re going to be caught by a group of terrorists. They won''t be bringing Luka back. Chances are they won''t be back at all."

    "They''re smart," Hadley said. "They won''t engage, if he''s with them. They''ll take him alone."

    "And then what?" Alice said. "You can track Luka. You know he can lead us to them, but if you bring him in¡­"

    Hadley was silent for a long time. Alice settled back into the chair, and tugged her knees up to her chest. When he sighed, she knew that he was starting to think more rationally again.

    "You have a point," he said. "I had people go to the building, the abandoned hospital he went to yesterday, and it was clean. They travel light, and they move around. We have no idea if they''ll be back, and no idea where they''ll go next."

    "Right," she said.

    He looked at her with suspicion. "We''ll wait," he said. "Gather more data, before we do anything."

    She had earned his distrust. It was fine. She would get his trust back.

    "Hadley," she said, fiddling with the warm metal around her wrist. She could never get used to the feeling of suppressors, like static under her skin. "What''s going to happen to him? When this is over?"

    She knew it wasn''t the right question to ask now, but she needed to know.

    Hadley rubbed his eyes, and left his head resting in his hands. He looked beyond tired, and it only got worse every time she saw him. It was like Luka was draining away his energy, which probably wasn¡¯t too far from the truth.

    "I don''t know," he said. "He''s a traitor, so by all rights he should be executed."

    She knew, but hearing it still turned her stomach. "I know," she said, "but despite everything¡­ I don''t want to see him die."

    "It won''t be up to me," he said. "But I don''t think the Council will kill him. Even with the betrayal, his name is too powerful. There might be a riot. They wouldn''t risk it."

    "Okay," she whispered. Any other fate for him she could live with. As long as he wasn''t going to be sentenced to death.

    She tugged nervously at the suppressor. The bracelet was tight around her arm, and like the collars, it bit into her skin. It was hard to ignore the constant displeasure at the back of her mind, and she didn''t know how she was ever going to sleep with this thing on.

    "I''m sorry," Hadley suddenly said. "When I brought Luka in on this job, I really thought¡­" He shook his head. "Luka always said mages are corruptible. I never thought he might be talking about himself."

    "I''m sorry, too," Alice said. "I should have believed you. I think I''m just so used to the image of Luka as a hero, that I just didn''t want to believe it."

    "I know. I think it''s safe to say we''re all disappointed."

    "Hadley, I¡­" She hesitated. "I feel like this is my fault. If I had¡­"

    "Don''t do that," Hadley said gently. "This was his choice. He was going to find a way to do it no matter what."

    Alice nodded. She knew she couldn''t hover over Hadley all day, and pushed herself out of the chair. "Will you keep me updated?"

    "Sure," Hadley said. "Of course."

    Alice nodded once, and turned to leave.

    "Alice?"

    She turned back.

    "We''ll talk about your future," Hadley said. "I just¡­"

    "Of course," she said. "It''s okay. I think I need some time to think about it, anyway."

    Which was assuming either of them had a future at the Academy. They could pretend everything was going to be fine, but it was becoming harder to stay optimistic. She wasn¡¯t worried about the cure, at least not yet, but everything was changing. No matter how this all ended, Luka was most likely going to be arrested, and the repercussions of that were unimaginable.

    He could fall from grace, and most likely would. People would be furious, and might even call for his execution, and then what? Would the Council listen?

    On the other hand, maybe people would defend him. They might not believe the Council, not without proof. Then it might be life in prison, or perhaps banishment.

    Either way, Luka Lavrin the Legend was dying, and she didn''t know what this world would look like without him. Once again, she had to reevaluate her own place in it.

    As she walked back to her room, to finally get some sleep, she kept checking her phone, hoping Luka would answer her text. It wasn''t even marked as read yet, and all she wanted was proof of life. Although, she really wanted to hear him say that he was okay. She checked the tracking data, but he was still around the same cluster of buildings, surrounded by too much nature. He was moving, which was good, but she hated not knowing what was going on. She hated that Luka hadn''t trusted her with any of this, hadn''t brought her in. She didn''t know what she would have done, how she would have reacted, but she would have liked the choice.

    She sighed and clicked off the phone. It didn''t matter now. Luka had left her with few options, and she had made the only choice she could.

 Chapter thirty

    "Looks like your mission just became a little easier, Luka."

    Garrett had kept his word. Once he had finally been allowed to push through the magically induced blackout, he had felt it. If he focused on it, the wild magic had become like ants in his veins, as it spread. Now, all he felt was the pleasant buzz of his own magic. When he was about to leave, two people in masks came up the road, dragging an Agent. One of the Agents from the files Garrett had given him. This guy had been sent for him, but there was no way he could have followed him to this place. Luka''s magic might have suffered under the effects of the infection when he came here, but he would still have noticed being followed.

    "Take him inside," Garrett told his people as they passed him. They were wearing the animal masks, one was some sort of cat creature, maybe a cougar, while the other was a bear.

    Garrett''s hand came to rest heavily on Luka''s shoulder. He barely even reacted, and was vexed to find that perhaps he was already getting used to Garrett''s manner.

    "Ready to play your part?"

    "No," Luka said.

    Garrett smiled, and at the flash of those long canines, Luka''s thoughts once again turned to a predator. He patted Luka on the back, and Luka followed him inside.

    Luka saw now why he hadn''t been led inside in the first place. The building''s interior was skeletal, as if it had once been undergoing thorough renovations, but they had barely begun before the whole endeavor had been abandoned. There were no walls, not really, no rooms. The only solid thing were the floors, and the stairs leading between them. Everything else was just beams. The Agent was already tied to a chair in the middle of the room, the only piece of furniture in sight.

    "Cozy," Luka muttered, but Garrett ignored him. He understood that these locations were for meetings, gatherings. They weren''t meant for them to stay in for extended periods of time. If indeed there was an official club house, it would be somewhere more solid, more inconspicuous, and Luka would never be taken to it.

    "So," Garrett said to the Agent, "would you like to tell all of us what you''re doing here?"

    The Agent''s eyes were wide and scared, as he looked around at the people surrounding him. Aside from Garrett and Luka, they were all in sharp suits and animal masks. The guy was young, probably too eager to prove himself. Maybe he cared about Luka''s reputation, maybe he would have taken any job. He wasn''t even looking at Luka, at least not yet. He was still scanning the animal masks, the iron and wood obscuring their features and casting their eyes in shadow.

    He could see Garrett losing his patience, as he crossed his arms over his chest.

    "Luka," he said. Luka wasn''t entirely sure what he wanted from him, but he stepped forward. Garrett walked towards the Agent, reached out and tipped his head up so he was looking into Garrett''s eyes. "They are not important. You''re here because of Luka Lavrin." He swept his hand towards Luka, and the Agent''s eyes darted quickly towards Luka and then back. "Well, you found him. Now, tell us what you know, or I''ll let him have you."

    He swallowed hard. "Luka Lavrin is a Healer," he said, as if there was nothing else Luka could do to him. He had felt sorry for him, but now he thought that perhaps a lesson was in order.

    Garrett smiled, of course. "You do know how Blood Mages are made, right?"

    The man shook his head. "If he was a Blood Mage, he would have been executed."

    "Execute a hero?" Garrett lifted his hand to his chest in an exaggerated gesture of appall. "And how would that have made them look? Of course, if you need a demonstration¡­"

    He nodded at Luka, and stepped back. Luka was careful to keep his expression neutral, so he wouldn''t give away Garrett''s bluff. He called up his magic, and it swirled around his hands, casting the dim room in a red glow. He stepped closer to the man, and reached for the exposed skin at his neck.

    "No!" the man cried, before Luka even touched him. The red glow faded, and Luka stepped back.

    Garrett gave him a look, and nodded towards the Agent. He was letting him take the lead. Luka suppressed a sigh.

    "Phillip, isn''t it?" Luka hadn''t had enough time to memorize the files, but he had taken note of their faces and names. The Agent nodded.

    "Okay, Phillip. I know you didn''t follow me here, so how did you find me?"

    Phillip shook his head. "I didn''t. I¡­" He faltered, but Luka waited. The kid hadn''t signed up for this. "I was given the coordinates."

    "Hadley Thomas gave them to you."

    Phillip nodded. Luka clenched his fist, and red swirls of magic glowed around his fingers.

    "What were you supposed to do once you got here?"

    "W-wait until you were alone, and then t-take you in."

    Luka let the magic dissipate, but his fury lingered. It hadn''t been about intimidating Phillip, but the kid was already terrified. He couldn''t believe Hadley had sent someone so green after him. Did he think he wouldn''t get away from this kid? Really? He probably thought he had given him an easy job, that Luka would cooperate, but he shouldn''t have made that assumption. He shouldn''t have made the assumption that he wouldn''t be captured by Garrett''s people. He shouldn''t have sent his Agents into something they couldn''t handle. The Academy was supposed to protect them, but instead they treated them like they were expendable. Again and again.

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    Garrett headed outside, gesturing for Luka to follow. Once the door closed behind them, Luka was ready to attack, the words already forming on his lips. Garrett held up a hand.

    "Not yet," he said.

    They walked across the road, and Garrett let him into the house. It wasn''t like the other places he had taken him. It was furnished, well cared for. Someone actually lived here, but he doubted it was Garrett. The furniture was old-fashioned, some of it antique-looking, nothing at all like Garrett.

    "Go ahead," he said, leaning against an ancient, creaky dresser topped with family photos and flowers.

    He had prepared to yell, but he was too stunned to get past the interior of the house. "What is this place?"

    "Oh," Garrett looked around. "Don''t worry. The owners are on vacation."

    "Right," Luka shook his head. He wasn''t sure he wanted to know the details. "Okay. Now explain to me what the fuck you think you''re doing."

    "I want you to understand that they''re tracking you."

    "I know they''re fucking tracking me." He had suspected a tracker since leaving the hospital. Hadley would have expected him to leave, and he wouldn''t have risked him falling off the grid again. Luka just hadn''t thought he would actually be tracking him unless he did something that stupid again. Which, to be fair, he supposed he had. "I want to know why you think you can tell an Agent that I work for you? That I''m a Blood Mage?"

    "Aren''t you working for me?" Garrett asked, lifting an eyebrow.

    Luka sighed. "Thomas will have his suspicions about me by now. He will likely have figured out I was the one who infected him, but there was at least a chance that I could salvage that, and then you pull this."

    "You know there''s a very simple solution to that problem."

    "I''m not killing him," Luka growled. "And neither are you."

    Garrett shrugged. "It''s your decision. But if you let him run back to Hadley, you definitely can''t play double agent anymore."

    He wasn''t even sure he could do that now. The guy had been sent to take him in, but he would at least have liked the chance to talk himself out of it, rather than be marked a traitor.

    "You know they don''t trust you," Garrett said. "This proves it."

    "I know," Luka said, frustrated. He had walked himself into this situation, but it was falling apart faster than he expected. He wasn''t sure he could get out in time. Not anymore. He was cornered, and Garrett knew it. "Is this what you wanted?"

    "I didn''t plan for it, if that''s what you''re asking," Garrett said. "But I don''t need you on the inside, Luka. I never did."

    Luka nodded, and silence fell between them. Garrett might think he was contemplating his choices, trying to pick a side, but the thing Garrett failed to understand, was that Luka didn''t belong to him, or the Academy, or the Council. He remained loyal to the dying mages. No one else. But he could admit that he had gotten too caught up in playing the game. It didn''t matter. None of it mattered. Getting upset about what Garrett had told Phillip was pointless. He hadn''t seen it at first, and perhaps he hadn''t wanted to, but he was done with the Academy, he realized that now. He couldn''t go back.

    "Let me tell you a story," Garrett said, breaking the silence. He leveled his eyes on Luka. "Once upon a time, there was a boy. When he was a child, his parents abandoned him. When his magic appeared, the Academy condemned him. After he graduated, the Council rejected him. So, he went rogue."

    At first Luka didn''t understand, but there was only one person he could be talking about. "Is that why you''re doing this?" Luka cut in, frowning. He was telling his story, but why? "Because no one wanted you?"

    Garrett narrowed his eyes. It seemed like he had hit a nerve.

    "He went rogue," he continued. "Only to discover that the Council was still trying to control him. So he decided things needed to change, that the Council needed to be taken down a notch."

    Luka nodded. Not because the story resonated something in him, but because he realized why he didn''t recognize him.

    "How did you find out about Mutiny?" He asked.

    Garrett shrugged. "I asked. Now hush. I haven''t gotten to the good part of the story yet."

    Luka gestured for him to continue.

    "When my magic manifested I was living with a foster family. One day, I became incredibly sensitive to electricity. It was like it was calling to me, and I somehow managed to pull it out of the walls, out of the wires, the sockets. It was terrifying and captivating all at once. By the time someone found me, the air was so charged with it, you could see the sparks flying."

    "The one who found you¡­" Luka said, worried about where this was going.

    "My foster brother. And no, he didn''t make it. The Agents were fifteen minutes late. Fifteen minutes were the difference between life and death. They had to put a suppressor on me to stop it. I was fifteen years old, and suddenly a murderer."

    "Shit," Luka said. It wasn¡¯t unusual for Strays to kill people, when they manifested, but it was a tragedy all the same.

    "Shit, indeed," Garrett agreed. "I spend my years at the Academy trying to do everything right, but none of it mattered. The Council told me they didn''t let murderers join. The Academy told me I was too unstable to become an Agent. It didn''t matter to them that it was their fault, that if their Agents had been faster, none of it would have happened."

    "Strays have killed before."

    "Yes, but you never see any of them on the Council, do you?"

    "No, but only Legacies end up on the Council."

    "I am a Legacy."

    "Really?" Luka asked, incredulous. "How do you know?"

    "I know who my parents are. They named me before dropping me off at the children''s home. Garrett Warren Bailey. Then all they had to do was wait until I enrolled at the Academy to approach me. I suppose they didn''t want to have anything to do with me, until my magic manifested. Of course, by then, I didn''t care about them."

    "Warren Bailey," Luka repeated, mostly to himself.

    "Of course you know my father," Garrett said, smiling. "You would, wouldn''t you?"

    Warren Bailey was the headmaster at the Academy. He was a man with cruel eyes and crueler hands, as Luka had learned the hard way. He had never been one for following rules, and Warren Bailey had a no tolerance policy for rule breakers.

    "Why are you telling me all of this? Do you want sympathy?"

    "What would I ever want with your sympathy? You wanted to understand me, Luka. You wanted to know what kind of person you''re siding with, even if it is reluctantly."

    Luka said nothing. There was nothing to say. Where he came from, whatever had happened to him, none of it excused taking the life of innocents. It never would.

    Garrett tilted his head, and smiled. "The world is a cruel place, Luka. I''m afraid you have to be cruel to survive in it."

    "We all have a story, Garrett. Not all of us use it as an excuse to kill people."

    "I gave them plenty of time to save that boy. The way I see it, all I did was prove that the Agents are, once again, too slow to make a real difference." He spread his hands at the inevitability of it all.

    "So, the rat." Garrett said, changing the subject like he hadn''t just spilled his most important secret. "Have you decided what to do about him?"

    He put his hands in his pockets, and the casual gesture bothered Luka. He wasn''t wary of him anymore. He thought he had him, that he would switch sides so easily.

    "The rat?" he asked, trying to make sense of the words. Then he realized, he was talking about the Agent. "Let him go, Garrett. He''s no threat."

    "Yes, sir." Garrett said, mockingly. Based on the tone of his voice, he thought he might have saluted, if Luka was still looking at him. He walked out, hoping Garrett would do what he was told, and went to take care of that tracker.

 Chapter thirty-one

    When Alice woke up the next morning, it was with a clear mind. After leaving Hadley''s office, the previous day was a blur of naps and bad tv, but it was perhaps the break her mind had needed.

    Despite being pretty much equally upset with Luka and Hadley, she had made a decision. She had already made the decision the day before, but it had been hazy, unfinished. She had to see this case through, for the sake of her own survival, but she also had to think about securing her future. It should be easy for her to leave, when this was all over. It wasn¡¯t too late to choose law school, but she didn¡¯t want to. Not now, when she was finally able to commit to this life, now that her mom finally let her, even if Ravi was still an obstacle. She dressed in the closest thing to business formal she owned, aside from her uniform ¡ª a gray pencil skirt and a sleeveless terracotta shirt ¡ª and went to meet Hadley in his office.

    It was still early, and the air carried the slight chill, that would soon be burned away by the sun. She should probably have stopped for breakfast, especially since she wasn''t even sure Hadley would be in yet, but she had half-way convinced herself that he would say no and she wanted to get it over with. She was wearing pumps with the outfit, something she didn''t particularly enjoy, and had to take the stroll across the courtyard slower than she usually would. The sun was casting long shadows across the ground and she kept slipping in and out of darkness, but the crest was brightly illuminated as she stepped across it.

    The glass tower, on the other hand, was mostly in shadow. The colors were dimmed, and painted the ground with only the barest hint of different hues. The inside also felt colder, somehow, without the colors shimmering across her skin, despite the fact that it was essentially a hothouse. Her heels clicked sharply across the hallway floor, and made her feel both important and exposed. She tapped twice on the door, before trying the handle. It opened, and she let herself inside.

    Hadley looked startled by her appearance, as she strode into the office.

    She had come with determination, with a prepared speech, but now she faltered.

    "Hadley," she said, her voice soft. She couldn''t help it. "Did you sleep at all?"

    He was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and he looked pale and gray, washed out. Alice sat down gingerly.

    "I''m fine," he croaked. He did not seem fine.

    "Look, I came here to discuss my role in this job going forward. Why don''t we make it a breakfast meeting?"

    He blinked at her, slowly. It took a few seconds, but then he nodded. "Okay."

    People were always going in and out of the food hall, and since it was morning, it wasn''t exactly empty. It wasn''t where Alice would have wanted to have this conversation, and by the looks of it, Hadley didn''t want to be here at all. He was watching people with suspicion, but without looking directly at anyone, as if he was afraid it might trigger some sort of event, where he would have to engage in conversation with them. She watched him pick his food with little enthusiasm, and got extra for herself. He grabbed a glass of juice, so she poured two cups of coffee. She guided them outside, where he could get some fresh air, and much needed sunshine, and hoped it wasn''t too out in the open. She placed one cup of coffee in front of him, and sat down.

    She watched him eat, silently, while absently prodding at her own food. Luka was gone, had joined the dark side, and they were supposed to rely on Hadley now, but Hadley looked broken. He didn''t look capable of saving anyone, least of all himself. When he finished his food, she pushed her plate towards him, with the extra toast and fruit she had picked for him. He was sipping his coffee, but stopped to frown at her.

    "Do you want to talk about how you''re doing, or do you want to eat?" Alice asked.

    Hadley sighed, but pulled the plate towards him.

    Satisfied, she finally started the speech she had prepared.

    ¡°Do you remember, when you were prepared to hand the entire case over to me?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Hadley said, ¡°and you told me it wasn¡¯t fair to you.¡±

    ¡°Right. Because it wasn¡¯t, but I do have something to offer to this case. I just can¡¯t do it alone.¡± This was the hard part, and she took a breath. ¡°This is no longer a job for an Agent. This case will not be solved in the field, but rather with strategy and leadership. Which is why I don¡¯t need an Agent. I need you.¡±

    Despite her every effort, the statement rang hollow now that she was sitting in front of the fractured remains of Hadley Thomas.

    Hadley knew it, too. He sounded highly skeptical when he said, "Me."

    "Yes," she said. "Luka was right about one thing. You''re the one who''s going to stop this, and I want to be there when you do. I want to see this through, Hadley, and I think I''ll be an asset to you."

    Hadley stabbed a piece of melon with his fork. "Luka took out his tracker."

    "What?" Alice asked.

    "I have nothing, Alice."

    He chewed the melon aggressively, and stabbed another piece of fruit. "I don''t know how to find them now. I have no moves left."

    "So you''re giving up, too?" She couldn''t believe it. Everyone were too ready to claim defeat as if lives weren''t on the line ¡ª as if their own lives weren''t.

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    "What do you think I''ve been doing all night?" Hadley asked wearily. "I''ve tried to come up with something else, but I don''t know what else we can do."

    "What about the Oracles?" Alice asked. "You can still track Luka that way."

    Hadley held up his arm, the one with a red plastic armband hanging around his wrist. "They''re not going to let me anywhere near the Oracles."

    "Right," Alice said. "Are you really going to let everyone die, before you try to negotiate with them?"

    Hadley shrugged. "Probably not, but I need Council approval, and they''re not giving it until someone important enough gets infected."

    "Their children aren''t important?" Alice asked, masking the first thought she had, which was: Hadley Thomas wasn¡¯t important enough. That realization was probably responsible for at least one of his cracks, and there was no need to break him further.

    "It originated in Mutiny. For now I think they might have decided it''s for the best."

    "Do you agree?"

    He cast his eyes down, which was answer enough. She wondered if his answer would have been different before Luka''s betrayal. She wondered if he was considering himself in this, or if he was trying not to.

    "I think he was right," she ventured. "I think it might be the only option we have left."

    "Yeah, well. If that''s our only option, we have to either come up with something else, or wait for the Council to change their minds."

    "Luka thought you could do this, Hadley. You''re the only one who can."

    "Don''t," he said. "Don''t. I was never the hero, that was all Luka. If he isn''t going to save us, no one is. Certainly not me."

    Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Fine," she said. "Do you at least have someone watching Luka? Watching the hospital?"

    "What?" He looked nearly startled. "We don''t know where Luka is, and ¡ª what hospital?"

    Giving up Luka felt like releasing wasps into her stomach, digging their way out through her skin. She shivered, but forced herself to focus. Right now Hadley was more important than her doubts. Hadley badly needed purpose, before he sunk himself into a depression. "We know where Luka goes when he doesn''t go home. We know where he met the terrorists the first time. They probably don''t have an infinite number of hideouts, and they don''t know we know about that one. They might come back."

    "Right," he said. "Of course."

    "Okay," she said. "Do you accept me as your apprentice?"

    Hadley nodded. "I guess I do."

    "Great," Alice said, flashing him a smile. "Then let''s get to work."

    Once they arrived back in Hadley''s office, Alice watched intently as he called Agents and gave them their new tasks. She clung to every detail, just in case something turned out to be important, but she wasn''t given much to work with. They were all short conversations, barely more than a greeting and an objective. He sent a couple to the apartment building, and a small group to the hospital, telling them all not to enter, only to watch. When he was done, he leaned back heavily in his chair.

    "You should get some sleep," Alice said. "I''ll wake you if something happens."

    "I''m fine," he said, but his eyes were closed.

    "You''re not fine," Alice insisted. "The virus spreads with your heartbeat. You need to allow yourself to rest, to give yourself more time."

    "I''m fine, Alice."

    "You don''t trust me." If they were just waiting, he shouldn''t have been so opposed to resting. Except then she would be alone in his office.

    He blinked his eyes open with effort. "You still believe in him, don''t you?"

    She looked him straight in the eyes as she lied. "He infected us both to save himself. No, Hadley. I don''t."

    "Sorry," he said. "I don''t know if I should believe you."

    Alice clicked her nails against the worn leather of the armrest. "Is there anything else I can do?"

    Hadley buried his face in his hands, which left Alice wondering if he had fallen asleep, as the seconds ticked by.

    "You can tell Benjamin his tracker is useless," he finally muttered.

    "Benjamin?" Alice asked.

    Hadley removed his hands, and leaned forward. "Never mind." He sighed. "I don''t know, Alice. Take the day off. I''ll call if anything changes."

    "Hadley," she said. "I think you should at least talk to the Council. Present your case. We can''t just wait around for something that might happen while people are dying."

    Hadley raised an eyebrow. "And if I had taken you up on your offer?"

    "Then I would have let you sleep. But you won''t rest, so neither will I."

    "Okay," Hadley said. "But, look, it''s really not that simple. I know the Council''s position on this, and they''re not going to change their minds."

    "Why not?"

    "It''s a question of balance, Alice. If they surrender any amount of power to the Rogues, that balance shifts. It becomes inevitable that more people will want the perceived freedom afforded to the Rouges, that they''ll leave the Academy behind, and we''re already short on Agents." He sighed. "Meanwhile, the real problem is that the Rogues think they can do whatever they want, but someone still has to clean up their messes, which falls to our Agents. More Rogues means less Agents, which means that things are more likely to fall through the cracks. They''re only trying to keep the community safe."

    "Right." Sure, it made sense, but only if you assumed you couldn''t work with the Rogues at all. Only if you weren''t willing to try. "So, what then? We wait?"

    "We wait," Hadley confirmed. "The world doesn''t stop because this guy is out there. We still have Agents in the field, on other tasks. There are still things that need to be done."

    Alice nodded, absentmindedly. She was unclear on whether "this guy" was Luka or the bad guy, but she didn''t press the issue. She was trying to think of something else, anything else they could do.

    She could go to the apartment building, hope the concierge was the one she had already talked to, hope he might recognize her as someone Luka knew.

    She could go back to any of the places she knew the bad guys had been, looking for clues the Agents might have missed.

    It was all a waste of time, and she knew it. It would be more to keep herself busy, than because she thought it would actually get her anywhere. She glanced at Hadley, looking even paler in the glow from his laptop. "Walk me through it," she said. "What are you doing?" While she was just sitting here, she might as well learn something. He waved her over to his side of the desk, and she perched on the corner of the table.

    "All Agents have trackers." He tilted the screen towards her. He was looking at a map, red dots scattered across the surface like constellations. Most of them were clustered in pairs or small groups. "Some of them are looking into strange magical occurrences. Some are patrolling. Some have¡­ other missions."

    She chose to ignore the last part, knowing exactly what it meant. "How do you get reports of magical occurrences, if the Rogues aren''t cooperating?"

    "There are markers, in electrical grids, temperature changes, things we can watch for. There is the news, which is rarely helpful, but sometimes is. The Oracles spots Strays, of course, but sometimes they spot other things. I get the reports, and send a team."

    "Don''t you ever miss it?" Alice asked, leaning back on the desk. "Being out there?"

    He hesitated, watching the dots move. "I don''t think I was meant for that life," he said, which wasn''t an answer. She wanted to ask what happened to him, but there was no way their relationship was ready for that question.

    A knock sounded on the door, saving them from the promise of an awkward silence. A pair of Agents entered, coming to a stop in the middle of the room, nearly standing at attention. They were both in dark suits, a man and a woman. They both had dark hair, but the woman had dark skin, while the man was pale.

    "Sir," the woman said. "We found Agent Barnes."

    "Dead or alive?" Hadley asked.

    "Alive, sir. He''s in the hospital. He wants to see you."

 Chapter thirty-two

    Quinn had come home from a 24 hour shift in the morning, and was still asleep. Usually, he would burn through his magic to get through the day, and sleep for a couple of hours when he got home, but it was well past noon now. It happened sometimes, Luka knew, that he forgot to set an alarm.

    Luka leaned against the wall, watching him. Quinn was one of those people who would use all the available space when he was asleep, so when he was alone in his king size bed, he would drift towards the middle, taking up as much space as possible.

    "Quinn," Luka said. He didn''t stir.

    He neared the bed and sat down beside him. He ran his fingers through his silky hair.

    "Quinn."

    He made a complaining sound, and Luka smiled.

    "You''re not supposed to sleep all day."

    It would wreck his rhythm. Even with magic, being unable to sleep at night tended to be annoying.

    "I know," Quinn mumbled. "What time is It?"

    "Almost two," Luka said.

    Quinn dragged himself up. "Okay," he said. "I''m awake."

    "Good. I need you to do something for me."

    "Of course," Quinn sleepily reached out for him, his fingers brushing the short hair at the back of his neck. "Would you have let me sleep if you didn''t?" He asked.

    Luka shrugged. "Maybe," he said, but of course he wouldn¡¯t have been here at all if he didn¡¯t.

    Quinn shifted into half a sitting position. Luka thought he was going to kiss him, until he remembered that he was still mad at him. ¡°You¡¯re a terrible boyfriend.¡±

    "I know. Am I forgiven?" Luka asked, even if the sleepy affection might be more habit than anything.

    "Hardly," Quinn muttered, but he didn''t move his hand. "Now, go away. I¡¯ll be out in a minute."

    "Sure," Luka said. "I''ll make coffee."

    Luka slid out of his grip, and left him to wake up properly. By the time Quinn emerged, wearing sweat pants and a faded t-shirt, Luka had two cups of coffee settled on the kitchen island. Quinn yawned, as he sat down and cradled the cup. "So, what do you need me to do?"

    "Remove a tracker," Luka said.

    Quinn sipped the coffee. "From where?"

    "My neck," Luka said. "I think."

    Quinn raised an eyebrow. "You think?"

    "I can barely feel it, but I''m pretty sure it''s in my neck." He had checked. He had checked after leaving the hospital, but hadn''t immediately felt anything off, so even though he still suspected Hadley had done something, he couldn''t tell what. He thought maybe it wasn''t in his body, that maybe he had bugged his phone. He hadn''t been terribly concerned about it. Only after leaving Garrett, had he really focused on trying to find it. There was something, near his C4 vertebrae, but it was more of a feeling than a certainty.

    "Okay," Quinn said. "Take off your shirt, and sit down."

    Luka complied, unbuttoning his shirt, while Quinn grabbed a knife from a kitchen drawer. He should perhaps have been concerned about the lack of hygiene, but it wasn''t like he was capable of getting an infection. He shrugged off his shirt, and sat down. Quinn repositioned a chair, and sat down behind him. "Where, exactly?"

    Luka reached up and touched his neck. "Maybe. Like I said, it''s vague."

    He felt the tip of Quinn''s fingers prod his skin, and then the blade cutting into his flesh. The pain was slower to hit, and only really came, once Quinn slid his fingers into the cut. It felt like he was digging deep into his neck, and Luka braced himself on the counter.

    "I found it," Quinn said. "But this thing is¡­ I don''t know. It¡¯s fused with your flesh, Luka. No wonder you can barely feel it."

    "Well, fuck. If the Academy starts being clever, where does that leave us?"

    "Don''t give them too much credit. This is clearly the work of their spellcaster."

    "So it''s a spell?"

    "You''re the expert," Quinn said. "But I think so. At least partly."

    Luka clenched his teeth, while Quinn cut out the tracker. He dropped the bloody lump on the kitchen counter, and Luka reached for it. It was a tiny piece of technology and a whole lot of him. He supposed it was possible that it had been spelled to mimic his body, and apparently fuse itself with it in the process.

    He caught sight of the red glow out of the corner of his eye, and twisted. "Quinn," he protested, remembering that he was supposed to be infected. He grabbed his wrist, keeping it away from his damaged flesh.

    Quinn eased out of his grip, looking slightly put out for a second, before placing his hand gently on his neck. "Luka, it¡¯s okay."

    "No," Luka said, before Quinn could activate his magic again. "Stop."

    He stood up, making space between them. "As far as you know, I''m still infected."

    "As far as I know?" Quinn repeated. "As far as I know, you wouldn''t let me anywhere near you, if there was any chance I''d get infected."

    "Maybe I expected you to have some common sense."

    "Did you, really?"

    Luka resigned himself to the truth. Quinn could read him better than anyone, even half asleep. "So, you knew."

    "I suspected. How did you manage it?"

    "I found the guy. He cured me."

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    They¡¯d been over this, but of course it was never going to be that simple, and Quinn knew that.

    Quinn dropped the knife, as he rose from the chair, and it clattered against the kitchen counter. "Why?"

    Luka turned away from him. He needed to watch him when he told him this, but he couldn''t.

    "Luka, what did you do?"

    "I gave him someone better. Someone closer to the Council."

    "Hadley," Quinn guessed.

    Luka nodded.

    "So, why exactly did you stop me?"

    Luka looked at him now, and was surprised to find that Quinn wasn''t judging him. He didn''t care.

    "You''re safe," Quinn explained, reading Luka''s emotions perfectly. "And you will fix this. That''s the important part."

    "I stopped you, because you didn''t know," Luka said. "You would have exposed yourself to heal a minor injury."

    Quinn cradled his face. "I did know," he said, ¡°but maybe now you''ll appreciate what it''s like to have a reckless asshole as a boyfriend." Luka shrugged off his touch. "You''re not allowed to be stupid and reckless."

    "Hypocrite," Quinn said, but he was smiling.

    "You knew who I was from the beginning, Quinn. You don''t get to complain." He moved back, but Quinn caught his arm.

    "So, can I heal you now?"

    Luka let himself be pulled back into Quinn''s space. "Right," he said.

    He sat back down, facing Quinn this time. Quinn remained standing, his legs grazing Luka''s inner thighs, as he moved close. He traced Luka''s jawline with his fingers, before sliding them towards the back of his neck, where he called his magic to the surface. His hands were gentle, but his healing wasn''t. Some mages would numb the nerves around the wound, trying to make the healing as painless as possible, but it was a waste of energy. For that reason, he was glad Quinn didn''t subscribe to that method, although he had to admit it wasn''t an altogether pleasant experience to be healed the quick and efficient way. He winced as the magic started stinging. His hand clutched Quinn''s arm, and he hissed once the wound closed and a stab of pain shot down his spine. He reached back, running his fingers over the new scar. He couldn''t feel anything, except the lingering soreness, and he knew the scar would fade. Quinn was one of the best Healers he had ever seen, and rarely left marks. His other hand was still gripping Quinn''s arm, and he eased off, but kept his hand on him.

    Quinn carefully tipped his head up and kissed him. Blood stained his fingers, and left prints on Luka''s skin. Luka slid out of the chair, and pinned Quinn against the counter. He kissed him harder, teeth grazing his soft lips and fingers digging into the flesh at his hips. His other hand was perched on his chest, grazing the embroidered logo on his t-shirt, sitting like a badge of honor beside his heart. Luka''s fingers lingered on the fabric, before sliding them under the hem of the shirt, and Quinn obediently lifted his arms to allow him to pull it off. The kiss only broke for a second, and Luka''s hands returned to his skin a second later, landing on his neck, before he slid them down his body, from his chest to the edge of his pants. He pulled back, dragging him towards the bedroom.

    Quinn was never more transparent than during sex, and now Luka saw clearly that he wasn¡¯t forgiven. It wasn¡¯t that he became aggressive, or even distant, but there was nevertheless something that felt impersonal ¡ª felt like he was getting a glimpse of what Quinn was like as a one night stand. It was understandable, even justified, but Luka just couldn¡¯t afford to fix them yet, not before he had fixed everything else.

    Laying back on the bed, Luka nearly dozed off, while Quinn traced the ridges of his ribs. He ran his fingers along the new scars there, the ones he wasn''t familiar with yet. "They really lack finesse, don''t they?"

    Luka murmured an affirmative. He knew they weren''t pretty. They were thick, red lines, that were unlikely to fade. He knew Quinn would barely have left a mark. He stirred himself, and pulled his fingers through Quinn''s hair. "I know I should have called you."

    Quinn looked at him. "As long as you''re alive," he said. He pushed himself up, restless after his six-hour nap. "What happens now?" he asked, as he started pulling on clothes.

    "What?" Luka muttered, still only about two-thirds awake. He had barely slept since the coma, and hadn¡¯t planned on changing that, but being in a bed was shifting his priorities.

    "You have the cure. You know where the bad guy is. So, it''s done?"

    Luka swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and dragged his hands through his hair. "I was cured. I don''t have the cure."

    "Right," Quinn said. "But the cure is still there, isn''t it? It didn''t just cancel out the virus, it reacted to it."

    Luka frowned. It should have occurred to him, but it hadn''t. Because he didn''t think like a doctor, not like Quinn did. "Yeah," he said. "Maybe."

    He got out of bed and dressed, picking out one of Quinn''s shirts, rather than returning to the kitchen for his own.

    "Where are you going?" Quinn asked.

    "To think," Luka responded, and was out the door. He headed for the elevator, taking it to the top floor and finding the roof access. Authorized personnel only signs didn''t stop him, as he pushed open the door and found himself approximately 684 feet above street level. There was barely any sound except the wind. No distractions. The perfect place to think. He stepped off the stairs, and walked around to the other side of the entrance, where he wouldn''t be immediately spotted by a maintenance worker. He lit a cigarette, and was already starting to feel jittery from the absence of nicotine. He resented the way the addiction was starting to control him. He usually kept his smoking to a minimum, so he wouldn''t need it. He didn''t want to be dependent on it, but he had smoked so much lately that it was becoming a problem. The two days he had spent in the hospital were only making things worse. He would have forced himself into withdrawal if not for two things: First, using this spell on himself required something like meditation, something he had never been good at. He was a lot better at it with smoke burning in his lungs. Second, he wouldn''t be able to stop as long as he was in this mess. He would quit for a while when it was over. He slid down the wall, and settled on the ground. It was warm from the sun, and the heat took a moment to get used to. He closed his eyes, placed his hands on his knees, and focused.

    It wasn''t like he could see the structure of the spell. Not really. It was more like a feeling for the elements of it. He could see what it did, how it affected the body, how it affected magic, but he couldn''t see how it was put together. With the cure layered on top, he could maybe get a feel for how to construct a cure of his own. What it needed to be able to do, what it needed to affect. There were redundancies in the cure as well, but they became more obvious when layered on top of the virus. The cure wasn''t as meticulously constructed. It wasn''t meant to be impossible to solve, because he wasn''t really supposed to use it as a piece of the puzzle. At least, he doubted that had been Garrett''s intention.

    He heard the door slam, and knew it was Quinn. It pulled him out of his trance, and when he blinked his eyes open, he found that the light had shifted. Quinn appeared next to him, holding out a bottle of water.

    "Here," he said.

    Luka took it, and Quinn slid his fingers into his hair. It was ruffled from the wind, and Quinn carefully combed it back into place, even though it was a futile gesture.

    "Making progress?"

    Luka nodded. "I can do it, but it''s difficult."

    He cracked open the bottle of water and took a sip, wishing it was coffee.

    "So, it''s over." He sounded relieved, but he should know better. Luka couldn''t just hand over the cure and walk away. Even if they had spellcasters, who could cure people, that wasn''t the end of the job.

    "It¡¯s not that simple.¡°

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it?¡±Quinn asked. ¡°Because it should be.¡±

    ¡°I infected Alice, Quinn. I have to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Be the hero? Yeah, of course you do.¡±

    Luka forced himself to take a breath. He might not have the capacity to appease Quinn, but there was no reason to make it worse.

    ¡°I owe her,¡± he said instead.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you do,¡± Quinn said, quieter now, more resigned. ¡°I just wish I didn¡¯t see it.¡±

    ¡°See what?¡± Luka asked, even though he almost certainly didn¡¯t want to know.

    Quinn hesitated for a few breaths, before he answered. "I know who you are. I know you''re¡­" He hesitated to add the word, "reckless," because it didn''t quite fit. He wasn''t reckless. He wasn''t suicidal. It might be more fair to say that he was dangerously pragmatic, but reckless got the point across. ¡°It has just never been deliberate like this, and I¡­¡± He shook his head. ¡°Please, Luka. Don¡¯t do it.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t do what?¡±

    ¡°Stay with them.¡±

    ¡°Stay? Quinn, even if I wasn¡¯t on a limited contract, I¡¯m a traitor. There is no staying. I¡¯ll be lucky if they don¡¯t execute me.¡±

    Quinn puffed out an approximation of a laugh.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°A week ago, you¡¯d have said that you would never work for the Council.¡± He turned away. The wind seemed to grab his words and toss them in the wrong direction, but they were still clear enough. ¡°Besides, you¡¯re wrong. Executing you would be a waste, Luka. They would much rather control you.¡±

    "What are you saying?"

    "I''m saying that there is more than one way to be imprisoned."

 Chapter thirty-three

    As it turned out, Agent Phillip Barnes was a rookie. He was barely older than Alice, and seeing him in the hospital bed was sobering. Healers had attended him, of course, but they had left the bruises, and could do nothing about the blood loss leaving him looking gray and sick. Phillip had rich brown hair, but that was about as much as she could tell about his appearance. She wasn''t sure she would be able to recognize him without the bruises. His face was painted in blues and purples, covering his skin in galaxies, and more covered his arms. Alice remained in the doorway. She wasn''t sure if she should impose on this moment. She had every right to, she supposed, since Hadley had accepted her as his apprentice, and it wasn''t like Luka''s actions weren''t her business.

    She took slow steps into the room, following behind Hadley, trying to look like she belonged there.

    There were already so many people in the room, and one more person wouldn''t make a difference, but it still felt invasive to get this close. He looked small and fragile in the bed, and she wished the Healers would at least have taken care of the worst bruising.

    The second Phillip laid eyes on Hadley, he spoke. His voice was hoarse, strained, but the message was clear: "Luka Lavrin is a Blood Mage."

    Hadley stumbled to a halt. "What?"

    Phillip coughed. Something was still wrong with him, something the Healers either hadn''t bothered fixing, or been unable to.

    "He did this to you?" Hadley asked, once Phillip stilled.

    "No," he wheezed. He cleared his throat and his voice came back slightly more solid. "No. The leader told me. He wanted Luka to demonstrate, but when I¡­" His eyes flickered away. "He didn''t."

    "It''s okay, Barnes," Hadley said. "You survived. That''s the important part."

    Phillip nodded, but his eyes were on his hands, folded in his lap. He was embarrassed at having cracked so quickly, and he didn''t realize that it wasn''t his fault. He''d been alone, surrounded by the enemy, and he was too young for any of it. He should never have been there at all.

    "Tell me what happened," Hadley urged, gently. He sat down on a chair pulled up to the bed, lowering himself to Phillip''s level. Alice placed herself at his back.

    Phillip started his story at the capture. He said he was taken to a large, empty building, that they put a suppressor on him and tied him to a chair. He was surrounded by people wearing suits and animal masks, and then Luka and the other man entered. Neither of them were in masks, and the man stood out. He was wearing a floral shirt. He gave a brief description ¡ª dark, curly hair, a tattoo on his neck, tall ¡ª none of it meant anything to Alice. Hadley didn''t seem to recognize anything in the description either. He didn''t comment, only urged him to continue.

    "He knew my name," Phillip said. "Luka."

    "They knew," Hadley said, after a moment. "They knew who I sent after him."

    Phillip nodded. "He mentioned you. He guessed you had provided the coordinates."

    "Are you sure he''s a Blood Mage?" Alice asked. She had hoped the full story would provide more of a context, but it seemed like there was none. And idle threat, nothing more.

    "Alice," Hadley said, and there was a hint of a warning in his voice.

    ¡°Sorry, I just¡­ What exactly did he do?¡±

    Phillip looked between the two of them, but he was meant to report, so he continued. ¡°He called his magic. He reached for me.¡±

    Hadley glanced at her, as if that should be proof enough.

    ¡°You know what he can do,¡± she argued, even though it was the wrong thing to do. Especially here, in front of other Agents.

    ¡°Did he deny it?¡± Hadley asked.

    Phillip shook his head.

    Alice pushed on, hoping to make some sense of this. ¡°What did he say?¡±

    ¡°Not a lot,¡± Phillip replied. ¡°He knew I hadn¡¯t followed him. He knew Mage Thomas had provided the coordinates. He asked what I was meant to do once I got there.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s all?¡±

    ¡°He mostly let the other guy talk.¡±

    Hadley rose from the chair. ¡°Excuse us for a moment.¡±

    He dragged Alice with him into the hallway, and far enough from the room, that they wouldn¡¯t be overheard.

    "I thought you were done with him." He had his voice lowered to an angry whisper, even though they were alone. Alice pulled out of his grip. She wasn''t supposed to defend Luka, but condemning him shouldn¡¯t be allowed to be that simple.

    ¡°I want to understand. I don¡¯t get why you don¡¯t.¡±

    Hadley took half a step away from her. ¡°He had access to his magic. He was moving freely. There¡¯s nothing in that account to suggest he was held against his will.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± Alice said, ¡°but we don¡¯t know¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes. We do. Whether or not he¡¯s a Blood Mage isn¡¯t the point. This confirms that he¡¯s working with them.¡±

    She bit her lip, knowing she had to tread lightly. There was a fine line between suspension of disbelief and delusion.

    ¡°You know him,¡± she said, a final desperate attempt. She already knew it wouldn¡¯t work. Hadley was too angry for nostalgia to placate him.

    ¡°No. I don¡¯t. Neither do you. So unless you can come up with a single explanation for all of this, that doesn¡¯t make him a traitor, we have no choice but to treat him as one.¡±

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    She couldn¡¯t tell him what she had seen, what she had understood about Luka¡¯s actions. She couldn¡¯t tell him that she believed he had driven Luka to this.

    She settled for a shake of her head. "I don''t want him dead, Hadley."

    ¡°Yeah, well. That¡¯s going to be up to him.¡±

    ¡°Is it?¡±

    Hadley straightened up, pushed his shoulders back, and slipped his hands into his pockets. It was because of his position, that she knew he had the power to do something, but seeing him slip into it now, she knew he wouldn¡¯t.

    Maybe Luka was already dead to him. Maybe he just wished he was.

    ¡°I know you can¡¯t be objective about this, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Alice cut in. ¡°Do you think you¡¯re being objective? You brought him in. You trusted him, and he betrayed you. It¡¯s personal, but turning your anger and hurt into blind hate isn¡¯t helping anyone."

    She knew she had overstepped, even before his eyes narrowed. "Go home," he said. "You''re done."

    "Absolutely not," she said. "Our subjectivities cancel each other out. If you want objectivity, you need me."

    "I don''t think that''s how it works," he said, but something about her logic left the barest ghost of a smile on his lips. He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it. ¡°So, what would you have me do?"

    ¡°Take a step back,¡± Alice said. ¡°Luka isn¡¯t the problem, Floral Shirt is. You can use Luka to find him, but you need to focus on the real threat and the real solution.¡±

    He backed up, literally, and exhaled slowly. ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± He turned to face the window into an empty room, but neither one of them needed a body resting on the bed, to remind them what was at stake. It was in every beat of their hearts.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± he said.

    "It¡¯s okay." She reached for his arm, for a light touch. "We''re both angry. I just handle it better."

    He allowed himself to echo her smile, but his thoughts were already elsewhere.

    "Okay," he said. "Let''s go back inside."

    Her hand was still on his arm, and she tightened her grip, just enough to halt him.

    "Hadley, I would ask you to do your best to take Luka alive. And that''s not because of some romantic notion that he''s a hero. It''s for closure, for both of us. Unless you can honestly say you don''t want to know the truth."

    "The truth about what?"

    "Why he did it. Don''t you have questions?"

    He looked at her, for the span of two breaths. "I don''t know," he said and walked back towards Agent Barnes¡¯ room.

    She let him go, and followed him inside.

    This time, she placed herself next to him, as he sat in the chair. She was within easy reach of his shoulder, and she imagined resting her hand there, for the physical act of support, but settled it on the back of the chair instead.

    "Go on, Barnes."

    Phillip nodded. She heard him swallow, and he cleared his throat. "The guy, he stepped out with Luka. When he returned, he told the others to let me go, but to make sure they had a head start."

    Hadley nodded. "So, that''s when they¡­"

    "Yes," Phillip said, his bloodshot eyes glistening, reflecting the harsh lights in the room. Silence stretched, as they all knew what happened next. He was left there until a team of Agents found him the next day. He shouldn''t be alive. It was a miracle that he was.

    "Anything else?" Hadley asked.

    "They jumped." His voice was a whisper. "From the building. They must have."

    Hadley glanced at Alice, but she was as surprised as he was. "Are you sure?"

    Phillip nodded. "They must have. You can''t jump within 20 minutes of that place, but I never heard any engines. I never saw any cars. They left, but I don''t think they walked."

    "Was Luka with them?"

    "I don''t know. He never came back with the leader. I didn''t see him."

    "Okay," Hadley said. "Thank you, Agent. You did well." He reached for him, but struggled to find a part of him free of bruises, so he laid his hand on his arm, barely a touch, for just a second. "Get well soon."

    "I''m sorry," Alice added, uselessly. What did you say to someone who had bled for a cause you didn''t believe in? She couldn''t say nothing, she couldn''t ignore his sacrifice, but it was Hadley who should have been sorry. He should have been sorry for allowing any of this to happen in the first place. All Alice could do was express her regrets that it had.

    They rode the elevator down to the ground floor. Hadley was planning something. Alice could feel it in the heavy silence, and she waited for him to share his thoughts, but he never offered. Her own thoughts were revolving around the small glimpse of Luka she had gotten from Phillip''s account. She didn''t consider him entirely reliable, when pain and fear was bound to color his account, but she still tried to reconcile that Luka with the one she knew.

    Hero.

    Traitor.

    Villain?

    She thought she knew who he was, but what if she was wrong?

    "What are you thinking?" She asked, as they stepped outside. The feeling of being left in the dark was too painfully familiar, and maybe it meant that he was just settling the details before sharing, or maybe it was that he didn¡¯t want her to know.

    "Nothing," he said.

    "You''re plotting something," Alice said. "I can tell. Something Phillip said, it meant something to you."

    "They''re jumping between hideouts. I''ve gotten no reports of activity at the hospital, but the Agents are watching from afar. What if there''s nothing to report, because they aren''t using the doors?"

    Alice stopped. She reached for him, and he turned towards her.

    "They might have been under our noses this entire time," he added, misreading her expression.

    "Hadley."

    "What?"

    "What are you going to do?"

    "If I''m right, we''ll surround them. Hopefully, we''ll be able to take them by surprise." He put a hand on her shoulder, and squeezed. "I want them alive, Alice. No one dies unless they have to."

    "Have to?" She asked. His eyes were the color of crisp autumn leaves, but there was nothing brittle about the determination in them. It was unsettling how steady they were, while he was planning people''s deaths. Regardless of how reluctant he might be to see a body count, he didn''t look like someone who had a problem with the concept.

    "If it''s between a Rogue or my Agent, I want my Agent to survive, Alice. If Luka is there, he should be okay, as long as he doesn''t resist."

    She nodded, not sure what she could say to that. Hadley reached into his pocket, and pulled out his phone.

    "I could still be wrong," he said, and dialed.

    She barely followed the conversation. He was telling his Agents to check for activity inside, but without being seen. He asked them to call back if they saw anything.

    The moment he hung up, a countdown started in her mind. It had always been there, in the distance, but now it sat right next to the countdown of her heartbeats. She¡¯d retained the hope that Luka would return, would be able to stop this in time, but they had moved too fast. There was no more time to give.

    This might be the only real option they had, even if it felt like a mistake. But mistake or not, the fact was that she was infected. Her days were numbered, and she thought Luka would save her, but what if he didn''t? Did she want to die for her faith in him? A faith that had been challenged, more than once. A faith that had become shrouded in fog.

    When Hadley''s phone rang, it nevertheless felt like her world ended. And that was when she made the decision: too late.

    "They''re there," Hadley said, and she realized he was talking to her. "We got them."

    She watched him call team after team of Agents. She watched him coordinate an ambush, a raid, and she was numb. They weren''t even in his office. They were still in the courtyard, no more than a hundred feet from the hospital. It was all so easy, so informal. Effortless.

    She wanted more time. She needed more time.

    How long did it take to gather these Agents? How long before they were ready to charge?

    "How long?" She asked.

    He was scrolling through his phone, but now he looked up. He looked at her like he had forgotten she was there. "You''re not coming."

    "Yes," she said. "I want to be there. I need to be there."

    "Right," he said. "Fine. Just, stay with me."

    She nodded. "How long?"

    "A couple of hours?"

    "Okay," she said. "Okay. I just need a minute. Don''t leave without me."

    She turned back towards her dorm, trusting her feet to take her there. She knew staying with Hadley meant staying out of the action, but she could still change her shoes as a pretext. Really, she just needed a moment to breathe, to think.

    She took out her phone and texted Luka one last warning.

    She only hoped he would actually read this one.

 Chapter thirty-four

    Luka had been aware of the texts from Alice, but reading them would be a gesture, an acknowledgment of regret. Answering them was unthinkable. Anger was no longer the obstacle, but rather guilt. He almost certainly had the means to save her, but did not currently have the confidence to use it, nor the leverage to get close enough. It was a spell patched together from assumptions, theories and far too much faith and he had no way of testing it.

    Anyway, he currently had a more pressing issue to attend to. The warnings were undeserved, but nevertheless appreciated. He could see enough from his notifications to get the gist. The Academy was planning an attack on the hospital, and she wanted him to get out. He wasn¡¯t there, and hadn¡¯t even known where Garrett and his Rogues had headed after the farm became compromised, but he was close.

    Apparently, Garrett hadn¡¯t guessed that Luka had compromised that location as well.

    When he burst inside, the darkness lit green and blue around him, as a couple of guards were startled by his arrival. These guards weren''t wearing masks, and looked at him with suspicion.

    "Are you going to stop me?" he asked, watching their glowing hands. He had picked the gun back up before leaving Quinn''s, even though he had his magic back. It had been a strange instinct, knowing he was walking into something uncertain and wanting all the help he could get. He reached behind him to slip his fingers around the handle. The magic sunk back beneath the skin of the Forger and the Fighter, and they let him pass. He walked by more guards, but no one else tried to stop him. Someone in a fox mask ¡ª possibly the fox mask ¡ª turned a corner, and Luka grabbed him by the sleeve, letting his magic rise to the surface as a warning. "Where is he?"

    "Upstairs," Fox Mask growled. Luka released him and headed for the stairs.

    As "upstairs" was a bit vague when coming off the first floor in a four story building, Luka stopped on the second floor landing and took a look around. He could see light, and followed it into what had probably once been a library. There were still books on the shelves, and scattered around on tables. Garrett was sitting on top of a metal desk. It had been dusted off, and the debris removed, giving it an odd sense of purity. Like it had been caught in the eye of the storm, untouched by the destruction of time. He had a computer stacked on top of a couple of books, scrolling through a spreadsheet of numbers and graphs. The ground crunched under Luka''s feet, and Garrett turned to face him. Luka got close enough to be pretty sure it was statistics on the spread of the virus, before Garrett pushed the screen down.

    "Luka," he said warmly. "What a pleasant surprise."

    Lewis stood at his shoulder, clearly fancying himself the right hand, but Garrett paid him no attention. It was very possible he had been, or even still was, that important to Garrett. He was a Healer, and Rogue Healers were rare, but there was still that tension between them.

    They didn''t agree, specifically on Luka''s involvement. Lewis leveled his eyes on Luka, and kept them there. Luka could only assume he had lost the argument once more, and wasn¡¯t happy about it.

    "The Council is coming for you," Luka announced. "They''re done playing. They''re getting ready to storm the place."

    Garrett leaned back on the table. "Ah, so they finally decided to act? Great," he said.

    "Great? They outnumber you. They will take you down, and then they will proceed to torture the cure out of you."

    "I have it covered," Garrett said. He reached for Luka, and placed a hand on his arm. "It''s very sweet of you to warn me, though."

    Luka flinched, stepping back from the table. "This is serious," he said. "They''re on their way here. Now."

    "Well, then I suppose you have a decision to make."

    "What decision?" Luka asked. All he could focus on was some imaginary countdown in his head, and it was like having the virus all over again. He didn''t know exactly when the Agents would show, but he knew it was sooner rather than later.

    Garrett faced him and caught his face in his hands. Luka froze. "You cut ties with your friends the moment you let that Agent go, Luka. So, you can stay by my side, or you can turn your back on all of this. Either way, we''re fighting."

    "No," Luka said. "You can''t."

    Garrett smiled. "And yet, I am."

    "Garrett," he was desperate now. "The only thing this will destroy is you. Everything you have built will die."

    "Will it? It''s set in motion, Luka. It can''t be stopped."

    "What exactly do you think will happen? You die, and the Rogues will rise up? I think you''re flattering yourself."

    "I think you''re making the mistake of thinking revolutions are about individuals."

    Luka shrugged off his hands, and took several steps back. "You''re delusional."

    "If you want things to change, Luka, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences."

    "Do you want to die?" he asked, watching Garrett''s eyes. They didn''t change, nothing in his expression did.

    "Want to and willing to are different things." Luka still expected an expression to flicker across his face, but the gray eyes were unchanging. Maybe that was exactly why Luka felt sympathy for him for once, because of the mask he was wearing. Not quite as obvious as the animal masks on his henchmen, but all the more powerful for it.

    "Don''t sacrifice yourself," Luka said.

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    "Why not?" Garrett asked. For once he wasn''t smiling.

    "Matt''s life wasn''t worth all this. Neither is yours." Luka''s words finally triggered a response in his expression. A flicker of surprise, nothing more. He didn''t say anything, and Luka had no idea if he had managed to change anything.

    "I need to go before the Agents get here. You should do the same."

    He didn''t leave the same way he came. If the Agents were going to storm the building, they were going to be covering all the exits. All the exits on street level, anyway. He took the stairs up to the fourth floor. He wasn''t sure there was roof access in this building, but jumping from a window was just as efficient, as long as he could see the Agents. He walked the dark, decaying halls of the building. The fourth floor seemed empty of people, and he slowed down, taking his time searching the rooms for an appropriate exit. He didn''t have a proper internal map of this building, which was another mistake, but headed towards the back. He stepped into a room, and the door shut softly behind him. He turned and faced a figure standing in the dark doorway.

    "Lewis, wasn''t it?" He asked, even though the only doubts he had about the kid¡¯s name was whether it was his first or last name, which didn¡¯t even matter. The red glow of magic brightened up the room, and Luka¡¯s breath caught as he felt the pressure on his heart. He stumbled to his knees, clutching his chest. His heart was beating too slow and too hard, trying to pump blood through his veins, trying to keep him alive, despite Lewis fighting him. His own magic was trying hard to take over, but he grunted and pushed it down until it just barely kept him conscious. He reached for the gun at the small of his back. He was trembling with effort, but managed to point the gun in Lewis'' general direction.

    "Really?" Lewis said. "A gun? I know you can do better than that."

    Luka wondered if Garrett had sent him, if this was the price he had to pay for leaving, but it felt more personal than that. Lewis had resented him from the moment they met, maybe because of his magic, maybe because of the way Garrett treated him. Even if Luka had no interest in taking his place, it would seem like he had finally decided to rid himself of his perceived competition.

    "I can, but I''m not interested in becoming a Blood Mage," Luka said, his teeth clenched around the words.

    Something flickered in Lewis'' eyes, when he realized that Luka wasn''t going to let the attack on him slide, that this fight could have a fatal end. A brief flicker of fear, before it became determination.

    "Well, I am."

    Luka felt the pressure and the pain of Lewis pouring more of himself into the attack. He could continue fighting back, but it was bleeding his magic as fast as it was Lewis''. In the end, it would come down to who was stronger, who was bolder. Luka believed he was, but he wasn''t willing to bet his life on it. Lewis was desperate and reckless, which might just weigh higher in the end. He allowed his magic to flare up, to steady him, as he curled his finger around the trigger, and aimed the gun more carefully at Lewis¡¯ chest. He wasn''t a great shot, and the magic was a strain on his concentration, but it was close range.

    "The second you pull that trigger, I release the Soul Eater," Lewis said.

    Luka cocked his head, his finger tightening on the trigger. "Don''t you know who I am? I can handle a Soul Eater."

    The sound of the shot echoed through the building. It was deafening, all consuming, swallowing up all his other senses, his functions. He anticipated the Soul Eater, barely able to focus his eyes on Lewis, but watching him for any sign of activity anyway, for any whisper of the dragon within him. Nothing happened. How long did it usually take? Did he know?

    He finally blinked, as sound returned to him, movement too. Blood pooled around Lewis, reminding him of the passing of time. He needed to go. Not only were the Agents coming, but now Garrett''s people would be coming for him as well.

    When he opened the door, a line of mages in animal masks were standing quietly, calmly along the wall. Luka should have sensed them.

    He looked back at Lewis, bleeding out on the floor. He didn''t understand what this was. Was Garrett still testing his loyalty? Hadn''t he let him go?

    "Was this another test?" Luka asked, when none of them made a move against him. His hand was shaking, maybe his voice was too.

    He had felt responsible for people dying before. He had been blamed for their deaths.

    He thought maybe it would have prepared him for this, but killing someone was different.

    Killing someone cut deeper. He felt vaguely sick.

    "No." Garrett appeared around the corner, walked up to Luka and took the gun from his trembling hand. Luka felt hollow, numb, and he let him. Garrett clicked the safety on, and tugged it at the small of his back.

    "I admit, I was interested to see what you would do."

    "You knew," Luka said. He was struggling to focus on the conversation. His eyes kept flickering to the dead body.

    "I knew Lewis felt threatened by you, and refused to let it go. I knew he was too ambitious for his own good. It was more or less inevitable that he would do something."

    "Was this the outcome you hoped for?" Luka asked, even though he didn''t want to know. If he said yes, Luka had once again done exactly what he wanted. If he said no¡­

    "No.¡° His eyes lingered on the body, but his expression was blank. ¡±He should have known better. Of course, it also leaves me a Healer short."

    "No," Luka said, recognizing the request beneath the statement. "I need the gun back."

    Garrett raised an eyebrow.

    "It''s not mine," he explained. He consented and handed Luka back the gun. Luka accepted it, his hand almost steady now. He stepped past him to get out, but Garrett stopped him with a hand to his chest. Luka didn''t have it in him not to flinch away from the touch.

    He turned towards his people. "Anyone else want to make a stand?" He paused for a count of five seconds. "No? Then get back downstairs and greet the Agents."

    Once the last of them had vanished around the corner, Garrett turned back to Luka. "He really did pick the worst possible time, didn''t he?"

    Luka said nothing. He couldn''t look away from the body. He usually had no problem with blood, but now it made him want to throw up.

    "Come on," Garrett said, patting his chest lightly.

    Luka followed him out of one room and into another, smaller room. It was impossible to tell what it had once been. It was the same as the rest of the building, falling apart and decaying. The walls were painted with graffiti, symbols and letters that meant nothing to him.

    Garrett pointed to one of them, a bird. Something like a crow or a raven, if he had to guess.

    "That one leads to a street a couple of blocks away."

    Luka looked at the wall, then at Garrett. It was possible to create similar connections to the transit systems between buildings, but the connection was artificial and difficult to maintain. The reason it worked between stations, was because it fed on the transient magic of travelers. Everyone were always going somewhere, a set destination in their minds. Setting up artificial connections in buildings had none of that, and fed in larger part on the traveler, only becoming easier to travel by as the link was used. As he reassessed the graffiti on the wall, he realized there were links to several locations. The tombstone could easily be the farm he had been taken to. The skull and bones, he guessed, was for Mutiny. There were also a small forest of trees, a chess piece and the Academy crest.

    "Why?" Luka asked, as he lightly touched the wall by the silhouetted bird.

    "You''re useless to me right now," he said.

    Luka kept looking at his hands, expecting to find blood, but they were clean.

    "You''ve really never killed anyone?"

    "Not like this," Luka said.

    Garrett shook his head, but Luka couldn''t tell if it was from disappointment or something else. He didn''t care.

    "Go," Garrett said. He didn''t stay to watch Luka, but walked out of the room. Back to his people. Towards his own demise.

    Luka activated the gate and was gone.

 Chapter thirty-five

    In the end, it was almost disappointing how quickly the raid was over.

    Perhaps Alice had wanted it to last longer to justify the anxiety that had been building up in her chest.

    But really, she wanted it to be endless. Because the end meant taking stock, counting the wounded and the dead. A few fights were still unfolding, but Agents had started pouring inside the building. She saw the glow of magic through the open door and the gaps in the boarded-up windows, green and blues blending together with bits of yellow mixing in. Agents led out a procession of rouges, wearing suppressors like handcuffs around their wrists. It looked like a win for the Council, but judging by the bodies on the ground, there were no winners in this. Of course it wasn''t over. The students were still dying one by one ¡ª she had been afraid to ask, but eventually discovered that they had lost three more since Matt ¡ª and they still didn''t have the cure. She suspected some form of torture was supposed to change that, but there was no telling how long that would take, and none of it sat well with her.

    "Damn it," Hadley muttered softly beside her.

    Alice turned her attention on the man, who was currently being led past them. He was flanked by two agents and a suppressor was glowing with a cold white light around his wrists. She saw the familiarity in his features, but couldn''t place him.

    "What?" She asked, glancing at Hadley''s face. His expression was grim.

    "That''s a Council member," he said.

    Alice looked at him again. He was young for a council member, but she saw it now. He had only been appointed last year.

    They had suspected the bad guy had people inside the Academy, but¡ª

    "Why would a Council member do this? If he wanted things to change, he had every chance to do something about it."

    "I don''t know," Hadley said. "Maybe he''s not being heard. Maybe he was working against them even before he was appointed." He sounded like his whole world was falling apart in front of him. "I don''t know," he said again.

    They watched more mages being marched past, and maybe Hadley recognized others, even though Alice didn''t. "I can''t believe Lavrin was right," he whispered.

    "Luka predicted this?" Alice asked. She didn''t even know whether or not to be surprised. Even with his distrust in the Academy and the Council, there was no good reason to think a Council member would turn against their own.

    "No. Not exactly," Hadley said. "He used to say that someday the threat would come from within. He thought the way we were being taught, what we were being told, was too neat. He didn''t believe that no mage had ever snapped or gone bad, and was sure that it was just a matter of time before we found out what kind of corruption was being buried by the Council and the Academy. He had this¡­ thing about weaknesses. He wanted to know as much as he could about the limits of other mages, sure that some day, he would need to use it against them."

    "Well, this whole thing started when a mage went bad. It''s not the first time something like this happens."

    Hadley shook his head. "Rogues are different. They''re against us from the start, that''s the whole point of going rogue. The amount of resources we spend on managing them is staggering, and even then, something like this slips through."

    "You managed Luka?" She shouldn''t be surprised, but she had always gotten the sense that Luka had eluded them. That maybe there had been some lingering trust there, that they weren''t looking at him too hard. Or, at least, that Hadley wasn''t.

    "Not well enough," Hadley muttered.

    ¡°What about the Alexander Protocol?¡± Alice wondered. That had been a mage, too. Even if he had only been a student.

    Hadley shook his head. ¡°Alexander Peer wasn¡¯t corrupted, he was¡­ in pain, and the Protocol was put in place to prevent it from happening again.¡±

    She had always known the Alexander Protocol had to do with the incident ten years ago, and since Luka had told her it was a Soul Eater, she had put the pieces together, although not exactly the why. The Alexander Protocol was meant to ensure that no student was alone. It was forced study groups and sparring partners and if you didn¡¯t find your own, they would be assigned to you. So, Alexander had been lonely and angry, maybe bullied, and he had taken it out on the entire Academy.

    He had killed himself to release the Soul Eater.

    It had been sitting in between the lines all along, but Alexander had only ever been painted as a victim, and while suicide was certainly on the list of rumors, it hadn¡¯t been the only theory.

    She continued to watch for Luka, hoping he hadn''t taken up the uniform, so she dismissed every animal mask, every black suit, but the only person who stood out was the man in the floral shirt. The one Phillip had referred to as the leader. She didn''t see Luka.

    "He''s not there," Alice said, but it was hopeful. A plea. Just because she didn''t see him, didn''t mean he wasn''t lying dead inside.

    "No," Hadley agreed. "He isn''t."

    Unlike Alice, Hadley sounded disappointed, and she understood that he wanted him caught. He wanted him in a position, where he would be punished for his betrayal. It was, she suspected, entirely for personal reasons. He probably didn''t even care that Luka had betrayed the Council, only that he had betrayed him personally.

    "You think we''ve lost him."

    "Yes. If he''s not here, we''re not going to find him. Luka is very good at disappearing when he wants to."

    There was the matter of closure on the case, and she didn''t think Luka would be truly gone until it was over. She wouldn''t blame him, if the raid had been his excuse to leave it to Hadley to find the cure, but he would want to know. She was sure he would need to know.

    The Rogues had been prepared, but not for the sheer number of Agents descending on them. Hadley had pulled out all the stops, called in everyone who was even remotely able and not desperately needed elsewhere. So, while the Academy had never been more vulnerable than it was during the hour of this raid, the Rogues didn''t stand a chance. Which in no way meant they hadn¡¯t won. Not the war, but there were battles, too. The Agents hadn''t come to kill, but the Rogues had, and they were determined to take as many Agents down as possible.

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    In the first wave, too many had fallen. Spells were inlaid in the ground, traps, and like mines they went off. Fighters had been sent in first, but the Rogues had Forgers and Summoners on the front line, charging from afar, wearing down the magic of the Fighters storming them. One by one, they fell.

    Alice would have been discouraged, but she wasn''t there. She was on the sidelines, Hadley by her side, watching. The Healers were standing with them, pacing, tapping their fingers, their feet, tense with impatience and impotence. They could do nothing while the battle was raging, far too valuable to sacrifice. Maybe Luka had already changed her perception of Healers, of what they were capable of, because she didn''t fully understand why there weren''t Battle Healers. Healers with offensive capabilities. Of course, that required creative magic use, spells, things the Council didn''t approve of, but looking out at the field of dying mages, she couldn''t help but think it would save lives.

    Hadley¡¯s attention had already drifted off from the massacre laid out before them, and onto his phone. So when Alice spotted Field in the line of Agents, she drifted towards him. The Agents had been as faceless to her as the Rogues, since she hadn¡¯t expected to find anyone she knew among them. Nick and Teagan¡¯s mentors were here, but apprentices hadn¡¯t even been allowed at the scene. The only face she had been watching for was Luka¡¯s. She had forgotten to take Field into account, probably because he was a nature mage. He looked tired, a little broken, but he smiled when their eyes met. It released something in her, like she could breathe a little deeper, even through the horror of it all. She hated that he had been there, and she hadn¡¯t known, because any one of those bodies might as well have been him and then when would she have found out?

    "I know the guy managed to recruit from our side," he said, when Alice approached, "but you people have issues."

    He stretched out the tension in his shoulders, and Alice nudged him. "Right," she said. "because you guys are all peace, love and understanding."

    She smiled, but it faltered when she saw the blood covering his hands. He was wearing a red checkered shirt, and it hadn''t immediately been obvious, but there was a lot of blood.

    "How much of that is yours?" She asked.

    Field looked down at his hands. "Oh," he sighed. "Almost none of it."

    "What was it like?" She didn''t really want to ask, and she assumed he didn''t really want to answer, so she immediately shook her head. "Don''t answer that." It had been a slip, her curiosity overtaking her common sense.

    It was all becoming too real, and this wasn''t the kind of Agent she wanted to be.

    She wanted to save people, not¡­ get blood on her hands.

    "Were you worried about me?" He asked, smiling.

    "I would have been," Alice answered, "But I didn''t know you were here."

    "Well, I was uniquely suited to the task."

    "Right," Alice said. "I wasn''t going to say anything, but you really have set yourself up for the front lines, haven''t you?"

    He shrugged.

    "I''m not really sure you''re in a position to complain about our issues, Field."

    He smiled. "I suppose you''re right."

    "And you''re okay?" She asked, looking him over once more. Nothing seemed to be bleeding. At least he wasn''t dripping with it.

    "I''m okay," he assured her.

    "Good." She wanted to reach out, to make sure, but something stopped her. Maybe the blood. Maybe something else.

    "What happens now?" Field asked. "Do you know?"

    She watched the procession, that was still passing them. There were so many of them. Would they really execute them all? "No," she said. "They''ll do whatever they have to do to get the cure, I guess."

    "And you?"

    She wanted no part of extracting the cure, unable to handle anymore pain. Bearing witness had felt important, but now all she felt was useless. While she watched Agents and masked Rogues bleeding and dying, the thought that imposed on her mind was: How did we get here? She could trace back the moves, every wrong decision that had been made to push events in this direction, but no amount of reflecting on it put the pieces together. How had they ended up here? In this situation that surely no one had wanted, that had no winners. She thought about the Rogue leader, the one who had smiled as he was led through the carnage in cuffs, and thought that maybe he had. It was easier to blame him, than to admit her own hand in this, and Luka¡¯s, and Hadley¡¯s, but was it fair?

    Could she really shift all the blame to the villain, because it was convenient? Because it allowed her to wash the blood off her own hands?

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    She looked at the square, the blood shimmering in the waning light. She needed to find a way to live with this.

    "Heading back to the Academy?" Field asked, and when she nodded, he held out his hand. She looked with skepticism at the blood, but accepted it anyway.

    "Come with me."

    He pulled her away from the Agents and the Rogues, away from the bodies and the blood, past the wards that concealed the gruesome truth from the rest of the world. He took her across the street, to the slim patch of green running along the river. The line of trees muted the road on the other side, but the space was too narrow to stand aside from the city surrounding it. They walked for a maybe half a mile and passed under an old stone bridge, before Field walked towards a small copse of trees. He stepped inside the nearly perfect circle, and took her hand again as she joined him.

    "It''s my turn to show off," he said.

    "All you do is show¡ª" The space around her shifted, twisted. It was like jumping, but it wasn''t. Jumping was all about energy and connections, and maybe this was too, but none she could feel. It wasn''t the restlessness of urban magic, the echoes of people left behind when they rushed from place to place, it was about something quieter, something more ancient: This was folklore and faith. It was being suspended in water, it was air filling her lungs until it felt like drowning, it was an eerie loneliness, even as she was holding on to Field.

    She knew of fairy rings of course, but somehow she had never imagined they worked like this.

    "¡ªoff," she finished, as they materialized in the fields behind the Academy. This fairy ring was little more than a dark line of grass, running in a circle around them. The strange power of the jump left her faintly nauseated and out of breath, and she wondered if that was what urban magic felt like to Field. She had just barely showed off, when they went into the city together, but they had jumped, and perhaps this was a form of payback. This was different, though. This was a glimpse into just how old their magic was, and it made her feel impossibly young.

    "You can jump freely between places?" Alice asked. Urban mages were limited by the connections, by the lines of public transportation. They couldn''t even jump between two stations, unless some sort of transportation ran between them regularly.

    "Well, there needs to be a fairy ring, but otherwise, yes."

    "Show-off," she muttered, and he flashed her a quick smile in response. She stepped out of the circle with some care. She didn''t know if she could somehow break the circle, if it would ruin the magic. When she got her bearings, it was easy enough to navigate. Even though cities seemed chaotic, she had more of an instinct there, a better sense of direction, but here, even though the city called to her, she needed her eyes to keep up. She had buildings on one side, and endless trees on the other, so it was no problem to turn towards the Academy. The circle was even fairly close to campus, and it was definitely faster than the alternative, which might have taken her at least half an hour.

    Field squeezed her hand gently, which was when she realized their hands were still linked.

    "Hey," he said, "are you okay?"

    She had been watching the Academy buildings, but not really seeing them. The raid would be haunting her for a while. She blinked, and refocused on him. Are any of us? she wanted to say, but she couldn¡¯t, so she lied instead.

    "Yeah. Of course."

    She liked Field, but she wasn''t ready to be a mess around him. His hand slipped away, and with it, the sunshine heat of his touch. She linked her own hands as a surrogate, but it wasn''t the same. She still felt the cold creeping in.

 Chapter thirty-six

    Luka watched the destruction from afar, from the very edge of the wards.

    This wasn''t what he wanted, it never had been.

    He told Garrett his life wasn¡¯t worth this, and this was how he responded? Although, it really wasn¡¯t Garrett¡¯s fault. He should have run, but it should never have come to this in the first place. The thing that grated at him the most was how close he had come. Even the magic stabbing at the nerves in his hand couldn¡¯t distract him from that.

    He exhaled, and let the magic go. Even if it was too late now, he did have one move left. He had no choice but to trust the patchwork of his spell, instead of wishing there was someone who could remove those last remains of doubt from his mind. He was settling into the final gamble, the one that would either get him arrested or set him free.

    Once the balance of the fight shifted, coming out in favor of the Agents, he left. He didn¡¯t need to see Garrett be led away in handcuffs to know that they had him. Returning to the street and the press of strangers, the gun became a heavy weight at the small of his back. The reminder made his chest feel too narrow, and he kept wiping at his face, thinking he had gotten Lewis'' blood on him, but his hands kept coming away clean. Smoking only barely helped, but at least filling his lungs with something more tangible than air, reminded him that he could breathe.

    He needed to focus. The hard part would be getting into the Academy, without being arrested before he could even attempt to cure someone. Most of the Agents were busy with the raid, but not all of them would be. He needed help to get past the gates, but he didn''t know where he had Alice right now, and Hadley would be no help at all.

    The only thing he had left, was a really bad idea. He called Constance Van Aller.

    "Well, if it isn''t the traitor," she mused. "Are you calling to negotiate the release of your boss? Because you might as well save us both some time and give it up."

    "When you hired me," Luka said, with calm, deliberate care. "You allowed for some¡­ alternative methods to solve this problem. Now, if your people had minded their own business, instead of running interference, this would have been settled peacefully. While you have been busy getting mages killed for no reason, I have been doing exactly what you hired me to do. I have the cure."

    "Really," Constance said, sounding unconvinced. "Well, Mr. Lavrin, I don''t know if you have been paying attention, but so do we."

    "No. You have the man, who you think is going to give you the cure. He won''t. Do you know who you''re dealing with? Did any of your Agents recognize him?"

    "He''s no one." An edge entered her voice, and maybe she did know who he was. "An insignificant Rogue with a grudge."

    "Garrett Warren Bailey did not get caught. He marched through your front door in cuffs, so he can laugh in your faces, when you fail to break him. He would rather die than see you win, and once he''s dead, he''ll finally be a true Legacy. One way or another, the Academy will burn down in his name, unless you allow me to handle this."

    There was a pause on the other end, and Luka thought it was going to stretch into eternity. "What is it you''re proposing?" Constance finally asked.

    "All I need is access," he said. "Tell your Agents not to touch me."

    "One hour," she said. "You get to be untouchable for one hour. Then you''re going down with the rest of them."

    "Fine," he said, and hung up on the most powerful mage in the district.

    An hour wasn''t a long time, especially since he would be using half of it getting to the Academy, but if his cure worked, it would be enough. When he arrived and saw the Agents at the gate, his first assumption was that Constance had lied, but not only did they let him in, they also escorted him to the hospital.

    From Constance¡¯s perspective, it would be about controlling the situation, but for Luka it meant easier access, which saved him some time. Dr. Garland looked startled to see him, and ready to protest, but the Agents stopped her. She said nothing as they stepped past her and into the room with the students on the verge of death. There was about the same number of patients, but not the same faces. It had taken too long, and lives had been lost.

    Dr. Garland had followed them inside, and Luka turned towards her. "I''m sorry," he said. "I didn''t think it would take this long."

    "You''re here to cure them?"

    ¡°That¡¯s the idea,¡± he said, with more confidence than he possessed.

    He didn''t have to ask how many had been lost, because they were already burned into his mind, hovering there like ghosts and weighing down his already burdened soul. He placed his hand on the forehead of the nearest girl, and closed his eyes. He cleared his mind of the worries, the anger and the disappointment. Everything counted on this moment, and he couldn''t allow himself to be distracted. He formed the spell in his mind, and wove it into the spell already inside her. It was like an untying of knots, that feeling of release, when his spell undid the damage of the virus. It was a slow progress, and it required his full attention. When he was done, he wondered if his time was up, but it wasn''t. He was left with around ten minutes. He took a step back, and gestured for Dr. Garland.

    "Check it. You can use me to compare, if you need to."

    The doctor nodded, and stepped closer. She ran the check, a spell with a build-in ward that was completely unnecessary in this case, but the Spellcaster wouldn¡¯t have constructed it for people who were confirmed infected. She frowned, and Luka assumed it had come back negative. She performed the spell once more, before she dared put her hand on the girl and use her magic.

    ¡°She¡¯s clear.¡±

    "Good," Luka said, and turned to the Agents. "Will you take me to Mage Thomas? I need to see him."

    "That''s not our job," one of the Agents said.

    "No?" Luka asked. "Well, in that case, I''m guessing my remaining time is best spend getting as far away from the Academy as possible. Unless proof of concept is enough?" He gestured towards Dr. Garland and the girl. The Agent crossed his arms, but didn''t respond.

    "Right," Luka said, and pushed past both Agents. They still couldn''t touch him for another five minutes. Whether or not he could get to the other side of the gates before then was the real question.

    "We''ll take you to Mage Thomas," the other Agent said, earning a glare from his partner.

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    They headed for the administrative buildings, but instead of going up, they went down. Luka knew about the basements, where the Academy had a small selection of holding cells and soundproof chambers, and if he''d had to guess, this was exactly where he would expect to find Hadley. After a good five minutes of turns and doorways and a single flight of stairs, taking them deeper underground, Luka and his escort reached a room with two guards posted outside.

    "Is Mage Thomas available?" The friendlier one of his entourage asked.

    One of the guards, the younger one, shook his head. "He''s still with the prisoner."

    "It doesn''t matter," Luka said. "He''ll see me anyway." He was distinctly aware that his time was up, that they didn''t need to listen to him, and might as well just arrest him here and now. The holding cells were convenient, after all. The Agents all traded glances, until one of them finally pounded on the door. It had no handle, and Luka suspected it was magically sealed. It took a moment for it to open, and Luka pushed his way in, not even glancing at Hadley as he passed him. He found himself inside a concrete block. Garrett was seated on a chair, a suppressor visible at the back of his neck, running beneath the collar of his shirt along his spine. His arms and legs were chained and he was sagging forward, but he stirred at the sudden activity.

    His eyes lifted and landed on Luka, who recognized none of the charismatic man he knew. Dark shadows marred his steely eyes, partially dried blood from his nose and mouth stood out against his too pale skin. However, there was no mistaking the tug of his lips as he attempted to smile through bloodied teeth.

    "What are you doing here?" Hadley asked, closing the door behind him.

    "Urgent business," Luka answered, not yet turning to look at him. He wasn''t done taking in all the things that had been done to Garrett, before he managed to get there. He wasn''t entirely sure who he was more concerned for, the tortured or the torturer. Hadley appeared untroubled, but it seemed like his soul ought to suffer from the gruesome nature of the work. Like every scar left on Garrett''s skin, would leave a different kind of scar on Hadley in return.

    "You''re here to save him?" he asked.

    When he finally turned to look at him, Luka tried to ignore the blood staining Hadley''s hands, but couldn''t quite manage to keep his eyes averted.

    "In a sense."

    "So, what''s your plan?"

    Luka saw him eyeing the artifacts, trying to plan his way out of a fight. When he reached for a serrated knife, Luka¡¯s heart cracked a little. Their animosity was his fault, he didn''t deny that, but he had never intended it to come to this. Hadley thought he was there to fight him, and he was prepared to fight back.

    "Relax," Luka said. "You saw the Agents. Constance granted me safe haven. Well, until about five minutes ago, if I''m being honest."

    "Why?"

    "Because I found the cure," Luka said, and watched Hadley''s eyes shift between him and Garrett.

    "No, that''s impossible," he said. "You said that yourself."

    "When Garrett cured me, it left traces. I recreated the cure from there. I don''t expect you to believe me, but you can call the doctor. She''ll tell you."

    He pulled back his hand. "You cured them?"

    "One of them," Luka answered. "To test the theory. Before I continue, I''m going to need something from you."

    "What?" Hadley asked. His questions were sharp, as cutting as his instruments of torture. Luka made an effort to sound unaffected, calm.

    "Constance gave me an hour. That hour is up. Now I need you to convince her to make it more permanent. I want the charges of treason dropped."

    "Why me? Why not just talk to Constance directly?"

    "Because I don''t trust her."

    "But you trust me?"

    Luka took a breath, pushing away his doubts. "Marginally."

    "Fine," Hadley said. He slid his phone out of his pocket and stepped away, leaving Luka with a bleeding villain.

    "Better late than never, I guess." Garrett smiled through the blood, through the pain.

    "What?" Luka asked.

    "I told you I needed a Healer."

    "That''s not why I''m here," Luka said, but he stepped closer, trying to assess the damage. It was too dark to see anything, except that there was a lot of blood, and Garrett sounded pained.

    "So why? Saving your friend from having to torture me? Because if that''s it, I have to tell you that he''s quite good at it. Too good to not have practice." He coughed, and blood spattered the floor.

    "Fuck," Luka muttered and knelt next to him. He put his hand on him and assessed the damage. "I thought the torture wasn''t supposed to leave marks."

    Garrett shrugged, but it turned into a wince half-way through. "He wanted to see blood," he said.

    "Who wouldn''t?" A red glow settled between them, as Luka took care of the internal injuries and broken bones first. Garrett took a deep breath, as the worst of the pain faded. He was working on the more shallow wounds, when he heard Hadley hang up.

    "What are you doing?" he asked.

    Luka got up and turned towards him, his eyes cold. "Oh, sorry. Did I ruin your attempted murder? I thought maybe you didn''t want that on your conscience, but of course I could be wrong."

    "He wasn''t dying. I know what I''m doing."

    "I heard. Although, since I''m the one who assessed his condition, I think maybe you should take my word for it. I can give you the rundown, if you want."

    "It''s done," he said, and held up his phone.

    "So?" Luka asked, waiting for more.

    "So, you''re free to go. All charges against you are dropped. Go cure the rest."

    "You''re too kind," Luka said, sarcasm burning through his words. "And Garrett? Do you promise to stop beating the life out of him?"

    "Yes," he snapped, crossing his arms. "I''m done here. He''ll be moved to the caves as soon as possible."

    "Great," Luka said flatly. "Can I have a moment?"

    Hadley glanced at Garrett. "With me or him?"

    "You," he answered, probably slightly harsher than necessary. It was insulting, though, that Hadley would think he was stupid enough to ask for a moment alone with Garrett. Even cleared of all charges, it didn''t seem like the best move.

    Hadley nodded and followed Luka outside.

    "Prepare the prisoner for transport," Luka ordered the Agents. They looked at him uncertainly, unsure of whether they were taking orders from him or not. Hadley nodded at them, and they joined Garrett in the other room, leaving Luka and Hadley alone.

    Luka still had trouble wrapping his head around this brutal, violent version of Hadley, and everything he had planned to say seemed to vanish. The light was brighter here, and the blood shimmered on his hands. He noticed more spattered on his shirt, some of it already turning a rusty brown. He focused on his eyes, afraid of what he might find there, but they looked the same.

    "You don''t get to be upset about this," Luka said. "You expected me to do something reckless and stupid, and I did. It worked, Thomas. I did exactly what you hired me to do."

    "I didn''t think¡ª"

    "I''m not done," Luka continued. "After what I just witnessed, you absolutely do not get to fucking judge me. You think I¡¯m the problem, but you were the one who just tried to torture your only lead to death. How exactly were you planning on getting the cure after that?¡°

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°You were. I don¡¯t know what you did to him, and I don¡¯t want to know, but he had some severe internal bleeding. I don¡¯t know how he was still conscious.¡±

    "Done?" Hadley asked. Luka inclined his head in the slightest gesture he could possibly make to allow him to speak.

    ¡°You crossed the goddamned line, Lavrin. You committed treason. Of all the stupid things I could have imagined, that wasn''t even¡­" The sentence was left hanging, as he struggled to convey his outrage.

    "Are you really surprised? My loyalties were never to the Academy, you knew that."

    Hadley''s fists clenched, and his eyes darted away from Luka. "You were supposed to be loyal to me."

    Luka shook his head. He didn''t even know what to say to that. It wasn''t even that much of a deviation really. Hadley had just chosen to forget who he really was, and what he was willing to do. Letting Abel die had been a choice he made, because the alternative would have been so much worse. Was treason really that far off? "Report to the hospital when you want to be cured."

    "You can''t just do it now?" Hadley asked, frowning. His voice was still harsh, and Luka could see him struggling with his anger, while trying to focus on the turn of the conversation.

    "I won''t," Luka said and left the room, ignoring Hadley''s protests as he walked out.

    Luka wasn''t prone to claustrophobia. It was irrational to fear walls, when he felt connected to them, when close proximity to concrete was a comfort. Even so, he suddenly felt himself unable to breathe in the narrow hallways, as he walked himself back to the surface. His steps were confident, and he barely had to think about the turns he took, but he didn''t feel like he was getting anywhere. The route was impossibly long, and as his panic climbed, he started doubting his sense of direction after all. He finally reached the exit and pushed through the last door between himself and the outside. He breathed deeply, filling his lungs with fresh air, and the panic slowly settled. He took a moment, focusing on his breaths until they returned to normal. He stood up straight, running his hand through his hair, and headed back towards the hospital.

 Chapter thirty-seven

    Alice closed the door quietly behind her, and at the soft click of the latch sliding into place, her chest felt like it wanted to cave in. Solitude wasn¡¯t a relief or a comfort, but instead it stole her armor away and left her brittle. There was no one to pretend for anymore, so it was nearly impossible to retain control.

    It hit a lot harder now, somehow more real than when she had been in the middle of it. In the silence around her, she heard screams. Behind her eyes, she saw lifeless bodies and red rivers. Her heart felt heavy with spilled blood and beat a little harder, a little slower. Breathing was more of a struggle than it should have been. She didn''t cry for them. They had been little more than strangers, and she couldn''t remember their faces clearly. It was the sheer loss of life that left her feeling hollow and knowing that she might have been able to prevent it.

    She should have sought comfort rather than allow herself to be swallowed up by all that pain and violence, but she found herself avoiding Nick and Teagan. To them, it was a story passed from one student to another, the most exciting thing to happen since the Soul Eater incident a decade ago. They wouldn¡¯t understand, and they shouldn¡¯t have to. No one should be forced to watch that much blood spill and have to find a way to move on with their lives. There was only one person whose company she craved. Even if she was still angry with Luka, at least he would understand, and she needed to know that he was okay.

    She needed to know that he, at least, was okay.

    There were four steps between her door and the bed, but it might as well have been miles. She forced herself to make the journey, despite her straining chest, because maybe sleep would help. If only the horrors would still for long enough. She rolled onto her back and started at the ceiling, but everything was stained with the memory of blood.

    Avoiding was not, of course, the same as hiding, and she had made no effort to be hard to find. So it was only a matter of time before Nick and Teagan spilled into her room, and she had to concede that maybe a distraction was better than wallowing. She stood up when Teagan entered and clung to her. Teagan caught her in a hug as Nick entered behind her.

    "Are you okay?" she asked.

    ¡°No,¡± Alice allowed, because her armor hadn¡¯t resettled yet.

    "You were there?" Nick asked, and she nodded.

    "What happened?" Teagan asked.

    She pulled away from Teagan and looked at them both. They looked concerned, and she realized that she didn''t actually know how much they knew. She took a deep breath to explain, but the words wouldn''t come.

    "I can''t," she said. "I don''t have the words. It was¡­ It was unreal.¡°

    ¡°Our mentors didn¡¯t say anything,¡± Nick said. ¡°Only that it was a large operation. The rumors have been indecipherable, but it was about the virus?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Alice said. ¡°We found the Rogues, and Hadley arranged a raid. It was... bad.¡± It didn¡¯t feel adequate, but there would never be an adjective that could contain it all. She struggled to inhale. Her chest was so heavy. "I still don''t know what happened to Luka."

    Nick rested a hand on her shoulder. "What do you need?"

    Luka, she thought. He was the only one who might be able to take these feelings from her. He carried guilt like a crown, and she needed to know how he kept his head high under its weight.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said instead.

    ¡°Do you want to be alone?¡± Teagan asked.

    ¡°No.¡± She did, a little, but it wasn¡¯t going to be good for her. ¡°No, but I¡¯m not going to be good company.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s okay.¡± Teagan scanned the room for her laptop. It was set aside on her desk. Teagan touched it lightly and looked at her. ¡°Movie?¡±

    Alice nodded.

    They all settled into her bed, balancing the laptop between them. Alice already knew the movie before it even started playing. The one they had watched so many times, they could act out the script between them. When Teagan first introduced her to it, it felt like a friendship test, but even if she hadn¡¯t been sure about the dark humor at first, it had grown on her. Whether it was circumstance or merit, it had managed to make its way to the top of her favorite movies. It was a comforting ritual, the normalcy of it, like it could be any night. Except that she still felt cold. She still expected to find blood on her hands. Screams were still echoing through her mind.

    When there was a knock on her door, she startled. They all looked toward it, waiting for it to open. When nothing happened, Alice untangled herself from the bed and her friends and went to open it.

    Her breath caught at finding Luka on her doorstep.

    "Alice," he started, and whatever he was preparing to say next was cut off when she hugged him. She hadn¡¯t realized just how much space the fear that he was dead had taken up in her heart until it was gone. He didn''t fold into the hug, but he didn''t tense up either. He put his arms around her and lightly rested his hands on her back.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she said, pulling back. ¡°I didn''t know what happened to you. I didn''t think¡­ What are you doing here?"

    He took a small step away from her. "I have the cure."

    She stepped into the hall and closed the door behind her. "You did it," she said. She didn''t know how, but she had no doubt he had beaten the Academy to it. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t be here. He would still have been wanted for treason.

    "I did," Luka said. Just like that, a weight lifted off her chest, and she could breathe a little easier. With everything else that had happened, being infected had fallen to the back of her mind, but the anxiety had still been there. It was over now. She would survive because Luka hadn''t given up. He had done what he needed to do to get the job done, and it had worked. If only he had told her about it, included her, allowed her to help, maybe she wouldn''t be left feeling more relief than satisfaction.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    "You can cure me?"

    "That''s why I''m here."

    He held out a hand to her. When she took it, he closed his eyes. His skin felt cold, even though it seemed strange for a Healer to have bad circulation. She had no idea how it actually worked, if healing magic was a constant thing, unlike her own magic. Her magic was instinctual, too, though. And if healing magic constantly made tiny tweaks, it wouldn''t even register. There were still so many things she didn''t know, and she didn''t even know what her future held anymore. She didn''t know what would happen to her. Or to Luka. She focused back on him and watched lines form between his eyebrows as he concentrated. She felt the magic, but faintly, like a warm shimmer through her body. She didn''t feel the virus lose its hold on her; she didn''t feel any different. Not when the magic seemed to end, nor when Luka blinked his eyes open.

    "That''s it?" Alice asked. "It''s done?"

    "That''s it," Luka said.

    He backed away, as if his work here was done, and he was prepared to take off. To disappear from her life.

    "I saw what you were doing, you know," Alice said, and he stopped. "I knew you hadn''t given up. You had only given up on getting the cure as an employee of the Academy, right?"

    "Yes," he said. "I didn''t mean for you to¡ª"

    ¡°I know,¡± she said. ¡°Look, Luka, I don¡¯t know if I forgive you yet, but I will. I understand what you were doing, but I¡­ I hate that you didn¡¯t tell me.¡± The raid had, at the very least, allowed her to understand something important about Luka and his methods. Why working with Hadley had been such a struggle. Because Luka didn''t care what he had to do to succeed. He cared about efficiency. He cared about minimizing the loss of life. If Hadley hadn''t lost patience, if he hadn''t pushed for the raid, then¡­

    "I didn''t know if I could trust you," Luka said.

    ¡°Maybe not, but I didn¡¯t deserve that.¡± She paused, not sure what she expected. An apology? She knew her loyalties had been divided, she understood his doubts. She only wished he had been willing to test her devotion to him. ¡°I tried, but I didn¡¯t know enough to stop it. I couldn¡¯t¡­¡±

    "It was never going to be stopped, Alice. Both sides wanted blood too badly. Nothing you could do would have changed that.¡°

    She nodded. It wasn¡¯t a comfort, but it was something. "So, what happens now?"

    He exhaled slowly and leaned back against the wall. "My contract is up," he said. "Whatever happens now, it''s not my concern."

    He looked tired. Not physically, but in every other way imaginable.

    She had seen him close to passing out from exhaustion. She had watched him bleed out, nearly dead. She had sat by him while he was in a coma. Every time he had been weak, but he had never looked anything less than impeccable. It had to be a trick of his healing magic¡ªsomething that ensured his physical appearance wasn''t affected. But now he was leaning heavily on the wall. His shoulders were perhaps a little too slumped. His eyes were drifting, never staying in one place for too long, unable to focus.

    She thought it was over. She should have seen relief in him, but it wasn''t there. Maybe too much had happened; maybe those lives weighed on him the same way they did her, but maybe something else was going on.

    Maybe they both had to think about their futures.

    He left an opening, but she didn¡¯t know how to fill it. She didn¡¯t know what she wanted. He finally pushed off the wall and turned to the hallway. "I have more people to cure."

    "Luka, wait." Regardless of their futures, there was one more thing she needed from him.

    He stopped, and there was a heaviness to his gaze as he looked at her.

    "The raid," she said, because he would understand. "How do you¡­ move past something like that?"

    He took a deep, slow breath. "You went."

    "I had to. I thought they deserved for someone to¡­ remember them, I guess."

    "That wasn¡¯t your burden to bear," he said, as if the burden belonged to him alone.

    "Why not?¡° Alice demanded. ¡±I was part of it too. My choices led to it too." No amount of reassurance would convince her that she was not partly responsible, and she didn¡¯t really believe he felt it was entirely inevitable either.

    He nodded. "Okay.¡° Then he paused, picking out his words. "You have realized by now that the Academy teaches an idealized version of the world. The Council wants all mages to live in a flawless world, believing that it will put a stop to violence, but the truth is that our magic is born of smog and steel and electricity. That''s what runs through our blood and fuels us. It''s ambition and danger and greed. We can pretend it''s beautiful all we want, but the truth is, we''re prone to corruption. All of us. Instead of learning from past mistakes, the Council wants to erase them, but that only serves to make young mages ill-equipped to deal with the reality of the magical community. Because what you don¡¯t know is that when your textbooks say that a magical creature is extinct, it means that the Agents murdered them all. You don''t know that people go rogue because the Academy is holding them down, or rejecting them, or pushing them too hard, all to fit into some impossible ideal. You don''t understand that heroics are punished because no one is allowed to stand out. Watching the raid was¡­ impossible. I know you feel useless. I know you feel responsible, because it could have been prevented. We made the effort, but it wasn''t enough, because it was never our choices that led there, and we could never be the ones to stop it. It''s a tragedy, but the real tragedy is that the Council would rather see people die than change the way they think. So, how do you move past it? You don''t. You try harder next time."

    She should have known he had witnessed it, too. That his own impotence in the face of it made him angry. That he had tried and failed to stop it on both sides.

    Of course, she knew that the world wasn''t perfect. She had known that before she met Luka, too. But it was harrowing to hear it so plainly. It was like a summary of everything Hadley had warned her about, but it made a horrible kind of sense now. She had seen the Council kill, even if they had hidden behind Hadley Thomas. Hadley Thomas, who had told her that it wasn¡¯t enough that children were dying, that the right children had to be dying before the Council would act.

    She wondered which magical creature had been murdered into extinction and how many had. She wondered why Luka had gone rogue, which one he was. She wondered who the others were.

    None of it made her feel better, but it wasn''t meant to.

    What it did was give her something to fight for.

    ¡°Then we try harder next time.¡±

    She saw the flicker of surprise, but then he shook his head. "I was barely pardoned."

    "But you were." She knew not to reach for him, but the urge made her cross her arms. ¡°We can¡¯t change the Council, but at least we can try to protect the people, right?¡± She stuck out her hand.

    ¡°Partners?"

    ¡°Fuck,¡± he muttered, but he took her hand. ¡°Just don''t get your hopes up. They''re probably going to say no."

    "We''ll see."

    "Now, I really do have more people to cure."

    Alice smiled at him as he turned away. Despite everything, she felt good about this decision. It was hope, somehow, of a better future, a better Academy. There was a downside, obviously, since she was going to have to tell Ravi that she didn¡¯t get into law school. She was going to have to find a way to meet him halfway, since she didn¡¯t know how to stall him for another year. She didn¡¯t know what to do when the year was up. Would she really go to law school then? Wait another three years before they could start their life together?

    It was another decision, but one that could wait until she knew if the Council would keep Luka on as her mentor. If the Council did say no, she would be out of excuses. She would have to put this all behind her and pretend to want a normal life.

    If they said yes, she would have one last year as a mage.

    She opened the door and returned to her room. She felt lighter now. Still haunted by faceless, nameless mages, but hopeful. With another year, maybe she could make a difference. Maybe she could find a way to leave this world just a little brighter. Maybe she wouldn''t have to leave with phantom blood on her hands.

 Chapter thirty-eight

    Home wasn''t just one thing, and it was rarely just a place. So, when Luka finally headed home, he didn''t go back to his own apartment. He did crave the solitude it would provide, but it wasn¡¯t what he needed. Besides, there was one more thing he needed to fix today.

    The apartment might have been too big, too impersonal, to ever feel like home, but Quinn did. He found him on the couch, the TV running the news in the background. Quinn¡¯s attention was on his laptop, but he set it aside when Luka entered, and straightened up. Luka paused to drop the gun on the coffee table with a soft clack, and then folded himself down next to Quinn, resting his head on his thigh. Quinn''s hand fell on his hair as soon as he was settled, as if Luka were a pet crawling into his lap for attention.

    Quinn leaned forward and grabbed the gun, his touch momentarily vanishing as he ejected the clip and counted the bullets. He heard the thump as Quinn settled it back down on the table, but closed his eyes. He could feel the silence in his breaths and wondered how many it would take before he stated the obvious. He felt the touch of fingers returning to his hair, and Quinn inhaled. "You fired it."

    "Don''t," Luka said. "Not today."

    "Okay," Quinn said gently. "Are there no good news at all?"

    He nodded his head minutely. "The cure worked."

    The fingers stilled in his hair as Quinn processed the news. It had been his idea, so he really shouldn¡¯t be surprised that it had worked. Luka¡¯s mind was too muddled to analyze the reaction, but of course he knew what it was: fear. It was no doubt related to the same fear that had made him leave the Academy, and swear off magic. Luka didn¡¯t know the story because he had never asked and Quinn had never offered, but he had gathered details like puzzle pieces. Still, they only revealed fragments.

    ¡°Did you think it wouldn¡¯t?¡±

    Luka twitched his shoulders in half a shrug. ¡°That¡¯s not the point.¡± There was a point somewhere in all of this, probably something about the dangers of arrogance. He should have listened to the speech he gave Alice, but even if he believed those words, he struggled to shake off his own guilt. This had felt personal from the beginning, because it had been. He kept thinking that he could have played it differently if he had realized the truth sooner.

    ¡°What happened?¡± His fingers started up again, stroking gently through his hair. It was too vast a question to answer, and he was too tired. He should be getting to the point, to his apology, so he could sleep. Details could wait.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Quinn said, when the pause had stretched too long. ¡°I just want to know where your head is at.¡±

    ¡°My head is tired,¡± Luka muttered.

    ¡°I know, babe. We don¡¯t have to do this now.¡±

    "No," Luka said, pushing himself up. "We might as well." He had spent a lot of magic curing the virus, but he released a small boost to stay awake. It wouldn¡¯t work for long, but he had little more to give. He would have gotten coffee, but he was planning on passing out as soon as possible. "Just promise me you won''t kick me out tonight. I don''t have the energy to get myself home."

    "I won''t." Quinn reached for him again, like he was trying to hold on to some of the vulnerability, but Luka was already hardening again. He focused on the gun, lying quietly on the table. He knew that guns weren''t the real killers, but it still felt wrong for it to look so harmless.

    Luka didn¡¯t know where to start and didn¡¯t know how to explain Lewis, so he asked the question he should probably have asked a long time ago.

    "Does the name Garrett Bailey mean anything to you?" He left out the middle name, just to avoid the obvious association. Which turned out to be pointless because the first thing Quinn asked was,

    "Warren''s son?"

    He took his eyes off the gun and looked at Quinn. Apparently, his expression asked the next question for him.

    ¡°He was in my year at the Academy,¡± Quinn explained. ¡°I knew him.¡±

    ¡°So you know his story?"

    Quinn nodded absently while he was reconciling the Garrett he knew with what Luka was telling him in between the lines. Maybe he understated just how well he knew him. ¡°He¡¯s behind the virus.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Luka confirmed.

    Quinn glanced at the gun. ¡°Did you kill him?¡±

    He really was too tired for this conversation, because it sounded a lot like he cared if a terrorist was dead. Then again, Luka cared too, but he suspected their reasons were different.

    ¡°No. I tried to save him.¡±

    ¡°Tried?¡± It was nearly a whisper, and Luka could have put him out of his misery, told him that he was alive. Even if that status was hanging in the balance. He found himself holding back, wanting Quinn to admit that he didn¡¯t care that Luka was a murderer, but only that he might have murdered Garrett.

    Quinn was, as far as Luka could tell, a fairly standard Legacy, broken by the immense burden of impossible standards. With Garrett, the parental issues must have been fairly public, since he didn¡¯t even know who they were when he manifested. It shouldn¡¯t be surprising that they would find each other.

    ¡°You were friends,¡± he said. He should have left it at that, but even though he hated himself for it, he added, ¡°Or¡­?¡± He didn¡¯t want to care, and most of all, he didn¡¯t want to be judgmental. But the thought did make a small part of him want to leave Garrett to the Council, even if he couldn¡¯t do that.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Friends,¡± Quinn said firmly, and added, ¡°He saved my life.¡±

    An unexpected detail, and he wondered where it fit, but that wasn¡¯t important right now. This was not going to turn into a conversation about Garrett. He needed to get back on track.

    ¡°Is he¡ª?¡± Quinn finally asked before Luka could move on.

    ¡°No.¡± He¡¯d been here when Alice texted him to get out of the hospital, and he¡¯d left to warn Garrett. He had just discovered the cure and had let Quinn believe he was going back to the Academy. So he told him now, briefly, where he¡¯d really gone, about Garrett''s refusal to run and his arrest. Only then did he mention his confrontation with Lewis. It was hard to get through it, and he left Quinn with a lot of blanks to fill out, but honestly, the missing bullet in the gun had already told the story for him.

    "He wasn''t giving you much of a choice," Quinn offered, but it rang hollow to Luka. He knew that already. In the moment, it seemed clear that one of them would have to die, but there was always another choice. There had to be. Lewis was a drop in the ocean of people that had died this day, but he was perhaps the least inevitable.

    "He chose to die," Luka said. "I didn''t have to let him."

    "You would have died in his place?" Quinn asked.

    "I would have shown him mercy."

    "He didn''t want your mercy, Luka."

    He shook his head. "You don''t know that."

    He watched his hands. They had taken on a slight tremble, and he could tell himself if was weariness all he wanted; he knew it was a lie. ¡°He was a kid who thought I was a threat to him. He thought I was coming to take the thing that made him special, made him invaluable.¡± He stopped himself before he could say too much of what he was thinking. That, with everything he had ever done, why did this feel so hard to move past? It was the kind of thing he would have to bury in order to function.

    "Garrett let me go after that,¡° he continued, ignoring the way Quinn was looking at him. ¡±He had gates set up. Several of them, and he let me escape, before the Agents arrived."

    He closed his eyes. His magic sparked across his skin, a useless instinct, given how weak it was. Quinn reached out, little more than a brush of his fingers, but Luka recognized it as silent disapproval.

    "The gate took me to the street, and I went back. I don''t know how many mages died, but the courtyard was dyed red by the time I left."

    Quinn slipped his hand in between his clenched fingers and held on tightly. Luka had twitched at the first touch. He wanted to withdraw his hands, except that they had steadied. Because Quinn was his anchor, and sometimes he forgot that. "You did the best you could, Luka, but you don''t control other people. You think it was on you to stop the deaths, but you never could have."

    "I could have found the cure faster."

    "No, you couldn''t have," Quinn insisted. "You almost killed yourself for this case. Twice. If you gave anymore to it, it would have been your life, and that wouldn''t have solved anything."

    Three times, Luka corrected to himself. Either he was forgetting that Luka had infected himself, or he was forgetting about Lewis. It didn¡¯t necessarily improve his point because Luka had never stopped to calculate the impact of his own death, had never really considered it an option. It also didn¡¯t make it true because there were things he could have done differently.

    It was pointless to try and track those alternative paths, but maybe one of them would have ended with less blood being spilled.

    Quinn grabbed his face, forcing him out of his spiraling thoughts. "Luka," he said, not entirely gently.

    He nodded as best as he could in his grip. "I''m fine," he said. "I''ll be fine."

    "I know." Quinn tipped his head forward until their foreheads touched, and Luka leaned into it. "Go," he said. "Sleep."

    "No. There''s one more loose end,¡° Luka said, pulling back. "I owe you an apology."

    "Oh, Luka. It''s fine¡ª¡°

    ¡°It¡¯s not,¡± he insisted. He sighed and averted his eyes. "I shouldn''t have kept you in the dark. I made a decision to cut you out because I thought it would be better. I thought I was protecting you, but I also couldn''t allow you to interfere. I''m sorry. It wasn''t only my choice to make."

    "When have I ever interfered?"

    He had expected forgiveness, or maybe even the opposite. Quinn didn¡¯t understand, then, that it wasn¡¯t about whether or not he would interfere, but that he could have. He could have told Luka to stop, to walk away, and he would have. He should have, because this was the Academy, because he had seen them digging their claws into Luka. He had asked him not to stay, but only because he knew he would, and it wasn¡¯t enough anymore.

    Because Garrett had started something¡ªa rebellion or a war¡ªhe didn¡¯t know yet. He only knew it was going to be important. He could walk away, and he would, but only if Quinn very firmly told him to.

    "This is different."

    "Yes," Quinn agreed. "It''s the Academy. I couldn''t have interfered if I wanted to."

    Luka was quiet for a while before he said, "No. I suppose you couldn''t."

    Because there was that fear that Luka couldn¡¯t quite define, but he knew it had little to do with him. It would have to be weighed against the option that the Council wouldn¡¯t let him go easily, that they would track him down, and that Quinn would be back on their radar. Only, if he was actually hiding from them, why was he still in this city?

    It was like prodding an old wound, aching underneath all the new ones, to remember this imbalance between them, and it was more than he could contain right now. He already felt like he was still bleeding. He felt like every inch of his body should be aching with bruises. He felt vulnerable.

    It was easy for Quinn, perhaps, to appear unperturbed. He was good at acting strong, but he forgot that Luka knew him. Even though he couldn''t always see the cracks, he knew they were there. They had to be. You didn''t slip into an oxycodone addiction because you were perfectly well adjusted.

    He was too tired to push him on whatever he wasn¡¯t saying, so he let it go. This wasn''t really about Quinn, anyway. Luka knew what it meant to go back. The Council would be holding all the cards, and he was sure Constance knew it. He was sure his leash would be a hell of a lot tighter.

    So why did it feel like he had already made the decision?

    He wanted a better future for mages, and for once, it felt within reach.

    Garrett was misguided, but he was useful. His movement was useful.

    If he had a chance to stop the persecution of Rogues, the genocide of magical creatures, the injustice caused by the Council, shouldn''t he take it?

    Then there was Alice. He had told her, indirectly, that he would be her mentor if the Academy would have him. If the Council would have him. If Hadley would have him.

    He no longer questioned the Council¡¯s motivations. Quinn was right; they would want to control him. Especially during a possible Rogue uprising, having Luka on their side would send a powerful message. Hadley was different, but he wasn¡¯t likely to get a vote.

    Quinn''s fingers brushed against his temple. "Okay, that''s enough. Go get some sleep."

    Luka tilted his head into the touch, only for a second, then reached out and patted Quinn''s leg. "Right," he said, or perhaps, "Ladno." Was he even speaking English anymore? When had he slipped into Russian?

    He had felt his accent thickening, stumbling over the English pronunciation, but he didn¡¯t feel sure about which language he was speaking anymore and shook his head against the cloudiness of his mind.

    "Wait," Quinn said, as Luka rose. "Which part was meant to make me kick you out?"

    "The murder?" He said, except he''d really said ubijstvo. He started towards the hallway, then paused. "And I''m not finished with the Academy, but you already knew that.¡°

    He didn¡¯t wait for the response, since there had been no real question in it. He would assume forgiveness, at least until he woke up, hopefully in something like eight to twelve hours.

 Epilogue

    Garrett watched his hands, fingers loosely intertwined. He turned them slightly, shifting the light on his silver rings, but they remained dull in the dim cell. There was nothing else to look at in this place, nothing to occupy the time. The packed earth and the stone surrounding him were an oppressive force as he willed his magic to rise to the surface of his skin.

    He imagined flickers of green washing across his skin, but nothing made a difference. Nothing he had done over the months of being locked in here made a difference. His magic had now been suppressed for long enough that he was starting to feel it. Normal. Weak. Powerless. If anything would finally put him over the edge and drive him truly insane, that would be it.

    His eyes didn''t leave his hands, but his attention shifted, and he was no longer really looking. He tilted his head, just slightly toward the sound of approaching footsteps. This entire place ¡ª this godforsaken pit ¡ª was silent enough that he could hear someone coming long before they arrived.

    He could walk to the bars, waiting for whoever it was, but that wasn''t his style. Instead, he didn''t move an inch. He watched his hands. He listened. He knew it wasn''t the guards coming, as he had long since memorized their gaits. He was fairly certain it wasn''t Luka either. The footsteps were too heavy, too slow. Luka walked with a sense of urgency, even when he was reluctant to arrive at his destination.

    The footsteps finally stopped in front of his cell, and after a moment of silence, the man cleared his throat. Garrett felt an old echo of dread, somehow still too loud. It was ice in his veins and pain in his gut, even though he wasn''t afraid. Not anymore. Not ever again. It shouldn''t even have been possible to know someone by the way they cleared their throat. Especially someone he had never really known.

    He still didn''t look up, and the man finally lost his patience.

    "Garrett." He seemed to struggle with the name, like he couldn''t quite connect it to the man in the cell

    Garrett finally looked up, facing his father. The flickering candlelight caught his face in dark shadows, highlighting the sharp angles of his cheekbones.

    "Warren." He paused, cocking his head. "Or do you prefer Headmaster?"

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    "I thought I should come see you," he said, ignoring what he no doubt thought was Garrett''s insolence.

    "What for?" Garrett rose from his cot and sauntered towards the bars. He expected nothing more than disappointment, but he couldn''t quite quell his curiosity.

    What could his father possibly have to say to him?

    Warren sighed. "Everything you have done with your life has been a disgrace to your family and to the community. You have one chance left to do something good with it."

    "Of course," Garret said. "That makes more sense." More sense than lingering regret or even affection; of course he might have expected degradation. But this made even more sense.

    Warren looked like he was going to say more but paused, so Garrett finished for him. "You want names."

    "Yes."

    Garrett pushed his arms in between the bars, leaning forward. "You really thought I would tell you?" He shook his head, answering his own question. "No."

    "You really are determined to be a disappointment until the end, then." Warren said. "I have been watching you, and despite everything you have done, I have seen your potential. You could have been great."

    "I already am," Garrett growled. "That''s what you never understood. Just as you don''t understand that you are not responsible for my success or failure. You are nothing." He stepped back, gripping the bars in his hands. "You can go now. You''re not going to get what you came for."

    Warren regarded him for a moment, but whatever he was looking for no longer existed in Garrett. Whether it was remorse or some sense of loyalty to his family. His eyes narrowed. "I supported the decision to have you executed by means of Blood Mage," he said, "but know that if I could be allowed to do it myself, I would."

    Garrett''s smile spread slowly into a cold, emotionless mask before he turned away from his father.

    "They say it''s a mercy," Warren said. Garrett had intended to ignore him, to lay back on his cot and pretend he wasn''t there, until it became true. Instead, he stopped and waited for him to finish. "It isn''t. It looks swift and painless, because you will be paralyzed. The audience will think you''re dead long before you draw your last breath. You can''t move. You can''t scream. You have to endure an unimaginable pain that won''t end until your heart gives out." He paused, no doubt for effect. "I genuinely hope you have a strong heart, son."

    He listened to the footsteps as his father finally retreated.

    Garrett imagined all the things he could have shouted at him, all the words that could tear him apart, but that wasn''t how he wanted to ruin him. He wanted to do it with his bare hands.

    He looked down at his trembling fingers and curled them into fists. He wasn''t supposed to let his father get to him. He wasn''t supposed to let anything get to him. Especially not now, hours away from death, when nothing could possibly matter anymore.

    He remained like that, thinking about the ways he would kill his father, until another set of footsteps sounded. Guards this time, here to bring him to his execution.