“Or gain its solid mass.”
He laughed. “We can quibble on words all day. You can even leverage some of your favorite things—I had planned for a number of things to survive, but the core of this world needs to be torn down and reconstructed. We need better stability and security.”
“You will lose.”
He shook his hand and looked at his hands. “It's been a long time since someone has touched me with magic. Sergei tried to dampen me, once.”
“I know.”
He narrowed his eyes on me. “Do you?”
“You think you have everything planned out, but that was a surprise, wasn't it?”
His eyes narrowed further, and he tugged a painted cord. “Bring the machine,” he said to another portrait. A window appeared in the background of the portrait and Mussolgranz looked up from whatever he was working on in his temporary Spartine lab.
I looked warily at the cord.
Stavros smiled. “Oler perfected the way to both prevent a future Origin Mage from killing himself or from hurting his master.” He leaned down. “I will be taking all of your emotion from you in fifteen minutes, Miss Crown. But first...well, first, I think you need to have an example made.”
He opened two portrait portals with a swirl of his fingers.
Mussolgranz strode through, eyes cold and eerily triumphant. Two assistants wearing half-melted portions of my brother's face marched gruesomely behind—one carrying a sword, one a device.
Kaine entered through the other portal, pulling Axer and Constantine behind, trussed and nullified. I inhaled sharply.
They all looked terrible. But nullified, I couldn't feel the extent of their injuries.
Kaine jerked them to a halt and his shadows tightened even more fiercely around them.
Axer and Constantine's expressions looked about as pleased with this outcome as Kaine looked smirkingly triumphant. Constantine's expression promised ultimate bloodshed as his eyes tracked the Shadow Mage, and turned even darker when he caught sight of Mussolgranz.
“Where's the other one?” Stavros asked indifferently. Even dampened, he checked that the appropriate measures he had predefined were in place on each of the boys. Axer would require different precautions from Constantine, and vice versa.
“He didn't make it,” Kaine said, a smirk pulling over his teeth.
I looked at the boys. Axer slowly shook his head to both sides. I looked down, unwilling to let Stavros see.
“Oh, dear. One of your friends didn't make it? Well, I did warn you about the casualties.” He touched my chin and tilted it. I put every loathing emotion into the look I shot back.
He smiled and let my chin fall. “A few minutes more, and I'm going to pull those thoughts and emotions.”
“Come see the carnage.” Kaine tapped his temple and let his eyes slide shut, shadows swirling in glee around his face.
“In a few minutes. The idiot girl thought she could win by hitting me with a dampener.”
“That's going to cost her,” Kaine said, opening his eyes and staring fiercely at me.
“Indeed. And those who undoubtedly provided it,” Stavros said, and flicked a device. Constantine fell to his knees, knocked forward by an internal blow. “I’m going to take my time with you, boy.”
“Thought he could end me with some concoction.” Kaine shoved a shadowed claw under Constantine's jaw. “Got a shot in.”
“Ah, that's why the entry magic indicated you are the slightest bit off.” Stavros waved it off and Constantine bent forward again, spitting blood onto the floor.
“He failed.” Kaine grinned nastily at Constantine's bent head. “So much failure for you, boy.” Constantine set his jaw.
“Oler, get the… I didn't ask you to bring a sword,” Stavros looked at the sword held by the assistant on Mussolgranz’s left. “Get rid of it.”
The assistant threw it to the side without looking, eyes blank. The sword clattered to the ground. Stavros turned to Mussolgranz with a sneer.
Mussolgranz sneered back. “Last minute creations. They killed my best one.”
Stavros pulled his own sword from a portrait, then walked over to Axer and placed the blade against his neck. Axer tilted his head back, lips firmed.
Stavros let the flat side of the blade slide against the skin of his throat. “Not even burned by it. Been practicing with Origin Magic, have you? I should simply slit your throat. End your life right now. Put you in stasis. Or maybe leave you to rot.”
“Do it,” Mussolgranz said eagerly, entire face lit with the possibility of it. Unease took me.
Axer stared back without expression, but I could see the edges of copper and turquoise bleed around him.
“You still need him,” I said desperately, pulling at my binds, pulling Stavros's eyes back to me.
“Poor Oler needs someone to die to cover for his failures,” Kaine said tauntingly.
“You wish,” Mussolgranz sneered.
But Mussolgranz's responses seemed to have the opposite effect on Stavros and he pulled the blade from Axer's throat and let it fall. It melted into the floor. “Now, now, Oler, you overextend your emotion, patience is rewarded.”
Mussolgranz's eyes flashed for a moment before he got himself under control, but Stavros was already opening the next portrait's portal.
Helen Price walked through. My heart picked up speed. I pulled my lips between my teeth, unable to hold in the emotions.
A familiar, hostile gaze narrowed in on me. She shook her head, disgust plain.
Kaine smiled from his corner.
I looked at Helen Price with steely eyes, keeping my emotions locked down, as she looked around the space, taking everything in with her sharp gaze.
“I have them,” she said to Stavros. “None of these mages should be here, though, especially not the Origin Mage. I can set up a new Base—”
“The girl can do nothing without my say so,” Stavros said coldly. “And I tire of games. I would have thought you had tired too, Helen. It is time. Bring them.”
I struggled vainly. “What did you do with Olivia?”
Helen looked at me, gaze cold, and held up a finger that dropped, as if showing the movement of a body with its strings cut. “I got rid of her.”
Hold it together. Hold it together...
“I hope you have life insurance,” I said woodenly.
She smiled coldly. “The best.” She reached through the open portal and pulled two more people through. The portal closed behind them.
I swallowed as my parents were pushed into view. Dressed in work clothes, my mother was still wearing her jewelry, and that was always the first thing she shed. They had been taken as soon as they'd entered the house from work, or maybe even before. My eyes darted between them, unable to help myself from drinking in their features, regardless of the circumstances.
“Ren, honey, it’s okay.” My mother’s eyes were so blue. Like sapphires.