I looked at my hands shaking around the book’s spine, and the heavy cuff circling my wrist. What were my intentions?
“Stavros tried to get it passed twenty years ago using Alexander's mother as fear bait, but Stavros was careful to always separate himself from the action. If you watch the memories, he always sounds regretful. Highly regulated, no misuse,” Constantine mimicked, and I wished I could see his face. “Another politician took the political hit when the public reacted negatively.”
“So, they already have the system?” I asked, voice as hollow and strange as my emotions.
“Yes. However, a few politicians made it so that the regulation of the 'button' to instigate the system is under a mile of red tape. Only an emergency action pledge on the part of two thirds of the voting countries will unseal the policy vow—which was magically bound. There is nothing Stavros can do without those votes. Priority Five is as useful as a dream to him without the unsealed vow.”
“Constantine’s father is one of the premiere votes in the block.” Axer touched my knee, then my hand, sliding down to my fingertips. “Give me the book, Ren.”
I hugged it closer. “No.”
“Ren.”
“It’s dead. I killed it.”
Constantine’s fingers tightened on my back, and he abruptly spun me a half turn so they were both in view.
“No,” he said, pointing his freed finger at me.
“I wanted revenge,” I said. Constantine’s gaze tightened.
This wasn’t like Rosaria’s Awakening magic accidentally killing her brother. I had whipped the world into a frenzy on purpose.
“My revenge did this. I did this. The book died cleaning up my mess. I would have ended the world to kill Stavros. I don’t want this power,” I whispered, staring at the cuff.
Axer’s hand darted out, and I looked up to see him clasp it around Constantine’s wrist abruptly. Axer’s gaze was steady on me, without looking at his roommate, whom he held immobile.
“And yet you chose the world over your revenge, when it was pointed out to you, a mage of seven months. You figured out how to fix it.”
“At the expense of—”
“Maybe the book is dead. Maybe not,” Axer said calmly.
My heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”
“Magical books aren't the same as magical creatures, beings, and mages. The enchantments imbue them with life—real life. But if their pages and knowledge are left intact, they can enter dormant states. Bringing them back is something best left to a bookspeller or spellbook.”
I let the book fall open, pages still blank. Whatever was needed of my magic, I’d—
Constantine bared his teeth. “Absolutely n—”
Axer’s hand tightened on his wrist and Constantine made a strangled sound, then shook himself free, lips tight and gaze firmly on the wall.
Axer held out a storage paper I'd made for him, gaze never leaving mine. “Books that magical don’t have a ten-minute limit. One day or fifty doesn’t matter. And we have far larger problems to circumvent first. Like the matter of your freedom.”
“But—”
“Put it inside,” Constantine barked angrily.
I put the book in the paper and Axer folded it and carefully tucked it into my fitted cloak pocket.
“It will be okay,” Axer murmured.
“Will it?” I asked numbly.
Constantine’s eyes slid closed, then snapped open to focus narrowly on the crowd of people who had gathered down the hall.
“Come on,” Constantine said, lifting me to my feet, dark gaze ahead.
We started moving through the gathered crowd and I tried not to flinch at the fear and awe that pulsed from both sides of the hallway and every open door.
I had earned those looks this time.
I looked at the boys, who were getting their own fair share of looks. I could stop those, though. I was toast, and I would take responsibility for my actions, but the boys could return to normal life away from my dangerous company. I just had to disentangle them from me.
There were ways. I flexed my fingers and looked at the cuff. If I was careful and thought through the magic… For the good of—
An emergency alert pealed across the newsfeeds.
“Breaking news coming in from the Department Pressroom. And this one is a doozy, folks. Two mages have been identified as complicit in the Origin Mage's actions today—Alexander Dare and Constantine Leandred. Proof of involvement is being transmitted to all news outlets.”
My legs gave out beneath me, and only Constantine's grip kept me upright, as the media showed pictures of both their faces.
“Alexander Dare just won the All Layer Combat Competition for the second year straight, and is classified in the most extreme threat level that the Department maintains.”
A montage of Axer obliterating opponents played beneath.
“Awakened in the one percent of stirring mages at age ten, he has been watched and tested consistently for the Bridge abilities of his mother. The Dare family was unavailable for comment and their island home of Itlantes is under port lockdown from ingress and egress per Prestige Stavros' instructions. Under no circumstances should Second Layer citizens approach the Dare scion.”
The way to contact the Department was again displayed with a place to automatically connect to the frequency.
I'd lost him his home? Nausea overtook me, making me lurch.
“Constantine Leandred is the prodigious only child of Senator Stuart Leandred. He Awakened at age ten as well, and was the winner of the Science and Magic Olympiad at age fifteen—the only year he entered. He has twenty patents to his name. One of the most troubling is a maelstrom synthetic, that if unchecked, could destroy everything in a four-mile radius of its unleashing without damaging the mage holding it. Adding to the troubling reports, sources at Excelsine University say that the Leandred scion is vicious, reactionary, and unprincipled. Senator Leandred has been quick to deny all claims against his son, but recent investigations by the Department have shown that Senator Leandred—”
“No, no.” I looked around wildly for anything that could help—numbness setting into my limbs and making my actions heavy.
There was no surprise on either of their faces. Grim acceptance and a bit of dark pleasure showed on Constantine’s. Axer was the blankest I'd ever seen him.
His hand wrapped around my cuff before my fingers made it to the metal latch.
“Let go,” I said, struggling against his power which easily overwhelmed mine beneath the cuff’s field. His far larger hand blocked the latch beneath his palm, and there was no way I could overpower him physically.
“No,” Axer said, quickly taking my arm in his other hand and putting me into motion as he and Constantine shouldered me through the hall of blank, staring gazes.
Their homes, their freedom, Dare's family—the ties to which I could see pulse just as brightly as mine once had. This was why I hadn't wanted help. This was why I hadn't wanted anyone risking their neck for me.
“Disavow me,” I said, trying to peel his fingers away. “Anything. I'll do anything.”