“Stavros whittles each new plot to a sharper edge and we scramble,” Will said.
A step ahead. I thought of Raphael’s smile. I thought of Dagfinn’s muttered comment. I thought of all the pieces we had in play, and all the pieces that were still to be placed by Stavros and sacrificed.
“We don’t scramble anymore. We let new Awakenings go,” I said. I swallowed down the sacrifice as invisible pieces were knocked from a newly visible board.
Both Constantine and Axer stilled, then their emotions split in opposing directions. Coiled anticipation, battle lust, and overwhelming approval from Axer, unease and an even frailer hope emanating from Constantine.
Olivia drew in a sharp, alarmed breath and I felt her tugging at our threads, so far away. “Ren—”
“And we don’t free Rosaria.”
The not so invisible piece hurt even more. Constantine’s frail tendrils of an emotion I didn’t often feel in him grew in strength. The emotions from Excelsine were a steady drumbeat of alarm and panic.
“Ren—”
A step ahead.
“Stavros has us on the run. And he'll keep us here. We can't play to two tunes.” I let the emotions come and coil—shame, anguish, guilt. I felt Axer prowling behind me. I let the coil change to acceptance.
Determination.
I blocked out all of them and let the magic flow from me in patterns that turned into painted visions in the air. Like a facsimile of the walls of my room before their destruction, figures fought in the air, lab creations were made, and creatures rose up.
“We need to make our own composition.” I plucked Liam’s musical notes from the ether and the drums of a battle hymn began. “We go after the labs. We figure out what Stavros is doing with the Awakened mages and their magic.”
Save the boys' reputations by exposing Stavros’s... Save the rest by putting down the monster before he could hurt them. I tapped my arm, eyes mechanically locked on Christian’s bracelet—mended by Will so long ago in an enduring sign of heart and friendship.
“We use the data we gather,” I said, swirling the painted air into new patterns. “We find the already Awakened ferals—lying in a cell or on a slab somewhere—we root out Stavros’s plan, then we wipe him from the board.”
“Ren—” Olivia’s voice cracked. “You—”
“Stavros knows how to trap Origin Mages,” I repeated evenly. “And the world knows the danger I pose. My firestorm has come.” I looked at Axer. “Running is no longer an option. I will be running for a long time, unless I fight for my freedom now.”
And for theirs, for they were tying their freedom to mine.
I felt Axer move.
I felt Constantine’s frail hope—whatever it had been—crash and burn, consumed by an amalgamation of emotions so chaotic and thick, that I couldn’t separate them.
“You still have a choice, and despite your lovely words and support, which I will always treasure, I urge you to divorce yourself from me. Things will only be getting worse from here on out. This life has always held an end for me,” I murmured. “My freedom has been a ticking clock from the moment I saw magic spark.”
Olivia’s expression drew itself into argumentative lines. “Ren—”
“What I do with it before...that is what matters.”
“Before what?” Olivia asked sharply.
Rosaria, Samuel, the girl looking to the stars...their images wavered in my palm, no longer blank names on a page. Anger wove together with an inexorable need. Constantine's knuckles were white.
“Before the end,” I said quietly. “I'm going to find the ferals. I will expose what Stavros is doing to them. And I will take him down.”
“Absolutely not,” Olivia said. “I won’t allow it.”
Some of the overwhelming tension in Constantine released.
Axer stepped from behind me, sliding into the frame like a panther about to strike. “Don't you wish her to be the cat, Price?”
Constantine stiffened again—so severely, that the magic keeping the others in view wavered for a second.
“Shive! Is that Dare?” Patrick asked, reflecting the shock I could see on the rest of their faces.
Olivia's throat worked. “I wish her to be neither animal in such a scenario. Stavros will never be the mouse.”
“Then let her be the dragon,” Axer said with a glitter in his eye.
Protecting my hoard. Home, protection, need.
I didn’t have to ask, but my gaze sought Axer’s. He tipped his head and I felt his answering emotion. He was absolutely on board.
All emotion from Constantine went terrifyingly blank, and the view of the Bandits disappeared as he crushed the magic in his palm and rose from his chair.
Chapter Fifteen: That Which is Unbearable
“What are you doing?” Constantine asked coldly.
I rose to face him. “We can’t live like this.” He was flush with health now, but I could still see the underlay of gray that had been crushing him.
“What, in a garden of bounty?” He waved his hand angrily around us.
“This is only temporary,” I said softly. The vibrant greens were already starting to brown, the magic working free of the decomposing elements and lifting to re-energize us.
“You were already working on how to recycle it. It will be easy with you now inside to figure it out.” He grabbed some of the magic and twisted it into a vicious looking flower.
My view grew watery. “It has nothing to do with the recycling. It’s only a matter of time before the engineers break through. And as soon as the dome is breached from the outside, the magic will cease to exist in this manner.”
“They aren’t breaking through your creation.”
I winced.
“Ren,” Constantine said, voice dangerously dark. “Did you give those scientists a way in?”
I winced harder. “For when the dome would eventually be activated… Of course, I put something in to allow it.”
He cursed, then cursed again. “Get rid of it. Right now.”
“I can’t. I set it up to be free of my control.” Like I had with the compound.
Constantine looked like he was contemplating murder again.
“We will not be here when they break through, I have a protection for that, just like with the compound,” I said quietly. “I would never have allowed you in here otherwise. But we can’t stay here. And hiding doesn’t stop the Department from kidnapping and killing people, or from them herding us to them like sheep.”
“So instead of running to the First Layer, where you have some modicum of advantage in saving your ferals, you are going to run to the Second Layer, into the belly of the Department’s facilities, and save them there?”