Axer seemed aware of the consequences of his action, as his body arrayed in the lines that prefaced battle. “Someone needs to remove Stavros. You know it must be done. She will never be safe until he’s gone. You can feel the way the world is turning. Your father knows it, too. Something terrible has been brewing.”
“Not her,” Constantine hissed. “You. You go after him with your bloody mother.”
Axer's jaw ticked. “You know that isn't enough.”
“I won't let it happen.”
“You can’t stop it.”
“Stop what? Her becoming a fugitive? The face of death? Too late. That carpet has flown. This is about far worse things. They'll kill all that is her. They'll never let her live—not as anything other than a vacant puppet locked away in a cage.”
“Then we break the cage. Like we were unable to do before.”
A tree uprooted behind Axer and flew faster than I could process. I threw up a hand to stop it, but my magic only succeeded in stripping layers of bark, one after another—the inner particles breaking free each time with force beyond my anticipation—the center of the magic not stopping until a thin dagger of core wood hovered a foot from the back of Axer’s head, held there by his own magic without movement from his hands.
“You won't have your protections anymore, if you kill me now,” Axer said tightly, staring at Constantine instead of turning to address the imminent death hovering inches from the back of his neck.
Constantine pulled, and the particles wavered in the air, coming closer to Axer’s neck. Axer’s fingers came up—the only thing showing his strain.
“Fuck you, Alexi.” Constantine was shaking and pale, magic vibrating from him oddly. Once more, the tangled ball of connections running through him pulsed.
“You can barely stand,” Axer murmured. “How do you think this will work? You can’t keep this up.”
“I will be able to soon.”
“By doing what? Sacrificing yourself? To do what? Hide her away? To deny her free will and yourself a life?”
Constantine gave an ugly laugh and the wooden dagger moved an inch closer. “Deny her free will? This from you? Who denied us both?”
“Yes. A mistake at thirteen that I won’t repeat at twenty.” The words were heavy with meaning.
The wooden dagger dropped, and Constantine took an uneven step backward, eyeing Axer like he was a venomous snake who had just said he would cut out his own fangs. Whatever was between them, it seemed to include the ability to detect truth from lie.
Constantine took another step backward, keeping us both in view like he was preparing for an inevitable strike.
Axer stepped sharply around him. “You trusted me once more. You said so, in our room.”
“Because I have to trust you. You are what she wants.”
“Not all that she wants,” he said, again scenting blood. “And I don’t think you are being truthful.”
Constantine turned abruptly on his heel. “I will go along with this stupid plan, because I can’t bear doing otherwise. Stavros, Kaine, or Verisetti will get her over my dead body.” He started forming the magic to connect to Excelsine again. “But I know how this will end.”
For once, his inner and outer feelings were mirrored, lining up directly as truth.
*
We reconnected to Olivia and the others, all of whom looked like they’d had their own tense discussion.
“You disconnected,” Olivia said to Constantine, gaze piercing.
“Minor blip in the magic,” he said languidly, shrugging and giving every visual indication that nothing else had happened. “Everything is shored up now.”
Olivia looked at me and I shook my head. Her eyes narrowed further. “You are fully committed to this plan?”
“Yes.”
I needed to get evidence on Stavros. I needed the boys to be able to return to their lives free of my taint. I needed my friends who were supporting me to be able to do the same.
She nodded. “We discussed options while you were having your minor ‘blip.’ We are all fully committed.” She looked at me sharply as I started to respond. “We are doing this, Ren.”
“Okay,” I whispered. I looked at Will. “Will, you said you know where Rosaria is. Why can’t I locate her, even though I can feel her?”
I let my magic slip out again, but it felt like a skate slipping too fast over ice I wished to look through.
Will looked furtively between Olivia, Constantine, and me. “She’s in the highest security ward in Crelussa Sanitarium,” he said, sounding apologetic. “That’s why you can’t locate her.”
Patrick shuddered.
“She’d have been given a nullifying cell, too,” Delia said darkly.
I lifted a reference article to Crelussa Sanitarium from my bracelet. It was a high security facility that processed Awakening mages from across the Second Layer. Run by the Department, it catered to a broad spectrum of mages. It wasn't the only place to Awaken, but it was by far the largest.
Will raised a brow and sent a schematic zooming around. I sent him a grateful look—he’d already had this at hand, knowing what I’d choose—then looked at the design.
“So, we’re doing this?” Dagfinn asked tentatively.
“They'll expect us,” Axer said, looking over my shoulder. “And if we destroy anything while freeing her, it will look to the world like a terror plot.”
“I know,” I murmured.
My tone must have indicated a signal, because Dagfinn started excitedly punching codes into the air, fingers flying like a conductor directing an invisible score, and Patrick, Loudon, and Asafa high-fived.
“The highest security programs, in a known facility. Finally, a challenge,” Dagfinn said with relish.
On the other side of the connection, the others leaned in and immediately began offering suggestions and knowledge of the building and wards.
“You can’t use your magic there,” Axer murmured to me. “The risks…”
“I understand.”
Fury suddenly drowned Constantine’s other emotions, and even his carefully crafted facade couldn’t withhold the expression.
Olivia watched it all without comment, expression on the verge of cracking into something that wasn't as dignified.
Her lips pinched together. “This is a terrible time to do this.”
“There will be no good time,” I said quietly. “Sometimes...sometimes I think you just have to do what you can with the time at hand.”
“We could let the Dares do it. I know they have plans beyond this,” she said darkly, glaring at Axer. “He wouldn't be there with you otherwise. And the combat mages have gone suspiciously silent since his disappearance—saying they can’t help because the amount of scrutiny they are under would only harm any plans we have. They are all plotting something.”
I could feel Axer's amusement, dark and molten beside me, even with all the emotions stirred by his argument with Constantine still beneath.
“You know I won't, Liv.”
She watched me, grim-faced, then glanced at the thread connecting her to the school. “Marsgrove won't let me leave. He has every legal right and ability until break to make me stay.”
“I know,” I said, not even trying to contain the relief. “And I'm glad. I want you to be as safe as you want me. All of you. But...I can't stay safe.”
I couldn't come home. Not yet. But I could find a way.