The Golden Tower (Magisterium #5)(19)

Call thought of Tamara’s sister, Ravan, and of Master Rufus’s own teacher, Master Marcus. Both of them had become Devoured and, indeed, they were spooky. No longer quite human, not quite elemental. Call never knew whose side either of them were on, and no one seemed to know how much of their former selves remained.

Although, for what it was worth, Alex seemed exactly like the same evil, obnoxious self he’d been before he was a Devoured of chaos. Just with a lot more power.

“This is a mess,” Call said. “I have no idea how to stop him.”

Tamara sighed. “Me neither.”

You can’t tell her that, Aaron said. Say something encouraging.

“But I’m sure we’ll think of something?” Call tried weakly.

Tamara frowned.

Say that if we work together, we’ll find a way to defeat Alex. We always do.

Call repeated the words, trying to sound like he really felt that way. The way Aaron would have said them.

Tamara held up a hand. “No. Absolutely not. Why are you talking that way? The Call I know would never say that. The Call I know would be talking about packing bags and running off to a remote location where we could disguise ourselves and hide. Then later he might reluctantly do something heroic.” She gazed at him with deep suspicion. “Something is going on.”

Call winced and thought of his dad, who not too long ago had actually suggested they run away to a remote location. Tamara knew him alarmingly well. He couldn’t put off telling her any longer.

“Uh,” he said. “Aaron is in my head.”

“Call, don’t lie to me,” Tamara said. “This isn’t the time.”

“I’m not lying, and I’m not kidding,” Call said in a harsh whisper. “When Aaron died — on the battlefield — his soul passed into me. And not that sort of weird half Aaron, but real Aaron. Aaron’s soul is alive and it’s in my head.”

Tamara looked at him with her mouth open. She was clearly trying to decide if he needed a massive dose of medicine.

Tell her you can prove it, Aaron said.

“I can prove it,” Call said. “Give me a chance.”

After a long hesitation, she nodded.

Let me talk, Aaron said. Just for a minute.

Call didn’t exactly know what he meant, but he nodded. Tamara was staring at him — definitely noticing he was nodding for no reason — but Call was past caring. He needed someone to believe him that this was true. Go ahead.

“Tamara,” he said. He hadn’t meant to say it, the word had just come out of his mouth. He sat still — it was like listening to Aaron. What was he going to say next? “Remember that first night after the Iron Trial?” Aaron said.

Tamara nodded, wide-eyed.

“Call went to bed early. We were sitting in the living room and you said, ‘Don’t worry that he’s in our apprentice group. He won’t last the week.’”

She stared at him for a long moment. “You could have told Call.”

It was a good sign that she was acting like she was talking to Aaron. Good, but weird. Call had given Aaron permission to control his body, but he still didn’t like it.

“Okay,” Aaron made Call’s mouth say. “How about this? When I stayed at your house that summer, your dad kept walking around in that white robe with all the gold trim on it and one day you put it on and pretended to be him, but he caught you and he caught me laughing. Remember? I was so scared he was going to throw me out, but he just walked away and we all pretended it never happened.”

“Aaron!” Tamara cried, and threw her arms around Call. She was sobbing. “It is you. I know nobody else knew that.”

“I can’t believe this,” Call muttered. He was enjoying holding Tamara, but there was nothing about what Aaron said that he’d liked. “You both wanted to get rid of me! You suck!”

Tamara pulled back a little, her eyes shining with tears. “We got over it,” she said.

Call wasn’t feeling entirely over it himself yet, but he was glad she believed him. When she looked at him again, there was something new in her face, something she’d never seen before. “Call,” she said. “I was wrong. You did something amazing. I don’t know how you did it, but you brought Aaron back from the dead.”

“And that’s good,” Call said, not sure of how to navigate such a weighted conversation. “Right?”

Well, obviously I think so, said Aaron.

“I keep thinking of something you said when you first came to the Magisterium, when you were just learning about the mage world. You didn’t understand why the Enemy of Death was such a scary name. Do you remember what you said? Who wants to be the Friend of Death?”

Call did not remember saying that. He shook his head.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” Tamara told him. “About how there’s nothing wrong with wanting no more death. We all want that. That wasn’t Constantine’s problem, and bringing Aaron back is so good it’s incredible. It’s amazing. Call, you did something no one has ever done before.”

“Well, two problems,” Call said, although he was reluctant to give up any of her good opinion. “One, Aaron more or less got pulled into my head by trying to keep me from being destroyed by chaos and I’m not sure we could ever do anything like it again. And, uh, two, we have to get Aaron a body.”