The Golden Tower (Magisterium #5)(53)

Alex’s body jerked once, and he took a gasping breath.

Aaron, Call thought. Did it work?

But there was no response. There was only an echoing silence in Call’s ears. He was alone. He hadn’t realized how unused to being truly alone in his own head he was.

Sound smashed in as Call realized the battle had been raging on. The chaos dragon had eaten away another section of the tower. Dozens of mages had flown up to the tower’s second level, helped by Alastair and the power of air, and were joining Jasper and Tamara in battling Automotones. Greta, Lucas, and Ravan had also joined in — Greta was hurling rocks at the chaos elementals, Lucas was directing streams of superheated water at them, and Ravan was shooting bolts of fire.

Inside the tower, Kimiya had Anastasia cradled in her lap and seemed to be trying to keep her from dying.

Call staggered to his feet. “A-Alex?”

Alex opened his eyes. Kimiya gasped: They had returned to being blue, no longer black and star-silvered. Coughing violently and looking dazed, Alex pushed himself up onto his knees.

The gestures seemed familiar. He wasn’t moving like Alex did. He was moving like Aaron. He had his gestures. Call’s heart leaped into his throat. Was he imagining it, or had their plan actually worked?

Master Rufus came racing up the stairs and burst into the room; after him came Master North and Master Milagros. They stared at the scene in front of them — Anastasia dying, the Devoured still hovering in the room, the huge chunks torn from the walls.

And Alex, in the middle of it all.

“Alex!” Call cried. “Alex, stop the chaos creatures. Show them you’re on our side now.”

“Stop,” Alex shouted, in a voice that was both like his usual voice and different. “Stop, chaos creatures! I command you to stop.”

The dragon abruptly paused its movements. Automotones roared. From outside the tower there were more echoing sounds as the chaos creatures heard him.

“Go back to chaos!” Alex cried. “Return to the place you came from!”

More Masters were crowding up behind North, Rufus, and Milagros. They all stared at Alex, who stood with his hands flung out, ordering the chaos creatures to disperse.

“They’re going,” said Milagros in amazement. “Look!”

Through the smashed hole in the wall, Call could see the chaos creatures turn and retreat, Automotones leading the way. As they went, they seemed to shimmer and vanish, each one disappearing, leaving only smudges of darkness hanging like smoke against the sky.

The mages of the Magisterium were cheering. Ravan, Lucas, Greta, and Alastair had disappeared, probably worried that they wouldn’t be particularly welcome now that the immediate danger was over.

“Call. Come here.” It was Kimiya, gesturing him over urgently. Tamara was kneeling down beside her, summoning earth magic to heal Anastasia.

Call didn’t move to stop her. Nothing was going to help Anastasia now. She smiled at him, and there was blood on her teeth. “Con,” she whispered.

Tamara bit her lip, color flaring in her cheeks. She’d always hated it when Anastasia called Callum by Constantine Madden’s name.

“Con,” Anastasia said again. “I know what you did. I know.”

He reached out and took her hand, because he had never meant for her to be hurt. He’d never meant for anyone to be hurt.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “Really, really sorry.”

“Sometimes, you’re nothing like my son was, nothing at all,” she said, then raised her voice. “Mages of the Magisterium, I have a final confession!”

Alex had sunk back down onto his heels.

“It was I who controlled Alex,” said Anastasia, and the whole room of mages stood breathless and silent, listening. “It was I who controlled everything — not Master Joseph, not Constantine Madden, me. They were all my pawns. You were all my pawns.”

“How?” demanded Master North. “How did you do it?”

“I learned from the best,” she said. “My son Constantine, the Enemy of Death. He kept Jericho in his thrall for years, forcing him to be his counterweight and give up pieces of his soul. When Alex first became my stepson, I began to control him. At first it was small things. Later I made him totally obedient to Master Joseph. He had no choice but to obey his commands.” She coughed, and blood sprayed across her white clothes. “Do what you like with him. I don’t care. I never loved him.”

“Then why are you telling us this?” Master Rufus demanded.

“I want the credit,” Anastasia croaked. “It was I who made him a Devoured, I who caused this tower to be built. The Magisterium took my son from me but in the end it served me and my desires.” She looked at Call. He forced himself to smile at her, and something in her face relaxed. “You can hurt me no more,” she said in a whisper, and her eyes fell closed, her head lolling to the side.

Tamara cried out. Gwenda had run across the room to Jasper, and he was holding her, looking grim.

Alex was looking at her, his face ashen. “What have I done?” he asked, which seemed like a perfectly appropriate question and one also wrenched from a place deep inside of him. Alex turned his gaze on the mages, on Master Rufus. “You should arrest me. Someone should arrest me.”

“Wait!” Call said. “You heard Anastasia. She forced him to do all those things. She forced him to become a Devoured of chaos. You agreed to forgive him.”