The Silver Mask (Magisterium #4)(14)

Alex banged his fork down. “So we’re supposed to do whatever Call says just because he’s got some dead guy’s soul?”

“Yes,” said Master Joseph, looking narrowly at Alex.

Jasper swallowed and sat down, pieless.

“Call doesn’t even want it!” Alex burst out. “He doesn’t care about making more Chaos-ridden! He doesn’t want to lead an army against the Magisterium!”

“There is no Call,” said Master Joseph. “There is only Constantine Madden. It’s our job to make Callum Hunt understand who he is.”

“That’s not true,” said Tamara, voice shaking. “Call is Call. Whatever made Constantine so messed up, it didn’t happen to Call.”

“What made Constantine so messed up, young lady,” said Master Joseph, “was losing his best friend, his brother. His counterweight. Are you saying that hasn’t happened to Call?”

At the mention of Aaron, Call saw red. He grabbed the dull knife from beside his plate and pointed it toward Alex. “I didn’t lose my best friend. Alex murdered him. He stole his Makar power. But he’ll never be half of what Aaron was.”

Alex’s eyes burned with fury. “I am twice any of you! I taught myself to modify the Alkahest and took the power of commanding chaos from another mage. I am the first Makar ever to have done that. I learned to create Chaos-ridden in mere months while you’ve never done it!”

Call thought of how his attempt at bringing back Jennifer Matsui had gone and said nothing.

“You’re disgusting,” Tamara said. “Being proud of that is disgusting.”

“Both of you!” Master Joseph reprimanded. “All of you! I know it will be difficult to find common ground, but this isn’t helping. You’ve accomplished many things, Alex, but all of them were built on the foundation of Constantine’s discoveries. Let’s give Call an opportunity to find who he is — if he doesn’t, I will strip the power from him myself.”

Call caught his breath, thinking of the Alkahest and what it could do. Master Joseph had spent years wishing for the power of chaos. Now he could have it, if he was willing to take it.

Jasper stood up and cut himself a large slice of pecan pie. Everyone stopped yelling and watched him as he put it on his own plate, sat down, and forked a big delicious-looking bite into his mouth.

“What?” he asked when he noticed them looking. “This is helping. Now they don’t have to fight over who gets the first slice.”

Alex looked like he might jump over the table and strangle Jasper. Call often felt the same way. But right then, Jasper’s obnoxiousness seemed downright heroic.

Master Joseph sliced more pie, and Call ate an enormous piece of sweet potato and pecan, punctuating each bite with a vicious glare, trying to show dominance through superior pie eating. Alex’s pie game was pathetic; he picked the nuts off the top of his pie and out of the middle, leaving the crust and the topping still on his plate. Call sneered at him.

Finally, Master Joseph stood up. “This has been a long day and it seems like it’s time for rest. Call, there is ground hamburger meat for Havoc in the refrigerator. Help yourself to anything you need. I hope that you’ve realized the foolishness of trying to leave us. There are Chaos-ridden at every door to prevent your departure.”

Call didn’t say anything, since there was nothing to say. He was a prisoner again … and this time Jasper and Tamara were prisoners, too.

Anastasia left with a brief, uncomfortable squeeze of Call’s shoulder and a kiss to the top of his head. He stayed still for it, trying not to wince. He’d never had a mother, but this wasn’t what he thought it was supposed to be like.

Once they were alone at the top of the stairs, Tamara turned to Jasper and Call with a determined look and vowed in a harsh whisper, “We’re getting out of here.”





THEY HELD THEIR meeting in the pink room, sprawled on the fuzzy, heart-shaped rug. As they strategized, Tamara savagely ripped lace from the hems and sleeves of some truly weird pastel-colored dresses. Pink was supposed to make people feel calmer, but all Call felt was depressed and very, very full.

“I can’t believe your original escape plan requires another escape plan,” Jasper said. “You suck at escaping.”

Tamara fixed him with a glare. “I guess the more we escape, the better we’ll get at it.”

After a moment, Jasper brightened. “Maybe it’s not so bad that we’ve been kidnapped. I mean, this is all very dramatic. When Celia understands what’s happened to me, she’s going to feel terrible for dumping me. She is going to hold my picture to her heart, fearing for my life and shedding a tear over the love we had. If only he would come back, she’ll think, I will beg him to be my boyfriend again!”

Call goggled at Jasper, speechless.

“But, I mean, only if we don’t escape too quickly,” Jasper went on. “She needs time to find out I’m gone and work up to all that epic suffering. Maybe a few weeks. After all, the food is pretty good here.”

“What if she has another boyfriend by then?” Tamara asked. “I mean —”

“Okay,” Jasper said, cutting her off. “What are we going to do? It has to be tonight.”

“I already checked the windows — at least the ones in this room. It’s elemental stuff, like they use in the Panopticon,” Tamara said. “It doesn’t break. We might be able to get through it with magic, but it would take a lot of work and might trigger an alarm.”