The Silver Mask (Magisterium #4)(41)

Master Joseph came into view, a phalanx of the Chaos-ridden and several dozen mages following him. He was marching back toward the house. When he saw Call and Aaron sitting on the roof, the chaos-eaten hole behind them, he looked momentarily furious. Then his expression smoothed out.

“It’s lucky for you two you didn’t go with them,” Master Joseph yelled up.

Coming up behind him, Alex laughed. “They weren’t invited.”

“Once the Assembly knows the power you have unlocked, everything will be different,” said Master Joseph, but Call wondered if that could be true. Tamara’s parents were on the Assembly. If she was horrified, weren’t they likely to be equally horrified — if not more so?

But Call just nodded.

“Come inside,” Master Joseph said coldly. “We’ll talk.”

Call nodded again, but he didn’t go inside. He sat on the roof until the sun was much higher in the sky. Aaron sat there, too.

As the yellow light burnished his lashes to gold, he turned to Call. “How did you do it? You can tell me.”

“I gave you a piece of my soul,” Call said, checking Aaron’s expression to see if he was horrified. “That’s why it didn’t work before. Constantine Madden would never have tried something like that. He would have never given any of his power away.”

Aaron nodded. “I think I can tell,” he said finally. “I think I can feel it — part of me, but also not.”

“And that’s why it’s not going to work the way they’re hoping,” Call stumbled on. It was uncomfortable to talk about sharing souls. “Because I can’t keep using pieces of my soul to bring people back. They’re not … unlimited. You can run out.”

“And then you’d die,” Aaron said.

“I think so. I think that’s why Constantine kept Jericho around — so that he could use his soul. And I read Jericho’s diary —” Call looked around, meaning to show it to Aaron, before he realized it wasn’t there. Tamara had taken it with her. To show to the Magisterium, Call assumed. Proof. He felt sick again.

“You don’t feel Constantine’s soul in you, right?” Aaron said. “You just feel normal. You’ve always felt normal.”

“I’ve never known anything different,” Call said.

“Maybe I just have to get used to it,” Aaron said, sounding a lot like his old self. He even grinned a little, sideways. “I’m grateful. For what you did. Even if it doesn’t work.”

But it did work, Call wanted to insist.

Before he could, someone knocked on the door. It was Anastasia, who didn’t wait for them to answer before she opened it. She stepped into Call’s room and then stopped at the sight of the devastation Call had wrought — the chaos-eaten wall and the morning sunlight streaming in. She blinked a couple of times.

“Children shouldn’t be cursed with so much power,” she said, as though she was speaking to herself. She was dressed in what looked like battle gear — pale silver-and-white steel over her chest and along her arms and a chain-mesh hood over her silver hair.

For once, it seemed like she was thinking of Call and Constantine as separate people, cursed equally. He wished she would keep thinking of them that way, but he wasn’t particularly hopeful about it.

“What’s going on?” Call asked, standing up.

“Look.” Aaron pointed as an air elemental hovered into view, flying over the tops of the island trees. It was clear and wavering, with a circular shape like an enormous jellyfish. “Are we being attacked?”

“On the contrary,” said Anastasia. “That is my elemental. I summoned it, the vanguard of my troops. I am going after your friends to bring them back before they reach the Magisterium and force our hand.”

“Just let them go.” Call stood, walking up the remains of the roof tiles and hopping back into the room.

“You know we can’t do that. And you know why, too. They know too many things that could hurt us. They should have been more loyal. We hoped to have more time to prepare before there was a war between the forces of the Assembly and those of the Enemy of Death, but if Tamara and Jasper make it home, battle will be joined within the week.”

Call thought of the thousands of Chaos-ridden waiting in their watery barracks, thought of how he could have led them away from the island, how the Assembly might have seen him as a hero.

Tamara had wanted him to be seen as a hero. Call couldn’t hate her. No matter what happened, he knew he never would.

“Don’t hurt my friends,” he said. “I haven’t asked you for much — ” He couldn’t call her Mom. His throat stuck on the word. “Anastasia. If you catch them, you have to promise you won’t hurt them.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I will do my best, but they knew the consequences when they ran. And, Call, I don’t think they would hesitate to hurt me.” In her battle armor, Anastasia looked pale and terrible. Call thought she might be right about what Tamara and Jasper would do and was even more afraid for them.

“Promise you’ll try,” Call said, because he thought that was likely to be all he was going to get from her. He felt helpless and yet, wasn’t he the Enemy of Death? Hadn’t his bringing back Aaron proved it, like Tamara said? Shouldn’t he be calling the shots?