The Silver Mask (Magisterium #4)(46)

“You are being very foolish,” he said. “You think that if you attack us, we will be a small force — as Tamara and Jasper have no doubt reported. But do you really think I have no allies among you? All over the mage world are those who have been waiting for the news that we have completed Constantine’s project. That we have conquered death. Already the messages have gone out. You may have noticed you are missing a few members …”

Several Assembly members glanced around, a few toward Jasper and his mother, at the space that Jasper’s father should have occupied.

“You can’t win,” said Master Joseph. “Too many believe what we believe. What use is being born with magic if we are forbidden from profiting from it, if instead we must use it to control elementals for the good of a world that doesn’t care about us? What is the good of magic if we cannot use it to solve the largest mystery in existence — the one that science has never penetrated — the mystery of the soul. Mages from all over the world will flock to our side now that we know the dead can live again.”

A few of the mages began whispering in the back of the room, pointing. Call could tell that Aaron’s presence, despite Aaron’s disavowing of Master Joseph, had rattled them. Call wondered how many of them might flock to Master Joseph’s side.

“Callum, Alastair has been frantic,” Master Rufus said. “Meet with us. Bring Aaron. Let us at least verify these claims.”

“You must think we are fools!” Master Joseph shouted at the shimmering images of the mages.

“We told you,” Tamara said. “He’s being held prisoner.”

“It doesn’t look like that to me,” Assemblyman Graves said with a sniff. “And since you were involved in breaking him out of jail, we know you’ve been compromised.”

“Call might have a little Stockholm syndrome,” Jasper admitted. “But Master Joseph is keeping him there. He’s keeping Aaron there, too.”

“Are you holding those children captive?” Master Rufus demanded.

Master Joseph smiled. “Keeping Constantine Madden prisoner? I have always been his servant, nothing more. Call, are you being held here against your will?”

Call considered what to say next. A part of him wanted to scream for help, to plead for someone to save him. But it wasn’t like the Assembly was going to be able to get him out — not right now. Better that Master Joseph believed he was on his side. If there was going to be a war, it was Call’s job to do whatever he could to help the Assembly win.

At least, he thought he was supposed to help the Assembly win.

Either way, his answer was the same.

“No,” he said, drawing himself up. “I am not a prisoner. I am Callum Hunt, the Enemy of Death reborn. And I accept my destiny.”



“I don’t like it here,” Aaron said.

They were in Tamara’s room, or what had been Tamara’s room, sitting on the pink fluffy bed. Call’s room still had holes punched into the walls, which made it pretty chilly, and house repairs were not at the top of anyone’s to-do list.

“We won’t be here for long,” Call promised, although he only had the vaguest of plans.

Aaron shrugged. “I guess we’re not going back to the Magisterium. Not after you announced you were the Enemy of Death.”

Call wrapped his arms around his knees. “Did you think I meant it?”

“Did you mean it?” Aaron’s eyes were expressionless. Call wondered what he thought. He used to be able to guess pretty well what Aaron was thinking, but not anymore. “You conquered death, after all.”

“Tonight we go figure out what we can do about you,” Call said. “After that, we run.” He didn’t mention the Chaos-ridden army, which Call hoped to bring along with them. If he could figure out what was going on with Aaron tonight, then they could go. They could march across the river before dawn and there was no way Alex had enough Chaos-ridden of his own to stop them.

But what if he couldn’t? Should they go anyway? Did he really think that the mage world would accept him, especially now, with Aaron?

He remembered the faces of the Assembly and a cold pit formed in his stomach.

He thought of Anastasia’s words: You are powerful. You can’t just give up that power. The world won’t let you. It won’t allow you to simply hide and be safe. It may come to this — ruling the world or being crushed under its boot heel.

He really hoped she wasn’t right about that, but he had to admit, she’d been right about Tamara.

“It’s not going to be easy to get to the experiment room,” said Aaron. “There are so many people around. It’s chaos down there.” It was true; the whole house was in an uproar, Anastasia rushing back and forth with the younger mages to summon elementals, Master Joseph out with Hugo and a few others, scrawling defense symbols in the land around the house.

Call wanted to say something clever, like chaos was his middle name, but it was too sad. He might still be a chaos mage, but Aaron wasn’t — his magic belonged to Alex now. “Havoc’s going to help,” he said.

Havoc, on hearing his name, perked up his ears. He raced downstairs beside them, pausing at the bottom of the steps to look around with narrowed eyes and a low growl. Havoc had never much liked it here and seemed to like it less the longer they remained.