The Silver Mask (Magisterium #4)(51)

Alex grinned and reached down to slash the knife through the ropes that held them. Call got to his feet, his bad leg aching. Aaron rose slowly after him.

“Come,” Alex said, and marched from the room.

The sun had set while Call and Aaron had been tied up. It was dark outside the windows as they hurried along the hallway of the house behind Alex. As they passed through the parlor, Call could see that the huge lawns outside the house were lit with burning spheres of mage fire.

They reached the porch of the house and stood there, staring, Alex smirking beside them. In the flickering firelight, the lawn was an eerie battleground. A mass of mages in green Assembly robes and the black uniforms of the Magisterium faced the house. Standing with their backs to the house were Master Joseph’s forces.

They were Alex’s forces now. Call could mostly only see their backs, but there were a lot of them. He thought he recognized Hugo and some of the other mages. They formed a wall several lines deep in front of the house, staring ahead with grim determination.

There was a gap of about a football field’s length between them and the mages of the Assembly. Call moved toward the porch railing, and heard a bark.

“Havoc!” he said. The wolf bounded around the side of the house and up the steps to press himself against Call’s leg. Call winced in pain but reached down to ruffle Havoc’s fur. It was a relief to see Havoc, the only one of his friends who hadn’t changed.

He chanced a sideways look at Aaron. Aaron’s profile was sharp in the red-orange light. It made his green eyes look blacker. He thought of the way Aaron had squeezed Master Joseph’s throat until it snapped, and he felt an ache inside. In a way he missed Aaron more now than he had when Aaron was dead. It was as if he’d brought Aaron back and since that moment, everything that had made Aaron himself had been evaporating from him, like mist off a river.

But why? The thought teased the edge of Call’s mind. It was Aaron’s body that was the problem. If he had put him in a different body — if he had moved Aaron’s soul, the way Constantine had moved his own — would it have made any difference?

Havoc barked again as the front door opened and Anastasia came out onto the porch. She wore her silver-and-white armor, now clean, her hair up in a massive pewter twist. She glided toward Call.

“Callum,” she said. “I’m glad you’ve seen sense and decided to fight alongside Alex.”

“I didn’t see sense,” Call said. “He just threatened to kill me otherwise.”

She blinked. Call couldn’t help but wonder: Didn’t it matter to her, the idea that Alex might kill Constantine’s soul? But whatever compromises Anastasia had made long ago in order to accept what her son had done and want him back anyway seemed to be fogging her mind.

“Once the battle is over,” she said, “we’ll go somewhere, and we’ll raise Jericho, and we’ll live in peace.”

“That’s enough, Anastasia,” said Alex. “Master Joseph tolerated this ridiculous delusion, but I won’t. Callum isn’t your son. I don’t care what you think. He isn’t Constantine Madden, and all your fawning over him won’t make any difference. He doesn’t love you.”

There was an immediate sharpening in Anastasia’s expression. The fog was lifting and Call wasn’t sure that Alex was going to like whatever was underneath.

“Alex, you would do well to remember that you need me,” Anastasia said. “And my elementals.”

“And you’d do well to remember that if you should consider anyone your son, it’s me.”

“I know Call’s soul,” said Anastasia, though Call didn’t think that was true. “Not yours.”

Alex’s face twisted.

“There are a lot of things here,” Aaron interrupted, as if no one had been speaking. Alex glared; Call looked around the island.

It was true. The army of the Chaos-ridden had been marched out of the lake. They stood in neat rows, their clothing in tatters from such a long submersion in the water. Near them were elementals: long, airy snakes coiling among the trees, flaming lizards, enormous spiders made entirely from rock. Call didn’t see any water elementals, but if there were any, they were probably frolicking in the river.

Call looked again at the mages. He’d thought he heard a familiar voice before, but now he realized he knew several of the people there. A few Assembly members stood near Hugo, along with several parents he recognized from the Magisterium. Jasper’s father was there, causing Call to suck in a breath.

But moving through the crowd toward Alex was someone who gave Call a bigger shock — Tamara’s older sister Kimiya.

A moment later, she had thrown herself into Alex’s arms. “I’m so glad you’re all right,” she said breathlessly.

Even Alex looked surprised. “Kimiya?”

“Kimiya, what are you thinking?” Call demanded. “You should be on the same side as your sisters.”

Kimiya turned to look at him angrily. “Ravan isn’t my sister,” she said. “She was destroyed by fire. Now she’s a monster. My best friend, Jen, is dead —” Her lips trembled. “I hate death,” she said. “If Alex wants to destroy death, then I want to be at his side.”

Alex shot Call a superior look over Kimiya’s head. “Go and get yourself a weapon, darling,” he said, stroking her long black hair. “We’ll fight together.”