"I learned my lesson last time," he said. "You're a tricky bitch. But those days are at an end."
He leaned down and picked her up, throwing her easily over his shoulder. He carried her into a nearby building, opening the door with a spell. It was a ratty old apartment with a pea-green water stained couch. He threw her onto it facing the tube television sitting on a battered milk crate.
"You know," he said, sauntering over to her, "for a girl, especially a brown girl, you really are impressive. If you'd learned to keep your pretty mouth shut like your friend Ashley, you might have survived Coterie, maybe even excelled. But we just can't have uppity bitches on the loose, making our Hall look bad."
His words enraged her, until she was practically choking on her spit. She fought the binding, but couldn't break it.
A car door slammed outside, making Alton stop in his tracks. A couple of male voices gave him pause.
"Excuse me," he said, adjusting his track suit jacket as if it were his normal white suit coat. "I need to make sure we're uninterrupted for the next few hours."
He stepped out the door before the men arrived, mumbling a spell as he went.
Pi took a deep breath and concentrated on making her lips move. If she could access the defensive spells she'd placed on herself earlier, she could break his binding.
Shifting the faez to her lips, rather than her hands, took effort. She tried to ignore Alton speaking to the men outside, but it was hard because she knew what was coming.
After what seemed like forever, she shook the binding free. The zip ties held her down, but she was able to waggle her fingers and break them with a spell.
She thought about rushing outside and enlisting the two men's help, or at least taking the fight to Alton, but if he'd charmed them, three-on-one odds weren't good, even with surprise on her side.
So she ran to the back of the apartment, looking for a way out. She found a bedroom around the time she heard the front door open. As quietly as she could, Pi opened the window and put her leg out. A figure moved into the room.
When Pi didn't recognize the man, she threw herself out the window, only to find Alton waiting for her. He punched her in the face, knocking her backward onto the concrete. Her consciousness fled as he leaned into her vision.
Chapter Thirty
Professor Mali faced the class like a queen addressing her subjects. Aurie sat in the back of class, knees nervously bouncing. She could barely concentrate. Despite the importance of the day, she could only think about the Rod of Dominion and their failure to find the portal in the sewers. Pi was supposed to deliver the final gallium coin, which would give the Cabal the last thing they needed to find the portal themselves. They'd argued for the last few days about not delivering the coin, but decided that it would put Pi in too much danger, either from the binding with Radoslav, or from direct attack from the Cabal. Better to find the Rod first, and spirit it away before they even knew that it was gone.
"Today is your final test in the room of truth. Some of you have worked hard to address the challenges in your past, while others"—the professor speared Aurie with her gaze—"have yet to even get started. Let me remind you that if it is your desire to be invited back to Arcanium as a second-year student, you must conquer your fears in the room of truth. Are there any questions?"
To the surprise of everyone, Aurie raised her hand.
"Yes, Aurelia?"
"May I go first?" she asked as demurely as possible.
She planned to sneak away after her turn to join Pi for one last attempt to find the Rod and wanted as much time as possible.
"A solid attitude," said the professor with a nod of approval. "Yes, you may go first. I hope this bodes well for you in the room."
As Aurie walked down the center aisle, the other students gave her encouraging smiles and a few thumbs-up.
Deshawn gave her a fist bump on the way past. "Go get 'em, Aurie."
"Aurelia," said the professor.
Aurie crouched down for instructions.
In a quiet voice, Professor Mali spoke to her. "I know this has been difficult. With your history, the orphanages, and so on, I can only imagine that whatever you're experiencing inside must be quite traumatic. But know that the magic practiced in Arcanium will put a heavy strain on you. If you have cracks underneath, then your studies will only tear you apart. You're a terrific student, one of the most promising I've seen since I've been the initiate instructor, but know that I will not pass you if you cannot master the room of truth. To do so would be to set a bomb loose in the world. So good luck. I truly hope you do well."
Aurie stayed stoic until she entered the room of truth, then her expression broke, already mourning the life that couldn't be.
Everyone had been so damn encouraging, every last one of them. It would have been easier if they'd hated her, or thought she didn't deserve to be in Arcanium.
It didn't even matter anymore if it'd been her fault that her parents had died. That had been a reason at one time, but since she'd learned about the Rod of Dominion, that reason mattered no longer.
She couldn't by any rights put her desire to be in Arcanium above the lives of Emily and the others at Golden Willow. The Rod of Dominion mattered more than any petty desires to be a mage, to experience the learning in the Hundred Halls, to have friends that shared her life.
But it didn't make it hurt any damn less.
As the golden sparkles of faez turned into the living room of her childhood home, Aurie choked back a sob.
Her mother, Nahid, stood in front of her with her hands clasped. The look of disappointment was a toxin to Aurie. Immediately, she knew this was not truth. This was her subconscious subverting the vision. The professor's warning echoed in her mind, but she was too far past her decision for it to matter. She'd never been more sure about something in her life that would simultaneously wreck it.
"You haven't kept your sister safe like you promised," said her mother.
"I've tried. I'm not perfect. Not by any measure," she said, then realized the normal rules of the vision weren't applying. This wasn't the vision Aurie speaking, but her, the real her.
Nahid shook her fist, anguish threading her voice. "You let her summon a demon lord, and join the Coterie of Mages. What have you been doing? How could you let your little sister do that? And now you're leading her into the sewers on a damned quest to find something that gave your father and I nightmares for weeks when we even considered going after it. You're a first-year initiate, Aurie. You should know better. Give up this foolishness. Pass your tests, stay in Arcanium."
Aurie knew it was her own mind pulling the puppet strings of her mother, but her heart couldn't distinguish between the two.
"I'm trying, Mom. I really am," said Aurie, holding back tears. "It's not easy. I miss you every day. I try to do right by Pi, but I can't be there every moment. She's her own person too."
"Then don't take her after the Rod. Leave it be. The curse is more dangerous than you can imagine. It got your father and I before we even stepped foot inside," she said.
Words chilled in her throat. Could that be true? Patron Semyon had warned her that the Rod was dangerous. What if her parents had woken the curse? Magic worked in strange ways. Some called it karma, others said it was like quantum theory. Was she a fool to take her sister after the Rod? Maybe.
"I have to. It's too important. You and Dad went after the Rod for the same reasons," said Aurie.
Nahid stepped forward, took Aurie's hands within her own. They were so warm! So real! She nearly swooned from the contact.
"Then wait, my darling. Wait until you're older. Until you can take on the challenges. You have time," said her mother.
"I can't," said Aurie. "I have to go now, or the Cabal will get it and Emily and the others will suffer."
A calmness overtook her, like the wind falling silent across a vast lake and the ripples stilling to glass. She'd come to peace with her decision. Now, she just needed to know one thing.
/> "Mom. I know this is all in my head. Just a vision recreated from my memories. This isn't you, but me. You're the reflection of my hopes and dreams. Professor Mali is right. I don't know what the truth is. I never have. I have no idea if I caused the accident, or if it was something else like the curse, or the strange man that Pi once told me she saw. I sometimes wonder if I want to have caused it, because then I would have a reason to feel so awful all the time. That I was being punished. It would almost make sense that way. Almost. But I didn't come here for that. I didn't come here to learn what happened, because it doesn't matter. No matter what it was, you're still dead," she said.
Her mother looked like a rope ready to break, frayed in the middle and unraveling quickly. But there was something else, deep in the eyes, like jewels at the bottom of a dark pool. Buried in her memory of her mother was the overwhelming love that her mother felt for her and Pi. Never once in their thirteen years together did Aurie ever question how much her parents loved her. Those eyes held back a dam full of love, ready to burst and flood her with emotion.
Aurie pushed it back before it overwhelmed her. She took a deep, quivering breath.
"I've been going over these visions in my head. Reviewing them, trying to learn from them. There's something I'm missing. Something important that I've forgotten, lost amid the years and the fears and the tears. So I am asking you, asking myself really. What have I missed? There's something that day that matters, and I can't figure it out. What is it?"
Her mother stood silently for a long time. Aurie didn't think it was going to work. She mentally prepared herself for the price of failure. Then Nahid walked into the living room, slow and solemn like a priest leading a funeral procession.
Pi was sitting on the couch, along with a younger version of herself. Aurie knew this moment. She'd lived through it too many times in her head. She didn't need a room of truth for it.
"Girls," said her mother, not to the real Aurie, but to the fake one. The vision had slipped back into its routine. "Your father and I need to work in the basement. We don't want to be disturbed, so you'll need to play quietly up here until then. Or get your homework done."
"Yes, Mother," the vision Aurie and Pi said in unison.
Nahid went into the basement. Aurie's skin grew flush as she watched her mother disappear into the darkness.
Focus, Aurie. Pay attention. There's something I'm supposed to see.
"I'm bored with this game," said Pi, and moved to the table.
"I don't want to do homework," said young Aurie.
Pi was looking out the front window. Her head was slightly tilted.
"Wanna play Five Elements? The real way, with faez?" asked young Aurie.
But the real Aurie wasn't paying attention. She noticed what she hadn't seen the first time. Pi was looking out the window.
Pi's forehead scrunched. "But Mom said we're not allowed to play it that way. We have to play finger exercises only."
"Come on, Pi. Everyone at school plays with faez—"
"Shut up. The both of you," said Aurie.
The visions turned towards Aurie, both noses wrinkling with the annoyance of being disturbed from their play.
She pointed at her sister. "What do you see? What's out the window? Did you say something that day that might tell me who it is?"
Her sister looked out the window again. Her expression fell grim, her normally olive skin pale as a ghost.
"There's a funny man," she said.
"Funny how? Like a clown or something?" asked Aurie.
Pi shoulders tensed with annoyance. "Not a clown. Funny to look at. Like I can't see him all the way."
The words sparked a memory for Aurie, bringing with it a tidal wave of concern.
"What did you say that day?" Aurie asked herself out loud. "Something about a glimmer?"
Then words came out of Pi's mouth as if she were an automaton. "He shimmered." She looked out the window. "He shimmers, even now."
Aurie remembered it now. She'd thought Pi was trying to say that she saw a city fae, a maetrie. Told her she was being ridiculous, since they lived in the suburbs. But it wasn't a maetrie she saw. It was someone using an identity masking charm. They were difficult to maintain, but she knew one person who had one on him all the time: the Coterie patron, Malden Anterist.
"Oh, shit," she said, feeling cold all at once. "Pythia. She's in trouble."
Aurie dismissed the dream, the return of the real world making her dizzy with vertigo. She fought through it to exit the room, only to find a sea of surprised faces. Professor Mali was nowhere to be found.
Deshawn spoke first. "Didn't it work?"
"What?"
"You just went in the room, like thirty seconds ago," he said. "Didn't it work?"
"I have to go," she said, and started moving towards the exit.
Deshawn stood up, along with a few other students, including Violet. "You can't go, Aurie. You have to pass. We need you in Arcanium."
"I...I can't stay. I have something to do that's more important," she said, trying to step around them, but they stayed in her way.
Deshawn's face wrinkled as he gathered his words. As he spoke his features smoothed. "If anyone deserves to be here, it's you. Don't throw your chance away. Go back in the room and confront your fears."
"It's not that," said Aurie desperately. She almost broke into an explanation of everything that was going on, but she didn't think they would believe her, and she didn't want anyone to try and help, and get hurt her because of her. "I just need to go. Please. It's important. More important than Arcanium."
"Someone get the professor," said Deshawn to one of the others. "She just went down the hall."
Everyone was looking at Aurie like she was crazy. She knew the moment the professor arrived, they wouldn't let her out of the room.
"I have to go," she said as calmly as she could. "Please move aside."
When Deshawn grabbed her wrist, gently but firmly, Aurie wanted to cry inside. "We're not letting you leave. We're your friends."
Everyone started nodding and adding their agreements. She'd never had so many friends in her life. It was agonizing. Whatever she did now, they wouldn't be her friends much longer.
"I'm sorry. I have to," she said.
Aurie couldn't take a chance that even one person could stop her. Pi's life depended on it, she knew that deep in her bones. Whatever she did, it had to count, but she didn't want to hurt them either. Drawing on her deep well of faez, she said in a calm and authoritative voice, the truth magic threading through like rich ore deep in the earth's crust, "You all suddenly feel very tired. So tired that you can't stay awake."
They each realized what she was doing, and their faces went through various stages of betrayal before their eyes closed against their will and they collapsed. The worst was Violet, who seemed to come to the understanding that Aurie was exactly who she thought she was.
With regret like a fever in her head, and barbed wire wrapped tight around her heart, Aurie ran out of the room. She had to get to Pi before the Cabal did. If it'd been Malden Anterist who'd killed their parents, then he'd known who Pi was all along. They'd been playing her, using Radoslav to deliver the very tools they would need to find the Rod, and now that they didn't need her, they could throw her away, just like they did their parents.
Chapter Thirty-One
Pythia awoke on the battered pea-green couch, sitting straight up with her hands at her sides. Her head ached as if a train had driven through it. Alton had hit her in the jaw hard enough to break it. She didn't think she'd be eating meat or anything requiring chewing for quite some time.
She checked to make sure her clothes were still on, which didn't bring relief, only a sense of impending tragedy. Not only did she find her clothes were still on, but there were no bindings holding her to the couch. Her wrists and ankles were free, and Alton Lockwood was nowhere to be seen.
The door was unguarded a few feet away. She just had to get up and run out. She just
had to move her feet. Why won't they move? Pi could flex her muscles, or tap her toes, but when she tried to get up from the couch, they refused to obey.
A toilet flushed in another room. For the first time, Pi realized a small table had been set up near the couch. An expensive briefcase was sitting open, revealing tubes of liquids and jars of reagents. It was a traveling alchemy shop.
Alton sauntered in. His face lit up when he saw she was awake, and in turn, Pi felt herself warm with excitement. She'd never realized how attractive he was, how finely his clothes accentuated his muscled form, how his eyes were like the glittering of a million galaxies...
What the fuck am I thinking?
She tried to shake those thoughts free, but moving her head back and forth brought agony to the lower half of her face.
"It's about time. I was getting rather impatient," he said, clasping his hands together. "I see you're fighting it, but don't worry. Now that you're awake, we can finish this properly. You won't feel conflicted about your feelings for me when I'm done with you."
Pi strained against the enchantments that held her on the couch, pulled and fought, even when it triggered pain in her jaw, relishing the agony because it was better than thinking about what was coming next.
But the enchantments were too strong and the pain too great, and she fell back, exhausted. She speared him in her sights, reminding herself of how much she hated him, trying to counteract whatever it was he'd done to her, while simultaneously trying to figure a way out. Her thoughts oscillated between fawning over his broad shoulders, and putting a knife in his belly.
Alton strolled over to the briefcase as if he were a salesman giving a demonstration.
"It was unfortunate at the Amber & Smoke that I was not able to subdue you properly. Enchantments alone are not always enough to affect the subject. I've found that the proper cocktail of potions, along with a few choice spells, can create a longer lasting impression," he said, his tone one of a scientist explaining his experiments.
He pulled out a little squat opaque vial out of the briefcase and held it up for her.
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