by Mary Fan
They won’t get me. She’d already killed more monsters than most of the Triumvirate’s goons would see in a lifetime. And if they attacked her, that made them monsters. She’d never lost to a monster before, and she didn’t intend to start now.
With all the force of her rage, she kicked the ball straight at the window behind which Everett was standing. Then she hurled the knife after it. The blade shot through the rubber sphere and hit the enchanted barrier right in front of Everett’s face. The pierced, flattened ball remained suspended for a moment, then dropped to the ground, revealing Everett’s shocked expression.
Aurelia marched toward him, smirking. You’re messing with the wrong Norm, dirtbag. She didn’t even try to play innocent. She wanted Everett and the government he represented to know that she wasn’t afraid of them.
Everett’s expression darkened, sending a chill through her, and without another word, he vanished in a burst of gold light. If there’d been any doubt in his mind about her true loyalties, she’d just erased them. Which meant he’d come after her soon.
Whatever the risks, whatever the dangers, she had to leave tonight, or she wouldn’t get another chance.
LIGHT STREAKED THE EDGES OF Aurelia’s vision as she sped past the enchanted lanterns hovering near the hallway’s gray, stone ceiling. Each was made of swirly black metal and threw white light across the otherwise dark corridor. It wasn’t late, but the sun had already gone down, and only blackness pressed against the windows. The lanterns reminded her of pretty cages trying to trap the light.
Just like the Triumvirate was trying to trap her.
She could feel Everett’s wrath crackling all around her. In the walls, in the floor, in the very air she breathed, suffocating her. He controlled the Academy, and he wanted to control her … or destroy her.
She had to escape before he made his move. But she needed Williams’ help.
She slowed to a walk as she drew closer to the professor’s office, which was somewhere along this hallway. Dragging her eyes across the doors, each of which had a copper name stamped across its center, she searched for the one marked “Gideon Williams.”
Suddenly a shuffling noise from behind scraped her hearing, and she whirled, half expecting to find Everett coming at her with a squad of other Sentinels, to arrest her. But all she saw was a boy with sandy hair pushing a cart of cleaning supplies.
Her muscles loosened. Just a Secondstringer here to sweep the hallway. As if to confirm her guess, the boy unhooked a broom from his cart. He didn’t pose any danger—he seemed too spaced out to even notice her presence—but the office doors weren’t exactly soundproof, and she couldn’t let anyone hear what she was about to say to Williams.
She didn’t want to do anything that might call attention to herself, though, and getting rid of the boy could raise alarms if a supervisor came looking for him. Besides, he had no reason to think she was up to anything. Students sought teachers for extra help all the time.
She picked up her pace, then came to a halt before Williams’ door—an ancient-looking thing covered in as many scratches as carved swirls—and knocked. She had no doubt the professor was inside; he spent more time at the Academy than in his own home. Sometimes she wondered if he even had a home.
She certainly didn’t. The Academy housed her, but it wasn’t a home; it was a prison.
The door swung open, and Williams’ cool voice floated toward her. “Come in, Aurelia. I assume you’re hear to discuss your paper for my class?”
She knew he was saying that for the benefit of anyone who might be listening—and not just the Secondstringer boy. The Academy was riddled with magical devices enchanted to keep watch over its students. These objects were supposedly hidden in the walls, and though she’d never actually seen one, she could feel their presence, as if a thousand eyes were taking note of her every movement.
“Yup,” she said, playing along as she crossed the threshold.
Williams was sitting at his desk, which was wider than Aurelia was tall and overflowing with books. Crinkled volumes in red, black, brown, and blue stuck out from high stacks at jagged angles. Each spine was embellished in gilt letters, most of which were chipping. A pile of paper teetered from the slight breeze caused by her entrance. They were probably student assignments, judging from the messy handwriting and explosion of red comments on the top leaf.
The office wasn’t very big, and there was hardly a spare inch. More books covered the shelves that ran from the floor to the ceiling, occupying every bit of the walls. Only the door broke their perimeter, as the office had no windows. A single round lantern, which looked like someone had taken a copper sphere and cut a pattern of vines into it, hovered above Williams’ head and cast a warm light. From his wooden chair, Williams looked up, raised his wand, and gave it a slight flick. The books rustled from the enchanted gust he summoned to close the door behind Aurelia.
She crossed the space between the door and the desk in two steps, then muttered, “There’s a Secondstringer outside.”
Williams nodded, and waved his wand again. “Omnem sonum devorat.” His words were nearly lost in the whoosh of magic swirling from him, and silver mist filled the office.
The silencer spell had become an all-too-familiar piece of hocus-pocus over the past few months, and Aurelia was glad Williams had cast it. The magic would swallow any sound inside the office, which would in turn keep anyone from hearing what she had to say. But it had a downside too. If someone was trying to listen in, they’d notice the sudden silence and realize that something was wrong. So she needed to be quick.
“I’ve gotta leave tonight.” She pressed her hands against the desk’s polished edge, certain the professor would help her. He’d told her before that the Rising needed as many recruits as it could get, and especially trained fighters. Well, they’re about to get the Firedragon. “Take me to the rebels.”
“I wish I could.” Williams’ bushy gray brows, which always looked tilted to begin with, formed an almost complete chevron as he raised them with apology. “But it’s too dangerous. I know you heard what Everett said. He’s watching you. Especially after what you did in the training room.”
“So goldlight me outta here!” Aurelia’s voice rose with pent-up frustration. Enchanters could use magic to travel anywhere in the world in the time it took to snap your fingers. All he had to do was grab her shoulder and use his abracadabra to get her out. The problem was that goldlighting left an invisible trail others could follow, and agents of the Triumvirate would be able to track Williams’ magic back to the rebels. That was why she’d spent three months waiting for the government-run school’s officials to relax their collective gaze, which observed the teachers as well as the students.
Knowing that Williams was about to give her this same explanation again, she said, “I know you can’t take me to the headquarters, but if you get me out of the city, I can make it the rest of the way on my own. Just tell me where to go.”
Worry filled the professor’s eyes. “If I did that, the Triumvirate would know. They’re hunting for rebel sympathizers among the faculty too, and I can’t do anything suspicious. It’s bad enough that I’m speaking to you with a silencer spell in place. Even if I could goldlight you out of the Capital, you know better than anyone how dangerous it is in the wilderness. The supernatural dangers—”
“Screw the supernaturals!” She put her hands on her hips. “They’re not the problem—not for me. Everett is.”
“I understand,” Williams said patiently. “And I can help you. If you let me, I can cast a spell on you that will prevent anything Everett would use to interrogate—”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s too late for me to keep pretending. And I can’t risk Everett finding me and locking me up. I’m leaving, with or without your help. It’d be nice if you could point me in the right direction, but even if you don’t, I’m going.”
If my mother could survive in the middle of nowhere for months while penniless and pregnant,
I can sure as hell take care of myself. A mix of anger and sorrow swelled in her chest at the thought of the hardships her mother must have endured to bring her life. The feeling turned to hatred as she thought about the man who’d forced Bridget Sun to run away in the first place—and the government he controlled.
She glared at Williams, daring him to challenge her conviction. “It’s the Rising’s loss if I can’t find them.”
The professor sighed. “I can’t maintain this silencer spell much longer without someone noticing, so I won’t waste time arguing with you.”
“You’ll tell me where the Rising’s base is, then?”
“No. If you’re caught, you could compromise the entire rebellion.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but he held up a hand to stop her.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.” He looked her in the eye. “I know you’d never intentionally lead the Triumvirate to the Rising. But I won’t risk this nation’s only hope for freedom. If the Triumvirate found our headquarters, if they captured our leaders and forced them to name every member, all would be lost. Every last one of us would be rounded up and slaughtered.”
Aurelia gulped, realizing just how much was at stake. The Rising wasn’t the first group that had wanted to overthrow the Triumvirate, but they were by far the biggest and most organized—and had the best chance at succeeding. Past attempts at revolutions had been squashed like bugs. Angry people brandishing homemade weapons weren’t enough to take down armies who had magic.
But the Rising would be different. The Triumvirate denied their existence, treated their attacks as standalone incidents to keep people from realizing that a larger revolution was brewing, but Williams had filled her in on the truth over the past three months. The Rising had been plotting since before Aurelia was born, slowly seeping into the cracks of the Triumvirate’s establishment through sleeper agents like Williams. When they finally struck, they could actually win. But one mistake could destroy everything.
She wouldn’t be that mistake. So she watched in silence as Williams pulled open his desk drawer, wondering if she’d really have to run away without knowing where she was going.
Trying to figure out what he was up to, she eyed the crimson wand he aimed into the drawer and listened as he whispered something under his breath. A stream of blue light shot from the wand’s rounded tip, causing the drawers’ contents—a jumble of pens and folders—to vanish. In their place sat a folded piece of paper, plain and unremarkable. But it had to be important if Williams had hidden it with a spell, and Aurelia inspected it curiously.
He held it up. “This is a map to a place we call the Way Station, which is about fifty miles outside the Capital.” He spread the map out on his desk. “We use it as a safe house and rendezvous point. It’s rarely occupied, so even if the Triumvirate follows someone there, the risk to the Rising as a whole is minimal. We keep it stocked with basic supplies at all times. It’s surrounded by an enchanted barrier that will keep out any creatures of the Underworld. I can vouch for the barrier’s effectiveness; I put it in place myself. I’ll try to get a message to the others tonight, telling them to meet you there. You can hide at the Way Station until they arrive.”
“Sounds good.” Aurelia was glad that she wouldn’t have to run away blindly. And fifty miles wasn’t too far, especially if she stole a motorbike. She had a key to the garage, so that part would be relatively easy. Still, though, she could pretty much count on someone following her.
If the Triumvirate was watching her as closely as she thought they were, they’d notice something like her stealing a motorbike and riding out the front gates, hell bent on escape.
She leaned down, drinking in the map’s details with her eyes.
“Unfortunately, I can’t let you take this with you. If you’re caught with it, that could lead the Triumvirate back to me, and because of what I know, ultimately back to the Rising. So I’m afraid—”
“Don’t worry, Professor, I got this.” The map’s black lines were already etching themselves into Aurelia’s mind. She’d always been good at memorizing things, and there wasn’t all that much to remember in this case. She already knew the layout of the Capital itself—she’d committed every building and street to memory so that if a monster ever breached the perimeter, she’d know the terrain for the chase. And she’d been sent on enough missions that she was familiar with the area immediately surrounding the city. The rest was just a handful of abandoned roads usually left out of official Triumvirate maps. Since Enchanters goldlighted everywhere and could use magic to transport whatever they wanted, there was hardly any need for highways outside the protected cities anymore. The roads on the map were probably overgrown slabs of cracked pavement winding through untamed wilderness.
Good enough for a motorbike, though, she thought. The vehicles were designed for all terrains, since Defenders often used them to pursue monsters in the wild.
Williams raised his wand. “I must lift the silencer spell soon. How long will you need?”
“Done.” She grinned at the startled look in the professor’s eyes. “Thanks. I’ll see you at the Rising.”
Aurelia spun and strode out the door. Her whole body felt tingly with anticipation. Traveling through fifty miles of monster-infested wilderness in the dead of night, when the supernaturals were the most active, wouldn’t be easy. And getting away from the Triumvirate was going to be chancy at best. But no beast would stand between her and her chance to take down the evil government.
Freedom was near, so near she could hear it calling her name. Before the sun rose the next day, she would be gone from the Academy for good.
AURELIA RUSHED THROUGH THE ACADEMY, aiming to get from Williams’ office to her room in the residential wing as quickly as she could. She reached her door, but froze the moment her hand touched the knob. Something was off. The plain wooden slab, the red bricks surrounding it, and the yellow ceiling light looked no different from the last time she’d seen them, but she had an uncanny feeling that someone was in her dorm, and she knew better than to ignore her gut. A nervous chill ran down her spine. What if it was Everett or one of his goons, waiting in ambush?
She considered running away without the things she’d returned to her room for, then realized how stupid that idea was. Without any weapons, she’d be dead meat in the wilderness.
Deciding to confront whoever was in her room head-on, she threw open the door and marched across the threshold. Then she stopped in her tracks, so startled by what she saw that she barely noticed the door closing behind her.
Explosions of color filled her room—bursts of reds and blues and greens erupting through the air with glittering sparks. It took her a moment to realize that they were enchanted fireworks, created by a spell. Showers of silver sparkles floated down like snowflakes, yet she felt neither coldness nor heat when they landed on her skin. A swirl of gold spiraled through the air, then took the form of a shimmering dragon with red and orange flames leaping from its outstretched wings.
She’d been prepared for danger, or conflict, or hostility, but not for something ... pretty. What in the world was happening, and who was behind it?
Her question was answered an instant later when the flaming dragon—or rather, the firedragon—released a brilliant yellow blaze from its jaws, which formed the words “Happy birthday, Aurie!”
It’s my birthday? She furrowed her brow as she tried to recall the date, then widened her eyes. Holy crap, it totally is!
Only one person would have remembered: Connor. He was her one true friend, the brother she’d never had, the boy who’d befriended her when no one else would. For the longest time, she hadn’t been able to figure out why he’d always been so nice to her, especially since he was an Enchanter. And not just any Enchanter—the son of the Gold Triumvir.
Now she knew. He’d known what his father had done to her mother and felt terrible about it, especially because the Triumvir had forbidden him from saying anything. Yesterday, he’d finally c
onfessed the truth to her. While guilt drove him to approach her the first time, their friendship had sparked, and then grown into something real over the years, and she couldn’t bring herself to resent him for harboring the secret. She knew what the Gold Triumvir would do to him for disobeying. Salvator wouldn’t spare anyone—even his son—from his cruelty.
A mix of guilt and sadness wound through her, pricking her conscience. In her anger at the Triumvirate and impatience to get away, she hadn’t even thought about the person she’d be leaving behind. But now she realized that once she left, she’d probably never see Connor again. A great weight dropped onto her heart.
“Connor?” she called, knowing he was somewhere in the room, probably concealed by a camouflage spell. A lump formed in her throat, and she shoved it down with a forceful gulp. “You’re not gonna sing that stupid happy birthday song, are you?”
The glittering display spiraled into a whirlwind of color, then shrank into a single point of light. As the fireworks vanished and the dorm’s electric lights came back on, Aurelia spotted the tip of the wand the light was attached to. The rest of the golden-brown rod appeared, and then Connor faded into sight, all smiles and sparkly blue eyes. He must have received every bit of those good looks from his mother; if he carried any of his evil father’s traits, Aurelia couldn’t see them, outside or within.
He shook his head, causing his auburn bangs to sweep his eyebrows. “I’d never subject anyone to my singing.” His smile fell. “What’s wrong?”
She hadn’t realized her expression betrayed anything. She was usually good at hiding signs of weakness—like sadness—even from people she trusted. But Connor had always been able to read her true feelings, and she had no reason to hide anything from him. Someone else could be listening, though, so she stepped closer and put her finger to her lips—a gesture that was her way of saying, “Cast a silencer spell.”