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  Alex staggered to his feet, not quite able to make out what it was that Helena had done to create the blast, but it had served its purpose. Alypia was on the ground, and the golden threads were no longer binding Helena.

  Helena jumped back into action, taking Alypia’s brief moment of confusion to strike. Weaving a ball of bristling bronze magic between her hands, she launched a series of missiles at her mother. With each one that hit, Alypia let out a yelp, her hands rising quickly to her face.

  Using a gap in Helena’s onslaught, Alypia rolled out of the way, tucking herself behind the big marble desk, which was now covered in glass shards.

  It was then that Alex noticed something moving beneath the floor, in a slithering motion that made it almost undetectable. He rushed toward Helena and pushed her out of the way. A monstrous creature, forged from magic, erupted from the ground and snapped its jaws at the empty air. As the creature lunged again, a rumble vibrated through the earth, cracking the floor.

  This time, Helena was ready for it. She swiped it away, forcing her own magic into the very innards of the being, until it disintegrated in a glittering mass that blew away on the breeze now rushing in from the broken windows. The queen bee device had fallen from Helena’s hands as she had hit the ground, but Natalie swooped in and scooped it into her palms. Seeing that the orb was in good hands, the others retreated from the central battle, which was gathering heat—Alex didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire.

  It appeared mother and daughter were so deep in their fight with one another that the cause had almost been forgotten. Golden shards of light pierced the air as magical artillery sailed from one side of the room to the other, occasionally hitting home, eliciting a cry of pain from mother or daughter whenever it did. But still they struggled on against each other. The whole room thrummed with the spent energy of the two fierce females, a gauzy mist appearing in the air.

  Sweat trickled down Helena’s face, her forehead slick with the exertion of continuous battle. Alypia wasn’t faring much better, damp strands of white hair plastered to her textured cheeks. Alex knew these two would fight it out to the bitter end, their skills evenly matched, despite it seeming as if Alypia had the upper hand. Perhaps all those years of hard training and tough love had finally paid off, at a time when Alypia least desired it. Alex frowned, watching the to and fro of the magic being hurled this way and that; he had a feeling the loser would be the one who slipped up first.

  “You would be nothing without me!” Alypia roared as she sent a particularly savage spear of energy toward Helena’s shoulder. It glanced off, causing the girl to wince.

  “Neither would you!” Helena retorted, taking a brief second to recover from the blow before sending a surging blockade of gleaming electricity in her mother’s direction.

  Most of it hit the desk harmlessly, but a few sparks fell upon Alypia’s skin, causing a sharp intake of breath, as if she had touched something hot. In retaliation, she sent one back, the blockade consuming Helena whole. From within the glittering light that froze her to the spot, Alex saw Helena’s body convulse. It was violent and difficult to watch. Even Alypia seemed to show regret as she peered over the lip of the desk, flicking her hand to one side, taking the blockade with it.

  The blockade smacked dully into the far wall, narrowly missing Jari, and Helena fell to the ground, collapsing in a heap. If it hadn’t been for the tiny rise and fall of her shoulders, Alex would have thought she was dead.

  Cautiously, the Headmistress emerged from her hiding spot. Ellabell moved as if to strike, but Alypia raised her hand in warning, keeping the curly-haired girl back. She raised her other hand as Jari mirrored Ellabell’s movement, his body freezing like a statue. The warning was enough. Taking her time, Alypia approached the barely moving figure of her daughter. As it was, nobody dared to make any move toward her. There was an eerie impropriety in the idea of attacking the mother as she was coming to the slow aid of her daughter. It didn’t matter that Alypia was responsible for Helena’s current state—her concerned, pained expression of remorse said everything. When all was said and done, she was still a mother who loved her daughter, despite what the daughter might think.

  Had it been in any other circumstance, Alex thought it might have been a touching moment, but he could not quite remove the image of the pair of them sending vicious bolts of magic at one another in a genuine attempt to inflict grievous bodily harm. Neither of them had been pulling any punches.

  Slowly, Alypia knelt beside her daughter.

  “Helena?” she whispered. “Helena, can you hear me?”

  The girl was silent, her eyes closed.

  “Helena, my sweet girl—please, wake up,” Alypia urged, still ignoring the group of individuals who were watching the scene play out, their minds filled with the worst-case scenario. “Let’s not fight anymore. If you wake up, I promise we won’t fight anymore.”

  Helena mumbled something, but Alex couldn’t make out the words.

  “What did you say, my dearest?” Alypia asked, bending closer to her daughter, enveloping the girl in her arms.

  “I said, I am not done fighting,” Helena whispered, her head snapping up. With sudden force, she reached up to her mother’s temples and forced her magic through the skull beneath. Her intent was clear, and Alex just hoped she knew what she was doing, messing around in the minds of others. Alypia began to spasm in her daughter’s arms, and then she crumpled, her knees buckling and her pale eyes going blank. She fell to the floor, her head landing on the ground with a dull thud.

  Alypia lay there, completely still, devoid of feeling or movement. It was akin to the catatonic state that Alex had seen Caius in, when he had raced from the clutches of the keep. Whether or not she would wake up from this sleep, he had no idea. Caius hadn’t, so why should Alypia?

  “It had to be done,” Helena whispered, her voice tinged with heartbreak. A vacant look appeared in her eyes too, though it had not been brought on by any blow to the head.

  And, though Alex knew she was right, he worried that the price for her capture was too high for the daughter who had paid it.

  Chapter 25

  Nobody said a word for a long time as Helena knelt on the floor, a mirror image of the position her mother had been in moments before. With shaking hands, the girl pulled Alypia to her, but no amount of nudging or whispering could make the still form move.

  “I had to… I had to do this,” Helena said, rocking back and forth. She looked up at Alex and the others, her eyes panicked and desperate. Jari dropped to her side, grabbing her hand, and she clutched his fingers as if she were drowning.

  Natalie knelt down beside her. “Yes. You did what you had to.”

  Ellabell and Alex stood apart. Alex’s fists clenched at the sight of Helena so broken. He remembered when they had first met her and she had sung her mother’s praises—a result of the mind-altering magic, no doubt, but there might have been some honesty to it, once upon a time.

  “We should take Alypia back to Kingstone,” Alex said softly.

  Helena looked up, tears in her eyes. “No, I won’t leave her there.”

  “It’s the only place we’ll be able to keep her safe,” Alex said, though he wasn’t entirely sure of that anymore. There was no telling what state the prison would be in when they returned.

  She shook her head. “There are cells here at Stillwater where she will be just as safe. There are people I trust here, who can watch over her—I do not know these people you know, at Kingstone Keep. I cannot trust them as you do. You said so yourself—that criminals are running riot. To take her back there would be to put her in harm’s way.”

  “As long as you trust she won’t be able to escape again, at least until all of this is over,” Alex murmured.

  She flashed him a look of hurt. “I doubt she will be going anywhere anytime soon.”

  “No, I suppose not,” said Alex reluctantly.

  With a visible shiver, she shook the sad expression from her face, replaci
ng it with a mask of bravery. “I shall see to it that my mother is kept secure for the duration of the battles that will lie ahead, but there is more we must do—you said something about calling my grandmother down?”

  Alex nodded, knowing it was a bad time to make such requests. “We need to get Venus to come to us, alone, unless you know where the king and queen live?”

  “If I go to them, they will suspect something,” Helena replied. “I go once a year, when summoned. It would not be taken well if I were to simply show up.”

  Natalie glanced at her friend thoughtfully. “So, we will have to use that to get her to come to us?” she asked, pointing toward the ruby bee that Ellabell still clutched in her hands.

  Helena nodded. “In theory, but I won’t lie—it will be difficult to get my grandmother on her own. Julius doesn’t like to let her out of his sight, given their history. I think he lives in fear of her being snatched up by a wandering Romeo,” Helena said wryly.

  Alex realized this was precisely the reason calling Venus to Falleaf had failed so spectacularly; he hadn’t taken into account the strength of Julius’s neuroses. Of course the king wouldn’t let his queen go off on her own, not after what had presumably happened the last time he did. Virgil was no doubt a constant reminder of that.

  “How does it work?” Jari asked, peering curiously at the scarlet orb.

  “It works like a coded messenger, I suppose,” Helena explained. “You feed your magic into it, tell it what you want to say, and it encrypts the message before sending it to the recipient. I think Julius has four at his end, but the havens must only have one each, though I’ve only seen my mother’s.”

  Alex nodded. “Would you be able to get a message to Venus, pretending to be your mother, or would Julius still come along for the ride?”

  “It’s hard to say,” said Helena. “Ordinarily, the only people whose call Venus would answer alone would be my mother’s or Virgil’s, what with them being her kids, but I can’t make any promises.”

  “They’re not bad odds—better than the Falleaf ones,” Alex said, hoping to raise the optimism of the others in the room. “So we could get her to come to Stillwater, and get everyone into battle positions while we’re waiting.”

  Ellabell spoke up, loosening her white-knuckle grip on the ruby bee. “Wouldn’t it be better if we called her to Spellshadow? I imagine, knowing what we know about Julius, he would be far less likely to join his wife there, given his hatred for Virgil,” she said. “I don’t think he’d want to spend any time around the dirty royal secret.”

  Helena nodded. “You could be onto something there.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” said Alex, knowing it was probably the best chance they had. It was true—of all the havens, Spellshadow was the one the king was most likely to avoid. Plus, it would mean they’d have the Head and the royal blood in one place, making the preparation for the counter-spell much easier. “You think Virgil will have one of these things in his office somewhere?” Alex asked, gesturing toward the device.

  “I think it’s a very strong possibility,” Helena replied.

  Alex smiled. “Then that’s what we’re going to have to go with,” he said. “If you send for your grandmother, pretending to be Virgil, using the device that will hopefully be in Virgil’s office, we can infiltrate the manor and do a clean sweep. When she arrives, we can attack and take both Virgil and Venus into custody at once. It’ll give us enough time to get prepared, and to try to rally some of the Spellshadow students to the cause.”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me!” Jari whooped. The others nodded in agreement.

  “Although, we may have to meet the rest of you at Spellshadow by coming through from Falleaf, instead of coming through from Stillwater,” Ellabell said.

  Alex frowned. “How so?”

  “We need to make sure Kingstone is secure again—failing that, we need to at least make sure that we get Aamir, Vincent, and Agatha out, and see if Hadrian can offer the latter two a bit of sanctuary after their long incarceration. Hadrian will want to know what’s going on too. He might be able to offer some assistance,” she explained.

  Alex nodded. In his excitement, he had almost forgotten that they were still waiting on Aamir and the Kingstone duo.

  “You might want to pick Demeter up on the way,” said Natalie with a concerned expression.

  Alex had simply presumed the auburn-haired teacher was otherwise occupied with training students, or imparting his Spellbreaker knowledge on unwilling ears, but it appeared there was more to the man’s absence than met the eye.

  “Where is he?” Alex asked.

  “Demeter went through to Spellshadow several days ago. He was intending to meet up with you at Falleaf, but I am guessing he hadn’t managed it by the time you left?” Natalie said, her brow furrowed.

  Alex shook his head. “He wasn’t there when we traveled to Kingstone, though he might have arrived while we’ve been gone. I’m sure he’s fine, wherever he is.”

  “I really hope so,” murmured Natalie.

  “I’m sure he made it through just as we left, and this is nothing more than a case of really bad timing,” he assured her. “We’ll head back through to Falleaf, via Kingstone, picking up our various strays as we go, and update Hadrian on what is going on.”

  “Do you think we should send troops through to Kingstone, to help clear it?” Helena asked, a look of determination appearing on her face.

  Alex shook his head. “I think we should scope out the state of it first. If it’s a lost cause, I’ll remove the portal between it and here, and leave it to destroy itself. There are too many strong mages running free in there; I wouldn’t want to waste our resources on a fight we can’t win.”

  “But what if someone gets word to Julius?” Ellabell said, her voice worried.

  “If I know anything about Caius, he will have kept his messenger device in the gatehouse, way beyond the walls of the keep,” Alex replied. “The only way they will be able to call Julius is by triggering the barrier, the way we did, which may not be a bad thing. If we can distract the king, we might be able to buy ourselves more time.”

  It was an idea he had been toying with. If they couldn’t fight the newly escaped criminals and restore order to Kingstone Keep themselves, perhaps a visit from the king would be just what the doctor ordered. As crazed as many of them were, nobody dared defy the strength of Julius. He would have everyone back in their cells and toeing the line far quicker than Alex and his friends could, and, as long as he didn’t suspect anything unusual in the other havens, Alex had a feeling they might just get away with it.

  “How will we know when to meet, if the portal gets closed?” Helena asked, glancing down at the vacant face of her mother.

  “Let’s say we meet at Spellshadow in two days’ time, in the walled gardens at the back of the manor. Natalie and Jari know where it is,” Alex suggested. “In two days, we can rally more troops, if possible, giving us a bigger force to take the two royals down.”

  “And if you can’t, we’ll have to be enough!” Jari grinned.

  Alex had missed the effervescent nature of his friend, and realized they had barely even said hello to one another. In the fracas of Alypia’s stealthy escape, their reunion had been forgotten. Even now, it didn’t seem as if there would be time to properly catch up with one another.

  “We can take them on, right?” Natalie smiled.

  Alex nodded. “If anyone can, it’s us.”

  “We should get my mother into one of the cells. Hopefully, Aamir will have opened the portal from Kingstone by the time we are done,” Helena said, breaking the moment of levity as she cradled her mother to her.

  “Of course,” promised Alex. He bent to help the girl lift Alypia up. It was strange to see the formerly powerful Headmistress dangling limply, no sign of consciousness visible in her eyes. As much as Alex was glad of it, knowing they could stop worrying about Alypia hounding them in their future tasks, he couldn’t help feeling
sorry for Helena, who was clearly struggling.

  Silent tears trickled down Helena’s face as she forged a cushion of golden light beneath her mother, taking the strain away from Alex’s shoulders as the woman’s body lifted up horizontally, the way she had done with Aamir upon their first meeting. Alex let go. The strength of the magic carried Alypia with ease, and Helena floated her toward the double doors of the shattered office. Barely a shard of glass remained in the roof, the raw breeze rushing in, shaking the leaves of the overgrown plants and trees. Alex cast a glance back at the scene as they departed. For some reason, he had a feeling he would never return to this place, one way or another.

  Turning his back on the vision of the lake, the glittering graveyard that held his ancestors beneath the surface, Alex followed Helena, the others falling into line with the solemnity of a funeral procession.

  They remained that way, following the royal princess down into the belly of Stillwater House, to the underground cells where they had themselves been kept, what seemed like forever ago. Young, pale faces appeared at the grates in the doors, quiet voices pleading to be set free. It was unsettling, but Alex understood why Helena had placed them in here.

  “Helena, I take it all back. I’ll follow your lead! I’ll fight the system. Just let me out!” a girl with raven hair begged, but there was little sincerity in her expression.

  “Me too! I was an idiot. I should have listened—of course we are being oppressed. I will fight. I’m ready to fight!” a young man with a strong jaw added, pushing his face between the bars. There was a wildness to him that Alex didn’t trust one bit.

  No matter what they said, or how they pleaded, Helena ignored them all. Her mind was elsewhere. It was evident in the palpable reluctance in her movements as she opened one of the cells at the far end of the dimly lit corridor and ushered the floating figure of Alypia inside.

  With great care, she set her mother down on the floor and removed the cushion of light from beneath her, snapping it back into her palms. Tenderly, she picked up a moth-eaten blanket and wrapped it around Alypia’s floppy form, tucking it around her motionless chin. Alex watched, feeling strange about sharing such an intimate moment, as Helena leaned in to kiss her mother gently on the forehead. A moment later, he saw her mouth move as she whispered something nobody else was meant to hear.