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  “It’s killing two birds with one stone,” Alex replied. “You know what Julius said. The royals are going to keep extracting more and more essence, and I doubt any of us want to stand by and leave innocent victims to their fate, right?”

  The others nodded solemnly. He could see it had been playing on their minds too.

  “If we do this, with Alypia out of the way, we can go back through to Stillwater House, rally Helena to our cause, and ensure that more people don’t have to die. We can’t just leave the havens in the hands of cruel royals, Caius being the exception. Even if the situation weren’t so dire with the other students, we’d still need to move ourselves to a place with better resources—there’s no essence here we can use to get home,” he explained.

  Demeter frowned. “No essence? That’s a lie.”

  “I didn’t say there isn’t any essence, I said there’s no essence we can use. Caius told me that the stuff here is too strong, and I believe him. He wants us to succeed—I would still be out there looking for it if I thought we stood a chance of using it,” Alex replied firmly.

  “So we’d all go back to Stillwater?” Ellabell asked, anxiously pushing her spectacles back up to the bridge of her freckled nose.

  Alex nodded. “We’ll have a better chance of survival if we seize that power back and ensure that good people are in charge of the havens, instead of the current figureheads. With time and numbers and knowledge at our disposal, it would give us a chance to cook up something that might give everyone else their freedom too. We can do more, save more, deal the upper echelons a real blow. Who knows if we’ll have that chance again?” he said, adrenaline coursing through him.

  “Wait, so you don’t want us to go home?” Aamir questioned, bemusement flashing in his eyes.

  “No, no, I do—but we can postpone it a short while, to help the other havens,” Alex said.

  The older boy nodded. “I guess we should… It only seems fair. Why should we get the chance, if they don’t?”

  “Right. And once we’re in Stillwater, we can make our way around to Spellshadow Manor and infiltrate that haven too, with greater numbers than we have now,” Alex ventured, looking around. “From Spellshadow, we can figure out a way of breaking down the barrier, so that every single Spellshadow student can simply walk out of that place, or we could try to build another portal home with the extra essence we’ll have access to, if we have to. Point is, it gives us more options, and, right now, that’s what we need.”

  “And Helena? You mean, I might get to see her again?” Jari gushed.

  “If we did this, we’d definitely need her,” Alex said.

  “Don’t you dare put my darling in harm’s way,” Jari warned, a stern expression on his face.

  “Of course not.” Alex smirked. “I just mean that, if we manage to get her to help, it’ll be easier to trap our hooded friend and lock him up, out of the way, so we can take control of Spellshadow too.”

  “But surely the Head knows she’s in cahoots with us?” Ellabell remarked.

  Alex shrugged. “We can get Helena to pretend she’s been brainwashed by her mother or something—some kind of nonsense that’s crazy enough to sound believable. Then we’ll have her masquerade as Virgil’s ally, or we can use her intel to find a way to capture him. She does have a whole school at her disposal, after all, and if Alypia isn’t there to stop anyone going into areas they’re not supposed to, then we’ll have an even wider scope of knowledge. Like I say, that part will come after we’re through the portal.” He paused, noting a few bemused expressions. “What?”

  “Who is Virgil?” Natalie asked.

  Alex smiled. “It’s the Head’s real name.”

  “No way!” Jari guffawed. “Virgil, huh? Virgil, Virgil, Virgil… I don’t see it. I always thought of him as more of a Norman.”

  “It takes some getting used to,” Alex muttered, realizing it was the first time he had used the name without flinching.

  “So, how do you propose we do this, seeing as this is the best plan we have right now?” Aamir asked.

  “We run with it,” Alex replied. “It’s essential that we trap Alypia here without raising any alarms, which we hopefully won’t with Caius’s help. Think of her as the guard dog, who will bark and bite and sound the alarm if given the chance, but if we can safely trap her here, and Caius can keep her restrained, it will be like a putting a muzzle on her. If she can’t spill the beans to the upper ranks, we’ll be able to take control of the havens without worrying about an army of royal soldiers descending upon us.”

  Ellabell frowned. “You don’t think they’ll find out?”

  “I mean, they probably will, but hopefully everyone who wants to leave will have left by then, and we’ll be long gone,” he replied with a shrug. He realized it meant those in charge might turn to other, non-royal mages for essence, but there was a plot running alongside this one in his head that he could not stop thinking about. His mind trailed for a moment toward the counter-spell, and how he might work it to his advantage without having to sacrifice his own life.

  “It seems like a big risk,” Natalie murmured.

  “In a lot of ways, it is, but if we can get out before Julius and his cronies realize we’ve all disappeared, he won’t have time to waste on rounding us all up again—he’ll have to think of finding his essence some other place,” he said. “Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to come up with a solution by then,” he added, his mind resting more insistently on the notion of the counter-spell. He knew it could save more lives than any scheme they could come up with—he just had to figure out a way to channel it through another.

  Demeter glanced curiously at Alex. “And you truly believe Caius can be relied upon to keep Alypia here, without telling his brother what we’re up to?”

  “I truly believe he hates his brother even more than we do,” Alex replied, recalling what Julius had done to the love of Caius’s life. The others didn’t need to know such a private truth, but it made Alex sure of where he could place his trust.

  “I suppose that makes sense,” Demeter said, after a short silence.

  “You believe him too?” Aamir asked, turning to the professor.

  Lintz shrugged. “He let Alex go, he helped Ellabell, and they’re both still alive. Why would he bother protecting them if it was a lie? A damned shame about the essence, though—I wonder if we could still use it, even if it is a little on the strong side? It might even speed things along.”

  “That’s exactly what I thought. I thought maybe he was just being over-cautious in case we set off a trap or something, but he was insistent,” Alex replied. “I think we might have to forget about the essence here, Professor.”

  “It’s also a real shame we couldn’t get you all home from here, though your alternate plan isn’t half bad. It’s so risky it might just work,” Lintz said, a proud grin emerging from beneath his wilted moustache. “I always knew you’d be a bright spark—all of you, in fact. Who knew such a ragtag bunch could cause so much chaos for the magical elite?” He chuckled.

  “What else did Caius tell you?” Natalie asked. There was a strange look in her eyes, as if she knew Alex was holding back. After so long, it seemed the pair of them had grown accustomed to each other’s quirks.

  “Yeah, what else did he say? You were gone ages—you must have had quite the chit-chat,” Jari piped up, resting his chin on his hands with his elbows propped up on the table and blinking dramatically at Alex.

  Alex shrugged, smiling sadly. “There was one other, tiny thing.”

  “Go on,” Jari encouraged, his eyes bright.

  “If you don’t want to tell us, you don’t have to,” Ellabell countered, punching Jari in the arm.

  “What? I can’t be curious?”

  “You know what they say about curiosity,” Demeter said.

  Jari grinned mischievously. “No, what do they say?”

  “It killed the cat,” Demeter replied. A look of sheer disappointment crossed Jari’s face.
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br />   “What was it, Alex?” Natalie pressed, brushing away Jari’s silliness.

  Alex looked across the table at his friends’ faces, all watching him in anticipation. He hadn’t been sure he was going to tell them about what he’d learned from Caius, about his “purpose,” but if he couldn’t tell them, then whom could he tell? They would support him whatever he chose to do, and he was fairly certain not one of them would expect him to go through with something so awful. He knew them well enough to know that.

  “He mentioned something about a counter-spell that can be done to fix what my ancestor Leander did in 1908. Turns out I have the power to stop the Great Evil—the reason these havens even exist, the reason you all got snatched, the reason so many young mages are losing their lives,” he explained quietly, trying not to allow a feeling of guilt into his heart as he spoke. He took a deep breath. “But I would have to sacrifice myself in order to do it.”

  There was an audible gasp from the congregated group. Steadily, it gave way to an uncomfortable silence and the shuffle of people shifting in their chairs. He could see nobody knew what to say, and he knew why; it was a tricky predicament.

  “You can’t be serious?” Ellabell spoke, breaking the silence. “Tell me you’re not thinking about doing such a stupid thing?”

  Alex shrugged, putting on a brave face. “Not really. I mean, I’ll do it if I have to. If we can’t save the havens, if we can’t build a portal home or find a way through Spellshadow’s barrier, or if it seems as if too many lives will be at stake if I don’t, I’ll offer myself as a bargaining chip for Julius, so that you all can go free, at least,” he said, though he had no real intention of doing the spell, not if there was another way. The others sat in stunned silence.

  “We would never let that happen, Alex,” said Aamir.

  Alex shrugged. “Hopefully, it won’t have to come to it.”

  Since he had heard about the counter-spell, he had wondered if he could force Virgil to do the spell instead, perhaps using his newfound mind-control skills. But the idea was still a sapling in his mind, and until he had a more solid plan of action, he wasn’t ready to tell the others. More than that, he wasn’t sure what they’d make of its ethicality—even he wasn’t sure of that. Nor did he want them to know about his decided lack of enthusiasm when it came to martyrdom, but he knew he could at least give them a sliver of hope that there was a chance of saving everyone. There was, after all—he just prayed it sat with someone other than him.

  “So what do we do now?” asked Natalie.

  Alex turned to Lintz. “We take every beetle you have left, Professor, and we let that evil witch come through. When those sirens scream, we ignore them. No more waiting, no more contemplating. This is our chance to strike, and strike hard,” he said. “When she comes for me, we’ll be ready.”

  Lintz frowned. “I’m not sure we can overcome her power, Alex.”

  “If we can rope Vincent and Agatha in again, we’ll have a fighting chance,” Alex assured him. “She might expect the five of us to try something, but she won’t be expecting another four.”

  This seemed to cheer Lintz. “I hadn’t thought of it that way… You know, I think we might just manage this.”

  “That’s the spirit, Professor!” Alex cried.

  For the first time in a long while, he too thought luck was on their side.

  Chapter 23

  The group were eating bowls of thin soup when the shrill sound of Alypia’s imminent arrival, emanating from the large pile of beetle beacons that lay on the table, brought their tense meal to an abrupt halt. Alex’s heart pounded, fear and exhilaration surging through his body on a tidal wave of adrenaline.

  They were out of time. It was happening now.

  “Let’s go!” Alex roared, rallying the troops. In his outstretched hand, he held a beetle beacon, brandishing it before him to seek out the portal’s location. As they grew closer, the beeping intensified, becoming more insistent with every step. They were headed for the courtyard.

  As a unit, the group sprinted toward their respective starting positions, parting ways at the long hallway that led to the courtyard. Agatha was the only one who had not joined them, with Vincent apologizing for her absence, citing a relapse. That being the case, Alex had been almost glad she wasn’t with them. As much as he liked her, he didn’t want to have to worry about her attacking him mid-plan.

  Everyone but Alex remained in the lobby area at the top of the corridor, moving into vacant cells and pressing back against the wall, so they could not be seen from the courtyard itself.

  “Good luck!” Natalie, who was closest, whispered.

  “You too,” he whispered back, before making his lonely way toward the courtyard’s entrance.

  Whirling vividly in the center of the far stone wall, in the exact spot where Helena had pushed him through on the day of their Kingstone arrival, a portal was beginning to appear. It was no bigger than a hockey puck, but it was getting larger by the minute, expanding with each swirl of sizzling white energy.

  The portal swirled wider and wider. Alex’s hands felt hot and sticky. He stood at the entrance of the open courtyard as the bright light of the gateway stretched and gaped.

  Eventually, the swirling light faded away, leaving behind the mirror-like surface of a fully forged portal. Alex inhaled sharply, readying himself. He could see a room beyond the gateway. Blood rushed in his ears as a figure emerged from the glimmering light.

  It did not surprise him to see that Alypia had brought a retinue, though there were not as many guards as he might have expected. What did surprise him, however, was the state of her appearance. With the time that had passed, he had expected her to be her usual, formidably beautiful self—or mostly back to normal, at any rate—but it seemed she was still in a bad way, the exquisite mask of her face not yet recovered. Parts of her skin were porcelain-smooth, plump and youthful, while other sections were sagging and covered in liver spots, revealing fractions of her true age.

  She stepped across the threshold, her feet touching down on the flagstones. Her pale eyes flashed with fury as soon as she saw Alex standing there, her face twisting up into a sour expression. Her mouth opened as if to speak, but Alex never get to hear what she was about to say.

  A blast surged from the walls, knocking Alex backward and sending Alypia tumbling to the ground. The same crackling, red haze they had encountered on the first day swelled from the stone, rippling toward them. Alex scrambled to his feet as the sentient fog poured down the throats of Alypia and the two unfortunate guards who had come through behind her, searing through their eyes. Alex glanced around, trying to figure out what had caused the explosion, but he couldn’t see anything nearby that might have sparked the fuse. He guessed it must have been Alypia herself, or the appearance of the portal. It made sense—the barrier reacted because it didn’t like the being coming through, just as Caius did not like her.

  Alex looked toward the entrance of the courtyard, willing Caius to appear, but it seemed the old warden had forgone his previous promise to hang around, and wasn’t about to pop up and save the day. Panicked, Alex looked beyond the entrance and saw that his friends were running pell-mell at the top of the corridor, the fog seeking them out. He sprinted toward them, abandoning the dazed guards and Alypia, who seemed to be out cold on the floor, her body jerking violently as the red fog took over her mind and body. He left them to the haze, rushing instead to his friends, trying to stand between them and the fog—but it simply ran through him as if he weren’t even there, dodging his strands of anti-magic.

  There was nowhere to run, to escape the fog. The others dashed away from Alex as he tried to reach for them. He called out to them, urging them to fight it off. In running from him, they permitted the fog the time it needed to swallow them up, taking hold… but the screams never came. Instead of nightmares, they were seized by paranoia. Alex could see it on their faces as their eyes flew wide, glancing in all directions, fidgeting with hands and fingers and the
fabric of their clothes, muttering about conspiracies.

  “They’re going to get us!” Ellabell muttered, biting her lip until it bled.

  “No, Ellabell, they’re not—it’s all in your head,” Alex said.

  “They’re going to take him,” Jari added, with an anxious nod.

  Alex shook his head. “Nobody is going to take anyone.”

  “They’re going to steal him away—he isn’t safe.” Aamir chewed the sides of his nails, tearing the skin away with his teeth.

  Natalie nodded, the whites of her eyes showing like those of a spooked horse. “We have to protect him—it is the only way. They will come.”

  “Nobody is coming!” Alex shouted, though it seemed to fall on deaf ears.

  “They are already here,” Lintz whispered, picking up a beetle and hurling it against the stone wall, shattering it into a hundred clockwork pieces.

  Only Demeter and Vincent struggled against the paranoia, though Alex wasn’t sure either of them was winning this time, as the necromancer let out an inhuman howl and high-tailed it out of the room, disappearing down the nearest hallway. Demeter remained, battling the demons. A muscle spasmed in Demeter’s cheek as he bit down, evidently trying any tactic to try to push the fog’s influence away.

  Suddenly, their collective gaze settled upon him.

  “He will try to hand himself over to them. He will offer himself on a plate to the royals—he doesn’t realize the sacrifice,” Aamir spoke solemnly.

  “And they will sacrifice him!” Jari cried, his voice tense with worry.

  “Hide him—don’t let the royals get him,” Ellabell insisted, a trickle of blood meandering down her chin.

  “Keep him safe. Lock him away,” Natalie agreed.

  As a unit, Lintz and the quartet approached Alex slowly, skirting around him as if he were a wild animal that had escaped from its cage, forcing him to edge backward toward the farthest part of the tower. Demeter joined them, having apparently lost his battle with the mist. Their eyes glowered toward him, both concerned and menacing at once.