I could barely bring myself to look at her as she gestured for me to follow her up the stairs. I had never been her biggest fan, but I had trusted her. All I could think of was that night she and Cal had come for me after Alice, how she’d sat by my bed and held my hand. How she’d told me I had a destiny to serve the Council. Too bad she’d neglected to mention that they’d kill me if I didn’t live up to their expectations.
We made our way up the twisting stone steps. “Sophie, I know you feel betrayed.”
“Betrayed, pissed off, terrified…I have a lot of emotions going on right now, actually.”
She stopped, placing her hand on my arm. “There are very valid reasons for all of this.”
I threw her hand off. “Your sister already did the ‘villain explains it all’ speech. I don’t need another one.”
“But that’s just it,” she insisted. “We are not villains. We are doing what’s best for all Prodigium. Our numbers are getting smaller as factions like L’Occhio di Dio and the Brannicks increase. You and your father were meant to protect us, and yet you both seem to prefer the company of our enemies.”
“That’s not what’s—wait, what do you mean ‘both’? Since when is Dad all cozy with The Eye? Or the Brannicks, for that matter?”
She shook her head and continued walking upstairs. “It’s of no concern anymore.”
We’d reached the top of the stairs, but we were still underground. There were no windows in the long corridor. Suits of armor lined the walls, but these looked different from the ones I’d seen in other parts of Thorne. The dimensions were strange, and many of the suits were freakishly huge. Fear raced over me and through me, and once again, I felt my magic thump pitifully, uselessly, inside me.
“If you’ll follow me,” Mrs. Casnoff said, but before we got even three steps, a voice cried out, “Anastasia!”
It was Elizabeth, running down the corridor on her tiny grandma legs, her long skirt flapping around her.
Mrs. Casnoff looked annoyed. “What is it?”
Elizabeth reached us, panting, her round cheeks flushed. “Lara needs to see you immediately.”
Frowning, Mrs. Casnoff said, “I’m taking Sophie to the Removal chamber. Tell her I’ll be there shortly.”
“No!” Elizabeth shook her head. “She said to come now. It’s”—she glanced at me—“it’s about Nick.”
Even in the near-dark of the hallway, I could see the blood drain out of Mrs. Casnoff’s face. “Is it—”
“It’s like before,” Elizabeth said. “With his parents, but this time—” Her words dissolved into a strangled sob, and she pressed her hand to her mouth before saying, “Oh, God, Anastasia, it’s happened again.”
I had no idea what Elizabeth was talking about, but Mrs. Casnoff spit out a word I never thought I’d hear her say. She whirled on me. “Come with us, Sophie. And if you make any attempt to escape, so help me, I will kill you myself. Is that clear?”
I nodded dumbly, too relieved that I wasn’t being taken to the Removal chamber to feel scared. I followed Mrs. Casnoff and Elizabeth down the corridor, my brain whirring. If something bad had happened, maybe everyone would be distracted enough so I could formulate some plan for escape, Mrs. Casnoff’s death threats notwithstanding. First I’d need to find Jenna. It startled me to realize that I hadn’t even thought of her during all of this. Did she even know what had happened? Of course, if she’d heard about the Archer part, she might not want to leave with me anyway. I shook that thought away. Not helpful. And then there was Cal. I needed to find him and see what they’d done to him, if anything. Then maybe somehow, Cal, Jenna, and I could find a way to get Archer and Dad out of that cell, and we could make for the Itineris like the hounds of hell were at our heels.
Which they probably would be.
We finally reached the main foyer, and even from there, I could hear shouting coming from upstairs.
As Elizabeth and Mrs. Casnoff ran up the stairs, I thought about making a run for my room, hoping Jenna and Cal were in theirs. I’d barely made a quarter turn in that direction when a bolt of magic hit me squarely between the shoulder blades, sending me to my knees. I’d been hit by an attack spell before—Alice had done it as part of our training—but it hadn’t hurt like this one. I felt like I’d been electrocuted and slammed in the back with a bat all at the same time.
When I lifted my head, I saw Mrs. Casnoff standing on the landing, her hand held out toward me. “I warned you,” she said. “Now get up here.”
I did as I was told. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I could have done anything else; I could barely walk.
The rest of the Council was gathered in the hallway outside Dad’s office. A couple of palms were overturned, spilling black soil on the red carpet. On the floor, I noticed small bits of broken glass and two dark stains. Lara and Roderick stood in the middle of the lobby, shouting at each other.
“You assured us this wouldn’t happen. You swore that he was completely under your control.”
Lara’s hands were clenched into fists at her sides as she glared up at Roderick. “He is. Clearly this is some sort of aberration. We can fix this.”
“No,” Elizabeth cried, “we can’t! Lara, he killed nearly twenty people tonight. Twenty, in just a few minutes.”
My stomach lurched. So that was the emergency. Their pet demon had gone rabid. I felt a fierce dark joy at that. Serves you right, I thought. This is what you get for turning kids into monsters. But then I remembered Nick, and how sweet he’d been with Daisy, how his smile had reminded me of Archer, and any satisfaction I felt withered immediately.
“And The Eye knows we have Cross,” Elizabeth continued, her voice shrill. “They’re coming to Thorne. Oh God, it will be just like before!”
“No,” Lara barked, her face manic. “Not this time. We still have Daisy. We can fix this.”
Kristopher appeared under the marble arch, his blue eyes bright with anger. “It’s too late for that. Elizabeth is right. They’re coming, Lara. I can feel it. I know you can, too.”
But Lara stood there, her dark blond hair falling out of its bun. There was a wild look in her eyes. “Let them come, then. Anastasia, let Daisy out of her cell.”
But Mrs. Casnoff stayed where she was. “If we unleash Daisy on them…Lara, what if we can’t control her?”
I felt invisible standing there, watching. In a weird way, I felt almost sorry for them. They’d done a stupid and dangerous thing because they were scared, and now they were paying the consequence. But that consequence was a war that was going to kill a lot of Prodigium, and probably a lot of humans, too.
It was stupid, but I tried one last time to summon up my powers. I don’t know what I would have done with them if they’d worked, but once again, there was nothing. Just that helpless sense that my magic was right there, within reach but untouchable. Still, there had to be some way to get to it. If there weren’t, why would the Removal exist? Maybe the binding spell wasn’t permanent.
In the silence, I glanced down at the carpet, and something shiny caught my eye. Those broken bits of glass. But no, it wasn’t glass that was sparkling in the light. It was a thin golden chain.
A choking sound, somewhere between a sob and a shout, forced its way out of my throat as I knelt down and realized what I was looking at.
A shattered bloodstone.