Her foot slipped on one and hit the stairs, which immediately gave way. She kicked to try to put something solid beneath her. Her left palm had unstuck and it was all she could do to keep her fingernails dug into the gritty rock.
The magic was almost gone. She reached up with her remaining arm and—
Lucien caught her.
With a tremendous heave, he yanked her past him. When Aspen had caught her breath, she found they had reached a landing at the top of the stairs. There was a single door in front of them.
“Thanks,” Aspen said.
“No worries.” Lucien looked back the way they’d come. The stairs appeared perfectly harmless. “Just think how easy it’ll be to go down.”
That was the last thing Aspen wanted to think about. The impending confrontation with Xavier had netted all her thoughts in its snare. She could see nothing beyond the next few minutes.
“Can you feel it?” Lucien said in a low voice. He’d faced the door and closed his eyes. Aspen didn’t need to do that to know what he was talking about. The sensation of magic was a deep thrum within her bones. She could feel it beckon to the new power within her, trying to take it as it had begun taking Lucien’s, but her magic held firmly inside her. Her body guarded it as jealously as a successful thief.
“I feel…so powerless. So empty,” Lucien said. He stared glumly at his ringed hands, as if they’d betrayed him.
“Oh come on, it’s not that bad,” Aspen said in her most encouraging voice. “I’ve managed so far.”
Lucien turned to her. “Your magic…it’s there. I can feel it. And you can bet Xavier will too. He’ll go after you first. I’ll keep him off your back while you destroy that battery. Hopefully doing that will put a stop to whatever he’s managed to do with the spell.”
Lucien began to push the door and paused.
“There’s one more thing I need to tell you. Something…I’ve been meaning to tell you from the moment we met.”
“It can wait, Lucien,” Aspen said, pushing him forward. “I know we’ll both get through this. The universe won’t make it that easy to get rid of each other.”
“Wait—Aspen, I—”
But the moment they stepped out into the rooftop he stopped.
It’d been cleared away of all decorations, leaving only a wide-open space of concrete and a couple humming air conditioning units.
Lucien’s brow furrowed. “No battery. I don’t sense any spells, either, unless Xavier’s cloaking them. So where…”
“There.” Aspen pointed. From this point, Xavier’s roof was flush with the next beside it, which in turn sat next to one slightly higher and so on, creating an ascending staircase of rooftops, terminating at one higher than all the others. Even from here, Aspen could see the blue glow of magic emanating from it.
“We’re not too late!” Aspen said excitedly. “Hurry, Lucien!”
“Aspen, no—”
Lucien lunged for her, but her momentum caused them to stumble into the middle of the roof. There was a click, like the sound of one of Aspen’s traps. Glowing symbols appeared in midair at each of the four sides of the roof. Beams of light shot out the sides of these, linking with one another until a cage of magic had completely enclosed them.
“And she shall be your downfall.”
Xavier emerged out of thin air at the other end of the roof, smirking. Isak stood beside him. He didn’t look smug. Mostly sad, as if he was disappointed to find Aspen here. Aspen glared at him.
“Really, Lucien,” Xavier said. “The way she acts, one would almost think she wasn’t actually your apprentice. Oh, that’s right.”
Lucien drew up a fist full of magic and slammed it against the side of the cage. The bars shot out red sparks, but didn’t break. He could only hold the magic for a second or two before dropping his hand, his magic flickering out. He was panting.
“You’ve always been a disgrace to the Council,” Xavier said. “Your magic is next to useless here without the proper safeguards. Even if you get out, you and the rest of the Mages will be hunted down and finished.”
At this Isak stirred, as if from a trance. Aspen saw her chance.
“Isak!” She drew as close to the bars as she dared, not sure whether they would react to her touch or not. “You know what he’s going to do. Why don’t you stop him? Or does everything the Mages stand for mean nothing to you anymore?”
“The Mages are finished, and you know it!” Isak said. He shifted again, as if struggling with himself. His dark eyes met hers and she could see the pain in them. “I’ve talked to Xavier. We don’t have to bring Maladias through. He was just a tool, just something to show how weak and useless the Mages have become. But the wards have to go. They’re just like the Council. Old. Obsolete. A symbol of separation. It allows them to ignore what’s really going on. The real problems in our world. But not anymore.”
“That’s insane!” Aspen yelled. “If you destroy the wards that means Maladias can still come here—”
“And why do you care, Aspen?” Isak bellowed. “You’re one of those they forgot! The lowest of the low. Where was justice for your parents? For any of those years you were alone? Where were the Mages for you then? This might not be the best way, but it’s real, it’s a start.”
“It’s the wrong start!”
Isak sneered. Between the bars of the cage it almost looked evil. “Like you would know what the right one is.”
Aspen took a deep breath, trying to calm her shaking breath so she wouldn’t explode and start screaming at him. “Look, I was wrong. You were right. I pushed people away. It’s not fair what happened to me and I know that, but that wasn’t any of the Mages’ fault, and taking it out on everyone else isn’t the way to fix it.”
She could see his defenses were faltering now. His slick façade of indifference began to give way to the Isak she’d known before. The one who wouldn’t be blinded by Xavier’s fanaticism.
“Forget what Xavier means to you and see that he’s wrong,” Aspen said. “This isn’t about him or you, it’s about everyone—”
A bolt of magic hit the outside of the cage so hard Aspen was thrown back. Her arms burned from the aftershock of the spell and she rubbed them furiously to fight off the growing pain.
“You are a witch with words,” Xavier said. “I underestimated that. Something I won’t do again.”
His hand moved until it was pointed just above her heart. “Isak, it’s time to complete the final stage. It’s time for you to prove how far you’re willing to go: kill them.”
Isak stepped back in horror. “What?”
“You heard me. You know what they’ve done: they are a threat to everything we’re trying to accomplish, and the girl is a dangerous Null. Already she’s proven too unpredictable to let live.”
Isak continued staring at Xavier, aghast, as Lucien helped Aspen to her feet.
See? She wanted to shout. See the kind of monster he really is?
But the longer Isak waited without saying anything, the more her heart stuttered at an unnatural pace. Surely he wouldn’t. She understood now that she didn’t know him as well as she’d thought, but Isak wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer. He couldn’t be.
“I know you had feelings for the girl,” Xavier said amicably, clapping a rough hand on Isak’s shoulder. “But trust me when I say it would never work. In a month’s time you’ll forget. You’ll move on. When your aspirations are complete and you’ve righted every wrong against you, then you’ll see.”
“I can’t, Xavier,” Isak protested. His eyes flickered for just the briefest moment around him, as though seeking out an escape. “My…magic. We’re so high up I can’t—”
“You have enough for this.”
“But the cage—”
“It will let our magic go through. Now do it! I’m tired of you wasting time!”
“No!” Isak threw Xavier’s hand off. He didn’t look scared now, but angry. “What are you doing, Xavier? Murder? I—I heard…” Again his eye
s moved to Aspen, “Someone told me you had done that, but I didn’t believe them. I defended you! I know things have to change, but this isn’t the way to do it!”
Xavier’s expression slowly sobered. “I see. Their word over mine? That is your final decision on the matter?”
“Yes.”
“Very well, then.”
Xavier’s attack came without warning. A bolt of green magic shot through the cage, aimed directly at Aspen’s heart.
Aspen couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. She felt only the physical sensation of her body; was aware only of the knowledge that, as much magic as she could absorb, she wouldn’t survive this.
“Move!”
The bolt clipped Lucien’s arm as he threw her aside. They went sprawling. Lucien immediately clutched his elbow with a gasp of pain. His robes had been burned away. The skin beneath was raw and red.
“Lucien!”
Aspen scrambled to him but there was nothing she could do. The usual healing salves she carried were long gone, along with the rest of her missing gear. And with no clue how to use the magic inside her, it left her with no options.
“I’m fine!” Lucien gritted out. “Xavier!”
Another bolt of magic exploded beside her. Aspen spun on her heels, expecting the next attack. Instead, she saw that Isak had grabbed Xavier’s wrists and was wrestling him away from the edge of the cage.
“Let go, idiot boy!” Xavier roared. “I am your master! I am doing this for you and everyone else!”
“You can’t kill them! I won’t let you!”
Xavier snarled. There was a tremendous bang! and when the flash had cleared, Isak lay on the ground, motionless.
“NO!” Aspen cried.
Xavier took a moment to calm himself. Then he waved his hand, using magic to heft Isak up and over his shoulder. Aspen could just see Isak’s chest rise and fall and the dark clamp of fear around her chest loosened slightly.
“He will become the leader he was meant to be,” Xavier spat. “Whether he wants to or not. And no disgrace of a Mage and a pathetic Norm is going to stop that.”
He faced them. His hand came up. From this range there was no way he could miss.
“Goodby—”
An explosion rocked the rooftops, making Aspen stumble before catching herself. Xavier was already looking toward the rooftop in the distance. The glow was brighter now, but had turned from a vibrant blue to a sickly sort of green. Arcs of electricity spurted off in every direction.
“The spell!”
He took off, using his magic to propel him from rooftop to rooftop toward it.
“Aspen…” Lucien said behind her. He’d managed to move himself into a crouch, but Aspen could tell even that had pained him. The arm might have been the most visible damage, but Xavier’s spell must have done something else to him.
“You shouldn’t be moving,” Aspen said, kneeling beside him.
“We still have to stop him. There’s not much time.”
Aspen looked around at the magic bars crackling behind her. They were still solid as ever.
“I hate to break it to you, but we aren’t going anywhere.”
Lucien drew himself up and looked toward where Xavier had gone. “You have to break us out of here.”
Aspen laughed harshly. “Did that spell hit your head, too? I’m useless, remember? No magic?”
“You have magic.”
“None that I can use.”
“Unless…Unless something pushes you so far you can’t help but release it.”
“What does that mean?”
“You need something to push you. Something that will make you so angry you can’t help but let it out.”
“Lucien—”
He sighed, long and loud. It was a sigh of defeat. “I should have told you when I first met you. I saw you and I knew, just as you knew Xavier was the one who had murdered your parents. Except you were wrong.”
Aspen’s skin had started tingling. Her heart had kicked into overdrive again. “Whatever this is, I don’t want to hear it now.”
“I’m sorry,” Lucien murmured. “But…Aspen, Xavier didn’t kill your parents. I did.”
On the Rooftop
He lied. And yet he didn’t. His mouth said the words and…
It wasn’t possible. Her mind repeated the words over and over again, but every time she repeated them, a single memory continued reforming in her mind. The one she’d seen back at Car’s shop, the one with the new shadowy figure. Car hadn’t implanted that in her mind; it had been there all along. Now the figure was no longer faceless but had Lucien’s face. Lucien, as he cast the spell that had protected her from the worst of the fire. Lucien, who had stepped over her parents’ bodies and pursued Xavier.
He’s never been good at elemental magic. Never. Especially not back then.
In her mind’s eyes she saw the flaming creature in the alleyway rearing up. She saw Lucien trying in vain to reign it back in.
But mostly, Aspen believed him because she knew something like this was inevitable. Because of course the one who had wronged her would be the man she’d slowly begun to trust. What were friends and family, but merely people who were there to let you down?
But not Isak, a small voice said. Or Tana. Or Nina. Even Lucien...Even Lucien whose eyes were now filled with anguish. They were fixated on her, begging her to say something, anything. Perhaps he was filled with ten years of guilt and nearly bursting at the seams with it.
“It was back when I first became a Mage,” Lucien said.
“Stop talking,” Aspen said, voice shaking.
But Lucien didn’t. He was trying to rile her up, get her to use her magic—or maybe exorcise his own guilt. Either way, it was working. She could feel the magic growing agitated inside her, rising angrily like the hackles of a dog.
“Xavier and I have never gotten along, not since we first set eyes on one another. He thought I was pretentious and self-centered, and perhaps he’s right. He’d always been the more intense of the both of us, but regardless we were both chosen for the position of next Mage. Back then we had a similar contest to this one, without the death.”
“Lucien, I’m warning you…”
A large explosion shook the building beneath them. Lucien looked behind Aspen to where Xavier was casting the spell. He began speaking faster.
“Xavier had always hated me, been jealous of me. We went to different magic academies, had different masters. We were both talented, though I was younger and still more accomplished and he hated me for that.
“Back then the apprentices never interfered with each other during the assessment. They were allowed to, but it was an unspoken rule to keep out of each other’s way. One he broke. He came for me the second morning, trying to catch me off guard. Wanted it to look like an accident. I fought him off. I should have left it at that but I was young and stupid so I pursued him. He led me to your house.”
Aspen’s fists were shaking. The magic swirled and rose like bile in her throat. The air snapped around her, tasting bitter in her mouth. The bars of the barrier bent outward.
Lucien needed to stop talking. She would not be forced to re-live that day. Carsisiphus had taken some of it. It shouldn’t have hurt her this much anymore…yet she was feeling the pain drive like a knife through her gut.
“I was never good at elemental magic,” Lucien muttered. “But I used it on him anyway. He had brought me to your house. Why yours…I’ve asked myself a million times over the years.” He looked up at Aspen. “You know what happened next. You were there.”
“Enough!”
Part of the barrier exploded outward. The rest of the bars trembled in place before shattering. Her body was expelling the magic in waves now. It ate away at Xavier’s cage like a hungry pack of wolves on a kill.
“I won the competition,” Lucien said. “I became Mage. But it didn’t matter. Another Mage died the next year and Xavier got the spot.
“I am sorry for what happened, Aspen, and I
have been ever since then. But I’m happy you lived. I’m happy you found me.”
“You aren’t allowed to be happy!” Aspen screeched. She could barely breathe now. The cage was disintegrating. Every second that passed, more magic leaked out of her, her body growing spent. “I trusted you…I trusted you…”
“I know. But you’re alive. Alive enough to still fight. And whatever you may think of me, I am happy about that.”
The last of the cage disintegrated. Aspen sank to her knees. The magic inside her was almost gone, her body feeling limp and useless—but already she could feel the magic from Xavier’s spell seeping into her. It felt twisted and raw, but still began to slowly fill her once again.
Aspen turned to look at the roof where Xavier had gone. The light had stayed tinted green, but was growing brighter. He was still going through with the spell. He was still trying to destroy her home. Broken as the place was, as painful as it was sometimes, it was still hers. She wouldn’t let him finish it.
“I can’t get much closer to him,” Lucien said somewhere outside her cloud of anguish. “But you can. End this.”
Aspen waited for him to say more, and then waited for the next wave of anger to sweep over her, but it didn’t come. She should be furious. She was furious. But she was tired. So, so tired of running and expecting people to let her down. Lucien had. And maybe that was for the better. She could still live with that. She had survived this before, and she would survive it again.
Aspen pushed off her knees. She pulled her knife and the moment her fingers wrapped around the hilt the shaking in her hands stopped. She turned to Lucien.
“I never want to see you again.”
Then Aspen took off running toward Xavier. At first her steps were slow. The earlier strength and assuredness the magic had provided her was gradually returning, but the delay while her body soaked up more magic was debilitating. Soon enough though, her familiar stride returned and she was flying across the roof and leaping to the next, landing at a roll and sprinting on.
Her thoughts swirled behind her eyes so much that she thought for sure they’d cloud her vision. Lucien. Her parents. Xavier. Isak. That day and every day since. Living with Brune but still feeling lonely. Finding Lucien and Tana and Nina and Isak and seeing all their broken parts, beautiful parts. How living with them had not guaranteed her freedom from pain; it hadn’t given her the luxury of a perfect relationship, but it had given her something real…something she’d been missing before.
Mage's Apprentice (Mages of New York Book 1) Page 28
