“We have five dead Mags,” Valencia shouted at the incensed crowd. “How many more do we need before we take action?”
“None!” her followers dutifully shouted back.
“And what has the Alliance done to avenge our dead broth-ahs and sist-ahs?”
“Nothing!”
Yutika shouted, “A Super Mag is the one doing the murdering, you putzes!”
Her voice was lost amid the other cries.
“No one cares,” Graysen said in a grim voice that was barely audible over the roar of the crowd. “They want someone to pay for everything Magics have been through.”
“Edwardian Remwald wanted to make our city bett-ah for all Nats,” Valencia continued. “He faced such an impossible battle that he had to pretend to be a Nat!”
Her supporters booed and jeered.
Valencia raised her arm, and a tarp was lifted off the other statue I hadn’t even noticed. The statue was a twenty-foot Remwald.
If I wasn’t seeing it for myself, I wouldn’t have believed it. Valencia had somehow convinced her followers that a murderer of both Nats and Mags was statue-worthy.
“What a crock of shit,” Yutika said. “Remwald pretended to be a Nat so he could infiltrate the Alliance and set up MagLab.”
Gray was right, though. The truth didn’t matter. I could see from the expressions on these people’s faces that they didn’t care that Valencia was lying through her teeth. All they cared about was making Nats pay.
“Get Galder!” The UnAllied shouted. “Get Galder! Get Galder!”
Apparently, that had become their rallying cry. It put me just about out of my mind with rage.
“Woo!” Gray shouted, pumping his arm along with the other UnAllied.
“What?” he asked, grinning at the look I gave him. “If you can’t beat ’em….”
The voices cut off as the crowd sucked in a collective breath. Every Mag in the vicinity felt it. Power.
The air crackled with magic.
A little girl leapt into existence on top of the Remwald Statue. She balanced on the statue’s outstretched arm with the kind of poise the ballerina part of me envied. She held out both of her hands. A shockwave went through the air. And then, her fingers began to elongate and transform…into blades.
She sliced her hand through the air.
There was a nails-on-chalkboard sound. And then Remwald’s stone head was sheared off his statue body.
There were gasps and furious exclamations around me, but none of the UnAllied dared to get in the way of one of the Super Mags.
“Hey, you there!”
An Enforcer, his red tassel bouncing against his cap as he pushed through the crowd, aimed his gun at the little girl.
“No!” I yelled.
Freezing rain began to pelt down on the Enforcer, making him lower his gun to shield his face.
“Valencia was actually useful for once,” Yutika said in an awed voice.
Always a first time for everything.
The Super Mag girl let out a high-pitched screech that sounded like a war cry. Then, she winked out of existence. A horrible scream announced her reappearance. She was seated on the Enforcer’s shoulders. She looked almost like a little kid on her father’s shoulders…at least until her hands descended.
Gray’s hand tightened on mine as the Super Mag’s dagger-fingers sliced right through the soldier’s clothes. Even in the dark, I could see the blood spurting from his wounds. The Enforcer reared back, splitting the air with his scream.
The UnAllied cheered.
The Super Mag struck again and again. When the Enforcer collapsed, she blinked out of sight.
The unmistakable sound of gunfire filled the air as more Enforcers converged on the gruesome scene. Gray dragged me to the ground as everyone around us ran for cover. I changed our illusions so our skin and clothes were the exact shade of the night sky surrounding us. We weren’t invisible, but it was close enough.
All we had to do was make sure we didn’t get hit by stray bullets.
“Kai, there she is!” Graysen called.
I couldn’t see where he was pointing with his illusion, so I let him drag me along. I fumbled for another hand to make sure our group didn’t get separated. From the brush of cold metal, I knew it was Bri.
That was when I caught sight of Desiree. She was hovering behind the statue of Valencia’s brother, rain dripping down her braids.
I ran for her.
We didn’t make it three steps before a wall of Enforcers blocked us. We were still illusioned, but there was no way to get past them. They stood side-by-side, with their shields touching. The only way past was through them.
Gray skidded to a stop just as one of the Enforcers began to speak into a megaphone.
“Mags, stand down,” he called. “Stand down!”
The UnAllied roared with fury. Valencia’s rain lashed us as she bellowed orders to her followers, like she was a general in a battle.
The UnAllied swarmed around the Enforcers. More gunfire, tear gas, and magic filled the air.
I caught sight of Desiree through the gaps between the soldiers. A few words from Michael had the row of Enforcers parting to make way for us.
“Desiree Hansley!” I shouted.
My cousin looked in my direction. She took a hesitant step toward me, even though she couldn’t see me. I let my illusion fall. Relief washed across my cousin’s face as she started forward. But before she’d made it another step, an Enforcer caught sight of her.
“No,” I gasped.
Desiree didn’t wait for us to catch up. She bolted.
My heart started beating again when, after a few steps, the Enforcer gave up the chase. He turned to go after another cluster of UnAllied, and for a few seconds, Gray and I had a clear path forward. We ran.
I switched all of our illusions between Enforcers and UnAllied, depending on which section of the park we were in. With the general bedlam, no one noticed the change in our appearances.
We had almost reached the street when a nervous prickling at the back of my neck had me slowing. I turned my head and caught sight of a group of Enforcers. There were five of them kneeling under a tree. It looked like they were intentionally staying in the shadows and away from the fighting.
Their cruel laughter wouldn’t have been enough to make me pause my mad chase after Desiree. It was the soft whimpering from a young voice that made me go still.
The Enforcers were gathered in a tight circle. Each one of them held a small bag that was barely visible in the dark. Whenever one of them moved, the bags’ contents clinked together like they were made out of glass.
“What’s going on here?” Michael asked.
I dropped his illusion so the Enforcers would be able to see him…and wouldn’t be looking around for the rest of us.
Michael’s voice was low enough that it shouldn’t have been able to carry, and yet, every one of the Enforcers straightened and turned their gazes on him.
As the soldiers stood, I caught sight of the small, huddled figure in their center. The child who had been whimpering was crouched into a ball. He was hugging his knees to his chest to make himself as small as possible.
I clenched my fists, forcing myself not to run in to rescue the child. I couldn’t give myself away just yet.
“Just fulfilling orders,” one of the men told Michael, his eyes slightly glazed and his expression full of adoration.
There was a clatter as the small bag he’d been holding dropped onto the sidewalk.
I hurried over to pick it up, knowing the men were all too enthralled by Michael to so much as notice me.
The bag was filled with glass syringes. They clinked together as I jostled the bag. A few of the syringes were empty and uncapped, but the majority were still full.
When I pulled one of the syringes out of the bag, I saw that the liquid had a yellow-green hue, like a lighter version of the Agent S we’d gotten from Morgan Ellington.
Smith’s poison scann
er was vibrating, blinking, and screeching when he touched it to the vial in my hand.
Even though the needle part of the syringe was capped, I held it gingerly. I wasn’t taking any chances that the stuff might get on my skin.
“This is the Magical Reduction Potion, isn’t it?” Graysen asked the men.
“Answer him,” Michael growled when they didn’t speak.
“Yes,” one of the Enforcers answered mechanically. “100% magical reduction, permanent.” He gave Michael an appealing look, as though he wanted a pat on the head.
The seven of us exchanged a horrified look.
“Ask them where they got this,” I told Michael.
Michael raised his eyebrows at the men.
“Confiscated from MagLab before it burned,” one of the Enforcers replied.
A hundred questions flooded my mind. How many vials did they have? Who else knew the formula, and would they be able to make more?
Before I could give voice to any of them, Sir Zachary let out a low, desperate whine. He nudged his way between the Enforcers. With a flare of guilt, I realized I had completely forgotten about the child who was huddled in a fetal position on the ground. He was a Super Mag, and judging from the magic radiating off him, we’d intervened before Enforcers injected him with the Magical Reduction Potion.
The Enforcers made way for Michael. He knelt down next to the little boy. “Are you hurt?” he asked in a gentle voice.
The little boy uncurled his body and sat up.
“Not yet,” he replied. “They were about to put that stuff inside me.”
“You’re a Super Mag, aren’t you?” Yutika asked. “What were you doing here?”
The little boy’s face tightened. “Those Nats chased us, and we all got separated.” He eyed the bag of vials still in my hand. “They’re planning to put that stuff in all of us.”
The vials clinked together as fury and disgust made my hand tremble. I swallowed, forcing myself to calm down.
“You don’t have worry about getting any of this in you,” I told the kid. I gave him a conspiratorial smile. “Watch this.”
I handed the bag to Bri. The little boy absently stroked Sir Zachary’s fur as his eyes tracked her every move.
Bri took the bag between her titanium hands and crushed it. Pale green liquid dribbled out and fell harmlessly onto the grass.
I noticed the liquid wasn’t attracted to Bri’s skin the way Agent S was. The substance must have been diluted enough in the Magical Reduction Potion that it lost some of its strength.
Nevertheless, I left a healthy distance between myself and the area of grass where the potion had spilled.
“Leave Boston,” Michael told the placid Enforcers in a tight voice. “Don’t ever—” he broke off and cocked his head, like he was listening for something.
That was when I felt it, too. A presence. Like a shadow I could feel rather than see. I looked around and saw that all of our illusions were gone.
Subject 6 was here.
“Come with us,” I told the Super Mag child, but when I turned back to him, he was sprinting away.
“Want me to go after him?” Bri asked.
Before I could answer, Sir Zachary yelped.
It looked like our dog was flying, except his legs were scrabbling for purchase and he was biting at something we couldn’t see.
Subject 6 was holding him.
“Oh no, you don’t!” A.J. shouted. I heard the creak and groan of wood.
Then, the tree beside us began to topple over.
Subject 6 let go of Sir Zachary, who jumped into A.J.’s arms just as the tree crashed to the ground.
“Where did he go?” I demanded, spinning around in a circle.
“He’s gone,” Michael said. “I can’t feel him anymore.”
I swore.
“Kaira!”
I whipped around at the sound of my cousin’s voice.
“Desiree,” I began, awash with relief. “What—”
I cut myself off when I saw she was crying.
“I didn’t mean it,” Desiree said, wrapping her arms around herself. “I didn’t mean it.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Just come on.” Desiree gestured to me.
Before I could start demanding answers, Desiree was jogging away from us. I ran after her.
Desiree stopped at a bench at the edge of the park, where a lone figure sat. The child’s face was buried in her hands, but I recognized Cora’s profile.
My youngest cousin’s backpack with the BSMU keychain lay at her feet. Her favorite pink jacket was thrown over her lap.
“Cora,” I whispered.
My cousin didn’t look up.
Dread uncurled inside me. I needed to go to her…to find out what was wrong…but my feet seemed to have forgotten how to work. My fingertips tingled, and a cold sweat broke out across my forehead.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Cora was sitting on the edge of the bench, completely unmoving.
A tiny sound, barely audible, escaped from my cousin. My feet unfroze, and I ran to her. Cora didn’t look up.
It was only when I knelt directly in front of her that I saw the tears streaming down my cousin’s cheeks.
“What happened?” Graysen asked Desiree while I gave Cora a gentle shake and tried to get her to snap out of whatever fog she was in.
“Move,” Michael told me. “She’s in shock.”
He sat on the bench next to Cora and said something into her ear.
Cora let out a hiccup-y sob and pressed her face into Michael’s shirt. Her whole body convulsed.
Fear pounded through me as I rounded on Desiree.
“What happened?”
Desiree’s lip trembled. She stared at the ground when she answered.
“I told Cora I was coming to see the statue unveilings, and I guess she snuck out to find me. I haven’t been home in days, so I didn’t even know she was here until she texted me to meet up with her.” Desiree swallowed. Her face contorted with an emotion I didn’t think I’d ever seen from her before.
Regret.
Cora’s lips moved as she spoke into Michael’s shirt. I couldn’t understand a word she said, but Michael was nodding.
“What did you do, Desiree?” I asked her. I was out of patience and sick with worry.
“One of those horrible Nat guys got to her,” Desiree said. “I tried to stop him, but that monster stuck a needle in her arm and injected her with something.”
I staggered back a step.
“Which Nat guys?” I demanded, already knowing the answer but needing to be sure. “Was it one of the ones wearing an Enforcer uniform?”
Desiree nodded.
I looked at Michael. The apology in his eyes left no room for doubt. Cora had been injected with the Magical Reduction Potion.
CHAPTER 38
Cora was still crying as Michael spoke to her. A.J. had put Sir Zachary on my youngest cousin’s lap, and Bri was hugging her.
I blinked as tears clouded my own vision. Cora, an Inanimate Illusionist like Ma, had lost her magic.
“How could you?” I asked Desiree, my voice cracking. “Was coming here really worth Cora’s magic?!”
“I didn’t mean it,” she said, her lower lip trembling.
“Kai.” Gray came up behind me as I faced off against my cousin. “We need to get them out of here.”
He was right. We were tucked away from the fighting for the moment, but we weren’t nearly far enough from danger. Cora’s magic might be gone, but our lives were all at risk.
“Come on,” I said, feeling ill. “We can talk about this more at home.”
“I—can’t go home,” Desiree said, her guilty gaze flicking to Cora.
“Desiree, it isn’t safe here,” Gray said. “And Ma’s really worried.”
I saw the moment when Desiree’s guilt and grief transformed to something ugly.
“You filthy Nat,” she yelled. “This i
s all your fault!”
“Have you lost your mind completely?” I demanded.
“If it hadn’t been for him, Valencia would be in charge of Boston right now, and all the Nats would be dead!”
For a second, my vision blacked out as all the horror Desiree had caused filled my head. Gray must have sensed I was about to pounce, because his arms came around my waist.
“I knew you were a brat,” I told Desiree. “But I never took you for stupid. Turns out I was wrong.”
“Oh yeah?” Desiree retorted. “If I was so stupid, Valencia wouldn’t have promoted me to lieutenant.” She sneered at me. “And you’d still have that dump of a house you loved so much.”
My blood went cold. I felt Gray’s inhale as he held me more tightly.
“How do you know we’re not staying in the house anymore?” I asked, my voice carefully neutral.
She just said she hadn’t been home in days.
Desiree’s eyes widened with panic when she realized what she’d just revealed. Her attention slid to Bri, who had come to stand beside me in full titanium form.
“It was you.” I choked on an emotion I never thought I’d feel toward a member of my own family. It was something close to hatred. “You’re the one who told Valencia where we lived, weren’t you?”
I didn’t wait for Desiree to affirm or deny it. I could read the truth in her dark eyes.
Nausea surged through me.
“You almost got us killed,” I gasped.
“No,” Desiree crossed her arms. “I almost got him killed.” Her eyes glittered with menace as she jutted her chin at Gray. “I wish I had.”
“Desiree, what the hell happened to you?” Graysen demanded, because I was completely incapable of speech.
I couldn’t believe that my own cousin had betrayed us to Valencia. I couldn’t believe she was the reason we’d lost our home and almost our lives.
“You care more about your stupid boyfriend than you do about your own family,” Desiree accused me.
“He is my family,” I snarled.
Desiree made a sound of disgust. “Well, he isn’t mine.” Then, she breathed in deeply and shouted.
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