The Rise of Ren Crown

by Anne Zoelle

  “Doctor Greyskull?”

  “Another ten minutes will set these new wards. Your son should be free in the morning. It's a miracle,” he said lightly.

  “Yes,” Stuart said, eyes going hazy, accessing some mental magic. “Might I speak with you elsewhere?”

  “Of course.” Greyskull looked at me. “Miss Crown. I trust you can find your way back?”

  “Yes. Thank you.”

  Greyskull paused at the door. “There are...tidings on the wind. Perhaps it would be best if you left as soon as ten minutes have passed?”

  I looked at Dare and Constantine, then nodded.

  The door shut and the two older men disappeared from view.

  “You court disaster,” Constantine bit out.

  I turned to awkwardly defend myself, but Constantine was speaking to Dare, his focus solely on his roommate.

  “More than you?” Dare rolled his head around his neck, working the kinks out. “I know what you are trying to do.”

  “Do you?” There was a thin, edged snarl on Constantine's lips. He turned to me. “Playing with the praetorians? I thought you had more sense.”

  “Whoa. We're fine. Everything's fine,” I said, alarmed at this shift.

  “Are you? You are entrusting your friends to your enemies. I had thought more of you.”

  Shocked and hurt, I shrunk back in my chair. “I...” It was true. Marsgrove had always been an enemy, and vice versa, regardless of the cautious change in classification that might be occurring on both sides.

  Constantine opened his mouth to say more, but nothing emerged. He jerked his chin toward Dare, daggers in his eyes. But Constantine was in no position to enact any sort of revenge for the silencing spell. Not that either of them was incapable of slitting someone's throat with an empty Jell-O cup, but Dare was in mostly decent form and Constantine was still on death's door. It was not even close to a fight Constantine could win.

  “It's either that, or we make the kind doctor sprint back here posthaste to try and salvage your mangled body,” Dare said pleasantly. “I thought you might prefer this option after all the effort Ren has gone through to patch you back together at her own expense.”

  And...that was that. We spent an excruciatingly silent eight minutes in the room with me trying to look anywhere but at the two of them.

  At the end, when the timer beeped, I practically leapt from my chair.

  Constantine grabbed my hand. Complicated and twisted emotions ran through our connection, but underlining all of them was regret. My shoulders eased and I patted his hand. “It's okay.”

  He released my hand and leaned back against his pillows, then closed his eyes, dismissing us completely.

  Even with the tense silence, the healing wards in the room had strengthened further with just that small amount of time.

  “So,” I asked Dare as we closed the door and started down the hall. “You didn't remove his vocal chords, right?” It was half joke, and half concern.

  “If only I could get away with that here. The spell released as soon as we stepped from the room.”

  “He didn't mean it,” I said quietly.

  Dare looked at me in disbelief. “He meant every word.”

  “Well, yes, he was upset at whatever he was upset about, but it's not like I haven't been second guessing myself every moment of the last twenty minutes.”

  His fingers touched my side, a fleeting brush. “You did the right thing. You can barely create a spark of magic, and Marsgrove is skilled and has a vested interest in finding her.”

  “Yeah.” I pulled a hand through my hair and focused on my surroundings.

  Plan A of our scheme had included Neph meeting me in an empty room at Medical, where we would switch back and I would exit with Neph. Plan B should have had Neph coming to Medical to dump my double and to leave.

  I now understood how Dare had planned we would get to Medical unnoticed. And what an excellent idea it had been. Neph had dumped my double here somewhere, using her student healer status to access the level. If people had been watching Neph—and I was sure that they had—we were at least on a timeline to indicate I had been in Medical since the fireworks ended.

  Clever, brilliant Dare.

  Of course, Plan B meant that none of my friends should now remember any of this, to save them if questioned, but I'd cross that bridge later.

  “Be careful who you trust,” Dare said, as we walked.

  “Are you going to warn me off Constantine again? I know you don't trust him.”

  It occurred to me, though, that Constantine could have easily given us up. Or given up Dare. A few words to the official would have ended the game completely. Dare had to recognize that.

  Dare examined me. Looking as if he were debating something. “I don't trust him, in general. But...he is ruled by his emotions. He can be trusted with something when he shows emotion for it.”

  I had never encountered anyone else who saw him that way. Most thought he was either completely soulless or just waiting to be “saved.”

  I nodded, though I wasn't sure to what Dare was specifically referring in this case. My expression must have clued him in.

  Dare sighed. “He alerted me. When Godfrey was trying to take you on the battlefield.”

  I stared at him, shocked. But my memory supported the notion. Constantine had looked toward the Midlands—where Dare had been at the time—twice while trying to stall Godfrey. And he'd seemed especially certain when after his last glance toward the Midlands he had told Godfrey that Godfrey would die. Mages who'd had frequencies for years still tended to look in the direction of the person they were speaking with, their eyes feeling the tug of the shared magic.

  “You do talk over frequency.” It was like learning that two countries that had been fighting for a millennium had been secretly playing tag in the backyard all that time.

  Dare sighed again. “No. Something else. Something you can't just get rid of, once shared.”

  My brain stalled out on that for a moment.

  Both boys were insanely private. Neither of them were the type to share any lasting connection freely. I wasn't even sure that Constantine had a frequency. I had never seen evidence of it. Even the magic that he used to link with his conquests were temporary spells that left no lasting ties.

  That these two had some secret way to communicate...

  Meant they had been friends. But then, I supposed that made some sort of sense—few people hated another so personally if they hadn't at one time been close.

  I decided to roll with it and freak out later along with everything else.

  “So...he called you? That...seems like a good idea? Wasn't everyone calling everyone else once frequencies went back online?”

  “You don't understand, I know.” He gave me a tight smile. “The last time he used that connection was when...” He shook his head. “To overcome his hatred and use it again? I know what he can be trusted with.”

  “He kind of hates everyone?”

  Dare's eyes were hooded. “No, he hates a tiny fraction of the population, and doesn't care about the other 99.9 percent. And he cannot be trusted with people or things he doesn't care about. Ever. He'll wipe the entire board clean of those pieces as easily as drawing breath, while focusing his actual attention on the pieces that have provoked some emotion from him.”

  Based on every interaction I had observed with Constantine, Dare's remarks seemed pretty accurate. What he had done today on the battlefield stood as a good data point.

  “I think he'd save Will,” I ventured.

  “Of course he would. Because Will's attached to you.”

  I blinked.

  “Which is why I'm even entertaining the repellent plans that I'm going to have to implement if Marsgrove fails. Constantine will protect you. He will save your roommate. He will try to kill the man who murdered his mother, and he will try to have me captured. All in that order of importance.”

  He was looking straight ahead, but he must have see
n my jaw sag because he smiled and added, “I can take care of myself—especially when I'm fourth on that list.” He looked amused. “There won't be enough time for him to do anything to me if he wants to accomplish his other goals.”

  I shook my head. I'd think about all of that later.

  “Dr. Greyskull knows...a lot.”

  “Yes, he does.”

  His tone said all I needed to know about whether Dare knew about Greyskull's split loyalties, and the reasons he remained on campus.

  We exited Medical, the wards slipping over us, and stepped into the stairwell.

  “Outside—the thing with Kai—” My voice broke off into a strange gurgle as he wrapped his fingers around mine without breaking stride.

  “They can listen here if a student leaves a device.”

  A remembrance of the devices in the walls of the Second Layer Depot skittered through my mind along with all of the other crazy thoughts cascading through my head; the feel of his fingers around mine, the heat of his palm, the absolutely gobsmacked look on the face of the medical attendant who was passing us on the stairs, the increasingly amused look on Dare's face.

  “You heard all those thoughts, didn't you?” I asked mentally, somewhere between mortified and horrified.

  “Maybe.”

  The look on his face said definitely. I locked down as many stray thoughts as I could manage. But lots of insidious ones kept slipping through.

  “Why are you holding my hand?”

  I kind of needed him to stop. Everything I was thinking was slipping through—I could feel the loss like valuable items fumbled down a sink drain.

  “Skin contact completes the circuit of magic so it is only the two of us. We are still using the communication thread your friends set up in the armbands, but with no outside interference, no chance of being overheard. Your friend Dagfinn is certainly paranoid enough that the regular pathway is secure, but this makes it unassailable.”

  Okay. That made complete sense. Sure.

  I tried not to panic. Or sweat.

  “Kaine. The thing with the metal dragon,” I said a little desperately, trying to get back on track.

  I squeezed his hand, as if that would only allow the correct thoughts to go through.

  “I wrapped everything into a shadow. Kaine is naturally resistant to all sorts of magic. It makes him very dangerous. But he is frequently blind to his own.”

  I mulled his answer for a moment—trying not to dwell on increasingly terrified thoughts of Kaine being resistant to magic.

  “The shadow does...what?”

  “It hides what is underneath. Julian would never make it off campus with the papers or key otherwise. With the shadow, the package will look unexceptional to the guards.”

  “Won't Kaine know—”

  “Julian is already gone. He took the opportunity while Kaine chased us. Kaine will have discovered this by now, though he won't be able to prove anything.”

  “And Julian will release the men in the papers?”

  “Yes. And deal with them.”

  We passed another person who stared strangely at our hands, so I stepped closer to Dare and stuffed them behind our bodies.

  “You think that is going to work?” His mental voice sounded really amused.

  “No. Yes? Shut up. This is going to be all over the dorms by the time we get up there and I'm sending all of the people who ask, to you.”

  “You can try.”

  A little growl escaped my mouth.

  “So, Kaine—is he resistant to Origin Magic?”

  “Untested. I'm sure he is dying to try it out.”

  “He scares me,” I admitted.

  “He should.” Dare's mental voice was grim. “There's a reason that the Department's activities have remained shrouded for so long. His magic doesn't just hide his own presence.”

  I thought of Raphael, who would have been taken about a decade ago, right after he graduated Excelsine. Kaine would have been eighteen at the time, maybe? My age.

  “Was he there when Raphael was?”

  “No one knows where Kaine came from. Whispered opinion is that he was raised in the secret testing facilities that don't officially exist.”

  Horror filled me.

  I had so many questions, but we had reached the top of the stairs. I disengaged my hand. No way was I walking out there holding Alexander Dare's hand. Though it would likely shift rumors away from other things. Still, I wasn't sure that I was up for the social repercussions. When he had sat with us at lunch for five minutes, I had fielded questions for weeks.

  “Ready?” he asked out loud.

  I nodded.

  We stepped into chaos.

  Chapter Nineteen: Connections of the Desired and Undesired Kind

  The first floor of the Magiaduct was in an uproar in Dorm One, with students yelling and arguing over each other.

  “They are demanding that we line up for review. That we wake up everyone who is asleep too. After everything else today—”

  “There's no way the officials will let—”

  “They can do anyth—”

  “Would it be so bad to—”

  “Yes.”

  I certainly didn't want Kaine lining us up and looking for a wound on Dare that wasn't fully healed. I let myself be seduced by the steady reassurance of Dare striding next to me, looking unconcerned.

  Dare's gaze was steady, but there was a little quirk at the side of his mouth. Something that I could only see now that I'd spent so much time with him. Before, he would have just looked bored or unreadable. Whatever he could hear through frequency or armband conversation from his combat group had reassured him.

  Armband conversation...wait.

  I touched the band, flipping it back on.

  A flurry of voices immediately started yelling at me, their sweet, shouting voices a sure sign that they hadn't gone to Plan B. That they hadn't abandoned me when I'd told them to.

  “Where are you, Crown?”

  “What were you thi—”

  “I'm going to murder y—”

  “Tap once for okay, two for speaking under duress.”

  “I'm fine,” I sent back, jerkily tapping once, just in case. “Stop talking. Why aren't you all on Plan B? We're trying to get through the gauntlet—”

  “We almost did go to Plan B, Princess, regardless of our desire to stay the course. For the last twenty minutes, Legatus Shike, the head of The Legion, has been demanding that everyone in the Magiaduct be examined and questioned again. Provost Johnson has been working like mad to keep them out. And now Praetorian Kaine is backing the provost and telling Shike to back down.”

  That...was worrying. I didn't want to be lined up again, but why would Kaine suddenly back away?

  Whatever Dare was hearing was tightening the edges around his mouth too.

  One of the students near us answered my forming question. “Mandatory curfew instead? Whatever. Seriously. I'll take it.”

  I looked to Dare, and listened to the chattering in my ear. As long as every student returned to their rooms for the night in the next five minutes—or was running in the direction of their room—we wouldn't be subjected to interrogation. Students were yelling at each other to get going. Administration Magic started pulling at my stationary feet, the Administration was obviously backing this effort not to have the Department line us up again.

  Students started streaming around us, some running.

  The voices in my armband reflected the anxiety.

  The edges of Dare's eyes pinched, and defying the Administration Magic urging us to move, he grabbed my hand, holding me in place, and raised my hand inches from his gaze. Magic dropped over his eyes—not like Kaine's, but with enough similarity that I tried to yank backward.

  “Steady,” he murmured. He frowned as he examined every whorl. “It is the only thing that makes sense, but there is nothing there.” He looked over the rest of me, inch by inch, as people ran by us on both sides—a tiny island in the midst of th
e swarm. I looked around and saw the blatant staring from the students as they passed. Great.

  I gave a lame wave with my free hand—as in, “Hey, everything's fine, nothing to see here.” It didn't quite go that way, though, as people interpreted my gesture as, “I'm going to mangle everyone and everything around you with zero regrets!”

  They gasped and shrunk back—creating an even larger space between us and the crowd. Crap.

  I balled up my fist and drew it so quickly against my chest that I hit myself, but a flurry of hands had already shot forth to defend themselves, and three bolts flew toward me.

  With a flick of Dare's finger, the bolts fizzled in the air. He never turned around.

  Someone screamed.

  “I'm out of here through the other door. No way. No how,” a boy said.

  A number of people sprinted after him, away from us.

  Wow. Just, wow.

  Only a few stragglers—those with the sharp, considering gazes—walked more slowly past, gazes switching between Dare and me.

  “Clean.” Dare let my hand drop and frowned at me.

  I swallowed and looked around us. Administration Magic tugged me harder. “Are we really going back to our rooms?”

  “Yes.” Dare's mouth twisted. “Kaine is up to something, but there is nothing we can do while the Administration Magic is supporting curfew.”

  “Break it?”

  “A one-way ticket to expulsion in this environment.” He was already turning me and herding me toward the staircase. “And the Department will process and take you before you get a foot from the wards.”

  The voices coming through my armband and into my ear were echoing the same thing, some of them forming the same questions.

  It didn't take long to reach our floor or rooms. The dorm hall was a wasteland.

  Dare looked me over. “You need to sleep.” Something passed over his expression—a fleeting emotion. “If you can't sleep...” He touched my cheek. A thin thread of magic remained when he removed his fingers. “That will tell me and I'll help.”

  I stared at him. Administration Magic was tugging hard now.

  “I'll see you in the morning,” Dare said, opening his door and handing me my bag, which I'd left just inside. His hand brushed mine. “Don't do anything. Just sleep.”