The Rise of Ren Crown (25 page)

“Come.” Dare lurched forward.

“He. You.” I clutched my throat, trying to ease the pain there, as I choked out words.

Dare reached out for me and I could see the healing magic on his fingers. I instinctively grabbed his hand and swept it back to press against his midsection, my other hand wrapped around the portion of his chest where the ultramarine tie was linked between us, fisting it and sending everything I could through the link.

Dare shut his eyes and I could see them pinch in pain as he grabbed the magic. He disentangled me gently with one hand and knelt down.

My throat felt epically better—like I was now just suffering a massive cold.

“He'll survive,” Dare said grimly, eyes pinching again as he grabbed something from the forest floor and pressed it against his stomach. “He's already hunting us again, but now with actual wrath involved.”

“He knew who—”

“No, he was fishing.” He flashed his free hand at me and the last pains in my throat lessened.

“But your magic—”

“
Later
. Give me your hand.”

I held it out. He opened his closed fist just far enough to envelop my palm within it. The magic he had taken from Kaine swiveled between our palms, making me shudder.

With his other hand, he withdrew a small piece of metal from his pocket. He worked it between our palms. Then his magic was pulling on me.

His eyes were intensely blue. “Think about how you would release the men from the papers. Concentrate and visualize, but do it quickly,” he said, words crisp and brooking no questions.

I wanted us to get the hell out of here
now
, but I closed my eyes and did as he said. Because...

My thoughts reordered, scattered puzzle pieces locking together. Because he had
let
Kaine catch us. Whatever magic Dare had done during the tile slide, had pulled Kaine to us, or us to Kaine.

And we were already well past the time we could return to the dorms without consequence.

I shoved those worries aside and concentrated.

Dare's magic pulled the vision from me—similar to what Constantine had done when he'd leeched my magic in the First Layer. But this felt far more natural. This magic was a part of Dare already—he was a Bridge Mage—and was using the connection between us, and my trust, to absorb and direct my mental image stream.

He'd manipulated my magic and actions during extreme circumstances twice already. This third time was slightly different—with him having to swallow my thought process too—but I could feel him adjusting to it already, settling it into a procedure he could repeat in the future.

He'd probably be able to puppet me on a string from afar soon, without any aid. And wasn't that a comforting thought.

A moment later he pulled away. The blue light was gone, as was the feeling of Kaine's magic. A silver dragon glinted normally on Dare's palm.

From his cloak, Dare withdrew the portfolio containing Kinsky's papers and placed the silver dragon on top. Small strings wrapped around the two items, binding them temporarily together.

It had morphed from Origin-proof gloves into a portfolio, and was now becoming...something else.

“Where did you get that?” I asked, a little breathless from the image transfer and being enveloped in Dare's magic. Hopefully, no embarrassing thoughts had transferred with it.

“It's on loan.”

“From wh...” I trailed off as Julian Dare stepped out and into our space.

Unlike the two of us, Julian Dare’s cloak didn't hide his face.

His gaze was entirely focused on me, even as he took the portfolio from his nephew.

I tugged my hood forward, making sure it was still fully in place. I trusted Dare with my life. But I wasn't sure I trusted my freedom to anyone he knew.

I remembered Will saying that the Dare family—and we'd been looking at Julian specifically at the time—would have collected Will while in my Awakening sketch. Left him in there, and put him in the Dare family library of treasures.

“The key?” Julian asked.

Dare pointed at the silver dragon. Julian lifted the wrapped bundle and examined the dragon in the shifting light. “Exquisite.”

So the papers would be taken by Julian Dare to who knew where. Back to their island where they would release the men for questioning? Back to the Department?

A significant amount communication passed between them that I was not privy to. But even frequency users had facial expressions, and Julian Dare was very pleased about something.

There was a strong physical resemblance between the two. The positive kind, as they were both very good looking. And the two of them were obviously close. Julian Dare was the youngest of the older generation, nearly fifteen years younger than Alexander's father, Maximilian, and only ten or twelve years older than Alexander himself.

Dare's uncle wasn't part of the Legion, but he
was
part of the Department, and therefore he answered to Stavros. He was a Hunter—part of a special operations task force designed to find and stop disturbances, and to apprehend magical criminals in the First Layer—which, for mages used to being surrounded by magic, was a magicless place fraught with peril.

The first and second times I had encountered Julian Dare had been in the First Layer. The second time he had been casing my neighborhood, trying to find me after my Awakening.

Hunters tended...not to be well loved. They were like the marshals of the Old West. Marshals who did their own thing and weren't well policed.

I would never feel bad about the hunter I had trapped in my gopher sketch the night after my Awakening.

Julian Dare stared at me. His gaze seemed to penetrate my hood. “If we had only taken you that day in the First Layer...” His gaze was dissecting, even though he shouldn't be able to fully see me beneath the enchanted cloak.

Taken me from the street, where I had laid, dying on the ground, with my brother dead beside me.

Alexander Dare had saved my life that day. And he had given me one last moment with my brother, using the limited container magic the Dares had been carrying.

Julian Dare had been in favor of leaving me to die.

I said nothing.

“You should let me take her now,” Julian said, gaze never leaving me.

Tensing, I looked at Alexander.
Take me where?
He didn't respond, his unchanging gaze focused on his uncle.

“When she goes down, she will take everyone with her,” Julian said, gaze narrowing on me as I turned sharply back in his direction.

“What does he—”

“Ignore him
,” Alexander responded mentally.

But it was hard to ignore someone who was staring at me like he wanted to put a slice of me on a dissection slide. Again, Will's words about the Dares reminded me of my potential danger.

“You should let me do it now,” Julian said. “We could stage it to look like Kaine did it and cease waiting for a better opportunity.”

“Do what now?”
My mental voice was sounding increasingly uneasy.

“Enough,” Alexander said, looking directly at Julian.

Julian smiled. There was something very wicked in his expression. “Don't you want to—”

“Julian.” There was a warning in Alexander's voice.

Julian opened his mouth to reply, but both Dares suddenly tipped their heads to the side, and Julian smoothly tucked the bundle of Origin and Shadow Magic into his own cloak, then straightened his sleeves.

Marsgrove emerged from the trees a moment later, expression pinched and irritated. “Is this where we all convene before being blessed with eternal damnation?” he asked in a clipped voice.

He looked at the three of us, hoods still covering two of us from view. His gaze rested on me longer, expression deeply unpleasant.

“What are you doing, Axer?” he said finally, turning Dare's way. “There is no way you didn't raise that alert on purpose.”

Dare bounced a ball of magic in his palm, the sleeve of the cloak revealing only a sliver of his wrist. He didn't respond audibly. He was standing as if he was in perfect health, but our connection was as open as it had ever been, and I could feel the agony of his half-healed wound.

Marsgrove looked between us and made a distinct noise of displeasure.

He pulled out a device and activated it. Immediately, a crocgoose and five birdsnakes that had been creeping closer to our area zoomed off in the opposing directions, as if a force field was pushing them away.

“We have five minutes for this
meeting
,” Marsgrove said. He didn't want to be here. It was in every line of his body and face. “The Administration Magic will override the Chaos Magic for only that long, then the praetorians will be upon us.”

Marsgrove did many things that he didn't want to do. It seemed to be his lot in life as the school administrator trying to field the chaos of the world from all sides.

“Now what—”

Marsgrove broke off abruptly, horror replacing distaste as he looked to the right of me. Tensing, I jerked around and followed his line of sight, certain that I would see Kaine sauntering toward us.

But the object of horror was not human.

The other animals might have scuppered, but our cursed vine had appeared out of nowhere and was launching itself upward into the air, then diving back into the ground. Performing lazy dolphin dives on an early Wednesday morn, devouring spells that were zipping around and heading toward the processing plant. Nothing to see here...

Nothing except a clearly dangerous creature that I had sent off on a quest to remove all our spell trails.

It had been, like, ten minutes. Tops. And the vine looked considerably thicker.

That...was maybe not good.

It opened its green mouth and smiled toothily at me, thorn fangs dripping with magic, as if it was showing me what it had done, expecting a kind word in return. I smiled painfully—lip splitting—and gave it a thumbs up before motioning it onward with a jerking hand. Its smile grew and it obediently dove into the ground, leaving behind only a displaced stone.

Marsgrove was looking at the stone as if some nightmare was coming true. “Where...?
No.
”

Realization formed on his face, and his gaze whipped to Dare. To
Dare
not to me. “
You
. Do you have any idea...?” Marsgrove looked on the verge of absolutely
losing
it. With
Dare.
Not
me.
The absolute unreality of this made me nearly lose track of the conversation.

Dare tipped his covered head in acknowledgment.

“We
will
be having a
long
talk,” Marsgrove bit out. “You do
not
understand the path you are walking. As
stupid
as your—” He swiped a hand through the air, cutting himself off. Which was good, because whatever he'd been about to say had made Julian go deadly still. “I will back the measures against you myself, Axer, do you understand?”

Dare's gaze was calculating beneath his hood. I wondered, for a moment, if I was still the only one who could see it. “We all must do as we must.”

Marsgrove looked ready to explode. “Is that what this is?”

“Of course not. You said you wanted a bit of aid, Philly,” Julian said lightly, almost rakishly, stillness gone. “And here it is presented.” He waved a hand in my direction.

I tensed, anticipation thrumming now. Dare had said... And Marsgrove was here... That could only mean...

Marsgrove grimaced, and my stoppered magic beat heavily against its occlusions.

“This subject isn't finished, Julian. Your entire family and I will be having words.” Marsgrove withdrew Olivia's scarf.

I took a step toward it automatically.

“Stay right there, Crown,” he said in a warning tone.

It was hard to stop. I wanted nothing more than to have it in my palm.

My head jerked toward Dare, who inclined his own at me. This is why he said we'd find the scarf in the Midlands. He had called Marsgrove to him.

Anticipation thrummed hard now, making me shift on my feet.

Marsgrove's mouth was set in hard lines. It was apparent that he did not want to do this, whatever
this
was about to be, but he was holding the scarf palm up in his hand.

I could see the cracked magic at the edges of the threads. Marsgrove had been trying to get through to the magic. Trying and failing. I darted my gaze around the group.

Julian looked extremely amused.

Dare radiated boredom, like only he could—bouncing his magic between his hands and lazily watching us. Anyone fooled by that was an idiot, though. He could flick that magic at any of us before we could react. It was a reminder—like a loaded revolver carelessly twirled on a tabletop.

He'd known. He'd known or had anticipated that Marsgrove had been trying to unlock the magic in the scarf. He'd been counting on this gambit the whole time, maybe ever since Marsgrove had taken the scarf from me.

It was a reminder—a constant reminder—of the dangerous mind he possessed.

And—with my gaze once more locked on the scarf as Marsgrove gripped it—I might owe Dare an extra apology. When everything returned to normal, I was making Dare an
army.

“Crown, look at me,” Marsgrove said, voice a bit harsh.

I did.

“Do
exactly
as I tell you and nothing more.”

I nodded, eager to do anything that would put the scarf in my hand.

He pulled out a ball that seemed alive with electrical currents flowing around it. “Touch this. It displays magic for those maintaining contact with it. And it will help you get by your...” He grimaced. “
Blockage
.”

I touched the electric ball and all of the magic in me stood on point, as if it had been electrified and was awaiting command. As if I could diagnose and debug everything that was wrong with me.

All I needed was the key.

Information on my internal systems filed by faster than I could comprehend it. I shook my head to clear it. That wasn't the important thing here.

I touched my other hand to Olivia's scarf. And I could
feel
her. Instantaneously.

A sob ripped from me. Like a dry creek bed that had been drained of its last drop, and here, at its last moment to survive, it was being deluged with rain.