The Rise of Ren Crown (19 page)

“I can do it,” I said.

Everyone looked at me.

“Crown, you, uh—” Lifen delicately cleared her throat. “Your magic—”

“I know.” Two weeks to get back together magically? Far,
far
too long. “But if I can get out of the Magiaduct during the ceremony tonight, I can...convince the mage accompanying me to wipe at least some of the trails.”

There was no way that Dare—ridiculously overpowered Alexander Dare—wouldn't be able to do that. And I was probably going to need to accept the fact that he was going. That I wasn't going to be able to stop him, even if I wanted to.

Looks were exchanged around the table.

“Who?” Saf asked.

I opened my mouth, but Dagfinn shrugged sharply. “Frankly, I don't care who it is. The shadier the better. I'll do whatever you need if you can get the comm trail clean. And you don't need someone else, if you have this.” He fished a device out of his pocket and started fiddling with it. He held it up, face out. “
This
will get you ten years in Department hell, if you are caught with it, Crown. You activate this in a chaos spot and it will take care of every spell listed inside, including its own destruction.”

I took the device, examining its silver edges. “So the Midlands will work?”

Dagfinn's lower lip sagged, then he snapped it shut. “Yes. Yes it will.” He looked far happier, straightening in his chair. “Whatever you need, Crown.” He spread his fingers, and kept his gaze locked with mine. “You do this, and
whatever
you need.”

After a quick, traded glance with Saf, Trick turned to me. “You going to get the Queen's scarf back tonight?”

It wasn't a hard guess. Why else would I be courting such trouble?

“Hopefully.” I was going to get it, or die trying. I pressed my hands together in my lap, palms clammy. “I won't be able to do magic or get out of the Magiaduct on my own, though. And my companion...can't afford the spotlight tonight.”

There was no way Dare would have me seeking help if he could do it on his own.

I looked around the room and was unsurprised to see a flurry of discernment crest over most gazes at whom that might be.

Loudon swore softly, shirt sleeve pulled over his right fingers and pinching the sides of his mouth together. “Yeah?” He swore again, looking at Trick. There were many similarly small exchanges between the others. “Yeah, okay. This is happening. Why not.”

“We are going to need an exit and a slew of distractions,” I said, heart threatening to beat right out of my chest.

“Oh, Crown.” Patrick's smile was edged. “You leave that to us.”

Chapter Thirteen: Reconnection

Neph, Delia, and I went to Mike and Will's room after the meeting. It was the first time just the five of us had been together since we'd been on Top Circle.

Delia hit Mike in the shoulder, hard. “What were you thinking earlier, Givens? Kaine could have
killed
you.”

Mike stepped out of range and put his hands down in a gesture of surrender. “I was thinking that controlling the word of the community before the media does was the best thing we could do. And now anything that Oakley and his lot say will be looked at through a heavy lens.”

Delia's lips pressed together. “You are on Kaine's list now.”

“We already were, D.” Mike's words were gentle—the type you said to the cat long cornered. “From the moment Godfrey showed us to the world, any sort of privacy was stripped from us.”

“I'm sorry.” I swallowed harshly, pulling at the trial memorial band newly strapped to my arm. “I'm so s—”

Mike looked at me. “What? You think you are the reason? Did you drag us to the Eighteenth Circle?” he asked, voice hard.

“No.”

“Did you put us on the worldwide feed?”

“No.”

“Did you try to kill the student body?”

“I came close when Olivia was taken,” I said, letting go of the band and mashing my hands together.

His expression softened, and he touched the pin he had chosen as his temporary memorial object. We were all currently wearing different forms of wearables—pins, bracelets, drop necklaces, armbands, chokers, forehead bands, belts—allowing Delia and Lifen to tweak spells and ideas while they worked on the form we would all adopt.

“Ren. You saved campus. You created the other dome that saved the students in the battle field stands. You cleared the ports. You and Olivia and Plan Fifty-two made us all available to help. You were the nexus of everything
right
that happened today. And
we
willingly volunteered to save the students at the battle field knowing the outcomes. I knew death was likely before we stepped into the Blarjack Swamp.”

My heart rate sped up again and I ran an agitated hand over my lips, staring at my lap. “I want to keep everyone safe.”

“Yes. So do we,” he said, voice turning gentle. “And that includes keeping
you
safe too.”

“I nearly didn't pass that test,” I said, lifting my gaze reluctantly to his.

“I know,” he said bluntly, holding my gaze. “And I don't know how you passed it, but you
did
.” He held up a hand to forestall argument. “And even if you don't pass it in the future, your status means nothing to me. I will do whatever is needed to keep you safe.”

Mike was a clean-cut, sport-loving, weather-roping, well-adjusted boy. He'd probably been one of the most popular boys at his magical secondary school. Happy with his place in the world, and intent on seeing everyone else achieve that state. Hazily, I knew his parents were somewhat involved in community works and personal liberties in the wider world.

What Mike wasn't, was a delinquent. He was plenty popular at Excelsine, and could be out sporting it up right now, happy, and with blinders firmly on.

But he was highly loyal, and Will was his best friend and magically-sympathetic roommate. His brother-from-another-mother type of thing. When Will had taken me under his wing, Mike had done the same. And when Mike did something, he
did
something.

I had always loved Mike—he was so similar in personality and interests to Christian that being friends with him was as natural as breathing.

Mike, like Delia, still did things outside of the circle of Will, Neph, Olivia, and me—but he always sat with us at mealtimes, marking us as his “school family” unit.

And for that family unit, he was descending into delinquency.

“It doesn't mean
nothing
, Michael, and you know it.” Delia had already started working on the second draft set of memorial wearables she and Lifen had worked up between them, and she was loosely working a bit of knitting into an armband, weaving a spell into a fiber as she wound it through another, fingers shaking just a little.

“D—”

“Just because you want it to be like that and just because something is
right
means nothing next to fear.” She made a loop in a thread. “Not even seventy years can change society's mind on some things.”

A struggle appeared on Mike's face, as he watched Delia specifically avoid looking at anyone. It had been hinted at multiple times that Delia's family background was far too close to the Third Layer for many Second Layer citizens to be comfortable with.

That Delia didn't have a problem with me seemed...odd. She had seen me on the battlefield. She knew, just like Mike, that I shouldn't have passed the Origin Magic test.

Delia crossed her first spell with a second, tangling the two together, and setting them into the fibers.

“Delia, are you...is it okay that—”

She pierced me with her gaze, fingers halting their motion. “That an Origin Mage ruined my past? My family's legacy?”

I couldn't form words.

“I told you, that day in the cafeteria,” she said, spearing a thread. “We were going to be friends. Knowing you can break the world, and that someday you probably will—Origin Mages almost
always
detonate somehow—doesn't change the characteristics that you showed then, and that you continue to display.”

Her fingers started another series of knots. “Flavel Valeris' actions seventy years ago may have started the ball rolling, but the people in the Second Layer chose, and continue to choose, to treat my family as they do, even though my parents were
born
here. They chose to treat us
thirdies
this way all on their own. The Second Layer chose to keep the magic that Valeris ejected from the Third Layer—magic that could have been righted with Kinsky's return. They started this war that they are now fighting. You did not.”

A ding sounded in the room. Everyone looked up.

“Good timing. I'm starving,” Mike said, breaking the tension.

I touched the connection thread to Delia and some of the tightness in her shoulders loosened. Mike squeezed one of her shoulders as he walked toward the food area of their room. He hadn't been kidding then. It wasn't too surprising that we might grab a second dinner, as mages ate more than First Layer folks did. All that energy use tended to burn far more calories.

“Magi Mart?” I asked. It wasn't ideal, but I'd had breakfast burritos and magic wraps on worse. I'd had one earlier with Neph after returning from Medical.

“Nah, the bell was a reminder. In lockdown situations, they send menus around, then send the food to us. Trying to simulate the cafeteria environment. Get everyone eating simultaneously and refreshing campus with our magical calories,” he said jokingly. “Since everyone is going to be attending the memorial far past midnight, now is the perfect time.”

Mike opened the delivery box and removed a sheet of paper. He scanned it with his eyes, then pressed his finger down. A tiny bit of magic was enveloped.

“Second dinner. Order up,” Mike said, while passing around what I could now see was a menu.

I took it and looked through the options. Caniopidas was listed—the delightful food item that was created by the ten-eyed people who worked a small section of the cafeteria. I pressed my finger next to the item. A small suction of energy took an imprint of my magic. The Decaclops people read the magic from a person and created a combination that was tailored exactly to the consumer. It was usually done in person in the cafeteria.

It was my favorite choice, and I didn't understand why other people shied away from it. I said so aloud.

“Because it is invasive, Ren,” Will answered.

“This world is all about invasiveness,” I said, looking over Mike's bed and out the window. The Legion warriors in their spiky black garb were striding between the vetted troops from five surrounding countries that had assembled to help “sweep” campus for any remaining threats. The mixed scouting groups were designed to stop anything from being covered up or hidden. No one trusted anyone, it seemed.

“And giving up rights,” I added. “Why anyone would be against the perfect meal from a scan far less invasive than what I get every time I enter Top Circle, I'll never know.”

The others exchanged looks.

I sighed. “What?”

“Part of it has to do with the Decaclops people, the Fourth Layer beings that make it,” Neph said softly.

“Great. Racism?”

“Most mages like to call it
caution against things they don't completely understand
.”

I sighed. “Fine. You can call a potato whatever you want.”

“Magical creatures and beings live in the Fourth Layer for a reason. There, they control all. There,
we
are the potatoes.”

I rubbed my neck. “So what did you all get to eat?”

“Caniopidas.” Will winked at me.

I smiled slowly. It was a good reminder that the world could be burning, but that didn't mean that everyone inside was fanning the flames.

I looked out the window, smile slipping. “Campus still looks scorched. After the bone beast, the green mages had everything cleaned up in hours.”

“Campus will be fine,” Neph reassured.

“The green mages are probably
itching
,” Will said. “They will have it all cleaned up in no time as soon as we are released. They are probably hatching more firesnakes in someone's room right now,” he said ruefully.

Which reminded me of my new view and my new dorm. Delia looked at me sharply.

“We should discuss what is going to happen with Ren's roommate situation,” Delia said, spearing me with a glance, reading my mind. It wasn't a surprise she knew—I'd bet my remaining magic that everyone in the Magiaduct knew at this point.

“I'll deal with her,” I said tiredly.

“You will not be alone,” Neph said.

Delia squinted at Neph suspiciously. “There's no way you can be in there.”

“I must spend six hours of sleep time in my assigned room,” Neph said smoothly. “It has been ordered. Other than that, though, I can do a work around in Ren's room.”

Will stared at Neph, eyes going wide, whereas Delia's were narrowing. “But—”

“It will be fine.”

“But—”

Neph put a hand on Will's arm and he abruptly went a little glassy-eyed.

I looked between them suspiciously. “What?”

“Will is unnecessarily worried. Everything will be fine,” she said soothingly.

Will nodded, his expression a bit too blissful.

I looked at him even more suspiciously. “Did you just whammy Will?” I asked Neph.

“Yes,” she said unapologetically. Mike looked resigned. Delia's lips were pinched even more tightly.

“Why?” I asked.

“He is worried that I will force my way into your new room.”

Mike looked at Neph, brows pinching. “Why would you use force?”

“It is off-limits to muses.”

“
What
?” Mike said, his face growing stormy.

Neph shrugged, as if they weren't discussing the same issue. “It matters not.”

“It matters a
lot,
” I said, letting the anger come back—pushing aside for the moment the knowledge that it was better for Neph to stay away from Bellacia anyway. “The dorm guy
said
that you were my muse. It's
known.
How—?”

She put her hand on me and some of my anger ebbed, slipping away.

“Did you just whammy me?”

“Yes.”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “It is best for your safety to stay away, even though the reason completely sucks. Bellacia doesn't want you in the room, but she wants access to you.”