The Protection of Ren Crown (10 page)

“It's not like terrorists are worried about a prison term for illegal doll usage,” Olivia said pointedly.

“But how did they get them inside?” Will asked. “The library's scanner would have rejected them.”

A memory hit me. “I saw a group carrying long purple boxes—and one of them was the leader of the men who attacked us tonight. Hang on.” I grabbed a piece of paper and sketched the scene from the library out quickly, keeping everything to scale—the people lugging the boxes and the boxes themselves.

The boxes weren't human-sized, but they could contain
parts.
We discussed the mechanics of building the dolls inside the library itself. Of using them as decoys while the terrorists sought their real targets.

Will's gaze turned inward. “Someone tried to grab Olivia and Constantine on the same day the library was attacked. Connected events? How do we protect ourselves?”

My friends had been in danger twice today. And I couldn't get back into the library to complete the protection wards for my parents. I couldn't even return to the Second Layer until I “dimmed”—however that was going to occur. In my present state, I couldn't protect anyone.

Deep breaths, deep breaths!
The memory of Christian's voice focused my actions and I breathed deeply, capping my sudden and imminent freak out.

Everyone was staring at me, and Neph's hand was extended in my direction, as if she was trying to channel magic.

I rubbed a hand across my brow. Panic attacks were always awkward.

I managed to speak again after a minute. “Does your mom have any crossover with the library or a connection to it, Olivia?”

“She is a benefactor, like thousands of others…but otherwise, no. And the events were
not
connected even if one villain was the same,” Olivia said. “I'd bet my entire trust fund that Leandred was behind what happened to us here.”

“Liv—”

“He wanted to use your magic, Ren.”

Something nonverbal passed between Will, Neph, and Olivia, again. In any other circumstance, I would have been pleased that the three of them were bonding over something. Bonding over shared thoughts on my peculiarities, however, wasn't what I'd had in mind.

“Yes, we all know my magic is weird and wrong. It's noticeable to everyone when I'm not surrounded by thousands of other magical weirdos, like at Excelsine.” Or in Alexandria's library. Or the Depot, or Ganymede—all places with so much pulsing magic that I was rendered normal inside.

“Your magic is beautiful,” Neph said, her voice sharper than I had heard before.

“Her magic is dangerous and she doesn't know how to stay unnoticed,” Olivia said, more pointedly. “Which is—”

Neph's graceful body lines grew taut. “How dare you s—”

Olivia cut her hand through the air, her expression fierce. “The denial of facts is ignorant. Ren will constantly be a danger or in danger for the entirety of her life. She needs to stay
unnoticed
. And who here thinks that is going to happen?”

“I can see the Layers sometimes,” I blurted. “Visibly.”

No one looked surprised.

Will rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Ren, Leandred couldn't have messed with the Layer system
without being an Origin Mage or connecting through someone who could understand and wield Origin Magic.”

I looked quickly at my fingernails, at the charcoal that ghosted underneath. My heart thumped painfully in my chest.

The Layers had been created by three Origin Mages working together. Origin Magic held the entire Layer system together and, as one of the hardest magics to wield, was the only magic that could change it. Which was part of the reason Origin Mages were so feared. The ability to tear through the very fabric of the world was not an ability governments wanted mages running around with.

Will cautiously continued, as if my growing silence was a barrier he needed to carefully surmount. “I've crossed paths with Leandred in classes and on the club's circuit.”

The informal delinquent's club...of which I too was a member.

“He is extremely powerful,” Will said slowly. “With the kind of intelligence that leads to terminal,
dangerous
boredom. But even as one of the most powerful mages on campus, he doesn't use magic or see the world the way a mage has to in order to wield Origin Magic. Most people can't actually visualize and manipulate outside of three dimensions.”

I cringed and my vision flipped to black-and-white patterns overlaying everything—swirling into each other, one encapsulating another pattern one moment, then being encapsulated the next—then flipped back to stark color. The patterns that had covered my closet door, that had accompanied my Awakening sketch, and that had emerged from the box Raphael Verisetti had taken from that sketch—the same designs that always lurked in my mind when I looked at something for too long—swirled just out of view.

Olivia looked coldly at Will. “I didn't realize you were friends with Leandred.”

Will shook his head. “I'm not. We've crossed paths. It's not hard to deduce power levels and intellectual abilities, especially at Excelsine.”

“His intentions?” Neph asked.

“Bad?” Will shrugged helplessly. “It's not like his reputation is unearned. But even Delia, who can ferret information out of anyone, says that speaking with Leandred is an exercise in learning nothing of importance. He keeps what he cares about close to his chest while being an open book about everything inconsequential to him. No one ever knows what he is planning or thinking—even on the club circuit, which is a true feat.”

Will's attention focused on me.

“I don't know of a single person he calls a friend. Except maybe you, Ren. He gave you that item last term to help us downgrade our offense level when we were going to do the secret ritual—and you hadn’t even asked for his help. That was insanely unusual.”

Everyone was looking at me, and I could feel Olivia's pointed thoughts about my stupidity in trusting Constantine with anything like friendship. “He felt he owed me. Constantine is very business oriented. He pays debts promptly.”

Will's gaze was piercing. “And coming to the non-magical layer to give you a present on your birthday?”

“Hubris?”

Will grinned.

“
Stop.
” I could hear Olivia's teeth grinding together. “I can't stand any more of this. She is not his
friend.
He plans to
use
her. That fact is as obvious as the reason
why.
” The pencil in her hand broke in two. “He is giving her things and tending to her
like he has never done for anyone else in this world
because he
knows
what she is
.”

A spark of magic burst from Olivia's fist, a loss of control I had rarely seen from her before.

Will lost his grin, his expression uncomfortable in the extreme. “Which brings us back to the crux of the matter, Ren,” he said as my heart thumped in triple time. “There is no way he could have manipulated the Layer System without a seriously rare device or a person at his disposal that had the capability to gain the designation of Origin Mage.”

“Okay.” My throat closed up and my vision went a little fuzzy around the edges. It was one thing to think about something in the abstract, and another to full out admit I was the monster-in-training of the bedtime stories that mages told their children. “Okay. Yeah. I...I know.” No one said anything as they all watched me wrestle with words.

Olivia sat stone-faced in her chair. While we were in the car she had wrestled a vow from me against saying anything to
anyone
about our trip through Kinsky's painting.

It wasn't like Will or Neph needed another point of data to conclude the matter—I could see from their expressions that both already believed I was on the path to being an Origin Mage—and they were still sitting in my room. But if Neph and Will knew everything—would that make them finally look at me in fear?

I should say nothing more. I should stay absolutely silent.

“Raphael Verisetti stole some of my magic when I Awakened, and he has been using it to do horrible things,” I blurted out.

I couldn't take it. Couldn't hold the secrets in any longer. If they were going to leave me, I needed it to be now, not later.

Will was already aware of Raphael's presence at my Awakening—he had been stuck in the man eating sketch Raphael and I had created together, after all. But his eyes went wide at the “still using my magic” part.

Neph's pupils dilated as well, making her soft brown eyes darker. “I...see.” She said it calmly, as if I hadn't just told her that I knew the man who was in the top ten most wanted on every Second Layer government list. A man I had seen do terrible things...both physically and emotionally to people.

“He taught my high school art class for six weeks. Before…” I arced a finger helplessly, as if over an invisible timeline in the air.

My once mentor, who had kept me together after my brother died...waiting for my magic to show. Awakenings were powerful magic events, and I still couldn't recreate a fraction of what I had effortlessly created under Raphael's coaxing that one day.

On that day, I could have brought Christian fully back to life, even with him six week's dead. I would have too, even at the high personal cost it would have required. But unbeknownst to me, Raphael had already resurrected Christian to a half-life—a cursed life. After grueling weeks of trying to resurrect him, I had needed to...take care of making sure Christian rested in peace instead.

I ran shaking fingers through my hair and gained strength from the fact that no one had stood up and walked away.

“Have you had other contact with Raphael Verisetti, Ren?” Neph was watching me closely.

I deliberately didn't look at Olivia or Will. “Yes, in Ganymede Circus, during the destruction of the town. And he visited me on campus after the...incident with the bone monster.” Incident was a nice way of framing my last necromancy experiment, which had created a monster that had temporarily destroyed a good amount of the mountain near the dormitories.

Olivia made a noise, disapproval of my need to share heavy in her gaze. She thought information should be kept locked tightly and firmly within as few minds as possible. Mostly, just hers.

“He visited?
Campus
?” Will asked, eyes wide, gaze pulled automatically to Christian's burial sketch which, as always, was situated near my pillow. I would never tell Will why his gaze was always drawn to it. I would let him think it was because of the grand adventure he had had inside its lines.

“He came to our room. Just taunted me a bit.” I waved my hand, unwilling to talk about the content of Raphael's taunting—the threats, the stolen research, what he had done to Christian, or the offer he had made. “You know how it goes.”

“No, I really don't,” Will said frankly. “How could he get on campus? There should be wards against him. Did you tell Dean Marsgrove?” Will's expression was as serious as I had ever seen on his normally mischievous face.

“He knows. He said he would take care of it.”

I would say anything more about the incident—especially not how I could have sacrificed Will to get Christian back. It was bad enough that Olivia had been witness to the conversation with Raphael, but Olivia had needed to blackmail Marsgrove into letting me stay at school for the next term as well. I'd leave that tale to Olivia.

Olivia and Neph weren't paying attention to us, though.

“Are we going to have a problem, Bau?” Olivia said, and with her use of Neph's last name, the tension in the room increased by an entire magnitude.

Neph's warm eyes gathered a layer of frost. “No, we are not, Price.”

Will looked between them, biting his lip.

“Who is Ahmed Bau?” I asked, wanting to understand the strained glances and surname references. Olivia had deliberately dropped the name earlier.

“My uncle,” Neph said hesitantly. Tension stole into her shoulders. “He has advocated particular plans for forwarding muse rights. I do not share many of my uncle's aims, but I am still part of his commune.”

Ah,
that
kind of issue. “You don't have to agree with your family,” I said, giving her an encouraging look. “To still love them and help them.”

My Mom and I had disagreed on
everything
for the last four years.

Neph smiled brightly, and the tension in her body blew free like sand in the final gust of a storm.

Olivia, on the other hand, paused the belligerent note she was writing, and peered up at me with an unreadable expression on her face.

“I've missed you, Ren,” Neph said, affection in every syllable. “Even though it has only been three days.”

I smiled back, warmth enveloping me. They weren't leaving me.

I thought of six things I could make for Neph to ease her stress or that we could do together when we returned to campus. I started constructing a model for one such project in the back of my mind.

Olivia made a tapping noise on my desk with her pen.

“Do not be concerned, Ren.” Neph didn't look at Olivia, she just continued to smile at me in a reassuring way. “Olivia and I are done with our argument.”

A ringing noise jolted us from our positions. Will checked a device at his belt. “News reader,” he said for my benefit. “On a passive feed. Works like radio in the First Layer.”

“Red Re-cap Bravo: Four attacks are currently taking place across the Second Layer. Buda, Pest, Thaican, and Siberiat are all under martial law. All citizens are advised to seek safe lodgings immediately. Any information that could lead to the apprehension of any mages involved should be reported to—”

“Seriously not good. Not counting the libraries and museums today, we've been without a direct attack since Jauvine,” Will said while the voice issued standard emergency directions.

Jauvine had been the second town Raphael had destroyed last term using my magic. Using
my
magic to attack and destroy.

“And it just occurred to me...um, Ren?” Will said.

“Yes?”

Will was examining the walls of my room as if a fully drawn poisonous serpent might leap out at any moment. “Your wards...” He licked his lips nervously. “Who...? I mean, I know you've been working on wards at the library, but who put up the, um, base wards?”