The Rise of Ren Crown (38 page)

“Thank you,” Neph said softly, taking the hand vise from him, and touching his skin as she did. The boy's gaze turned dreamy—like he was having the
best
dream—and he nodded, then turned and nearly skipped down the hall.

“You are handing out those whammies left, right, and center,” I said, carefully taking the hand vise from her to complete the magic transaction. Both ends of the heavy metal rod held vises—one that was holding the flowers, and the other currently unused. I peered at the flowers. There was something weird about the stems.

“Those are Guillotine Roses.” Neph sighed and walked to her desk. “Don't touch them. I have something that can either dispose of them or strip them.”

I looked more closely at the stems. Each one was covered with wickedly barbed thorns, and as I drew them closer to me, they started to rotate around each stem in opposing spirals like small saw blades.

I could feel my lips lift. “No, it's okay. I think I know who they are from. Do the flowers do anything dangerous?” I clamped the unused end of the rod on the edge of her desk.

“The petal edges are blade sharp. But if you can navigate the thorns and petals, they are one of the sweetest smelling flowers.”

They were raven black, but the petals glowed with an iridescent shine as they collected together in the center. Indigo and purpled black.

“Who sent them?” Neph asked.

I smiled and leaned down to carefully inhale the core of one rose, keeping my hands behind my back. The thorns rotated around the stems in spirals as I breathed them in. It was very Constantine, this apology.

“A friend.”

Maybe...maybe we'd all be okay.

~*~

The campus clock ticked over to the Cancer sign at the western position of the twenty-four hour clock and a
ding
rang through the room.

Patrick whooped over our shared group communication.

Neph and I walked to the window. Outside, the magic shimmered once again, then the invisible louvers of air flipped, one after another, unlocking from their neighboring louvers—letting us out.

Immediately, mages streamed out from the building and up the hill. I had to assume that mages were doing the same on the other side of the Magiaduct, streaming down the hill as well. The top seven circles of the mountain were now habitable again.

Mages dressed in green streamed out of a dorm to the west, then broke off in multiple directions. The formation looked like a large snake slithering out into many heads. A hydra being born.

The green mages were going off to fix campus. To piece everything back together.

The combat mages were gone, but the rest of the student body was a tight, focused unit.

I put my fingers on the glass. I hoped it was enough.

Chapter Twenty-seven: Cafeteria Blunders

We joined the mass exodus from the Magiaduct at the tail end of the rush.

A shimmer of magic swept over me as we exited, like a layer of lotion washed away.

The mountain air was fresh and vibrant, and the weather spells were currently set at a pleasant seventy-five degrees outside the Magiaduct. The spells usually differed from level to level, depending on the geography of the area and what they contained. The firesnake grove, for instance, was always unbearably balmy, and the ski runs were cool enough to keep the snow fresh.

I expected far more Department mages clocking my every move. And while there
were
quite a few fulfilling that requirement, there was only one praetorian. Tarei.

When Kaine had gone after Raphael, the other praetorians had gone with him.

Tarei, however, stood like a figure in the mist. Watching—purple eyes glinting at us from the shadows.

I could still feel the echoes of the nullifying cuff he had placed around my wrist. Different than the one that Godfrey had clamped around my throat, but no less terrifying.

As if he could read my thoughts, something gold, round, heavy, and glittering appeared in his hand. He twirled the cuff around steady fingers, never breaking eye contact with me.

Neph's eyes narrowed on him. Tarei's gaze slid to her, and his smile turned more threatening. A second cuff appeared in his fingers, singing through the air along with the first. That response answered the question of whether he could see Neph.

I had a feeling that the Department made sure that each employee could see muses and any other group they sought to regulate.

“Cockroach,” Mike muttered.

“Why is he still here?” I asked, keeping him in sight.

“He's Stavros' eyes on campus,”
Delia answered mentally through the armbands.
“Say nothing more.”

The arches that connected to other arches on the top seven circles had all been reactivated. We took the nearest one that would take us to Top Campus and the cafeteria, and away from Tarei and his threats.

Shadows shifted along our path across Top Campus, though, and adult gazes—the warriors and security mages from other countries along with Legion members—followed our trek. The cafeteria was only accessible by students, which made it a huge relief to enter.

But I had never seen so many people in the cafeteria all at once—campus tended to work in shifts due to classes and student life. Today, though, the lockdown had poured most of us here at once. People were packed around tables, barely a single seat to spare.

And, yet, our table stood completely empty in the midst of the mayhem. It stood out
very
obviously in the middle of a packed populace.

It was obviously deliberate. Whether people had tried to sit there and been dissuaded by something, or
someone,
whether the tables around were packed with mages specifically seeking to listen in on us, or whether people thought there might be something contagious where I'd previously sat, I wasn't immediately sure.

Caniopidas in hand, and trying not to make eye contact as the crowd shifted around me in the way I was becoming increasingly used to—some people wildly jumping to the side, and others deliberately trying to brush against me—I headed toward our table. I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Sitting at a random table and making small talk with gaping, terrified, or angry people negatively affected the appetite.

The floor to ceiling windows showed the same magnificent view down the mountain and out over the river and valley that it always did. But the Department stooges staring into the windows at us and tapping code against their legs was new and unwanted.

And the calming spells
pumping
into the room were overwhelming.

I pushed my tray toward the center of our table, deposited my giant bag on top of Olivia's empty seat, whipped out a notebook, and started madly sketching before my butt landed in the chair.

“Ren, um, what are you doing?” Will asked carefully, taking his usual chair. The others arrayed themselves in theirs.

“Preparing.”

I didn't have to see the exchanged glances to know they were making them over my head.

“Stop worrying,” I said without looking up. “I'm not actively doing anything dangerous yet.”

Axer was gone from campus again, which had naturally raised my fervor and stress back to Defcon levels, but I had a different focus this time. There wasn't an amorphous threat that
might
happen. We already had one. I needed to get my ducks in a row. I needed to be planning for what happened when we were ambushed from within
.

I saw Will place his eavesdropping device on top of the table. It was one of the good ones that would make what I was writing and drawing unreadable as well.

Head still bowed, I cast a discreet look around. I could see a few people at the tables nearest to ours frowning and adjusting their own devices in escalating eavesdropping warfare.

A few moments later, however, a member of the Justice Squad swept over and sanctioned each of them for having restricted devices or using appropriate devices but with restricted settings.

It reminded me of Bellacia, who had been perfectly legal using her abilities on me up to a point. But when she'd gone past that point, she'd been hit with a Level Two, then a Level Three offense.

“Justice Magic, how does it work off campus?” I asked, watching one of the mages argue with the Justice Squad member.

Outside of campus, without the Justice Magic that bound us, I didn't want people like Bellacia whispering in my ear, scarab or no scarab.

“Towns and countries have different ordinances and statutes,” Will explained. “When you move to a city, you enter into a social contract to live by the rules setup therein.”

He pointed around us. “Like the contract you sign to attend Excelsine. The rules are different in different towns. Entering a town commits you to 'guest' standards.”

I tapped my pencil against the page. “What about between towns?”

“Many town boundaries border another. Outlaw Territories
do
still exist, but the Department has made it so people are able to travel around them pretty easily. And layer shifts happen on a yearly schedule in the Second Layer—easily anticipated—so it lessens the danger.”

“Outlaw Territories? Those what they sound like?” I asked, writing again, mouth directed toward the tabletop. The eavesdropping charm was supposed to protect against lip reading as well, but who knew what might happen in giant fishbowl warfare.

“No rules, no Justice Magic. Anything goes,” Will acknowledged.

The Wild West then. I nodded.

“It's a reason Travel Magic and porting is so lucrative and popular,” Will said, chewing on whatever the Caniopidas people had made him. “People want to move safely from one law-abiding settlement to another. The Department, for all their shadiness, has allowed Port Mages under their authority to work their magic frequently to help the towns under their jurisdiction. Which is pretty much the entirety of the Second Layer.”

“Town rules are also why people are very careful with their social credit,” Mike added, giving Will a pointed look. “You can't move into some towns if your social credit isn't up to snuff. Like if you have Justice marks against you.”

Will shrugged, and winked at me. “That's why I'm going to one of the think tanks after I graduate. All of the project planning you want, and none of the justice hits.” His expression went a little dreamy. “The hallways are safe zones—no magic—but in the labs, you are
free
. And they provide housing with the same rules. I can invent
all
day
and not have to worry about what I'm doing.”

That sounded...pretty good. But it wasn't important now. I needed to focus.

“Third Layer?” I asked.

Delia stayed silent, eating whatever green leafy thing was in her bowl and not making eye contact.

“Most of the Third Layer is Outlaw Territory,” Will said. “Especially with the lack of stable or plentiful magic. Layer shifts are so common that you can barely use magic outside a settlement. And without the recycling components, magic attacks back.” He made an exploding motion between his palms. “Been trying to get a permit to do some research there. The settlements have recycling centers, but many of them are not great. Ask Loudon about it.”

I thought of the Midlands and the recycling plant, and what Raphael had been doing in there.

I narrowed my eyes and tapped my pencil again.

“That device you made to take a layer shift and power a generator, Will? Can it work in the Third Layer?”

“It'd still, um, strip you of your clothes and anything else containing a wrinkle.” He rubbed a hand through his hair. “We've been working on other things,” he said defensively.

I smiled. It was fleeting, but still there. Helen Price had been on the committee that had been stripped by Will's device.

“What is the range again?”

“Fifty feet.”

I double tapped my pencil. “Can you throw it? Or trigger a delayed activation and run from it?”

“Maybe, what are you thinking?”

“Just mulling possibilities.”

The Third Layer raised a myriad of challenges for me. Dead zones and lethal shifts of magic.

And that's where Olivia was. I gripped my pencil.

Neph's hand touched my arm. “Eat,” she said softly.

I sighed and put my pencil and notebook away, then dragged my tray forward. I had an unidentifiable noodle, vegetable, and meat dish. The Caniopidas people seemed to think I required something sweet and saucy today. After the initial bite, I started eating quickly. They always made the
best
things.

Five bites in, a tray hit the table next to me. I looked up, half expecting to see Patrick or Asafa, and half expecting to see Bellacia.

I was not at all expecting it to be Constantine.

I rarely ever saw Constantine in the cafeteria. And when I did, he was always at one of the two person tables located on the tier closest to the windows, farthest away from where most people sat. He usually either sat alone or was joined by some girl in the endless rounds that always tried to keep him. Sometimes one of the more notorious and flashy club members would join him—they were always very obviously strictly business meals, though.

Constantine examined all of the faces at the table, his hooded gaze swinging from one to another and his smirking mouth not changing expression. He smoothly moved my bag from Olivia's chair to a conjured stool and slid into the seat, next to me. He swiped a finger across the edge of the table as he sat, then leaned back in his chair with insouciance.

He slid his plate, loaded with some sort of breaded concoction, toward him.

I blinked at his plate, my suspended fork dripping noodles into my bowl, then automatically looked at the faces around the table.

Delia snorted and went back to eating her salad, but her fork was stabbing harder than it had been. Mike looked nonplussed. Neph
felt
nonplussed, though she looked calm. Will looked surprised, but he gave Constantine a nod and a greeting of, “Leandred,” as if this wasn't completely out of the ordinary.

It was just a good thing Olivia wasn't here. Murder wasn't a good look on anyone.

I sighed and set my fork back down. If I thought he was actually sitting with us because he
wanted
to, I'd not say a word. I'd be pleased, in fact.