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“I bet you always talk that way. I bet no one’s ever slapped your hand for it. And I’d bet good money you’ll get away with what you did last night too.”

They all watched as he started walking around the circle. The boys were a half-moon apart, twelve paces at most. Theo stood. Ren saw both of his hands slide to different vessels. One was a delicate, stylish-looking wand. Another was a speckled chain hanging from a loop at his hip.

Overhead, the light of the room fluttered. It was a signal from the waxway portal. Ren knew it meant the magic would engage sometime in the next few minutes. Everyone was supposed to take their seats and begin the process of calming down. Center themselves on an image of the place they wanted to go before the wave of magic swept through and extinguished the wicks they’d lit.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Theo said, his wand raised.

Avy pointed a finger at his dead eye. “What could someone like you do to someone like me? I’ve ground fools like you beneath my heel before.…”

Clyde edged protectively around Theo.

“Seriously, Avy? Do you really want to lose your scholarship?”

It was the only thing that could have halted his steady progress around that circle. He stood there, massive chest heaving, on the verge of fighting two of the most powerful heirs at their school. Ren knew the other boys likely possessed powerful magic, but in a tight space like this? It wasn’t unthinkable that Avy could reach them. It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen if he did.

And Ren knew that the rest of his life would be over.

“Avy,” she called across the room. “It’s not worth it.”

All eyes swung to her. She ignored the others. Her eyes were locked on Avy Williams. She could see that pulsing fury, a twin to the feeling she always kept locked away in her own chest. The anger was in his eyes and the flex of his hands. He wanted to paint the walls with blood, and Ren didn’t blame him. After a brief hesitation Avy thrust a finger in Theo’s direction. He breathed out the words.

“You could have killed them. My cousin was there. In that teahouse. One day you’ll have to answer for all the—”

A blast of red light gave his sentence a new ending. Avy was lifted from his feet and slammed into the back wall. Cora barely ducked to one side to avoid getting crushed. Clyde’s wand tip glowed with a matching light. Timmons shouted at him.

“Are you out of your mind? Doing magic in a waxway chamber?”

“Tell that to him.” Clyde scowled. “This brute really thinks—”

There was a roar as Avy thundered back to his feet. Ren saw the lights flutter overhead again, faster this time. It was a final warning. The waxway spell was about to activate amidst all the chaos. Timmons was shouting again. Cora was shaking her head. Theo and Clyde both raised their wands as Ren’s mind raced through calculations. She took a deep breath and started to lift her own wand.

A god-sized punch of force slammed through the room.

Magic—greedy and sharp and clutching—pulled her into darkness.

12

The portal spell set Ren Monroe down in the same way a child would discard a toy. She came gasping back into the world on all fours. There was pain. Far more pain than normal. She reached up and used two fingers to loosen the collar of her shirt, because it felt like she was choking. Opening her eyes brought on a wave of vertigo. It took a moment to get her bearings.

A forest. Great trees with sprawling roots. The air was notably cooler than on campus. She tried to push up to her feet and stumbled back to her knees. Her mind and body were struggling to reconnect. Ren realized she wasn’t alone.

Dark shapes were scattered around the forest floor. As she squinted, they became people. Ren heard one of them groan. Someone else started heaving for air on her left. Ren’s own breathing came in shocked gasps. Five other figures were in the forest clearing.

That’s not possible.

Everyone who’d been in the portal room was here. That meant something had gone terribly wrong. They should have appeared at their own destinations. In their own neighborhoods. But this wasn’t the Lower Quarter. It wasn’t Kathor. Looking around, Ren wasn’t even sure if these were the same trees that marked the bordering forests of their city.

“Where are we?”

Her words came out as rust. No one answered. Another groan nearby. Ren recognized the beautiful silver-white hair, streaming ghostlike down slender shoulders. The fashionable shirt was now covered in dirty streaks. Timmons was here too. No, no, no…

Ren started crawling toward her best friend. As she did, she noted the group was in the same pattern they’d been in back in the portal room. Exact distances and relative positioning. Her fogged mind struggled to process that fact. Avy Williams was flat on his back, breathing in thick and slow. Poor Cora was trapped beneath him, working to pry herself free. Ren’s eyes circled to the right.

The two heirs were there: Clyde Winters and Theo Brood.

“What the…”

She watched Theo shove to his feet, curses rattling out as he stumbled sideways into the nearest tree. He pointed down at Clyde before retching on the ground. Ren stood, her head still spinning, and saw the reason for Theo’s reaction.