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“Grigori, has anyone ever told you that you have very soft hands?”

The car remained silent, as it had since I was shoved into what I can only assume was the back seat. Light peeked through the fabric of the shroud over my head, so I was able to at least make out a couple of shadows ahead of me in the car—my captors.

My hands were bound tight behind my back, my shoulder throbbing something fierce. There was little chance of me being able to wiggle my way out of the restraints at this angle, and Lorelei seemed impervious to any of my magic, so it would have been a waste to try again.

So, instead of plotting a daring escape, I spent my downtime pondering the implications of what just happened with Kaine. I had healed him. Or at least, I was pretty sure that’s what happened. I’d never heard of an Adored being able to wield healing magic before, so I could only assume it was because of the Anima stone that Bastien had provided me. But did that mean I would be able to wield any Reviled magic?

The possibilities were enough to occupy my mind till the vehicle came to a stop. Grigori grabbed me from the back seat, once again hefting me over his shoulder as if I weighed nothing. Lorelei spoke softly in a language that I didn’t understand, taking pauses long enough that I parsed together she was on a call. We were outside for only a brief moment before conditioned air and bright light told me we’d entered a building. Elevator music drifted over me as we stepped inside, the door opening and closing with a soft ding . I could swear I heard Grigori humming along tunelessly with the song, but then we were moving again.

When we finally stopped moving, Grigori placed me in a cushy chair, unfastening my hands long enough to refasten them to the armrests. Once I was secured, he yanked the bag off my head and I had to blink a few times before my location sunk in. I was sitting in the corner of the enormous board room in which the Council of Magi met. It was located on the sixtieth floor of the building and offered stunning views of the Magi City. I’d been here more than a few times as Mother’s delegate, so I was slightly annoyed with myself that I hadn’t recognized the path here.

Lorelei hung up her call, sitting herself on the edge of the long table that ran through the center of the room.

“Not long now,” she said, stowing the device into her pocket. She wasn’t brandishing her gun any longer, but I’d have been foolish to assume it wasn’t on her person.

“Why exactly did you bring me here?” I asked, craning my head to see if anyone else was present in the room. Grigori lurked in the corner behind me, and Lorelei watched me with a bored expression.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Lorelei asked, reaching into her blazer and retrieving her little leather notebook. “You’re here to sit there and look pretty while the grown-ups talk about important things.”

I rolled my eyes. Obviously, I wasn’t going to get any useful info out of her. “Great, well, why don’t you wake me when my mother finally decides to show up, and we can just cut out all this middle-man banter.”

Lorelei laughed—a sharp and disconcerting noise.

“You’re as dense as ever, aren’t you? Haven’t you put it together yet?”

“You’ll have to elaborate, dear. If you don’t remember, my brain got scrambled when I died that one time.”

“Patience, Tobias. You don’t have long to wait. Then we’ll see just what that second life is worth to you.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. I was in the midst of crafting another quippy response when the door opened on the far end of the room, and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest.

“Lenny!” I shouted, pulling against my restraints in an attempt to jump for joy. It ended up more of a flail for joy, but I’d take it.

Lynette walked into the room unaccompanied, her sights set on me as she moved. Her coppery hair was pulled back off her face, her body covered in a long brown trench coat tied at the waist.

I was saved! Lynette would make quick work of these two and we would be able to come up with a plan for when Mother decided to show up.

As Lynette got closer, her trajectory changed slightly, and she stopped at the end of the table, standing beside Lorelei, who looked up from her notebook with a smile.

“Right on time,” Lorelei said, setting the notebook down as Lynette wrapped her arms around the blonde woman and then leaned in for a kiss.

My blood ran cold. I blinked a few times, willing the sight away, but they were still embracing each time I opened my eyes.

What the hell was happening?

“Did you have any trouble out of him?” Lynette asked, pulling away from Lorelei.

“Eh, I had to shoot one of his pets to get him to show me. But other than that, it was smooth sailing.”

And just like that, the frozen river of my veins turned to boiling lava. I pulled against my restraints with renewed strength. “Come closer and say that again, you bitch!”

“Now, now,” Lynette chastised the two of us. “Let’s keep this civil.”

“What the hell, Lenny?” I demanded. “What’s the meaning of this?”

She walked over to my chair, running a cool finger across my cheek. “It’s going to be okay, Tobi. I promise.”

I pulled away from her touch, glowering at her. “What have you done? Why are you working with her? She’s mother’s stooge.”

Lorelei laughed again, another sharp jab to my eardrums.

My sister doesn’t answer, her attention too wrapped up in something. She grabbed one of my hands, turning it over—with some difficulty, thanks to Grigori’s knot-tying skills—to reveal Bastien’s green stone. “This was the one?” she asked, turning back to Lorelei.

The blonde woman nodded in response. “He put it right over the wound. It closed up without an incantation.”

“Really?” Lynette questioned, her eyes wide. “Tobi, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Untie me right now, Lenny. We can talk this out. Whatever is going on, it’s not too late?—”

“Too late for what, hm? I’m simply doing what I told you I was going to do, Tobias. Unlike some people in this world, I keep my promises.” She lifted my other hand, inspecting Cirian’s stone, then turned back to Lorelei. “Has he shown any other signs?”

“None so far,” Lorelei replied, jotting something down in her little book. “He didn’t put up much of a fight, to be honest. Are you sure you’re related to him?”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” I spat, straining once again. “I’m your brother. How could you treat me like this?”

Lynette looked down at me, her expression colder than I’ve ever seen. “My brother? Oh no, Tobias. You lost that privilege the moment you decided to try and murder me.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

Magic, heavy as a boulder, bared down on me. Lynette leaned in close, her eyes burning with golden magic as she whispered, “ Remember.”

* * *

“Do not mock me, Tobias. I know the difference. These are no dreams.”

“Then let me help you!” I pleaded with her. “Clue me in on what’s going on, and maybe I can help think it through. But giving up the power you’ll need to enact change isn’t the right move. You’ll only clip your wings ? —”

A sound from the bushes a few feet away silenced me. Movement out of the corner of my eye and something darting out of the brush, dark as a shadow and fast as lightning. They closed the distance in a fraction of a second, the flash of steel glimmering in the lamplight as the figure thrust a short blade at Lynette.

She catches them at the wrist, her other hand moving in a blur, but she’s too slow to catch the assailant’s other hand as they slap something across her mouth. Lynette grunts in pain as the device locks over her lips, keeping her from speaking—or commanding the assailant with magic.

“S-Stop!” I shouted, attempting to wrap the figure in my aura, but their defenses were too strong for me to overwhelm, and they stabbed back into my mind, causing me to flinch. Instead, I charged them, shoving my shoulder into their side to try and throw them off balance, but it was like colliding with a brick wall, and even with mine and Lynette’s combined strength, the assailant shoved me with their hip, knocking me to the ground.

“Don’t interfere,” they barked, voice harsh behind the black mask that obscured their face. They pushed the blade closer, the tip biting into Lynette’s abdomen. She whimpered but held fast, keeping the attack from advancing any further.

I attempted to wrap the foe in my aura once more, wincing as they retaliated, a splitting headache ripping through me. From the ground, I kicked at their feet, but they were too quick, pushing Lynette forward a few steps out of my reach.

“What do you want?” I asked, desperate. Obviously, I wasn’t going to be able to overpower them, but if I could distract them long enough for Lynette to get that thing off her mouth, then no one would be able to stand against her.

“Do not interfere,” the assailant ordered. “I act on behalf of Her Grace, Adoranda Greene.”

“Liar!” I cried, kicking at the woman, but she drove her heel into my side, knocking the air from my lungs.

“Has your sister told you what role you play in her visions, Tobias?” the assailant asked, their gaze drifting to me with cold indifference.

I froze there on the ground. “What?”

Lynette struggled harder to free the blade, a trickle of blood staining the front of her dress. The assailant swept a leg under her, knocking her down to a knee. Bearing down on her from above, the blade sunk deeper into her abdomen, and she howled against the muzzling device.

“What are you talking about?” I asked the figure.

“Her visions from the Augur. Madame Greene has been logging them for years. They all involve you, Tobias. You are the key to unlock the calamity that will burn the world the ash.”

I turned to my sister, her eyes burning with fiery hate toward the assailant as they struggled for control over the blade. “Is this true?”

The veins in her neck were bulging under the strain, but after a moment, she nodded.

“You are to be the sacrifice that lights the flames, Tobias,” the assailant continued, still bearing down on Lynette.

“Sacrifice?” I echoed, looking to Lynette, her wide eyes pleading. “You were going to sacrifice me? For what? So Mother wouldn’t get her way? Gods, Lenny!”

She shook her head, losing her focus enough that the blade sunk in another inch. Another stifled groan, but I didn’t care. I needed answers.

“How… how could you, Lenny? I’m your brother!”

Her eyes shined, and with a final grunt from the assailant, they broke her hold and plunged the blade fully into her gut. But she held my gaze, eyes begging me to understand something that was beyond my comprehension.

I turned to the assailant. “Are you going to kill her?”

They nodded, yanking the blade out in one swift motion. The edge was glowing with ruby light—a Sanguine blade. The wound would sap Lynette’s magic away if it wasn’t healed properly. Lynette groaned, writhing on the ground. Her fingers were slick with blood, and they couldn’t find purchase on the edges of the muzzle over his lips.

“Are you going to interfere?” the figure asked me, poising the blade to strike the killing blow.

I looked down at my sister, my Lenny, wanting to tell the assailant to stop. But all I could see was her, leading me to this secluded area, alone, next to a freshly dug grave.

She was going to kill me here and leave me in the ground next to our father. What other reason would she have?

Tears welling in my eyes, I turned back to the assailant.

“No.”

With a muffled shriek, Lynette pounds the ground with her fist, the dirt shimmering with golden dust as it rocked beneath our feet. The assailant dove for her, looking to sink the blade into her chest, but she was ready this time. Catching the blade between her hands, golden sparks showered the ground beneath her. She wrested it from the assailant’s grip, rolling far enough away to regain her footing. Using the edge of the knife, she cut the muzzle from her mouth, leaving a long gash down her chin. The device fell to the ground, and in a split second, her aura crushed the air from my lungs as she ordered, “Stop.”

Both mine and the assailant’s bodies went rigid, completely at Lynette’s mercy. She held out the blade, still slick with her blood, and for a moment, I thought she was about to slit the woman’s throat right there. Instead, she held it out handle first. “Take this back to my mother and tell her she’s too late. It can’t be stopped. I can’t be stopped. And soon enough, she’ll burn alongside all the others.”

The assailant took the blade with a trembling hand, utterly powerless to ignore the Command of my sister.

“Go.”

Knocking the woman back with the power of her word, Lynette straightened as the assailant fled from the scene. When she turned to face me, her expression was tempered steel. She’d been preparing for this moment, I imagined. The moment when she would fulfill this delusion that plagued her day and night.

And here it was.

She moved toward me, wincing as she clapped a hand over her wound to stymie the flow of blood. It hardly slowed her down. I was surprisingly calm as I met her gaze, acceptance hitting all at once.

“I won’t help you. If you’re committed to destroying the world, you’ll have to do it without me.”

Lynette held up a finger. “Not the world, Tobi. The Magi. We’re the blight that’s created this chaos. This violence. The Second Awakening will come with the lapping of flames and will bring balance once more. I’ve seen it.”

I tried to break from her hold. To make a run for it. She was deranged. Unmoored. Overtaken completely.

She wasn’t my sister any longer.

But my limbs remained motionless, no matter how much I urged them. With a wave of her hand, however, I moved along with her, headed for the empty hole in the ground just across from the grave of our father.

“What good can I do you if I’m already dead?” I asked. “Some sacrifice a dead guy makes.”

“Don’t worry, Tobi. Death is only the beginning for you.”

With a violent twist, I felt my spine snap, and my legs give out as I tumbled forward into the dirt. Along a shower of golden sparks, the loose earth began to bury me, another grave for another Tobias Greene.

* * *

My eyes snapped open with a start, my breath coming in gasps.

Lynette watched me, her eyes mirrors of my own staring back.

“You were going to let me die,” she said plainly.

“You fucking killed me!” I argued, the rage bubbling up all at once. “You actually fucking killed me!”

“Oh, calm down,” Lynette said, rolling her eyes. “I was always planning on bringing you back. Or at least, having someone bring you back. Your boyfriend took longer than expected to show up, though. I was getting worried he wouldn’t make it before you started to smell.”

“You already knew about Bastien?”

“Of course I did,” she scoffed. “I’m not oblivious, like most men. You really should have noticed your boyfriend exuding death magic, Tobi. Those glamours on his arms didn’t hide jack shit from me.”

“So, what, you brought me back to life just so you could kill me again?”

“Not exactly,” Lynette said, turning back to Lorelei and giving her a nod. “You’ll see soon enough, but I’m afraid there are some friends joining us for an important meeting, so you’ll have to sit tight and be patient.”

“If you think I’m going to sit here while—” my words were muffled by the gag Grigori shoved in my mouth, pulling the binding around my head.

Lynette turned to the brute. “If he doesn’t quiet down, rip out his tongue. He won’t be needing it for much longer.”

Grigori chuckled. Stupid Grigori. I was starting to think that we could have been friends.

The doors opened on the opposite end of the room once more, a stream of bodies moving into the meeting space. Lynette and Lorelei moved to the center of the table, standing by the high-backed chair that was elevated slightly above the rest.

Gasps rippled through the crowd as they entered, more of them seeing Lynette for the first time. A silver-haired man with half-moon glasses stepped forward, bearing the crest of the Hallowed on his vest. “What is the meaning of this?”

“You’ve been lied to,” Lynette addressed the Council members as they trickled in. “I’m sure my mother has told you a great number of things, including news of my disappearance. Yet, here I stand. Ready to take my place as the Ascended amongst the Council.”

Near the back of the crowd, I spotted a familiar robe of aqua blue. The Cardinal, Saint Sancha, stood in the entrance, leaning over to whisper to none other than Cirian. I groaned into the fabric, but Grigori put a hand on my shoulder, and I quieted down. He couldn’t see me, at least not clearly, from where he was. But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t eventually. I just had to wait for the crowd to thin.

Murmurs of confusion rippled through the Council members, but the grey-haired man approached the table opposite Lynette, picking up a small wooden gavel and pounding it against the table. “Silence! We will get to the bottom of this nonsense, I assure you all.”

“This is the truth of it,” Lynette addressed the crowd. “My mother attempted to end my life prior to my Ascension. She feared what I would do should I be allowed to speak unfettered. Now, I tell you all, here I am. Ready to enact the changes necessary to lead us into a new dawn of prosperity. I will bring the second Awakening here and now.”

The second Awakening? What was she talking about?

I struggled against the gag, trying to make any sound that might carry over to Cirian. But there were too many bodies between us, and like the others, Lynette held his full attention.

The grey-haired man continued, “That is a staggering accusation, Lynette?—”

“Councilman Briggs,” Lynette addressed the grey-haired man. “You’ve known me for nearly thirty years. You’ve known my mother for far longer. I would ask that you take a moment to consider which of us you believe carries the want of a brighter future for all Magi.” She moved her attention to the gathering crowd, planting a foot on the chair reserved for the Ascended and standing upon it. “Please, friends. Take your places. Let us discuss this bright future together.”

Another round of murmurs from the crowd, but they began to file around the table, each taking their place amongst the others. As the Cardinal sank into her chair directly across from Lynette, I was finally able to catch Cirian’s eye. He glanced over me at first, then his dark eyes narrowed in, his lips pulling into a thin line. With the slightest of nods, he gave me the sign I’d been waiting for. He knew that I was there.

Once the council had taken their seats—twelve Adored and twelve Hallowed, fanning out from the center—Lynette lowered herself down into the chair, still flanked by Lorelei on one side.

“Friends,” she spoke in a high, clear voice, raising her hands outstretched. “Since the first Awakening, we Magi have been blessed with the responsibility of guiding our world. A thousand years of perspiration has led us to this point, and we’ve never been closer to achieving a second Awakening. Another leap forward in the evolutionary line of the Magi people?—”

“A thousand pardons,” Councilman Briggs interrupted. “We’re all aware of the benevolent history of our people. We do not require a history lesson.”

Lynette chuckled under her breath, Lorelei moving from her side and walking towards the doors. “Yes, I’m well aware of the history that we’ve been taught, Councilman. We’ve all been given the same falsehood, sweetened beyond recognition to paint us in a favorable light. But there is a point to my lesson tonight. A reason why I wanted you all to hear me.”

“And what is that?” Briggs asked, folding his arms across his chest.

Lynette smiled sweetly, leveling her gaze at the man. “So you’ll understand why you’ll burn alongside the rest of them.”

Chaos erupted from the Council members. Shouting quickly overtook the room as Lorelei stood in front of the exit, her gun drawn and pointed toward anyone who got too close.

I spotted Cirian in the bedlam, moving closer and closer to where I was being held as the crowd continued to rage. Grigori must have been caught up in the mess because he didn’t even notice when Cirian slipped behind us, moving silently up to the brute’s ear and whispering a few words, his eyes flashing with electric blue light.

Grigori’s head drooped, his chin falling to his chest as he began to snore softly beside me. Cirian was there in a flash, removing the gag, then pulling at my restraints and cursing under his breath. “Fucking Greenes.”

“It’s good to see you, too,” I muttered, relief sinking into my shoulders.

He’d almost got my hands free when Lynette’s voice rose above the din, the room suddenly filled with the crushing weight of her Command.

“Silence!”