Page 4 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

I squinted, trying to see if I could pick out my friend Marlow in the crowd, but the train was moving too fast and the Scavengers were all dressed exactly the same.

I didn’t see Marlow’s dog, a husky named Wolf, either.

Maybe he was already sitting inside one of the SUVs.

Or maybe he wasn’t part of the expedition.

I prayed for the second option. Marlow had already seen far too much pain and suffering in the last week.

He’d been abducted by the Brothers, beaten up by their commandos, and then, to top it all off, when Conner and I had gone in to rescue him, he’d narrowly escaped being blown up in the crossfire between the Brothers, Watchers, Rebels, and Templars.

“Hey, Savannah, this is our stop.”

I turned away from the window. Bronte stood in front of the open train doors. I linked my arm in hers, and we hurried to catch up to Dutch and the other Apprentices.

“Sorry, I guess I just got lost in my thoughts.”

“You do that a lot. Where does your mind go when it wanders, anyway?”

“So many places.”

“You pile too much on your plate, you know.”

I sighed. “I know.”

Bronte slid me a glance as we passed under the Interchange’s big, bold sign.

“You don’t have to shoulder all of these burdens alone, Savannah.

Look, I know I’m not as gregarious as Kylie—” Her voice wavered.

“—but I am still your friend, Savannah. And if there’s anything I can do to help, I’m here. Even if it’s just to listen.”

I gave her a smile. “Thanks. I’ll remember that.”

If only I knew where to begin. There was just so much going on, so many secrets rattling around inside my brain.

And I’d never been the trusting, sharing sort.

I didn’t even share my secrets with my mom, my brother, or my best friend.

I guess I’d just gotten used to holding on to my secrets, and it had all started with my biggest secret of all, the secret I had kept my whole life.

I’d been born with magic.

It sounded like such a silly secret to keep, now that I was an Apprentice, now that I was supposed to have magic.

But there was a big difference between being blessed by the spirits with magic and being born with it.

To make things worse, I didn’t even know how I’d been born with magic.

My whole family was human, and since I looked just like my mom, it was pretty safe to assume I wasn’t secretly adopted.

Maybe it was time to own up, at least to my family. Maybe it was time to tell them my biggest secret. But I just…couldn’t. I couldn’t tell them that I’d lied to them my whole life. I couldn’t stomach the inevitable look of betrayal on their faces.

I’d told Kato and Conner. Actually, they’d just known . Somehow, they’d sensed the truth buried beneath the false front I’d built up.

Maybe their magic had allowed them to peel back the layers of lies.

Maybe they’d known because there was something that linked us together since we’re all Polymages.

Or maybe our connection had nothing to do with being Polymages. Maybe there was something deeper, something intangible that bound the three of us together. I’d have called it destiny if I weren’t afraid of sounding completely delusional.

Whatever the reason, Kato and Conner and I were connected. It came so naturally to me to share secrets with them. But only with them.

“You’re doing it again,” Bronte said as we stepped off the escalator and entered the north side of the Magic Emporium, the city’s mega shopping district for all things magical and mundane.

It was as busy as always, buzzing with people from all over the Many Realms. “You’re closing yourself off, Savannah. ”

“I guess I have to work on that.”

“We all need to work together,” she said. “Only together can we hope to win.”

Dutch fell into step beside us. Our brawny teammate towered over us. I used to think Dutch was just a big, mean brute, but I’d come to realize he was way more complicated than the person he tried to be.

“Bronte is right, Savannah,” Dutch said. “We’re one team. Much as I hate to say it, we all sink or swim together.”

“Fine words for someone who, not so long ago, wanted to trade me off the team and replace me with my brother,” I laughed.

Dutch’s cheeks went red. “I’d just inhaled magical gas when I said that.”

“A truth-telling gas.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still sorry I said it. You don’t perform well on the Scoreboard, Savannah, but you’ve stepped in to protect the rest of us more times than I can count. For better or for worse, I’m proud to call you my teammate.” He extended his hand to me.

I shook it, my vision going cloudy. “Thanks, Dutch.”

He patted me hard on the shoulder. It hurt—and I was pretty sure it was supposed to.

“You’re welcome, Savannah. But how about you thank me by letting me and Bronte give you tips to improve your ranking on the Scoreboard?”

Bronte nodded along to his words.

I chuckled, wiping my teary eyes. “Ok. It sounds like a plan.”

A loud, annoying siren cut through our touching team-bonding moment. Everyone turned toward the noise. It was coming from the big, black SUV roaring down the street. One of the Watchers’ vehicles.

The SUV didn’t slow down as it turned left at the defunct stoplight. Its wheels skimmed the outer edge of a curbside puddle, transforming it into a mini tidal wave that thoroughly splashed all of us with muddy rain water.

“Nice,” I grumbled, glaring at the Watchers’ ugly SUV as it drove off.

Suddenly, the whole ceremony I’d gone through this morning, squeezing out my snow-soaked clothes and replacing them with dry ones, well, it seemed kind of pointless.

“Watch out, Savannah!”

Bronte caught my hand and pulled me back. She was just in time. A second SUV screeched around the corner, kicking up another tidal wave. Thanks to Bronte, we evaded that one.

Dutch’s eyes followed a third SUV as it came around the corner and roared down the Emporium’s main shopping street. “The General’s soldiers are sure in a hurry today. They’re hunting something.”

“Or someone,” I said.

Six Watchers came running around the corner of the mall, their steps perfectly in sync, even at that speed. The General wouldn’t have accepted anything less than perfect order from his soldiers.

“Stop him!” One of the Watchers pointed at a man in a dark hoodie, who’d taken off running at the sight of them.

The Watchers closed in smoothly and efficiently, trapping the man against a tall chain-link fence.

“Nowhere to run now, Brother.”

“You’re not my brother,” the man chuckled.

He flipped back his hoodie, revealing a young face, not much older than a teenager. He winked at the Watchers, slithered out of their grip, then ran straight up the fence, scaling it easily.

Dutch gasped at him, his eyes wide with awe. “Whoa, I didn’t realize the Brothers knew parkour!”

“Whose side are you on, anyway? The Brothers are vicious criminals who hurt a lot of people!” Bronte nudged him in the ribs with her elbow.

“Ow! Has anyone ever told you that you’ve got really pointy elbows, Bronte?” Dutch hunched over, clutching his arms to his torso.

Bronte folded her arms over her chest, watching him with stern disapproval in her eyes as she tapped her foot against the rippled sidewalk.

The clink of metal drew our attention toward the fence.

Three guys in bright orange Cutter uniforms had the Brother’s face pressed against the chain-link fence.

They’d bound his ankles and wrists with garden ropes.

And one of them held the pointy end of his shovel to the Brother’s back.

“Good work, citizens. Now hold him there while we circle around.”

The Watchers turned and ran down another side street.

“See? There’s no need to get so worked up about the ‘vicious criminals’, Bronte. The General’s soldiers have this all handled.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Dutch,” I said.

There were new arrivals on the other side of the fence, and they weren’t the Watchers. A large contingent of elderly people had come to the Brother’s rescue.

“Leave him alone!” a woman in a faded pink dress shouted at the Cutters.

The tallest of the Cutters positioned himself between the angry crowd and the Brother. “He’s a criminal.”

“He’s a hero!” replied a bald man in a brown sweater vest. “The Brotherhood took care of people in need for years, and now you turn your back on them, just like that?”

“They tried to kill the Spirit Trees!”

The man in the sweater vest crossed his arms in the air in front of him. “Good riddance to the Spirit Trees and to all those supernaturals too! They’ve brought nothing but pain and suffering to us!”

“Do you think we should do something?”

The whisper came from Jack Johnson, one of the other Apprentices. I’d completely forgotten Ainsley’s team was here too.

“What do you suggest we do? Rush in headfirst?”

“Someone has to.”

All the Apprentices turned toward me.

“Hey, why is everyone looking at me?”

“Well, not minding your own business is kind of your MO, Savannah.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. I just sighed.

“They look like they’re about to come to blows. And that old dude in the sweater vest reminds me of my grandpa.”

“Your grandpa is a Brotherhood fan boy, Jack?”

Jack shrugged. “Grandpa says the Brotherhood helps the people everyone else has turned their backs on.”

“Yeah, because the Brothers want the public on their side.”

Not far away, just beyond the fence, the very same argument was raging. The Watchers charged into the alley to find themselves in the middle of a full-blown ideological battle.

“Gaia is divided. Just as Fenris has been saying all along.” I frowned as soon as I said it. I didn’t like to admit the vampire prince was right about anything, least of all this. “Hey, guys!”

The bickering Apprentices stopped and looked at me.

“We can’t let Fenris be right about us,” I told them. “We have to work together. We have to stick together and be better. We have to disprove all the Court’s worst fears about us.”

The larger part of Ainsley’s team gave me a look that I’d describe as frosty —and that was being generous. I wasn’t the most popular Apprentice in the Fortress, particularly not with the other teams. They thought I was some kind of weird, troublemaking deviant.

At least Victoria spoke up in my favor. Granted, she probably only did it because I’d saved her from the Templars yesterday, but still…

“Savannah is right. Listen to her.”

“Listen to Savannah Winters, the worst-performing Apprentice of us all?”

Those words came from my favorite Apprentice of all time: Zoe Santos. A few of the Apprentices snorted. But Victoria came to stand beside me. I smiled at her to show her I appreciated the gesture.

“Don’t be stupid. She’s accomplished more as an Apprentice than all of you put together.”

“I can’t believe you’re taking her side, Vicky! You’re not even on her team!”

“This isn’t about teams, Zoe. It’s about right and wrong. And when it comes down to it, Savannah does the right thing. She rescued me and Jack yesterday. Right, Jack?”

“That’s right. Savannah teleported us to safety, all the way across the Park!”

“You can teleport that far?” Bronte asked me quietly, her eyes wide.

“Come on, Bronte, it’s no secret she’s a Polymage.”

Victoria nodded. “Dutch is right. We all heard the mentors talking about last week after the heist.”

“Not that your rare magic has earned our team any bonus points, Savannah.” Dutch pivoted toward me. “And why is that exactly? How can you save twenty-eight Apprentices and still have no points to show for it? That is just not ok.”

I knew Dutch was mostly only indignant over the points he would have gained by association for being my teammate, but I appreciated his words nonetheless.

“Come on, guys. Let’s pull ourselves together. If we can’t do it, no one can. We have to be better than that .” Victoria pointed at the grownups’ shouting match, which had expanded to encompass both sides of the fence. Soon it would spread to the whole street.

The sight of all that anger and hatred finally snapped the Apprentices out of it.

“Vicky’s right.”

The others nodded in agreement—well, all of them except for Zoe. Funny, no one had nodded along when I’d said the same words. I just wasn’t as popular as Victoria.

Not being popular was pretty much the story of my life.

Dutch pointed at the bright, shiny conference center waiting for us just down the street. “Ok, now that we’ve all kissed and made up, might I suggest we get to work before our mentors dock us all a whole lot of points?”