“You cannot meddle with what you have done!” Master Joseph shouted, spit flying from his lips. “Without a resurrection, we are nothing! The mages will overrun us and we will be destroyed. It is only with the power of eternal life that our army can swell to destroy the Assembly!”

  On the table, Aaron sat up. He didn’t look intimidated by all the yelling. He just stared at Master Joseph impassively.

  “Okay, okay,” Call said, holding up his hands, placating. Alex had backed far enough away from Master Joseph that he was standing against the wall, his face the color of candlewax. Call had never seen Alex like that before and it made him even more scared. “Don’t freak out. Everything’s fine.”

  Master Joseph took a step toward Aaron and grabbed his neck, tilting his face and looking him over like an angry car owner trying to determine if his new Mercedes had a scratch on it.

  “Callum seems to be determined to show me that he’s more trouble than he’s worth. From the beginning, he defied me. He mocked his role. He made light of the great honor bestowed on him. He threw my loyalty and my sacrifices back in my face, over and over again. Well, Callum, I think I’ve had enough of you ruining my plans.”

  “Don’t take it personally,” Call said. “Lots of people find me really annoying. It’s not just you.”

  “Call was trying to help me,” Aaron said, jerking back from Master Joseph’s grip. There was something almost terrifying in his expression.

  “You don’t need help!” Master Joseph snapped, seizing him by the shoulder this time. “You shouldn’t be tampered with!”

  “Get off me,” Aaron said, shoving Master Joseph’s hand away. “You don’t know what I need!”

  Master Joseph snarled. “Be silent. You’re not a person. You’re a thing. A dead thing.”

  Aaron’s arm shot out and he seized Master Joseph by the throat. It all happened fast — too fast for Call to react in any way but sucking in a sharp breath.

  Master Joseph’s hand came up, as though he were going to conjure up fire, but Aaron caught his arm and twisted it behind his back. His other hand tightened on Master Joseph’s throat. Master Joseph thrashed, gasping for air, his gaze going unfocused.

  “Don’t!” Call shouted, finally realizing what Aaron meant to do. “Aaron, no!”

  But Call had commanded Aaron never to obey him, and Aaron didn’t. His fingers dug deeper into Master Joseph’s throat and there was a popping, snapping sound, like the sound twigs made when you stepped on them.

  The light went out of Master Joseph’s eyes.

  Call gasped, staring at Aaron, unwilling to believe that his friend had done this, his closest friend, who’d always also been the best person he knew. For the first time, Call was afraid — not for Aaron, but of him.

  Alex was making a weird noise that turned out to be the word no said again and again, over and over.

  Aaron let go of Master Joseph and stepped back, looking at his hand as though he was only just then realizing what he had done. He seemed confused when Master Joseph’s body hit the ground.

  You’re a thing. A dead thing.

  Master Joseph lay slumped at Call’s feet, like Drew before him. Knowing me has been pretty bad for Master Joseph’s family, Call thought a little hysterically, but no part of that was actually funny.

  Alex dropped to his knees. He was staring at Master Joseph’s body. “You — you can bring him back,” Alex said.

  “But I won’t.” The words were out of Call’s mouth before he even considered them. He was more than a little shocked that Alex had asked — the Master had threatened Alex with the Alkahest, had mocked and disparaged him. But Alex was staring at his body with a haunted look.

  “You have to,” Alex said. “Someone has to lead us.”

  Aaron stared blankly at what he’d done. If he felt remorse, he didn’t show it.

  Alex crept closer to Master Joseph’s body. There were tears on his face, but he didn’t reach to touch the dead mage. Instead his hand went to the Alkahest. He cradled it to his chest and Call realized that he’d been a fool to not grab for that before anything else.

  “Uh, Alex?” Call said. “What are you doing?

  “I never thought he could die,” Alex didn’t sound like he was talking to Call. His voice was low, like he was talking to himself. “He was a great man. I thought he would lead the army with me at his side.”

  “He was an evil man,” Call said. “In a way, everything that happened — the mage war and Jericho’s death and even Drew’s death — was his fault. He hurt people.”

  “He is the only reason you were ever important at all. He believed in you. And you’re just going leave him there?”

  “Like you did with me?” Aaron said, sliding down off the table. He moved to stand next to Call.

  “I didn’t do that to show I was better than the Enemy of Death,” Alex snarled. He still held the Alkahest, hugging it to himself.

  “No,” Call said. “You did it to show you were exactly like him.” He walked to the door, Aaron behind him. There, Call turned back. “We’re going to go. Look, I know you’re upset, but you could do good out in the world with your chaos magic. You can still be famous and powerful and not on the side of evil. With Master Joseph gone, this can all be over.”

  Alex looked at him tiredly. “Good, evil,” he said. “What’s the difference?”

  Call expected Aaron to say something. He expected him to point out that Alex must know the difference — but he didn’t. Maybe this Aaron couldn’t tell, either.

  Call and Aaron walked down the corridor in silence and were quickly joined by Havoc, his ears back but his tail wagging. Footsteps sounded in the house, but no one stood between them and the door. They stepped out onto the lawn.

  “Where are we going?” Aaron asked.

  “I don’t know,” Call said. “Off this island. Away from everything.”

  “Am I coming with you?” Aaron seemed to have realized that killing Master Joseph was something that might matter to Call. Maybe some part of Aaron was bothered by it, too. Maybe he remembered that there was a time when he would never have killed someone like that, in cold blood, with his bare hands.

  “Of course you are,” Call said, but Aaron probably heard the hesitation in his voice.

  “Good,” Aaron said.

  They started to walk toward the woods, following the road, sticking to the edge of the tree line. Call’s leg started aching pretty quickly, but he didn’t slow down. He let the pain happen, let it get worse. So what if it hurt? So what if he limped? The pain made him feel everything in sharper relief.

  Aaron walked alongside him, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Horrifyingly, the more time passed, the less Call felt like his friend was accompanying him and the more he felt as though it was one of the Chaos-ridden. Even Havoc seemed to be avoiding Aaron, sticking to the opposite side of Call, never darting over to be patted. Even though Havoc had nosed up to Aaron to be petted yesterday, it seemed clear the wolf thought Aaron had changed since he’d first returned to the living. Aaron had changed. But why would that have happened?

  At least they were close to the water now. Call could hear the waves lapping at the bank. And then, suddenly, that noise was subsumed by the growl of engines. Trucks roared down the road. Overhead, a ribbonlike elemental cut through the sky.

  Call turned, grabbed Aaron by the shoulder, and shoved him into the woods. “Run! We’ve got to run!” he said, though he knew his leg wasn’t going to let him go fast.

  And then, coming out of the woods was Hugo, more mages with him, and marching behind them, Alex’s Chaos-ridden.

  Even with Master Joseph dead, Call and Aaron weren’t going to be allowed to leave.

  “I am the Enemy of Death!” Call shouted. “I am the person in charge. It’s my commands you’re supposed to be listening to — and I say go back to the house! This is over. I am Constantine Madden! I am the Enemy of Death! And I say this is over!”

  Hugo took a step toward Call, a smile on his face. With growing fear, Call realized that there weren’t just the mages Call had seen before. Not just escapees from the Panopticon and trainees like Jeffrey. There were others — even people wearing Assembly robes, who must have just arrived. Traitors, all come to fight on the wrong side. Call even thought he recognized Jasper’s dad.

  Havoc started to bark loudly.

  “You may have Constantine’s soul but you’re not in charge,” Hugo said. “Master Joseph gave very specific instructions. If something were to happen to him, we’re supposed to follow Alex Strike, and Alex says to bring you back — by force if necessary.”

  “But I’m the Enemy of Death!” Call said. “Look, I’m the one that resurrected Aaron. You’re all here to unlock death’s mysteries, right? Well I am the combination to death’s locker! I am the key to the weird shed in its backyard!”

  For a moment, after Call spoke, everyone was silent. He wasn’t sure if he’d dazzled them with his logic or not. For a moment, he hoped they might really let him go.

  “Maybe you’re … all those things,” Hugo said. “But you’re still going to have to come back to the main house. There’s going to be a battle soon, and we all need to be ready. It’s not safe for you or for Aaron in the woods right now. Scouts from the Assembly could be anywhere.”

  “I’m not going back with you.” Call raised his hand, calling on chaos. Maybe if he showed them what he was and what he could do, they’d let him go. Maybe if they realized he was going to fight, they would be afraid to hurt him. Power began to gather within him slowly. He had almost drained himself completely trying to see what was wrong with Aaron. With a piece of his soul missing, he was so weak. He needed more power.

  Out of habit, he reached for Aaron, his counterweight. But reaching for him was like plunging an arm into icy water. A cold, black nothingness washed over his mind. Call gave a cry as the world went dark.

  Call woke with his hands tied behind him, his head lolling to one side. For a moment after he regained consciousness, he thought he was back in the Panopticon. It was only when he saw his surroundings — Master Joseph’s creepy Victorian parlor — that he remembered everything that had happened. Master Joseph … Tamara … Aaron.

  Aaron.

  Looking down, he saw that he was lashed to a chair, his ankles bound tightly to its legs and his wrists tied behind his back

  “You’re awake,” Aaron said from behind him, close enough that Call was pretty sure he was lashed to a chair, too — probably the chairs were tied together. Call shuffled a little to test his assumption and the weight confirmed it.

  “What happened?” Call asked.

  Aaron shifted his weight a little. “You looked like you were going to do some magic and then you just passed out. I have no magic, so I couldn’t do much. Neither could Havoc. They tied us up. Alex ran around a lot, giving orders. I think Hugo was telling the truth about a battle.”

  “Alex is really in charge?” Call said, incredulous.

  “He’s claiming —” Aaron started, but before he could finish, Hugo came into the room, Alex behind him. When the door opened, Call heard Anastasia talking to some other mages. For a moment, he thought he even heard a voice he recognized, but he couldn’t place it.

  Alex was clad in a long black coat buttoned to the neck, his hair carefully combed back from his face. He no longer looked tired or frightened. His eyes glittered, and he wore the Alkahest on one arm, gleaming as if it had just been polished.

  “Seriously? You look like you’re auditioning for the next Matrix movie,” Call said, and then realized that maybe he shouldn’t be so sassy while he was tied to a chair.

  “I am in charge now, as I always should have been,” Alex said. “I have all of Constantine’s knowledge and all of Master Joseph’s expertise. I am the new Enemy of Death.”

  Call had to bite his lip to prevent himself from making another joke.

  “I could transfer your Makar power to myself and be the most powerful chaos user who ever lived. Either obey me and become my loyal lieutenant, Callum, or I will kill you right here.”

  “That’s a compelling offer,” Call said. “But are you even sure the Alkahest works like that?”

  “You can’t kill him,” Aaron said softly. “Just like you can’t kill me. Without us, your army won’t stay.”

  Alex’s mouth twisted into a sneer. “Of course they will.”

  “Of course they won’t,” said Call, running with Aaron’s lead. “They care about the dead being brought back. I did that. You didn’t. And everyone knows it.”

  “He’s right,” said Aaron. “They came to follow Call and Master Joseph, not some teenager they don’t know.”

  Alex sneered. “Please. Call explained how to bring back the dead. He used his own soul. I can do the same thing any time I want, so I don’t need him anymore. I need you, sure. You’re the proof this works, but he’s disposable.”

  “If he dies, I won’t help you,” Aaron said emotionlessly. “I might not help you anyway.”

  Alex looked ready to stamp his foot, but he drew a knife from the inside pocket of his coat instead. It was a nasty curved thing and it made Call think of Miri, his own blade, back at the Magisterium. He forced a grin. “Well, Call. Do you want to take the chance I will do it anyway or do you want to promise you’ll be loyal? Will you fight on our side in the coming conflict?”

  “I’ll fight on your side,” Call said. “After all, Aaron and I don’t have anywhere else to go. Did you see me running after Tamara and Jasper? Didn’t you hear me when I told the whole Assembly that I wasn’t being held against my will? Everyone else hates me. You should have led with that.”

  Alex grinned and reached down to slash the knife through the ropes that held them. Call got to his feet, his bad leg aching. Aaron rose slowly after him.

  “Come,” Alex said, and marched from the room.

  The sun had set while Call and Aaron had been tied up. It was dark outside the windows as they hurried along the hallway of the house behind Alex. As they passed through the parlor, Call could see that the huge lawns outside the house were lit with burning spheres of mage fire.

  They reached the porch of the house and stood there, staring, Alex smirking beside them. In the flickering firelight, the lawn was an eerie battleground. A mass of mages in green Assembly robes and the black uniforms of the Magisterium faced the house. Standing with their backs to the house were Master Joseph’s forces.

  They were Alex’s forces now. Call could mostly only see their backs, but there were a lot of them. He thought he recognized Hugo and some of the other mages. They formed a wall several lines deep in front of the house, staring ahead with grim determination.

  There was a gap of about a football field’s length between them and the mages of the Assembly. Call moved toward the porch railing, and heard a bark.

  “Havoc!” he said. The wolf bounded around the side of the house and up the steps to press himself against Call’s leg. Call winced in pain but reached down to ruffle Havoc’s fur. It was a relief to see Havoc, the only one of his friends who hadn’t changed.

  He chanced a sideways look at Aaron. Aaron’s profile was sharp in the red-orange light. It made his green eyes look blacker. He thought of the way Aaron had squeezed Master Joseph’s throat until it snapped, and he felt an ache inside. In a way he missed Aaron more now than he had when Aaron was dead. It was as if he’d brought Aaron back and since that moment, everything that had made Aaron himself had been evaporating from him, like mist off a river.

  But why? The thought teased the edge of Call’s mind. It was Aaron’s body that was the problem. If he had put him in a different body — if he had moved Aaron’s soul, the way Constantine had moved his own — would it have made any difference?

  Havoc barked again as the front door opened and Anastasia came out onto the porch. She wore her silver-and-white armor, now clean, her hair up in a massive pewter twist. She glided toward Call.

  “Callum,” she said. “I’m glad you’ve seen sense and decided to fight alongside Alex.”

  “I didn’t see sense,” Call said. “He just threatened to kill me otherwise.”

  She blinked. Call couldn’t help but wonder: Didn’t it matter to her, the idea that Alex might kill Constantine’s soul? But whatever compromises Anastasia had made long ago in order to accept what her son had done and want him back anyway seemed to be fogging her mind.

  “Once the battle is over,” she said, “we’ll go somewhere, and we’ll raise Jericho, and we’ll live in peace.”

  “That’s enough, Anastasia,” said Alex. “Master Joseph tolerated this ridiculous delusion, but I won’t. Callum isn’t your son. I don’t care what you think. He isn’t Constantine Madden, and all your fawning over him won’t make any difference. He doesn’t love you.”

  There was an immediate sharpening in Anastasia’s expression. The fog was lifting and Call wasn’t sure that Alex was going to like whatever was underneath.

  “Alex, you would do well to remember that you need me,” Anastasia said. “And my elementals.”

  “And you’d do well to remember that if you should consider anyone your son, it’s me.”

  “I know Call’s soul,” said Anastasia, though Call didn’t think that was true. “Not yours.”

  Alex’s face twisted.

  “There are a lot of things here,” Aaron interrupted, as if no one had been speaking. Alex glared; Call looked around the island.

  It was true. The army of the Chaos-ridden had been marched out of the lake. They stood in neat rows, their clothing in tatters from such a long submersion in the water. Near them were elementals: long, airy snakes coiling among the trees, flaming lizards, enormous spiders made entirely from rock. Call didn’t see any water elementals, but if there were any, they were probably frolicking in the river.

  Call looked again at the mages. He’d thought he heard a familiar voice before, but now he realized he knew several of the people there. A few Assembly members stood near Hugo, along with several parents he recognized from the Magisterium. Jasper’s father was there, causing Call to suck in a breath.