But moving through the crowd toward Alex was someone who gave Call a bigger shock — Tamara’s older sister Kimiya.

  A moment later, she had thrown herself into Alex’s arms. “I’m so glad you’re all right,” she said breathlessly.

  Even Alex looked surprised. “Kimiya?”

  “Kimiya, what are you thinking?” Call demanded. “You should be on the same side as your sisters.”

  Kimiya turned to look at him angrily. “Ravan isn’t my sister,” she said. “She was destroyed by fire. Now she’s a monster. My best friend, Jen, is dead —” Her lips trembled. “I hate death,” she said. “If Alex wants to destroy death, then I want to be at his side.”

  Alex shot Call a superior look over Kimiya’s head. “Go and get yourself a weapon, darling,” he said, stroking her long black hair. “We’ll fight together.”

  Kimiya disappeared inside. Alex grinned at Call, who barely restrained himself from lunging at Alex and strangling him. Alex cut him off, though, by moving up beside him and grabbing him by the back of the shirt with the hand that wasn’t enveloped by the Alkahest. Hugo, beside him, seized Aaron.

  “Loyal followers!” Alex shouted, and Call and Aaron were shoved forward and down the steps, into the center of a bright spotlight that was being cast by several mages. “Here they are! Callum Hunt, the reincarnation of Constantine Madden, and his greatest accomplishment — Aaron Stewart, raised from the dead!”

  A cheer went up. Call heard people shouting Aaron’s name. He felt dizzy. It was so much like the time Aaron had been declared the Makar, the hero of the Magisterium, and yet it was nothing like that.

  “And now —” Alex began. But Hugo interrupted him.

  “Master Strike,” he said. “Look. The other side is waving a flag of parlay.”

  “They surrender?” Alex sounded disappointed. “Already?”

  Hugo shook his head. “It means they want to talk before the battle.”

  “They sent us a message. They do want to talk.” Anastasia strode up, her expression taut. “But only to Call.”

  “No,” Alex said. “I forbid it.”

  Aaron looked ready to argue on his behalf, but Call put a hand on his arm.

  “Good,” he said to Alex. “They’d probably grab me, figuring that the army would be useless without me.”

  “I am leading this army,” Alex said fiercely.

  Call smirked. “I’m still the Enemy of Death.”

  Alex turned to Anastasia. He looked petulant enough to stamp a foot. “Why do they want to talk to Callum?”

  Kimiya had reappeared from the house, holding an axe made of stone. It bore numerous air and earth symbols carved into it, which Call suspected made it light enough to hold. “It was Tamara’s idea,” she said. “Tamara persuaded our parents he could be trusted. That his word would be good.” She shook her head. “Really, I think she wants to say good-bye one more time.”

  A cruel smirk grew on Alex’s face. “I didn’t know you and Tamara had something going on, Callum.”

  “It’s not like that.” The whine in Call’s voice sounded ridiculous, ridiculous enough that Aaron raised his eyebrows. He could tell that Call was faking.

  “I was wrong. You are going, Callum Hunt,” Alex said with a laugh, clearly believing he was upsetting Call. “You’re going to go and say exactly what I want you to say. You will bring my words to the mages of the Assembly and they will learn who the real leader of this army is.”

  Call tried to look sullen, but his guts were churning. Here was his chance to help the Assembly. But help them how?

  He took a deep breath. He needed to give them an idea of the forces they were going to be up against. A rough head count of elementals and Chaos-ridden and mages. They were going to want that. And they’d want to know that Master Joseph was dead.

  “Don’t come back,” Aaron whispered to him.

  Call shook his head. “And leave you here? No.”

  Aaron said nothing more. He didn’t insist, didn’t explain.

  “I heard that,” Alex said. He looked like a dark bird of prey, wrapped in black, glaring with hooded eyes at the mages of the Assembly. “I will be watching to see if you run to them, Call. If you try to turn traitor. And if you do, then I will command every one of the Chaos-ridden to attack and not stop until they kill you.”

  Kimiya gave a little gasp. Call turned to see that a fiery line was spreading from the line of the Assembly mages across the empty grass, toward Alex’s forces.

  The grass didn’t burn — the fire seemed to sail over it, expanding as it flew. Alex narrowed his eyes. “They’re coming for us,” he said. “Call, help me order the Chaos-ridden —”

  “No.” Kimiya put her hand on Alex’s wrist. “It’s Ravan.”

  “She’s attacking!” Alex’s voice rose to a screech, but Ravan had already reached them. She had become a column of blaze and fire, rising from the grass, gray smoke streaked with orange lines of flame.

  The smoke coalesced. It became more and more solid, until a gray girl stood in front of them. She was solid and real-seeming. The folds of a gray smoke dress blew around her. Her hair was long, and had once been black. Now it gleamed dusty silver. Her face reminded Call of Tamara, and he felt a twisting deep inside.

  Three of the mages sent up an icy shield between her and Alex’s forces but she only laughed.

  “I will escort Callum Hunt to the site of parlay,” she said. “I am peaceable now, but if you strike me I will burn the earth for a mile around.”

  Could she really do that? Call wondered. How bad was this magical battle going to get?

  “Monster,” said Kimiya in a revolted voice.

  Ravan gave a little, tilted smile. “Sister,” she said to Kimiya, and reached out a hand to gesture Call to walk in front of her. “Callum. We must hurry.”

  Call gave Aaron a look that said that he would come back, before he walked around the ice shield and followed Tamara’s sister across the grass.

  Everything was eerily quiet. There was hardly even any wind as they moved across the grass, allowing Ravan to keep her human shape. As they grew closer to the other side, Call saw that three figures were waiting for him. Master Rufus’s dark skin stood out in contrast to his dark olive Assembly robes. Beside him was Tamara, in her school uniform, her hair very black against the white. And next to Tamara was Jasper. His face was blank and angry as he watched Call approach.

  As Call reached them, Ravan began to scatter. Ash flowed away from her in waves. For a moment, as she dissolved, she looked at Call. Her eyes were orange, full of flames.

  “Don’t hurt my sister,” she whispered. “She cares for you.”

  And then she was gone.

  Call came to a stop in front of them — his friend, his once-girlfriend, and his former teacher. None of them spoke.

  “Call —” Tamara started.

  “I don’t have a lot of time,” Call interrupted her. He didn’t think he could bear to hear what she had to say. He started talking fast, not looking at any of them directly. He began to outline what Alex’s army consisted of and what had happened to Master Joseph. As he spoke, one of the Assembly members — Graves — broke free of the others and strode over to them. He’d never been a big fan of Call’s, and Call tried to ignore that he was there.

  As Call wound down, Master Rufus’s expression changed from neutral to concerned.

  “Callum,” he interrupted, finally. “You’re telling me that Master Joseph is dead? And that Alex Strike and Anastasia Tarquin are leading the troops?”

  Call nodded. “Mostly Alex, though. Look, I surrender! I surrender! This was all a huge mistake. Just promise that nothing is going to happen to Aaron and I’ll do whatever you want.”

  At his name, all of their expressions darkened. Graves pointed a skinny finger at him. “Callum Hunt, what you have done may have created a rift in the mage world that can never heal. The dead are not meant to return. Aaron must be destroyed, for the sake of his soul, if for no other reason.”

  “Is that what you think?” Call turned to Tamara.

  Her eyes were shimmering as if she was holding back tears, but her voice was firm. “I think you brought back part of Aaron but not all of him,” Tamara told him. “I don’t think he would want to live like this.”

  But what if I’m starting to understand what I did wrong? he wanted to ask her, but he already knew the answer. It was too late. What if I can still fix it? Fix him?

  Call wasn’t sure that was possible. It was just the germ of a thought in the back of his mind. Something about Aaron’s body, a body that had been dead — his own body had been living when Constantine had pushed his soul into it —

  But what he was thinking about might be something that could never be done.

  Should never be done.

  “Let it be Aaron’s choice,” Call said, looking at his shoes.

  “As if he can make choices,” Graves snorted. “Can he even talk?”

  Tamara reddened. Call glared at Graves. “Yes, he can choose to do things. He’s the one who killed Master Joseph, and he did it all on his own.”

  Tamara caught her breath. “Aaron killed Master Joseph?”

  “Yes,” Call said. “And he should be allowed to decide if he lives or dies and where he goes! I brought him back. I owe him that.”

  “It hardly matters,” said Graves, though he looked shaken. “You cannot come back to the Magisterium.”

  “Then send me back to the Panopticon,” said Call. “Put me in prison. Just not him.”

  “You can’t come back to us, Callum,” Rufus said gently, but Graves interrupted him:

  “We didn’t parlay with you to offer you and your monster help. We asked to speak with you because your family and friends believe you can be persuaded to do the right thing.” He looked around as if he couldn’t believe how stupid Call’s friends were.

  “The right thing?” Call echoed, not at all sure what they were suggesting. The only thing he was sure of was that he wasn’t going to like it.

  Graves went on. “We have gone to war against the forces of the Enemy before. And yes, perhaps Alex is much diminished, but his forces aren’t. He is a Makar and there is no Makar fighting on our side anymore.”

  Call opened his mouth, but Jasper shook his head, and for once, Call shut it. He wished that his father had been allowed to come to this parlay. He imagined that Alastair must have argued for it, but he understood why they hadn’t let him come. Alastair would cut to the chase and tell him what was really happening.

  “We have had more traitors and defectors than we supposed. There’s only one way to end this for good. You must use your chaos magic to destroy Alex Strike — and yourself.”

  Call sucked in a breath.

  “What?” demanded Jasper.

  Tamara exploded with anger. “That’s not what we agreed to! It was that he should destroy Master Joseph and then everything would be forgiven!” She whirled around to face Call. “I told them you didn’t mean it when you said you were the Enemy of Death, that you were just saying it so Alex and Master Joseph didn’t know you were on our side. I know you brought Aaron back because you care about him, Call, and not for any other reason.”

  “Graves, this is insupportable,” said Rufus. “He is a child. You cannot ask him to destroy himself.”

  “He is the Enemy of Death,” said Graves. “He said so himself.”

  Call started to back away. He felt sick. Master Rufus might argue, but the Assembly had already decided, and the Assembly called the shots. They wanted him dead. There was nothing he could do about it.

  “Call,” Master Rufus said. “Call, come back —”

  But Call was gone, sprinting across the grass toward Alex’s army, toward Anastasia Tarquin and the Chaos-ridden. He’d spent so much time trying to escape them, he never thought he’d be fleeing toward them.

  Havoc ran to greet him, barking, his coruscating eyes shining in the moonlight like points of fire. Call grabbed his ruff and ran the rest of the way, half leaning on the wolf, his bad leg aching along with his head.

  He would have gone back to the house, but too many Chaos-ridden and Assembly traitors blocked his way. Alex stood beside Kimiya and Anastasia. He was grinning. Aaron was slightly behind him. Hugo had a hand on his shoulder — not a friendly hand, but a warning one.

  “So how’d you like that, Call?” Alex said. “Kimiya told me they wanted you to sacrifice yourself to take out Master Joseph. She overheard Graves talking about it. Nice to know how much the Magisterium really values you, huh?”

  Call felt his heart sink further. That was why Alex had let him go to the parlay. Not because he trusted Call or because he’d been deceived by his pretending to be upset, but because he believed Call wouldn’t sacrifice himself.

  And he’d been right. Call had run away from the Assembly mages. Call thought back to his first year learning magic. The end of his private Cinquain. Call wants to live.

  “Tamara,” Kimiya said. “Was Tamara all right? She’s not going to fight, is she?”

  Call opened his mouth, then shut it again. Kimiya didn’t deserve to know about Tamara. Didn’t deserve to pretend to care about Tamara when she’d abandoned her.

  “I’ve got the Alkahest,” said Alex, raising his arm. “You fight with us, Call, or you die and Aaron dies. Now you see that, right?”

  Call took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. He felt like screaming. He felt like crying. But he couldn’t do either one.

  “Yeah, they made me an insulting offer. So what? They already abandoned me.” Call looked Alex in the face, trying to turn his anger into confidence. “I already said I had nowhere else to go.”

  Alex’s smile tilted. “Glad to hear they didn’t change your mind.”

  Aaron came over to him but didn’t ask how he was, didn’t put an arm on his shoulder. “A lot of people are going to die today, aren’t they?” he asked instead. He didn’t sound particularly concerned, just curious.

  “I guess so,” Call said. It still seemed impossible, stupid, but it was happening. A lot of people — good people — were going to get hurt. They were going to die like his mother died.

  “You’re going to lead the Enemy of Death’s Chaos-ridden on the left flank,” Alex told him. “I am going to lead my own on the right. Anastasia is going to head up the elementals from above. Hugo will lead the mages, who will support us from a safe distance. We will crush them. You don’t mind being on the front lines, right?”

  “Of course not,” Call said. He was sure Alex considered Constantine’s Chaos-ridden the most expendable and was willing to sacrifice Call the first chance he got. Maybe even arrange a little accident.

  “Aaron is going to stay with me,” Alex said, making the “accident” scenario even more likely.

  “I don’t want to do that,” said Aaron in an even tone that made Call a little nervous.

  “Well, you’re going to,” Alex said. “But don’t worry about Call. He won’t be all alone. Havoc can go with him.”

  At the sound of his name, the Chaos-ridden wolf barked once.

  Call looked over at Aaron. He would have insisted that his friend come with him — if it wasn’t that Alex was going to put Call in the most danger possible and that meant Aaron would be in it, too.

  He thought about what Graves had said to him as he called the Chaos-ridden to him and commanded them to arrange themselves in neat little rows. They looked like an army of toy soldiers, grown massive and terrifying.

  Call had been trying to avoid this exact moment ever since he’d found out that his soul had once belonged to Constantine Madden. It had been his fear that he would become like the Enemy of Death, that he’d be the cause of pain and fear and death. He’d been trying to make good choices, but though each choice had seemed fine all by itself — well, most of the choices had seemed fine — they’d still led him here.

  He could make excuses, but excuses didn’t matter. Graves being such a jerk didn’t matter, because he was right. Even if none of this was Call’s fault, he was still the only one who could fix it.

  He just had to figure out how.

  “Move out,” Alex said. “Order them.”

  “Okay,” Call said to his Chaos-ridden. “Time to march.”

  “Yessss,” they groaned, in the language that only Call understood. And they began to move.

  Their feet thundered over the ground as they headed toward where the Assembly’s army was still massing at the water’s edge. The air above them crackled with elemental magic. Behind them came Alex’s Chaos-ridden and the mages.

  Call had never felt so unprepared for anything in his life. It’s just like the Iron Trial, he told himself. All you have to do is lose.

  He was going to make sure his side lost spectacularly.

  IT WAS LIKE pictures Call had seen of the last Mage War, the one where Verity Torres had died on the field facing Constantine Madden.

  Only now he was Verity, getting ready to die. Aaron had told Call about fearing he would die on the field like Verity had, a Makar sacrificed to the good of the Assembly of Mages. But it was Call who would die like that. Call, who the Assembly hated.

  He was Verity and Constantine both, somehow. He thought about them as he marched ahead of the Chaos-ridden, Havoc at his side. He could hear their whispers in their strange dead language. They were asking him for instructions, asking what he wanted.

  His flank was approaching the Assembly mages from the west. He could see Alex closing in from the east — Alex, wearing the silver mask of the Enemy of Death. He looked inhuman in it, half ghost and half monster. Call heard Alex shout and saw the Alkahest flash copper in the air as Alex gestured for his Chaos-ridden to attack.

  They burst forward around him, and the Assembly traitors — all of whom had been put under Hugo’s command — surged forward, too. Only Aaron didn’t move. He stood where he was, a lone dark figure, the forgotten once-Makar, like a stone in the middle of a river as the Chaos-ridden streamed forward around him.

  They slammed into the eastern flank of the Assembly mages and there was screaming. Call looked in horror for Tamara and Jasper, but he couldn’t see any students among the fighters. He hoped they’d been pushed to the back of the lines, where they’d be protected.