“Do you know who that was?” Tamara demanded. “Do you know who you just knocked out?”

  Call shook his head. Of course he didn’t know.

  “Jasper’s dad,” Tamara said.

  “Whoa.” Call had known Jasper’s dad was on the Assembly, had even seen him at the party where Jennifer died. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten. Now he understood the expressions everyone else had been wearing. “I am awesome! Jasper’s going to be so mad.”

  He and Aaron high-fived.

  “You are so immature,” Tamara said, reaching out a hand to help pull him to his feet. Havoc barked and leaped up to put his paws on Call’s chest. Call scratched the wolf’s head and looked around. Jasper’s dad lay peacefully in the road, his olive-green robes spread out around him on the asphalt. Up close he was a fairly nondescript guy with dark brown hair and a neatly clipped beard.

  The passed-out body of the trucker had been laid in a ditch by the side of the road. As Call watched, Alex clambered out of the ditch and walked over to Jasper’s dad. He levitated him a little off the ground and began to move him toward the roadside.

  Alex looked exhausted, gray and pale, as if he’d drained all his energy. Call glanced around. Where was Alma? Shouldn’t she be helping him?

  “She’s over there,” Aaron said, as if reading Call’s mind, and pointed. Alma was standing in front of the eighteen-wheeler’s door, which was looped with chain and a massive padlock. Her white hair streamed on the wind. She was gesturing with her hands, sparks flying from them — metal magic. The air smelled like hot iron.

  “Oh no,” Tamara breathed, just as the padlock ripped free and the back of the truck popped open. Alma grabbed the bottom of it and shoved upward, as if she were raising a portcullis.

  “They’re here,” she shouted, and then screamed.

  From the truck poured a flood of Chaos-ridden animals. Havoc gave a long yowl as they exploded out of their confinement — wolves, dogs, slinking weasels and darting rats, deer and opossums, and even bears, big lumbering things with multicolored, coruscating eyes.

  “I thought they’d be in cages!” Alma cried as they began running in all directions. “Quick! We have to corral them!”

  The animals ignored her. She ran after them, levitating a few back to the truck, but it was hard to contain them while adding more.

  “We could disappear them,” Aaron said quietly. “Into the void.”

  “No!” said Call. He couldn’t do that, even if the animals did look terrifying. Even if some of them were coming toward the place where they were all standing. The three of them, and Havoc, backed up toward their van. Suddenly, it seemed very small to Call.

  “Quick.” It was Alex, limping over to them. The animals were moving behind him, rushing around the road, chasing one another. They were weirdly soundless, unlike regular animals. Call could hear a low growl, but it was coming from Havoc. “We need to do a looping spell. It’s shaping air so that it makes a sort of fence around them.”

  “Can you do it?” Call asked.

  Alex shook his head. “I’m drained.” He really did look terrible. Even the whites of his eyes looked gray.

  “So are we,” said Aaron, indicating himself and Call.

  Alex turned to Tamara. “Tamara, I can show you how. It’s not that hard.”

  “I can do it, even if it is hard,” she told him, her voice steely. “Tell me what to do.”

  “Whoa,” said Aaron. Something had darted by him — something sleek and dark, with blazing eyes. He pressed his back against the van, pulling Call after him. Havoc tried to lunge forward, but Call called him back with a snapped command.

  Alex was talking to Tamara in a low voice, and she was nodding as he spoke. Even before he was done talking, she raised her hands and began to move them. She didn’t move her fingers like Alex did. It was more like she was plucking harp strings. Call supposed everyone did magic differently.

  Call could almost feel the power coming off Tamara. Instead of air, though, it was fire that sprang up in embers, in a wide looping circle around the escaping animals. But even as the fence crackled to life, corralling the great majority, the rest of the animals scattered — some of them toward the woods, and others toward anyone they saw. Now terrified by the fire, their eyes looked maddened and wild. Many of them had their teeth bared.

  What does it do to have chaos inside of you? Call wondered. He wanted to reach out and touch one of their souls — to find out what had truly been done to them. But there was no time to do anything but react.

  A fox leaped at Alma’s throat and she thrust it back. Another went for her legs. A snake whiplashed through the grass under the van and was gone.

  “Look out!” Alex wrenched Tamara to the side just as two enormous brown bears barreled toward the van, their massive bodies like tanks. Alex and Tamara hit the dirt as Call threw his hands up to send whatever he could at them — a swath of fire or black chaos, he wasn’t sure — but it was like scraping the bottom of a dry well. His hands trembled, but nothing happened.

  And then the bear was on him.

  He heard Aaron yell as the bear swung its paw, knocking Call to the ground with a single swat. Call rolled to the side, stunned, and the bear reared up above him, roaring. Call saw Aaron thrust out his hand, but the same thing seemed to be happening to him — only dull sparks came from his fingers. There was no magic.

  Call reached back over his shoulder to grab Miri just as Havoc sprang. The Chaos-ridden wolf’s jaws closed around the bear’s neck, sinking into the thick fur. The bear gave a growling wail. Havoc scrabbled to ride its back, claws and teeth sinking in. The bear shook its heavy body, trying to dislodge Havoc, but the wolf hung on. Finally, the bear knocked Havoc free. Havoc tumbled to the ground with a whimper, and the bear lumbered away toward the center of the road.

  Miri came out, Call scrambling to his feet. A quick check of Havoc assured him that the wolf was all right. Aaron had found a stick and was using it to try to hold off the other bear. Alex, who had shoved Tamara behind the van, raced back toward them, just as the bear swatted the stick from Aaron’s grasp. Alex pushed Aaron out of the way and spun toward the bear, his hands out, air magic spilling from his palms.

  But the bear was no ordinary animal. Its eyes spun red-and-orange as it swung claws toward Alex, who yelled and went down on one knee. His sweater shone red and wet in the moonlight, a gory tear in the shoulder.

  “Alex!” Tamara exploded from the other side of the van, running toward them. Call could have told Alex she wasn’t going to stay put. Aaron had his hands moving, as though he was trying to reach out for chaos magic, but nothing seemed to be happening.

  “Aaron!” Call yelled. “Catch!”

  He threw Miri. Aaron caught the knife, swinging it toward the bear. Blood flew in a spray as the blade connected with the creature’s midsection. The bear roared, its eyes narrowing as Tamara neared them, more fire blooming in her hands.

  Faced with fire and blade, the bear spun around and began to lumber quickly away. But the damage was done — Tamara’s attention had been diverted, and the fences of fire had begun to fall. The Chaos-ridden animals were spreading out even farther, and some of them were advancing toward the van, their eyes whirling in the night.

  Call limped toward his friends, just as Alex crumpled to the grass. There was even more blood on his sweater now. Call could hear Tamara’s frantic voice, saw Aaron look down at his hands, empty of magic. They were all drained. There was nothing they could do, and the animals were still coming.

  But that isn’t exactly true, is it? said a small voice in the back of Call’s mind. There wasn’t nothing he could do. He remembered the Chaos-ridden at the tomb of the Enemy. How they had listened to him. Because his soul had made them.

  I have to control them, Call thought. I have to do something.

  His soul had made these creatures, too.

  “Hey, you!” he said, his voice coming out weak and uncertain. “All of you! Stop!”

  The animals kept moving. Call swallowed. He couldn’t be a coward. They were all in danger. They could die. Even Jasper’s dad, who was lying in the ditch, unprotected and hopefully not bearing the footprints of hundreds of Chaos-ridden squirrels.

  Call took a deep breath and reached down into his soul, his soul that had inhabited another body before it had inhabited his. A body that had laid its hands on chaos and placed it inside these creatures.

  “Listen to me!” he shouted. “Chaos-ridden! You know who I am!”

  The animals froze. Call froze, too. He could hear his heart beating. Was it working? He raised his voice. “Chaos-ridden! Get back in the truck! Do as I say!”

  It felt like the command rang through the air after he’d stopped speaking.

  The words echoed in Call’s head. Black spots had appeared at the corners of his vision. The animals were all moving — it seemed to him some were turning, starting to join together to surge in the same direction — but Call’s eyes had gone blurry. He reached out for Aaron, for his counterweight, but Aaron’s magic was so dim that he couldn’t find him. He was alone in the dark without Aaron. In despair, he let himself fall backward into nothingness.

  CALL WOKE SUDDENLY, gasping. He was in the Infirmary. Master Rufus was speaking to someone, probably Master Amaranth. She liked to drape snakes around her shoulders, but she was an excellent healing mage.

  “I didn’t think the test took so much out of him. Are you sure he’s going to be all right?” Rufus asked.

  She sounded as though she’d answered this question before. “He’s fine, just exhausted. Both boys using their magic at once like that — I’m not so sure you should have allowed them to continue being each other’s counterweights. What happens if they both go too far?”

  “I will take that under consideration.” Call felt Master Rufus’s hand go to his shoulder and he kept his eyes shut, pretending to be asleep. “It’s our job to keep him safe. We have to keep them all safe or we’re doomed to repeat the past.”

  “Well, at least he’s not as foolish as young Alex Strike over there. Managed to fall into a bunch of stalagmites. I swear, the Gold Years get sillier the closer they get to the final gate.”

  “I heard about his accident,” Master Rufus said noncommittally, but there was something in his voice that led Call to think that maybe he knew more than he was letting on.

  Master Rufus squeezed Call’s shoulder and then departed the Infirmary. Call could hear his footfalls all the way out. He kept his eyes shut. Somewhere across the room, Master Amaranth was humming, doing something that involved clinking glass.

  I’ll count to thirty, Call thought. Then I will pretend to wake up. That way she won’t know I was faking in front of Master Rufus.

  He began to count … but he fell asleep instead.

  The next time Call woke, Tamara was standing over him. When he tried to speak, she put her hand over his mouth. She smelled like sandalwood.

  “Can you stand up?” she whispered. “Nod or shake your head.”

  He shrugged and she, exasperated, took her hand away. “Don’t wake up Alex and don’t give Master Amaranth any reason to come in here. It took forever for her to leave.”

  “I won’t,” he whispered back and swung down off the bed. His legs held him up. He felt pretty good, actually. Rested. He was still wearing the clothes he’d passed out in on the highway. “What happened?”

  “Shhhh. Come on.” She led him out of the Infirmary and into the hall. Call gave a last look back before the door closed. Alex appeared to slumber on, a bandage over his shoulder. Master Amaranth was nowhere in sight.

  Aaron and Alma were waiting for them in the hall. Like Tamara, Aaron was in his school uniform. His eyes lit up when he saw Call, and he stepped forward to clap him on the back.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “A little sore, but yeah, better,” Call said. He glanced at Alma, who was wearing a flowing cotton dress. Her arms were swathed in bandages.

  “Are you totally covered in fox bites?” asked Call.

  Alma’s face darkened. Aaron shook his head and made a throat-slitting gesture at Call behind her back.

  “We will not speak of it!” Alma said, glowering.

  “Okay.” Call wondered if Alma regretted throwing the truck door open. It was pretty much all her fault that he and his friends had almost been killed by bears. “So what are you doing here, then?”

  “You fulfilled your part of the bargain,” Alma said. “All is prepared for me to fulfill mine.”

  That meant Jennifer was somewhere nearby. She had to be. Call shuddered at the thought — he wasn’t at all sure he was ready to see another dead person talk. It reminded him too much of Verity Torres’s head and the riddles. That was serious Evil Overlord business.

  Aaron’s face looked as if he was having some of the same doubts. But Tamara seemed determined.

  “Good,” she said. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Alma began to march down the hall. They followed her. Unlike Alex, she didn’t seem interested in doing any fancy air magic to conceal them. It must have been late, though, and the corridors were pretty deserted. They stuck close to the walls and took advantage of the shadows.

  “Is Alex okay?” Tamara asked.

  Call felt his skin prickle. It was normal for her to be concerned about Alex, he told himself, even if she’d never paid attention to him before. It didn’t mean anything. “I heard the Masters talking earlier,” he reported. “Or at least Rufus talking to Amaranth. He’s going to be fine. So you know, you can tell Kimiya that.”

  Tamara looked puzzled. “She doesn’t know he got hurt.”

  Call gave an airy wave. “Well, you never know what you’ve missed when you’ve been passed out, right?”

  “Shh,” said Alma, gesturing for quiet. They had entered the part of the Magisterium where the Masters’ rooms were. They made their way down it in silence to Anastasia’s room.

  Alma knocked on the door with three rapid taps, paused, and knocked again. A moment later, Anastasia threw the door open. She wore a white crepe dress with a long cape thrown over it, embroidered with black thread. Her silver hair was twisted into an updo. She gestured for them all to come in.

  They stepped into her room and Call almost gasped. The whole place was spotless, as it had been before, but on the bare marble table in the middle of the room lay Jennifer.

  She looked like she was asleep. Her long black hair puddled around her head. Her feet were bare, and she wore the same bloodstained dress she’d been wearing at the party. Her hands were folded over her chest.

  “Her body has been held by the Collegium since the murder,” said Alma, locking the door behind them. “They have preserved her against decay, for the time when she might be needed as evidence.”

  Call wondered if that was how Constantine had preserved Verity Torres’s head all those years ago. He felt as though no matter what he did, he veered closer and closer to Constantine’s life and Constantine’s decisions. It was like being on a collision course with himself.

  “Aren’t they going to notice her missing?” Aaron asked.

  “We will have the body back before anyone at the Collegium is looking for it,” Anastasia informed them.

  Call thought of how fast elementals traveled and of the Assembly member’s particular skill in controlling them. If Anastasia borrowed one of the elementals from the Magisterium, she probably could get Jennifer back to the Collegium pretty quickly. But if Anastasia and Alma could steal a body out of the Collegium, then the spy could have probably managed a lot of sneaky things, too.

  After all, he or she was the greatest Makar of their generation.

  “I will explain what we must do,” Alma said to Call and Aaron. “You’re going to have to learn a fairly difficult skill and you’re going to have to learn it quickly.”

  Call remembered Alma trying to teach them about the soul tap. It was hard to learn how to do something from someone who understood the theory and had seen it done but had never done it themselves. It had taken him and Aaron hours to learn. Call wasn’t sure they had hours this time.

  “And you,” Anastasia said to Tamara. “You need to prevent anyone from looking for Callum or Aaron.”

  “What?” Tamara asked.

  “Master Amaranth is likely to check on her charges before we’re done. Go back and let her know that Callum has returned to his rooms and that he will visit the Infirmary tomorrow if she likes. We need to be sure that the whole school isn’t up in arms, looking for Call while we’re in the middle of an illicit magical experiment.”

  Tamara sighed. “Fine. I’ll be back.”

  “Shouldn’t one of us go with you?” Call asked. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of any of them wandering around the Magisterium alone with the spy on the loose. He glanced over at Aaron to see if he was thinking along the same lines, but Aaron was staring at Jen’s body on the table, his face white.

  “I’ll take Havoc. At least I’ll be doing something this way, not just standing around watching. I hate not being able to help,” Tamara told him, heading for the door. Then she turned back, braids swinging. She was smiling. “Good luck talking to the dead.”

  Once Tamara left, Call felt very alone. It was just him and Aaron and two crazy old ladies and a corpse.

  “Okay,” he said. “What do we do?”

  “As I understand it,” Alma began, reminding Call that she probably wasn’t all that sure, “you have to imagine the chaos magic running through the brain of the deceased, like blood. You have to send chaos energy through it, activating the mind.”

  That sounded hard. And not very specific.

  “Activating the mind?” Aaron echoed. He looked as baffled as Call felt.

  “Yes,” Alma said with more certainty. “The chaos magic approximates the spark of life, allowing the dead to communicate.”

  Anastasia gestured toward Jen’s body on the table. “Call and Aaron. Come closer and look at the girl.”