“You okay?” Baz asks, crawling to my side.
I nod and gesture for him to go help Casey. He gets to his feet in a blink, leaping over the obstacle course of toppled bookcases. He makes it across the room just as two mages join forces for another spell, my sister in their sites.
But Casey’s already one step ahead of them.
“Baz! Let’s rock!” She points to the ceiling, and he nods, leaping over the last pile of books and grabbing her hand. Together, they raise their arms and direct their joint earth energy overhead. A slab of rock peels away from the ceiling, pancaking the two mages before they even realize what hit them.
From the corner of my eye, I catch the last swirl of black robes vanishing around the corner and up the stairs.
“They’re getting away!” I shout, pulling myself to my feet.
“Let them go.” Casey puts her hands on her knees and bends over, trying to catch her breath. “We need to get you and Quintana out of here before this whole place comes down. You okay?”
“I will be.”
“Good. Because as soon as you’ve regained your strength, I’m going to kick your ass.” With that, she returns to her partner, who’s just coming back to consciousness.
“What… happened?” he mumbles, glancing around at the war zone as Casey helps him to his feet. He sways, then leans against her shoulder, his eyes wide with horror. “The essence—”
“It’s gone, James.” Casey pulls his arm over her shoulder, steadying him. “It was a smash and grab—black-mirror magick and a whole lot of special effects. The first two hit us and took the boxes, leaving their buddies to finish the job. You okay?”
“I’m fine.” He pulls out of her hold, his anger fueling a quick recovery. “Which is more than we can say for the students who just lost their magick for thesecondtime.”
“We’ll find them,” she says. “They stole the essence rather than destroy it, which means they believe it’s still useful.”
“We don’t even know who they are,” he says. “And what about Phaines?”
“Buried,” Baz says. “Probably incinerated too. Kirin and I were down there when the first blast came through. I portaled us out just before the rest of it collapsed.”
“You can portal on command?” Casey asks, her eyes wide.
“Rock magick, baby.” Baz grins. “You might not realize this, Case, but I’m kind of handy in a jam.”
“Noted. I don’t suppose you can use some of that jam-handy rock magick to Humpty-Dumpty this place back together again?”
“I can stabilize the outer bedrock to keep it from caving in, but the walls and floor are toast. No one’s using this room again without a total remodel, that’s for sure. Which means you’re gonna need one hell of a cover story.”
“It’s your call, Case,” Quintana says.
She nods, then lets out a deep sigh. “Okay. We stick with the original plan and call it in. We were here investigating the anonymous tip. We found the body and the essences from the student victims, but before we could remove it all, we were attacked by unknown assailants.”
“Assailants most likely under orders from our back-stabbing dickhead of a boss,” he says.
“Agreed, but the minute he knows we’re onto him, we’re putting the entire Academy at risk.”
“I’m sorry,” Baz says, “but did anyone else see those cloak-and-dagger mages that nearly killed us all? Some of whom escaped, and are probably back in their dark holes, plotting their next attack? Sounds like we passed ‘at risk’ a long time ago.”
Casey shakes her head. “We have to call it in. At this point, our only advantage is that Eastman thinks he’s getting away with it.”
“Newsflash,” I say. “If you don’t report him, heisgetting away with it.”
“We just started building the case against him,” she says. “We don’t have enough evidence to move forward with charges, let alone secure a conviction. And he’s clearly got people on campus working for him now. Students, faculty, other outsiders… We have no idea how deep this runs.”
“And Trello?” Baz asks. “What’s her involvement?”
“I can’t get into that right now, but again, she’s not the bad guy here.”
“What about London?” Quintana asks. “If we can go straight to the top—”
