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He whispered more words, a focused, almost pained expression on his face. He repeated the process on Hunter, Troy, Kase then himself, leaving a bloody, ashy thumbprint on each of our foreheads. “The air is toxic,” he yelled. “Remember Hunter nearly dying? It’ll be worse in our physical forms, so donotlet that mark rub off. If it does, don’t breathe until I reapply it. One lungful of that mist will kill you if you don’t have protection.”
“What are you doing?” The screaming voice drew my attention back toward the stairs, where Jameson stood, his hair not so pristine now that that the wind had messed it. “This is reckless and dangerous. A portal like this can’t be contained, even by you.”
“This has to be done,” Grant answered.
“You’ll kill everyone!”
“They’re dead if we don’t do something anyway.”
Jameson took a step forward, his hand out in warning. “You’re too damaged to know what’s safe and what isn’t. You shouldn’t even be able toopenthat portal! You’re a mistake that should have been put down when you were created.”
As Jameson spoke, other mages came to the top behind him, all of them with wide, terrified eyes. The violence was thick, as if amplified by our proximity to the portal.
The point was clear…they weren’t going to let us go.
As much as I trusted Grant and the others, no matter how powerful and dangerous I knew they were, more and more mages poured to the roof, until I saw no way it would be possible to win…
And I somehow doubted that losing was an option that would let us keep our lives.
Grant took a step forward and jammed a finger at Jameson. “Youmade me what I am!”
“I wasn’t even on the council then,” Jameson argued.
“But it was your type—men who want nothing more than power. You don’t get to make monsters, then get upset when we use whatyouturned us into!”
Grant calling himself a monster chafed, but I got the feeling it was true. The looks of horror on the mage’s faces, the way Jameson looked at Grant—it all said the same.
He wasn’t just some mage. While I didn’t understand the details, while I still had no true grasp on what was different about Grant, it was obvious they all knew.
“Close the portal,” Jameson yelled, “and I’ll let the girl live. She’ll get to walk away from here.”
Boy wasthata lie. It was in the way he said it, the slight sneer.
Not that I would have let Grant take that option, since I was pretty sure even the fake mercy toward me didn’t extend to any of the others. There wasn’t a chance I’d walk out on them.
Grant stood tall. “Not a chance. You want to stick your head in the sand, fine.Iwill do what is needed. Even if I did what you said, even if you let her go, if we don’t deal with Lilith, she won’t live long anyway.”
Jameson curled his lips into an ugly smirk, as if Grant’s refusal was exactly what he’d hoped for.
Then again, Grant had explained how one took power in their world. No doubt Jameson saw this as his chance to do away with Grant and seize the Magistrate position on his own.
Jameson lifted his hand, and a flash of white left his palm like a streak of lightning.
Before I could shout in warning, before I could do anything, Grant lifted his hand. The lightning dissipated, fizzling out to nothing.
Fury covered Jameson’s features, as if Grant should apologize for daring to still be alive.
Grant didn’t stop though. His gaze locked on Jameson. “You’ve been plotting my death for years.”
“You shouldn’t rule,” Jameson said. “You have no right.”
“I have every right!”
“You are an abomination.”
“Because the council thought it fit to rip the magic out of orphans? Theycouldn’trip mine away though, could they?”
“A fluke,” Jameson answered. “You were just a mistake that never should have happened. If your father had any sense, he’d have killed you the second he realized what you were.”
