Chapter 11

The group waxway room was one of Ren's favorite places on campus.

Balmerick was not the public transportation authority. They would never offer their students a plain travel candle and send them off without pageantry. Instead they'd designed their portal room with exquisite beauty. The result was a perfectly scaled wax model of Kathor, as well as the surrounding regions. It looked like a sprawling dollhouse castle and took up nearly the entire room. Wicks peeked out from neighborhoods and market squares. The whole room functioned as a group portal. Individuals lit the location that was closest to their home before waiting for the time-appointed wave of magic to douse all the flames and sweep them away.

Wooden chairs circled the display. Ren had spent over four years sitting in this room with Timmons, Cora, and Avy. There were other guests from time to time, but those were the four mainstays. Sometimes they'd wait in silence, studying between exams. On other occasions they'd discuss their least favorite professors. The four of them were friends of circumstance, bound by the fact that they'd never quite be the same as everyone else at Balmerick.

As she entered, Ren saw their usual comfort had been shattered by the two interlopers. Avy and Cora had already lit their candles. Cora's glowed at the very edge of the map. Avy lived at the south end of Kathor, close to the wharf where Ren's mother worked. He sat in his chair, massive arms crossed. If glares could kill, Theo Brood's neck would already be slit from end to end.

A glance showed Cora trying to process this new development. She was one of the least likely people on campus to have shown up at last night's party. It was possible the girl had no idea the accident had happened. She was smart enough, though, to sense the tension. Ren saw that she was chewing on her fingernails.

Theo and Clyde talked as if they were alone in the room. It was so typical, the assumption that something became theirs as soon as they sat down. Theo even had his feet kicked up, those fashionably worn boots digging their heels into the wax-made miniature canal. The two boys had lit candles in the same neighborhood. Their houses were nestled in the Upper Quarter. She'd found that name annoying ever since the first time she researched its origins. It wasn't north of the Lower Quarter, and it wasn't physically higher than it either. It had been named that simply because the people who lived there had more money, because it was considered superior. She saw that both boys lived in the Safe Harbor area—the wealthiest of those wealthy neighborhoods. During her time at Balmerick, no one using the public portal had ever lit a candle to travel to that section of the city.

Ren circled around the wax display in the opposite direction and snatched one of the lighting rods. She touched the extending flame to her usual candle, which bordered one of the markets near Stepfast Street. Timmons mimicked the motion to establish her own connection with the location, relighting the exact same wick. It was clear she was trying to make quick work of it so she wouldn't be noticed, but discretion was not one of her talents. Clyde's eyes flicked up. He smirked when he saw her seated across from him.

"Timmons. Have fun last night? Quality product, no?"

Her cheeks colored. "It was fine. Thanks."

Ren had forgotten it was Clyde who'd pulled her friend into the back room. Which meant it was Clyde who'd given her a hit of breath at the party. He wasn't a surprise source. The Winters family had made its fortune on the more legal and traditional medicines. It wasn't hard to imagine their posh son having access to the auxiliary branches of their trade.

"I was still seeing sparks this morning," Clyde said. "Consider it an open invitation."

Theo watched the exchange with hooded eyes. Ren couldn't tell if he disliked a topic that was tied so closely to his recent mistake or if his disdain had some other source. When he caught Ren staring, he made a quick appraisal of her in return. The ease with which he dismissed her as uninteresting struck like an arrow. That anger pulsed in her chest again. She was trying to figure out what she could say—how she could get their attention—when Avy interrupted.

"Could you take your feet off the wax?" he asked, arms still crossed.

Theo glanced that way. Avy was well known. Famous even. That didn't mean they ran in the same circles. "Pretty sure the portal will still work just fine," Theo replied. "Boots or not."

Avy straightened in his seat. "It's disrespectful."

Theo smiled, and the expression was so smug that Ren considered the best spell for wiping the look off his face.

"Disrespectful of who? The wax worker who built the display? His name is Gothen. Family friend. I can assure you he'd take no offense. Besides, it's not like I can actually scuff the wax. It's enchanted."

"It's disrespectful to us," Avy corrected. "The toe of your boot. It's touching the mill my father still works in every day. I'd appreciate it if you took your feet off the display."

Ren saw that flash of privileged annoyance in Theo's eyes. He was not accustomed to someone ordering him to do anything. She also realized Theo wasn't afraid of Avy. Not because he was guaranteed to beat the other boy in a duel, but because if Avy so much as breathed on him, the Brood family would bury the other boy's future with a snap of their golden fingers.

After a moment Theo adjusted his footing. The toe of his boot shifted slightly to the left. His heel settled down in the middle of the canal. Ren went utterly still. It was coincidence. Pure coincidence. But she knew the location that his heel was digging into. Yesterday morning she'd stared down an alleyway and seen that very spot. The bridge that spanned the canal. The place where she'd stood as a little girl on the darkest day of her life. She was about to speak when Theo nodded in Avy's direction. His eyes glittered.

"There. Now my feet are in the canal. Which my father built. Hopefully, you have no complaints about me dipping my toes in an area that belongs to me."

And he turned back to Clyde, as if that settled matters. Ren instinctually slid one hand to her waist, fingers settling on the grip of her wand. She could see the veins along Avy's temples pulsing. Cora leaned over, urgently whispering something. Ren guessed that she was begging for him to stay calm. Don't take the bait. It wasn't worth it.

But Avy Williams had already been pushed too far. He was a champion wrestler. He broke other fighters for a living. He was likely being trained to crash through enemy lines at full force. Boys like him didn't brook such trespasses. He took his feet.

"I bet you always talk that way. I bet no one's ever slapped your hand for it. And I'd bet good money you'll get away with what you did last night too."

They all watched as he started walking around the circle. The boys were a half-moon apart, twelve paces at most. Theo stood. Ren saw both of his hands slide to different vessels. One was a delicate, stylish-looking wand. Another was a speckled chain hanging from a loop at his hip.

Overhead, the light of the room fluttered. It was a signal from the waxway portal. Ren knew it meant the magic would engage sometime in the next few minutes. Everyone was supposed to take their seats and begin the process of calming down. Center themselves on an image of the place they wanted to go before the wave of magic swept through and extinguished the wicks they'd lit.

"I don't want to hurt you," Theo said, his wand raised.

Avy pointed a finger at his dead eye. "What could someone like you do to someone like me? I've ground fools like you beneath my heel before.…"

Clyde edged protectively around Theo.

"Seriously, Avy? Do you really want to lose your scholarship?"

It was the only thing that could have halted his steady progress around that circle. He stood there, massive chest heaving, on the verge of fighting two of the most powerful heirs at their school. Ren knew the other boys likely possessed powerful magic, but in a tight space like this? It wasn't unthinkable that Avy could reach them. It wasn't hard to imagine what would happen if he did.

And Ren knew that the rest of his life would be over.

"Avy," she called across the room. "It's not worth it."

All eyes swung to her. She ignored the others. Her eyes were locked on Avy Williams. She could see that pulsing fury, a twin to the feeling she always kept locked away in her own chest. The anger was in his eyes and the flex of his hands. He wanted to paint the walls with blood, and Ren didn't blame him. After a brief hesitation Avy thrust a finger in Theo's direction. He breathed out the words.

"You could have killed them. My cousin was there. In that teahouse. One day you'll have to answer for all the—"

A blast of red light gave his sentence a new ending. Avy was lifted from his feet and slammed into the back wall. Cora barely ducked to one side to avoid getting crushed. Clyde's wand tip glowed with a matching light. Timmons shouted at him.

"Are you out of your mind? Doing magic in a waxway chamber?"

"Tell that to him." Clyde scowled. "This brute really thinks—"

There was a roar as Avy thundered back to his feet. Ren saw the lights flutter overhead again, faster this time. It was a final warning. The waxway spell was about to activate amidst all the chaos. Timmons was shouting again. Cora was shaking her head. Theo and Clyde both raised their wands as Ren's mind raced through calculations. She took a deep breath and started to lift her own wand.

A god-sized punch of force slammed through the room.

Magic—greedy and sharp and clutching—pulled her into darkness.