Ellory would end it all, here and now.
Beneath them, the floor began to shake. Ellory couldfeelevery magic user, each of them a point in her mental web of light, and one by one, she siphoned that magic away. More screams rang out, an unholy symphony of pain, but she wasn’t worried. By the time she was done, they wouldn’t remember any of this. Their memories would be the price of their own destruction. The Old Masters wouldn’t just be buried but obliterated.
Tabby Rose.
Manuel Sharp.
Angel Mclaughlin.
Olivia Holloway.
Tasha Butler.
Eugene Kang.
Kristopher Douglas.
Joel Carroll.
Malcolm Mayhew.
Those were the ones who deserved to be remembered. Not as the Lost Eight or the Graves Ghost, not as sacrifices for a rich white man’s definition of a better world, but as people—wild magic or not—who had lived full lives that were taken too soon. The Old Masters had erased their names, but Ellory would make sure no one ever forgot them again. She would say their names until they passed into legend.
If magic faded from the world, maybe that was for the best. It was not the problem, but it had become a problem simply because of how it had been wielded. There would always be those who coveted what they did not have, who believed that the only way they could be powerful was if someone else was powerless. There was nothing to do with such a system but to tear it down.
“Lor,” Tai said, grabbing her shoulder. Her voice was strong, but her grip was weak. “The tower is collapsing. We have to get out.”
“Go,” Ellory said without taking her eyes off the writhing bodies of those who had thought they could control her. Control everyone. “Boone is waiting to get you out.”
Then he and Hudson would be next. Their magic would be destroyed, and their memories would be sacrificed. Even though Hudson had agreed, even though he’d said it was for the best,Ellory already knew she wouldn’t be able to face him again without crying. It wasn’t fair that they carried the taint of a legacy that needed to be abolished.
But they had been complicit in the Old Masters’ crimes, regardless of their reasons. They had allowed people who looked like them to be used so that they could each play at being “one of the good ones” in a system that had never been designed for their benefit.
Hudson was right. This was for the best.
Still, she would save them for last.
Tai still hovered by her shoulder. “But what about y—”
“Go.” Ellory wiped at the blood that began to leak from her nose and shook her friend’s hand off. “I’ll be fine.”
It took a few seconds for her to hear the scramble of feet toward the stairs, but she waited until the last of them had faded before she unleashed the full weight of her wrath.
Magic was sacrifice.
And it was finally time for the elite to be the ones to surrender.
Ellory lifted her hands to the ceiling and tore it all down.
41
The fire that had torched half of Riverside Campus was still the main topic of conversation at Professor Preston Colt’s salon. Sofia Aston and Percy Wallis sat side by side on the couch, having a conversation that made Percy’s face flush pleasantly. Tai Daniels and Cody Flores were in the kitchen, helping the cook carry tonight’s dinner—Samoan inspired—to the table. Professor Colt and Imani Khalif lingered over his wine cabinet, a glass in his hand and a borrowed book of poems in hers. Liam Blackwood and Farrah Mayhew had disappeared, likely to kiss in the mirror-lined hallway that led to the bathroom. Ellory had caught them more than once, and each time, the quiet happiness on Liam’s face had made her hurry away smiling.
With each passing day, she slowly relaxed. Coltwasa phenomenal actor, but he was normal even with no one to perform for. He taught his classes and held these salons. He went to the farm for fresh cheese, and he did TED Talks in his wide collection of tweed suits. He no longer smiled like a man with a secret more substantial than his own intellect. And Ellory would continue to keep an eye onhim to make sure that remained true.
In the meantime, there was no reason not to take advantage of the fact that his offer to work with her had very much been real. Maybe during her original freshman fall semester, it had been a means forhimto watchherfor signs of magical potential, but his recommendation would still open doors for her once she graduated for real.
He owed her that much.
