“We don’t have time for small talk,” Thalia said, having doubled back toward us. She gave the chains still around her wrists a little shake. “We need somewhere to hide while we deal with these.”
“…Nova’s office was empty when I checked it a few moments ago,” Zayn said, already starting toward it.
We followed him, finding both that office and the hall outside of it still empty, and we decided to temporarily barricade ourselves inside.
Every instinct screamed at me to go back for Aleks, but I made myself focus on the chains binding my brother and Thalia. I blinked furiously until I summoned the magical sight that allowed me to see the energy around the metal bindings. I guided a shadow toward that energy, intertwining the two, then tightened the darker strand until the bindings began to pop. They were relatively thin, weak chains; it didn’t take much manipulation to shatter them.
As soon as he and Thalia were free, my brother grabbed me and pulled me into a bone-crushing embrace.
“We tried to get to you,” he said when he finally leaned away. “But we ran into Severin and his followers before we could.”
“Phantom said Captain Voss attempted to come back for me, too,” I told them. “But I haven’t seen him, either.”
We fell silent for a moment, wondering what trouble he might have run into. It was hard not to fear the worst.
Zayn straightened suddenly, obvious fear gripping him. “Wait—where is Aleks?”
I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes.
Zayn looked to the door, as though considering whether to rush back out there, but my brother placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.
Bastian’s voice was carefully measured. “Aleks is busy. Distracted by Lorien, along with the rest of the Order.”
“…Lorien?”
With a trembling voice, I recounted what had happened in the vault.
“He’sback?” Zayn asked. “As in flesh-and-bones back?”
I nodded.
“How?”
We were all silent, still trying to process it ourselves. Finally, my brother said, “Mind and body…those were the two shards we’d collected thus far…”
“And apparently that was enough to give him life, when coupled with Nova’s powers,” Thalia finished.
Silence stretched between us once more, heavy with questions nobody really wanted to ask.
Zayn broke it with a bitter laugh. “So we’ve revived the bastard,andhe’s quite literally heartless. Fantastic.” He folded his arms across his chest, leaning back against my desk and shaking his head. “I mean, what could possibly go wrong with this scenario?”
Thalia cut her eyes toward me. “Itwasan impressive bit of magic, for what it’s worth.”
I managed a weak, humorless smile. “And yet, for some reason, I don’t feel like celebrating my accomplishments.”
“Will it last, is the question,” Bastian said. “And what happens if he and his magic prove unstable? We don’t know exactly what those shards contained, or how they all work together, but I assume the fact that he’s still missing a piece of himself will make him even more unpredictable.”
Thalia’s expression darkened. “Between him, and whatever the hell is going on with Aleks’s magic, the fallout this palace might suffer could be catastrophic.”
I went to the window, searching the grounds below for any sign of movement. Phantom came to stand beside me, leaning his weight into me. Anchoring me. It was becoming a habit of his, I’d noticed—and the gods knew I needed it just then.
At least a half hour passed while we discussed our next steps, arguing about how to deal with the Order infiltration and control the bleeding. It felt like we were taking hours to discuss these things. Days. Entirely too long to be safe behind a barricaded door while chaos reigned beyond it.
I was seconds away from picking up my sword and charging back into the fray, plans be damned, when a commotion in the hallway made us all freeze.
Slowly, I moved toward the door, listening closer.
Then I heard a voice I recognized:Eamon.
