Well, thank my colors for that; they’re safe.The relief breaks over me like a wave.They’re safe and they’re still working together—and they haven’t killed each other yet.Which, after a full day, feels like a huge win. A sentiment Akari echoes—with a few added curses—when we reach the house and blink out into their midst.
“I thought for sure you were dead, Ray,” she whispers, her arms wrapping tightly around my neck. “We wanted to come get you, but . . . we couldn’t find a way in. How did you get out?”
“It’s a long story,” I tell her. “So, let’s just say it’s a good thing I have famous parents. Now catch us up on what we missed—why has the whole city erupted?”
“Because our divine friend, Adriel, set his followers loose.” Saleen’s sporting a nasty set of bruises, not unlike the ones decorating Cemmy and Chase, a mark of this morning’s skirmish with the trackers. Only Akari seems to have left that confrontation unscathed. Perhaps she was being watched over by a guardian Red. “They started attacking Council and Church buildings a couple of hours ago.”
“I don’t understand—why are his followers suddenly attacking buildings?” I ask. “They’ve never done that before . . . what’s changed?”
“We don’t know, exactly, but we think it may be a diversion,” Akari says.
“A diversion?” That doesn’t make any sense. “A diversion from what?” Why would Adriel want to divert attention now that he’s proven his theory? Isn’t the spectacle of success the best way for him to instill fear?
“The fact that Killen was only the beginning.” Akari’s voice softens around his name, like she’s afraid it might break me.
“He took another Shade?” It does break me; it fills my mouth with bile and my stomach with lead, shakes my legs with a violent grief. “Already?”
“No, this time he’s taken typics.” Akari steers me over to the couch to sit. “We think that’s what kicked off the riots in the first place. He took a bunch of initiates from the junior seminary and then set fire to the place. Which, as you can probably imagine, didn’t go over too great.”
No, I don’t imagine it did.
“Problem is, no one seems to know where he’s stashed them, and so the faithful have taken to the streets. They’re protesting, and they’re searching, and they’re rioting; I don’t really think they know what they’re doing, to be honest, other than trying to find their kids. But then Adriel’s followers started attacking buildings, and it wasn’t long before the faithful got a taste for that, as well, and that’s how we ended up here.”
“Then could it be a ruse instead of a diversion?” Ezzo asks, leaning against the armchair. “If Adriel’s taken typics, then now he’dneed Shades. What better way to get them than to draw them all into the city?”
It’s not a bad theory—except for the parts that don’t fit.
“No, those aren’t the kind of Shades he likes.” Saleen is thinking along the same lines as me. “When you start a riot, you get trackers, muscle, Shades sticking together or working in groups—he likes to prey on them when they’re vulnerable. That’s why he’s mostly been targeting lone Shades and rogues.”
Why he grabbed Akari while she was out trading and Killen while he was wandering the streets alone.
“She’s right.” Things must really be bad if I’m agreeing with Saleen. “Adriel’s gotten this far by skirting the trackers, not courting them. If they’re here, then I’d bet my magic he’s not.”
“Okay, so then where is he?” Cemmy asks the pertinent question, pacing the rug from end to end. “Where would he go to find seven non-threatening Shades and no trackers?”
“I mean, the Academy would be the obvious choice,” I tell her. “But—”No, no buts.I swallow the protest as that idea begins to form.The Academy. He’s gone to the Academy.Implausible as that might seem—impossible, even—I feel the truth of it in my bones. It’s where I’d go if I was looking to have my pick of colors, especially this close to midnight, while the acolytes are sleeping, and in the midst of a riot that has the trackers off dealing with the very unrest he caused.
“But he can’t be at the Academy,” Akari finishes the protest for me. “It’s the most secure building in Sarotuza.”
“Yes, but . . . secure fromtypics,” I say. Saleen proved that much when she helped two Hues get in and spring a third. “And in the event of a riot, all the seasoned Shades”—the portal keepers, the court guards, the class masters—“would actually be sent off to help. It’s a castle full of sitting ducks right now.” And the Council won’t think to protect it because they don’t realize that Adriel can access the Gray. The only man who does is both in deep denial about it and more interested in saving face.
“So, you think his plan is to . . . what? Break in, grab some acolytes, then bring them back into a city that’s now full of angry Shades?”Judging by the skeptical edge to Saleen’s tone, it appears I’ve lost our brief alliance. “That feels way more dangerous than just grabbing them off the street.”
Yes, it does. But that’s not what I’m thinking.
“No . . . I think he’s going to take the typics there,” I tell her, even though it sounds insane. “He’s obsessed with Councilman Denata, right? Well, that’s where he commits his sins. I think the Academy is where he’ll want to do the poisoning.” Specifically, the court chamber, his father’s domain. “I think he’ll think it’s poetic.” To deprive us of magic in the magical institution he never got to attend.
“Except he can’t take the typics there, Ray.” Akari’s shaking her head. “The Academy only exists in the shadows, remember, so he’d have to portal them in. And even if he did somehow manage to commandeer a portal, how would he keep them alive long enough to bleed the Shades? They’d shatter immediately.”
All perfectly good questions.
Though now that this idea has taken root, the answers are quickly pulling into shape.
“He doesn’t experience the shadows the same way we do, Kiri; he can bend them to his will, deaden their magic—our magics, as well. So, what if hecouldget into the Academy without a portal?” I say. “And what if he could create a safe space to hold the typics in while he’s there? Or if he brings Alara with him, maybe she’ll keep an In-Between around the initiates until he’s done bleeding the Shades—that’s what Emeralds do, isn’t it?” I look to Ezzo. “They have the gift to project that spell?”
“I mean . . . yes, but—”
“But that’s an awful lot ofifs, Raya.” Saleen seems to have contracted Cemmy’s incessant need to pace. “And don’t you think we would have heard if he’d infiltrated the castle? There are half a dozen portals servicing the Academy, surely somebody would have reached one of them by now, crossed back to report the threat?”
