“Come back here, Noam.” No mistaking the magic that ignited the air between them. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
Noam was frozen in place, feet grown roots into the floor. Only it couldn’t be persuasion—he had Faraday, Lehrer couldn’t—
No. This was fear.
Lehrer held out his hand for Noam to take. “Don’t test my patience.”
This was the moment. If Noam disobeyed him now ...
Noam drew his magic to the tips of his fingers, the surface of his skin.
“I said no.”
Silence fell. For a terrible second they were both locked in place, Lehrer dark and unreadable, Noam’s very blood on edge as the realization sank in.
As Lehrer knew, all at once, that Noam was no longer his.
Hadn’t been, for months.
Lehrer broke first.
He surged forward, inhumanly fast; his touch grazed Noam’s throat for one reeling beat before Noam recoiled out of reach. Noam’s magic surged out from him all at once, seething with electricity to slam into Lehrer’s hastily erected defenses.
And suddenly all Noam could think about was the way it felt when he was on the floor of the sparring room, broken and screaming—how easy it would be for Lehrer to bring him down again.
“I knew it,” Lehrer rasped. He sent something white hot and deadly lashing across the space between them; Noam stumbled back and slammed himself against the wall just in time. The conflagration lit into the floor, flames arcing toward the ceiling in the brief moment before Lehrer quenched it. “You think I didn’t know, Noam? You think I didn’tfigure it out?”
Noam shot magic back toward Lehrer like a dozen poisoned darts; none of them struck home. Lehrer was a force of nature, a storm bearing down; Noam barely had time to distinguish one attack from the next, every defense hurled into place at the last second. His mind buzzed, static roaring in his ears. He was distantly aware of Wolf scurrying down the hall to hide in the bedroom, an odd thing to notice at a time like this, and yet—
He couldn’t keep this up. Couldn’t focus hard enough for long enough. Soon he’d break, and Lehrer’s magic would swarm through the cracks to devour him.
“You’re transparent,” Lehrer said. “That Faraday shield on your mind—who gave you that idea? Who fed it to you like honey on a spoon?”
Lehrer’s next blow caught Noam in the knee, and he fell, crashing to the floor heavy enough the ricochet sent a vase flying to shatter against the fine rug. And Lehrer was there before Noam could recover, his knee bearing down against Noam’s sternum and his hand at Noam’s neck, crushing the air from his windpipe.
Noam choked and scrabbled at Lehrer’s arm with both hands as Lehrer leaned in close, closer, until a fallen strand of his hair grazed Noam’s brow. Lehrer’s face was contorted with fury, eyes pale fire.
“You gave them to me. Every one of your ... compatriots. You betrayed them—and yourself. Fornothing.”
Noam jabbed his knee up, slamming it in against Lehrer’s ribs. Lehrer didn’t move, wasn’t even fazed.
Lehrer pressed down with the heel of his hand, and Noam’s vision flared to white.
“We could have been great,” Lehrer whispered. His breath was fast and shallow, air bursting in beats against Noam’s skin. “We could have changed the world, you and I.”
Noam’s mind had gone lax and liquid, unconsciousness seeping up like groundwater. He fumbled for his magic; it slid and slipped through his fingers.
Last chance.
He hurled as much power as he could muster into Lehrer’s gut. Lehrer flew back, slamming into the opposite wall.
Noam didn’t wait for his gaze to clear or for Lehrer to rise. He scrambled to his feet and dashed toward the living room, panic blinding him to the corner of the rug he tripped over, the end table he banged his hip against.
Lehrer’s magic caught up with him halfway across the den.
Pain exploded in Noam’s chest, three sharp snaps splitting the air as his ribs broke. Noam cried out and threw forward a lash of electromagnetism to anchor himself in place. His telekinesis flung a chair at Lehrer—a table—a lamp. They crashed against him like waves breaking upon a rock.
Lehrer progressed through the wreckage without misstep.
