to realize she would not be telling him anything ever again. But she had not tried to think of him.
“Albie,” she said, and the name was soft in her mouth. She added, “He was my best friend.”
Mox nodded as if he knew, and perhaps he did know something about it. “Was it your Dark One who killed him?”
“No. Well, indirectly, maybe. He . . . killed himself.” She hadn’t said it out loud before—not like that, anyway. So plain, so bare. “We took down the Dark One ten years ago, but Albie never quite got past it. I guess I haven’t either.” She forced a laugh. “How do you get over that? The shit we saw. The shit we did.” The knot of scars on the back of her hand was a constant reminder of that. “In some ways it’s been easier, being here. Doing the same thing over again. I know how to do it, how to be this. But I never quite figured out how to be a regular person.”
Mox smiled a little. “I know the feeling,” he replied.
They lapsed into silence then, but there was no tension in it. Both of them just stared out the window, watching the passing buildings grow sparser and sparser.
34
TEN MINUTES from the St. Louis station, Sloane felt something within her go quiet. It was as if loud music had been playing, and someone had cut the power. Mox gave her a knowing look.
“Haven city,” he said. “They’re not content to just outlaw magic within the city limits; they also have to dampen it. They would shut it down entirely if it were legal.”
“They can do that?” she said.
“A siphon is just a machine that amplifies magical energy. It can also do the opposite.” He offered her a grim smile. “Which is why it was so alarming to my parents when I had uncontrollable magic despite living in a haven city.”
He really hadn’t been exaggerating when he bragged about his raw power, Sloane thought. Her entire body felt heavy.
They exited the train and walked down a concrete tunnel that led to the Grand Hall. The building that housed it looked like a castle, with its stone walls and towers and pointed red roofs, but the hall itself looked like Chicago’s Union Station, barrel-vaulted and spacious. There was no skylight, however, just green tile and decorative knots in the arches, with feminine figures holding lights featured here and there, offering their glow to the heavens. Red booths and chairs were arranged all around them, places for people to sit as they waited.
A security officer standing next to the doorway gestured for them to go left, toward an area with metal lockers that was set off by velvet rope. Mox led the way to one of the lockers and unfastened his siphon from his wrist and fingers. Sloane followed his example. He placed the siphon lovingly inside the locker, and she nestled hers beside it.
They joined a line of people waiting to exit the roped-off area. At the front were two security officers holding what looked like metal paddles. They ran the paddles up and down people’s bodies and around whatever bags they carried, then waved them through. Sloane raised an eyebrow at Mox.
“Siphon detectors,” he said. “Can’t have anyone smuggling in magic, can they?”
“Guess not,” Sloane said.
The line moved quickly, and Sloane made it past the paddles without a hitch. But the second the woman with the tight bun held her detector up to Mox, he put up both hands and stepped back.
“I’m an Exception,” he said.
The woman sighed. “ID card, please.”
Mox had already taken a white card that looked like a standard driver’s license from his back pocket. The security officer held it up to the light for a few seconds, then returned it to him.
“All right,” she said. “You’re good.”
Mox strolled through the security checkpoint to Sloane’s side and led the way to the exit. She waited for him to explain, but it didn’t seem like he was going to, so once they were in the taxi line, she poked him hard in the arm. “Exception?” she said.
He sighed and bent his head toward hers, almost like he was going to kiss her. She lurched back, but he only pointed to his eye. He held the lower lid down so she could see better.
Her cheeks warm, Sloane leaned in. His eyes were dark brown with a hint of green near the iris. One of them was unremarkable, but in the other,