the third floor as she slid the treacherous beam back from the opening.
“I like this one, my Queen,” Arkady rumbled as he jumped lightly up from the floor below, somehow forcing his bulk through the narrow joists. “He learns fast, yah?”
“Very,” she agreed, reaching out to brush bits of wood off my sweatshirt.
“Learning to get my ass kicked,” I muttered.
“Spar with the pride of the Darkkin world you do, young Jedi,” Stacia said in a passable Yoda voice, sitting on the steps above me. “Did you expect to win? Against them? You’ve done really well,” she said in more normal tones.
“Yeah, till the building beat me up,” I said.
“Are you hurt?” Chris asked.
“No, just bounced around like a jumping bean,” I replied.
“So you learned to shield yourself well enough to stop the equivalent of an Elder vampire and even with the explosive cycle you got caught in, your protections kept you safe. It was only when you removed them completely that you met your fate. So what did you learn?”
“Drop the outer shield to stop the cycle, keep the inner one up... and look where I’m going. Oh, and we tested it. My shield, that is. It will stop bullets,” I said.
Arkady rubbed his beard thoughtfully while Chris and Tanya exchanged a glance.
“Was that safe?” Tanya asked.
“Mack was very careful to shoot at the shield where I projected it ahead of my fingers. So yeah, I think it was pretty safe,” I said.
“I like those two, Mack and Jetta. They’ve been through personal hell, but they survived, thrived, hunted down their parents’ killers and kept together,” Stacia said.
Tanya eyed her for a moment. “I hate to agree with you, but I must. You have good friends, Declan,” she said.
“Somehow, I think you two had a hand in our roommate selections,” I noted.
“Hell, we handpicked half the kids at this school,” Chris said. “Of course we picked your and Caeco’s roommates.”
“You’ve done a lot for me and Caeco… why?” I asked.
Chris looked surprised. “Well, some of it should be obvious. You two saved Toni. That’s a debt we can never repay. But besides that, we see a tremendous potential in you two and want to foster it. Along with all the other kids we picked for Arcane.”
“Well, thanks. But who picked the other kids?” I asked.
“Stewart and his people,” Chris said, his tone cold.
“Oh, that reminds me. I think I have the answer to your exploding necklace problem,” I said. They got really focused and really serious. It was a little bit intimidating… okay, it was flat-out intimidating, but I don’t think they meant anything. It was just a very heavy topic for them.
Gulping a couple of times to clear my suddenly constricted throat, I told them about the anti-magic bracelets and the battle magic glyphs, showing them the black ink on my wrists and the remains of the henna tattoos.
“But those are now permanent? Even as they fade?” Stacia asked.
“My aunt says the henna may completely disappear but the magical outline will always be there. See, they glow a little if I power them up,” I said, putting just a hint of power to the one on the back of my right hand. “In daylight, that would just turn black. Kinda freaky, but I’m glad they won’t show all the time.”
“We will explore your glyph powers later, but how does that help us with restraints?” Tanya asked.
“Don’t you see? If I can make these, then I can make similar ones that will allow all of you to cut any neck or wrist bonds with a thought,” I said.
“We don’t have magic,” Arkady pointed out.
“You don’t have to. All it takes is my magic to draw the glyphs.”
“Do you know for sure that it will work?” Chris asked.
“Not fully, but I’m pretty sure. See, I have to make a bunch of golems for the non-magical kids to use in our school game. Those golems will each be tied to one kid, but the power they run off of is mine. As I perfect them, I can write glyphs that will protect each of your team from restraints.”
“We don’t take tattoos very well,” Arkady rumbled.
“Actually, some of the wolves in the Mallecks’ pack get tattoos. The ink has a tiny amount of silver and a hint of wolfsbane. Not enough to be harmful, but it prevents the design from disappearing through Changes or accelerated healing,” Stacia said.
“We’ll figure something out, but they may end up like mine—magical and not truly ink-based. Caeco