their width, flowing into dazzling gold at the tips. My magic erupted and soared, free from being constrained for so long.
Benedict halted in mid-step, his face shocked. Behind him the aegis gaped at me, his face slack.
“Beautiful . . .” Benedict whispered.
I opened my mouth and sang out a high, powerful note, born of pure magic. There was no need to calibrate it. It was utter power made into sound. Madame Trapeze would’ve been proud.
Benedict jerked his serpent swarm to him, wrapping it around his mind to shield himself.
The note resonated and died, tiny echoes of it traveling into the hallways. I fell silent.
The ghost serpents uncoiled, melting and twisting. Benedict smiled, emerging from the dark storm of his power. “You missed.”
I looked past him at the aegis and said, “Save me.”
With a primal scream, the aegis tackled Benedict from behind. They went down in a tangle of limbs. I sprinted to my right toward the hallway leading back to the Grand Foyer.
Behind me, the aegis howled, a sound of sheer terror, cut short. I didn’t look back. I knew what I would see—Benedict’s demonic snakes ripping into the aegis’ mind.
The walls of the hallway flashed past.
I turned the corner and almost collided with Alessandro. He caught me. “Hurt?”
“No.”
“Benedict?”
“Behind me.”
Alessandro sprinted back in the direction I’d come from. I followed. The reasonable thing to do would be to go back to the Grand Foyer, get Linus, get backup, security, other pissed-off Primes, instead of dramatically running toward danger to have a duel with a deranged megalomaniac with snakes growing out of his soul. But if he left the building, he would go straight for my family. And I was done. I was done listening to him, I was done with him killing people and everyone else acting like it wasn’t a big deal, I was just done. Someone had to step on that cockroach. Combat mage or no, I could block Benedict’s magic enough to give Alessandro the edge, and two Primes were always better than one.
Ahead of me Alessandro slowed and walked into the round room. The body of the aegis lay crumpled against the wall, his face a twisted, terrified mask. His eyes had rolled back in his head, the milky whites staring up unseeing, as if he had looked his death in the face before it devoured him, and the sight of it had struck him blind.
At the opposite wall, Benedict paused at the mouth of a hallway leading deeper into the building. His jacket hung on his body, one sleeve ripped. Blood stained his pale blue shirt. He saw us and bared his teeth. “You’re back. How fortunate for me. You could have run away. Who is an utter moron now?”
Magic flashed with orange, pulsing from Alessandro. A shoulder cannon flashed into existence on his shoulder. He raised his right hand, and an oddly shaped sword popped into it, resembling a violinist’s bow, except that the stick was an amalgam of metal parts and the ribbon was a metal cord, thin and razor sharp.
Linus made some weird stuff.
Shock slapped Benedict’s face. He recovered almost instantly and raised his eyebrows, his voice mocking. “The artisan graces us with his presence. I’m flattered.”
The sword in Alessandro’s hand let out a high-pitched metallic whine. The metal shuddered, spinning into the sword, turning it into a weaponized buzz saw.
Benedict’s magic lashed out. Orange pulsed from Alessandro. The black serpents fell short.
Benedict turned and sprinted into the hallway. Alessandro’s cannon spun and fired, spitting bullets into the corridor. Alessandro marched after him.
I moved to follow.
“Stop.” Linus’ voice snapped like a whip.
I froze.
Linus strode into the room, still the picture of elegance. If he had gotten into a brawl in the Grand Foyer, he’d come through it undamaged.
“Did you get it?” Linus asked.
“Yes.”
“Come with me.”
“But—”
“That isn’t your fight. He can handle himself. He took the contract as your bodyguard. Let him do his job while we go and do ours. Follow me.”
“But—”
“Now.”
I gritted my teeth and followed Linus back to the Grand Foyer.
Chapter 15
I sat on the opulent sofa in Linus’ Houston mansion and watched him scrutinize my video testimony.
After the opera, Linus and I drove here. He reviewed the recording of Cristal, told me I did well, then interrogated me about it. I wanted to run and find Alessandro. I wanted to kill Benedict. I wanted to search for Cristal’s lab so I could rescue Halle. Instead, I had to patiently recount everything that happened, several times over. Once I was