“You’ll kill her.” The words tasted like acid on my tongue.
Hirani took my mug and placed it gently on the table. She pulled me into a hug and held me tight.
“No, no, no,” she whispered. “We’ll save her, Jace. And you’ll help us do it.”
“When?” My eyes burned and my throat was clogged with emotion. I hadn’t ever really known my mother, and that hurt.
“Soon.” Hirani kissed the top of my head and squeezed me tight. A surge of warmth and calm passed through me, and she held me back at arm’s length. “We’ll get her out of there, Jace. I promise you that. And you’ll be there when it happens.”
I don’t know how long we stayed like that, and I wished it could have gone on forever. Despite Hirani’s incredible power and status, she had a comforting aura that made it easier for me to relax. I’d realized the only time I truly felt safe was with her.
“I have to go,” she whispered and stroked my hair. “But I have one more piece of news for you. Go to the stacks. An old friend is waiting for you.”
The Mentor
SOMEONE HAD REPLACED the bar my Eclipse nature had shattered. The stout wooden beam stood beside the door to the stacks like a silent sentinel. The sight of it raised my hackles and triggered my Borrowed Core technique. I cycled my breathing and filled my aura with bestial aspects before I pulled the door open and crossed its threshold. If there was any trouble waiting on the other side, I’d be able to summon my serpents and attack in the blink of an eye.
“Hello?” I called when no one tried to kill me. The stacks were still empty, the dust on the floor disturbed only by my footsteps from earlier in the year. “Who’s here?”
“An old friend,” a familiar voice called from deeper in the chamber. A silver ball of jinsei appeared in the air.
Tycho Reyes stood on the far side of the room, one hand raised defensively. He looked much worse than he had the last time I’d seen him. Bandages covered the left side of his face, including a bloody bit of gauze over his eye. His robes were very plain, adorned only by scorch marks and what could have been bloodstains. He looked more like a homeless beggar than one of the five sacred sages.
“You’re no friend of mine,” I spat. Despite his ragged appearance, I couldn’t find any shreds of kindness for Tycho in my heart. He’d conspired to ruin my life and destroy the world. He could burn for all I cared. “How did you convince Elder Hirani to get your message to me?”
“He didn’t,” Hahen said as he appeared from the shadows. “I did. You need to hear this, Jace.”
The rat spirit and Tycho advanced toward me, stirring up dust, which billowed up around them like thunderclouds. Tycho’s core was dim, as if badly injured, and the weight of his attention was no greater than a feather against my aura. I doubted he was capable of an attack in his current condition.
“That’s close enough,” I called when they were a few yards away. I didn’t see any reason to take chances. “Say whatever you have to say and leave me alone.”
“If being alone is what you want, then I’m sad to say you will be very disappointed in your future,” Tycho said with a chuckle that quickly turned into a ragged cough. “You undid the work of a very many powerful people, Jace, and not all of them will forgive as quickly as I have.”
“Maybe powerful people should ask people for help instead of trying to force us onto the paths they want for us,” I said. “You’ve got five minutes, and then I’m heading back to the school. I’m sure there are a lot of people who’d like to talk to you here.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Tycho said. “Thanks to Sanrin—”
“Elder Sanrin,” I corrected.
“Yes, him,” Tycho continued, “I’m a fugitive. As you can see from my current condition, that status has not treated me kindly.”
“They should have killed you.” I shrugged. “You conspired to bring the Lost back to destroy the world.”
“Not destroy it,” Tycho sighed. “Save it. The Grand Design is flawed, Jace. It will create ripples in the ether, and those will grow to waves, and they will come crashing back on us. But we can still stop that. If you listen to me—”
“No,” I snapped. “Not another word out of you. You used me, and it almost ruined my life. You made yourself rich off my pain, and you nearly got me and everyone else killed with your plans. I’m done listening to you. Whatever you’ve got to say will be weighed by the adjudicators when they catch you.”
Tycho glared at me. For a moment, I wondered if he’d attack me. Then he looked away and sighed.
“Foolish boy,” he said. “I made you a king, and you threw away the crown. Very well, if you refuse to listen, I cannot afford to waste any more time on you. Come, Hahen—”
“No,” I snarled. “He’s not your slave anymore. He stays here.”
Tycho’s left hand flashed out, and a coil of jinsei looped around Hahen’s throat. The rat spirit squeaked in surprise and his feet left the floor as the sage hauled him into the air by his neck.
“Enough.” My serpents appeared and flashed through the air faster than I could see. The tendrils of beast-aspected jinsei seized Hahen’s noose and drained it away to nothing in the space of a heartbeat. I caught the rat spirit in the coils of my serpent and gently lowered him to the ground.
“How dare you.” Tycho advanced toward me, his hands raised.
“I’ll kill you,” I said. My serpents coiled in the air above me, their heads weaving, ready to strike.
“Such promise, squandered,” Tycho said. He raised his hands and stepped back. “I am too weak to deal
