She snapped her fingers, and five mugs of steaming coffee appeared in the air before her. She made a shooing gesture, and a mug drifted toward each of us.
I plucked mine from the air and found it was the perfect temperature. One sip identified it as a rich French roast, the complex flavors bright and clear on my tongue. If it hadn’t been for my strange surroundings, it might’ve been the best cup of coffee I’d ever had.
“This is why Hagar has been gone,” Elder Sanrin said. “She’s been a great help to the clan during a very dark time. We’ve been watching for signs that the next challenge would begin; is that why you’re here?”
“No,” I said. “I’m here because the Inquisition sent one of its brothers to the School.”
I filled them in on what had happened, including Rhône’s threat to take the hollows back to Atlantis at the end of the year. Sanrin’s face grew darker with every sentence, and Hirani and Claude looked like they wanted to fly off to Atlantis and crack some skulls immediately. By the time I’d finished my story, the elders had gathered close to me, eyes burrowing into my aura for any signs I’d left something out or hadn’t been completely honest with them.
“Well, you’ve certainly kicked the hornet’s nest this time, kid.” Claude clapped a hand to my shoulder and shook his head.
“I didn’t do anything!” I half-shouted. “I trained the hollows like Headmistress Cruzal asked me. That’s it.”
“And that was enough to attract the attention of the Inquisition’s spies,” Sanrin said. “It’s not your fault, Jace. Things are changing very quickly out here. Between the heretics, the Gauntlet, and this convergence point that everyone’s so wound up about, we’re all jumping at shadows. And each other’s throats.”
My clan’s elder shuffled over to one of the crates and took a seat. He sipped at his coffee, and I wasn’t sure if it was the green lighting or the stress he was under that had crisscrossed his face with deep valleys of wrinkles. It looked like all his years of extended life had caught up with Sanrin in the time since I’d last seen him. He sat in silence for several moments and then fixed his gaze on me.
“Your mother has gotten ahead of us, Jace,” he said. “Her Machina have given the heretics the edge they’ve needed to turn the tables on us. I suppose it’s a good thing you didn’t go to Bogotá, because that facility is lost to us now.”
“And Versailles,” Claude added.
“Don’t forget the Hong Kong research station,” Hirani said.
The ground shook again, so hard I lost half of my cup of coffee to the floor. The green lights swung wildly from side to side, throwing bars of emerald light across the room in disorienting sprays. The tremor lasted for several seconds and left the elders looking even more worried.
“How are they beating us?” I asked. “And what can we do to stop them?”
“We can’t see them in the Grand Design any longer,” Sanrin explained. “Their Machina warp the Flame’s plan and make it impossible for us to predict where they’ll attack. They’ve also entrusted their constructs with a frightening amount of autonomy. We didn’t expect them to ramp up production so quickly, and they’ve caught us with our robes untied as it were. We had to pull back, consolidate our position around the world. Fortunately, the heretics seem more concerned with rooting out our holdings than advancing their own plans, for the moment. That’s given us time to evacuate key personnel to more secure locations. With the sages gone, though, we haven’t been able to mobilize the other clans to our defense.”
It was difficult to process all the information Sanrin had thrown at me. I’d known the heretics were a problem, but had no idea they were engaged in a covert war to wipe out my clan. I’d come here looking for information about my mother and protection from the inquisitors. Instead, I’d found my allies on the ropes and in dire need of aid themselves. The other clans, who the Shadow Phoenixes had sacrificed their power and honor to protect, were cowards who wouldn’t risk their own power in a war against the heretics.
We were all alone on the front lines of a battle against foes we didn’t understand and couldn’t predict.
“We’ll regroup, come up with a new plan to go after them,” Hirani said quietly. “It’s the only way.”
But the look on Sanrin’s face and the grim set of Claude’s jaw told me that wouldn’t happen. Pulling back and consolidating our forces would buy the clan time, but it wouldn’t defeat the heretics. For that, we’d need much more powerful allies.
And I thought I knew how to get them.
“I need Hagar to come back with me,” I said. “The second challenge will happen soon. We need her rested and ready when that happens.”
“No.” Hagar’s Mohawk whipped back and forth as she shook her head in denial. “They need me here. I have to help the clan. It’s our best chance—”
“Hagar.” The power of my disciple core filled my voice with an authority that even got the elders’ attention. “Our best chance at surviving this war is to win the Empyrean Gauntlet. I need you for that.”
Sanrin’s eyes settled on me with an appraising glint. After a long moment, he nodded.
“Jace is right.” He sighed. “Both of you, go. We’ll be fine.”
Another tremor rattled the room so hard one of the crates fell over and the dregs of my coffee slopped over the rim of my mug. The bad guys were getting closer.
Sanrin nodded again, and this time I caught the lie in his eyes. They weren’t safe here.
They might not be safe anywhere.
Hagar and I left the elders, alone.
The Second
HAGAR REFUSED TO SPEAK to me for the rest of that day. She didn’t come down from the dorms to have breakfast with me and the other initiates the next
