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  “And in the meantime, you’ll spill our secrets to the daughter of the head of the Superiors,” Merck said. Ethan gave her a sharp look. “Ah, yes, son, you didn’t know, did you? She consorts not just with the children of the Superiors, but with their actual leaders. Their friends. You may think that she is on your side, but she hasn’t picked a side. She is still entertaining her options.”

  Valerie kept her eyes up, on Merck Trent and Mrs. MacMillan.

  “I am on the side of right,” she said.

  “Are you suggesting that killing civilians could be right?” Mrs. MacMillan asked, and Valerie shook her head.

  “No.”

  “Then you are with us,” Merck said. “You just don’t know it yet. And while I admire your thoughtfulness, this organization does not have time for you to figure it out. You must inform us the next time your parents contact us, and you must refrain from any further contact with Gemma Alexander or Von Lauv. Including their philosophies.”

  “I will continue learning magic my entire life,” Valerie said. “That’s what my teachers all say. How can knowledge be bad? It’s how you use it that is good or bad.”

  “Dark magic is always bad,” Merck said. “We pity those among us who are unable to harness light magic instead, but their knowledge does them very little good unless they are willing to harness it to dark magic.”

  It was directed at Ethan again.

  “This was not a part of your terms,” Ethan said. “You have given her your requirements. Those are the ends of your terms. You must conclude the session.”

  Had she made it?

  She couldn’t tell.

  She just didn’t know.

  Ethan had some read of the room that meant virtually nothing to her, and she was just trusting him to have gotten it right.

  She was glad he was here.

  So glad he was here.

  “We find your performance here today very unsatisfactory,” Merck said. “We brought to you an opportunity to establish a bridge to the Council, the leaders of the magic community, and you have rejected that out of ego and superstition. You cover for those who deserve nothing short of death, and you reject our efforts both to correct and to gain the information we need to make the world safer for ourselves and the civilians around us. You are abandoned by your parents, as you yourself admit that you do not know when or if you might see them again, and there is no evidence to support that they even yet live, and for these reasons, the Council concludes that we must take custody of you as a minor magic user of great consequence.

  “You will return to the School of Magic Survival for the time being, as we discuss what the best path forward is for your rehabilitation, and we hope that you continue to demonstrate the capability and progress that will allow us to leave you with Lady Harrington and the faculty of the School of Magic Survival, but if you should fall short or show troubling symptoms of relapse into relationships with Superiors and their philosophies, we will not hesitate to take the most effective actions available to us. So speaks the Council.”

  Ethan grabbed Valerie’s shoulders and escorted her down another narrow, dark hallway, pushing a door open ahead of them and grabbing her clothes from a bench. He handed them to her without slowing.

  “Keep moving,” he muttered. “Keep moving.”

  “What’s happening?” Valerie asked.

  “Keep moving,” he said, steering through one narrow hallway and then another. There were voice behind them, and then louder ones.

  The place was a maze, and Ethan only stopped once to mark a wall in blue.

  “What is that?” Valerie whispered, and he shook his head.

  “Keep moving.”

  “They said I would go back to school,” she said, and he shook his head again.

  “It’s to make it so you won’t fight them. They’re going to take you. Right now. They just terminated your parents’ rights, and there’s no reason they would let you get back to Lady Harrington. Lady Harrington could defend you a little bit, but right now you’re completely exposed.”

  He put his back against a wall, pulling her alongside him and he drew a deep breath, staring forward.

  “I don’t know how I let it get away from me,” he said. “I should have jumped in, but… What were you doing with the leaders of the Superiors?”

  Valerie looked around, hoping this was out of earshot of anyone. She leaned over to whisper into his ear.

  “She’s my aunt,” she said. “And she’s one of the Shadows.”

  He closed his eyes.

  “I should have known it,” he said. “You’ve talked about that. I just… I got here and I got back into the feeling of us versus them, and the head of the Superiors…”

  He looked over at her, then frowned.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She shook her head.

  “Don’t be. You got me out of there.”

  He reached into his robe and took out a wallet, handing it to her.

  “I got it out of my room when I went to shower. Hoped you wouldn’t need it.”

  “What’s this?” she asked, but he was already pulling her along.

  “You can’t go back to school,” he said. “I’m sorry. If they catch up to you, they’ll take you.”

  “What about you?” Valerie asked.

  “I’ll go let them know what happened, and we’ll figure out how to help you,” he said. “I wish there was more time.”

  She looked at the wallet once more with a frown, then tucked it away - the traditional robes were amazing - following down three more turns and out into the light again.

  “Why isn’t there more time?” she asked, and he looked at her.

  “You have to run,” he said. “You have to steal a car and run.”

  She looked at the black limousine and shook her head.

  “I can’t drive that.”

  “Not that,” he said. “My dad’s car. You have to figure out how to start it, but I know for a fact it’s untraceable.”

  “Why don’t you come with me?” Valerie asked, as he pulled her into a run around the side of the building, then jerked short behind a set of dense hedges.

  “Because…” he said, then stopped. “Why don’t I come with you?”

  She raised her eyebrows and nodded.

  He grinned.

  Kissed her cheek quickly.

  “Let’s bust this taco stand.”

  On the Run

  The car started.

  Sasha was a genius.

  Valerie had no idea what she’d even used, but it hadn’t taken but two seconds to mix it and apply it and the car roared to life like a caged animal at an open door. She put her foot down and twisted the wheel, Ethan sliding across the center console into her shoulder as she tore down the line of cars. She turned hard again at the end and he hit the window with a yelp and a laugh, scrambling to get his seatbelt buckled before she hit the next twist in the pavement.

  “This place is a maze,” Valerie said. “I need you to get me out of here.”

  “Slow down,” he said, still laughing. “Slow down. They can’t see into the car, but if they know for a fact that my dad isn’t driving, they might try to stop you.”

  Valerie lifted her foot, looking over at him.

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said.

  “About time, actually,” he said. “You go have your big adventures and I’m always stuck at school. Get there in time to watch you beat the guys trying to kill you, and then stand behind Lady Harrington while she knocks them out? Dude. It’s my turn.”

  She grinned, the adrenaline and stress of the past few hours all coming out at once in a rush of giddy excitement.

  She reached into her robe as he pointed a turn and she took it at a much more modest pace, handing him back the wallet.

  “Keep it, in case we get separated,” he said. “I can always go back to school and no one is going to say anything about it. You need it to survive until we figure out what to do next.”


  “Do you think they’ll tell everyone I’m in danger to try to lure my parents out?” Valerie asked, and he shook his head.

  “No. And they didn’t even mean it when they suggested it. I just called their bluff. There are too many parents who seriously don’t trust the Council to take care of the non-combatants after what happened with Survival School and my brother. They wouldn’t risk that again, I don’t care how much they want what your mom has in her head.”

  “I thought it was about controlling her,” Valerie said. “About making her do what they told her to.”

  He shook his head.

  “I thought so, too, but it was occurring to me while we were standing there that there really isn’t anything they can do to make Susan Blake both come to heel and be a good spy. While she’s out there, she can do anything she wants and they won’t ever know. They could try to put a strong handler on her, and maybe they could get more out of her, but they can’t keep tabs on her all the time and let her do her job. It’s mutually exclusive. So they’ve got to be bullying you around for something else. I think your mom knows something.”

  “My mom knows more than everyone else combined,” Valerie said, and he indicated another turn.

  There were cars behind her, and she looked over her shoulder.

  “They kind of know that your dad isn’t driving his car,” she said, and he nodded.

  He looked back.

  “How much do you know about evasive driving?” he asked, and she shook her head.

  “I got my drivers’ license because my mom wanted me to be able to react in an emergency, not because I ever drove a car.”

  “I took a class,” he said. “And this car… They’ve only got the limousine after you. You only have to outrun it for three or four turns and it’s never going to see you again.”

  She turned back onto the public street, looking through the back window as the limousine powered up the driveway toward them.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “Apparently I can steal a car, but I don’t know how to drive one.”

  “Put your seat back,” he said, “and scoot it back like six inches.”

  She looked over and he nodded quickly, unbuckling his seatbelt and getting up on his knee. He looked back as she accelerated, trying to figure out if she could do what he was asking.

  “There’s a slider on the side of the seat,” he said quickly. “Slide it back and twist it.”

  She found it and did as he asked, the car decelerating hard as her foot shifted with the seat.

  “Come on,” he said. “Seatbelt. You can do this.”

  She took off her seatbelt and he climbed over, putting his foot over hers on the gas and taking the wheel.

  “You actually took a class on this?” she asked as she climbed his shoulders and tried to figure out if she was headed for the back seat or the passenger seat.

  The car accelerated again and he turned, holding onto the door while she flopped sideways, foot kicking at nothing.

  “Come on,” he said, not ill-humored. “This is an escape and a limousine is keeping up with us.”

  She pulled on his shoulders again, trying to get a foot under her as he shifted in the seat and they sped up again.

  “What if you get pulled over?” she asked, pulling the fabric of her robes and realizing he was sitting on it. It was funny. It was just funny.

  Yes, there were people coming for her.

  She couldn’t seem to get away from that.

  But here she was, driving around at illegal speeds in a stolen car, tangled up in magic robes.

  I mean.

  That just doesn’t happen.

  She fell back into the seat behind him, laughing helplessly.

  “If I get pulled over, we probably lose the game,” he said, looking back at her with a grin. “You alright back there or are you having a mental break?”

  “You’re sitting on my robes,” she said. “I can’t move.”

  He shifted, then looked back at her again.

  “I guess I’d better not hit anything, then, huh?” he asked, and she nodded.

  “This is…”

  She couldn’t say any more, she just started laughing again, so hard her stomach hurt. She put her face against his back, then put her arms around his waist as he turned again, both of them sliding into the door.

  “I need the seatbelt on if I’m going to do this,” he said. She looked over at it.

  “I can’t,” she gasped. “I can’t. I don’t think I can do that.”

  “I’m driving. You’ve got to,” he said. He looked back again. “They’re losing ground.”

  She went looking for the seatbelt with her hand, but her sleeves were tangled up with his robes and hers and she couldn’t figure out where her hand was supposed to come out in order to get that high over her shoulder. He was probably sitting on too much fabric, anyway.

  “These things are not made to drive in,” she said, pulling at her arm and the panic and the cagedness of not being able to lift her own arm just feeding the light-headed giddiness. She didn’t even know why she was laughing.

  He turned again and she put her arm out, blocking it against the console and grabbing his waist to try to keep him steady.

  It didn’t work, but she tried.

  They accelerated around the turn, then he put the heel of his hand against the glass of the window.

  “Hold on,” he said. It was way too little warning, and she slammed shoulder-first into the window, the car jolting funny as the steering wobbled, then jolting again as they hit a driveway and went racing not-quite-as-fast-but-still-too-fast past a house and into a backyard entrance to a garage. Ethan spun the car around to be out of sight behind the house, and Valerie tipped her head back, helpless with body-shaking laughter.

  “You sure they won’t be able to follow you by the skid marks?” she asked. “I mean, did you get air?”

  He was alert, watching the driveway and listening hard, and Valerie heard the sound of an engine going past the house too fast.

  “Two minutes,” he said quietly, “and then we come out and go the other direction. I don’t think they’ll double back quite that soon, but if we wait too long they’ll get everyone else out looking for us.”

  She put her face against his back again, sobbing she was laughing so hard. She wrapped her arms around him tight and just laughed until she cried, and then she cried.

  “Hey,” he said after a moment. “Come on. Let me take you to dinner.”

  “I’m in a freaking black robe,” she said.

  “Your clothes are in the back. You can change once I know we’re all the way away. But we need to go.”

  She rested her forehead against him for one more moment, then nodded.

  “I think I’m okay,” she said. “I’m sorry. I just lost it.”

  “You are the most fun person I have ever met in my whole life,” he said, opening the door and getting out. “Don’t you dare apologize for laughing through an entire car chase. That was the stupidest thing that has ever happened to me. You should have been laughing. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  He helped her out, and she stood for just a moment, getting the lengths of fabric straightened so they lay straight, then she went around to the passenger side and got in, rubbing her face with the heels of her hands as he backed up and started up the driveway again.

  “It was your idea I stole, though,” he said. “I mean. If you have to get away, steal a car. Obvious.”

  She nodded, stretching her mouth and then yawning, finding her stomach sore. He turned onto the road and drove away.

  Perfectly normal.

  They did this every day.

  Why not?

  Just two teenagers out in ceremonial robes driving an eighty-thousand-dollar car.

  Sure.

  She tipped her head back and put her hands over her eyes.

  “This is not real,” she said. “That didn’t just happen.”

  “Pick a dire
ction,” he said. “North, south, east, west. We’ll drive until we hit a good-sized city, and then we’ll get dinner, and we can talk about what we want to do next.”

  “We need to go to North Carolina,” Valerie said. “So go north.”

  He nodded, looking over at her.

  “I guess so,” he said. “East it is.”

  She really didn’t have any idea where she was.

  Ethan did, and that made it okay.

  They came to the coast sometime after dark, driving along the beach for a stretch, just a big black expanse backgrounding the city lights, and then he picked a brand-name restaurant they both agreed they liked okay and he parked the car.

  “We’re doing this,” he said, and she nodded.

  “We’re doing this.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “I bet we could find some place to, like, stash you or something, and we could take some more time.”

  “Do you think you could get into school and back out without being afraid that someone was going to follow you when you came back?” Valerie asked. The words were bogglingly strange, coming out of her mouth.

  “No,” he said.

  “Then there’s no other time to do it,” she said. “We don’t have to commit to charging off and saving the world or whatever, but if we’re going to go see her, we have to do it now. While no one knows where we are or how to find us.”

  He nodded, looking down at the steering wheel.

  “I don’t know how to turn it off,” he said.

  “Oh,” Valerie said, putting her hand out in front of the steering wheel and flicking it down. The engine shut off. He shook his head.

  “You are the coolest girlfriend ever,” he said, and she smiled.

  “I’m not going in there dressed like this,” she said.

  “Right,” he said, looking around. “The tint on this car isn’t legal in most states. You’re okay to change in the back. I won’t look.”

  She gave him a dark look, and he shrugged. She reached forward and grabbed the rearview, flipping it up as she climbed into the back seat.

  “Thank you for coming with me,” she said. “I would… I wouldn’t have done that well, without you.”