Shift

TWENTY-FOUR

Kayden needed to do something with her hands as she recounted the past few hours. She settled on undoing her hair, unwinding the tight French braids to keep her hands from shaking. Her scalp ached slightly as she plucked at the strands, pulsing with blood.

She mostly watched Blaze as she spoke. The skin on his face was pale, like polished marble, but then her eyes drifted lower. His fingers were powdered with dried blood, and his arms were crisscrossed with cuts and burn marks. A fresh cut on his forehead dripped. It was hard to believe that they had been upset with each other just a few hours earlier. Now he had saved her. It was too much of a debt to repay.

Walter stood up as soon as she had finished. "This is my fault," he said.

"It's not your fault," Kayden started, but Walter shook his head firmly.

"It is," he said, looking pained. "The reason Naven was so upset at you was because of those articles, and I'm the one wrote them."

Kayden stared at the old man; she could feel her jaw drop. "That was you? You're E. Flowers?" And then she realized why the name had triggered something when she had first heard it. "E is for Elise, your wife. And Flowers..."

"Is because she loved to garden," Walter finished. "That's why the cover of the second edition had plants all over it." The old man looked at her grimly. "I thought it was important that people knew the truth about Naven, but I never expected he would..." He trailed off. "I'm going to wake up the other members of the Congregation; I think they'll want to talk to you." His eyes flicked to Naven, still unmoving on the floor, and then to Blaze. "He doesn't have any chalk on him now? Or anything he could use to write a rune?"

"No chalk," Blaze said, but he checked Naven's pockets all the same. "Though he could use blood if he was desperate."

Walter shook his head. "Well, we can't stop him from cutting himself, but I think my Binding will hold, at least in time for us to get the Congregation." He glanced around the small closet, sizing it up. "I'll lock him in here just in case and load the casting with some extra reskhrs."

Blaze stood up with a nod and offered Kayden his hand. She stared at it for a second, at the chalky, bloodstained fingers, and then slipped her hand in his. As he pulled her into a standing position, the world spun briefly around her, but then steadied as Blaze squeezed her palm.

"Thanks," she murmured, slipping out of his grip.

Walter led them to an empty conference room after drawing a large rune on the closet door. "Wait here," he said. "I can't bring you to where the Congregation is staying; there are protection spells crisscrossing the hall. But I'll bring them down here as quickly as I can. Blaze, you have chalk, right?"

Blaze nodded.

Walter turned to Kayden. "You?"

She shook her head. "I can't do magic—"

Walter interrupted her by shoving a few pieces of chalk into her hand.

"Kayden," he said, "if we want to fix this, we're all going to have to do a little bit of magic." And with that he turned and disappeared down the hall, leaving Kayden to stare numbly at the chalk in her hand.

* * *

Kayden had thought she would be waiting alone with Blaze for a while, but it wasn't long before the conference room was packed with people, both members of the Congregation and advisers alike.

Carsten quickly took control of the room. Kayden remembered how nervous he had been at the open meeting in the ballroom, but here, in a small room surrounded by his closest advisors, he was focused and calm. He brought everyone up-to-date on what had happened in the past few hours, and then sent several people off on errands. Two men were sent to retrieve Naven from the closet and make sure he was properly secured, and a group of scientists and spell writers ran off to the grand ballroom to check for any damage or alterations to the rune circle that had already been transcribed on the floor. He also sent two people to search the grounds for Helio.