“If I agree it will buy us time,” I snapped. “He can’t make me Ascend tomorrow—we don’t have all my parents’ papers or the House signet ring!”
Mr. Baree barely moved his lips as he spoke, his eyes hooked on Mason. “You’re the last in your line, Adept. Your life isn’t something we can gamble with.”
“Adept, I’m waiting,” Mason warned, his voice losing its pleasant edge.
Momoko had turned around to watch us, but she exchanged a look with Mrs. Clark, lifted her chin, and moved to stand in front of the small huddle of House Medeis wizards. “You won’t get away with this, Mason.”
Mason raised an eyebrow. “What a cliché thing to say.”
“When the Regional Committee of Magic hears about this, they’ll arrest you!”
“No, actually, they won’t.” Mason flexed his fingers, but didn’t move them any closer to Felix’s chest. “The law states clearly that House inheritance must be handled within the House—the Regional Committee of Magic and our local Wizard Council aren’t allowed to interfere.”
Momoko scowled. “And the House Tellier rats aren’t ‘interfering’?”
“Hey!” Gideon scowled.
While Momoko continued to challenge Mason, the senior wizards kept up the whispered conversation.
“We have to get the Adept out,” Mrs. Clark said.
“Indeed,” Great Aunt Marraine agreed.
“We’ll cover your retreat, Hazel, while you run,” Mrs. Clark whispered. “Go to the Rothchilds. My car is parked at the end of the driveway. Here.” She discreetly pressed her car keys into my hands.
“I can’t leave you all like this,” I hissed.
“You have to,” Mr. Baree said. “Neither you nor the House has the ability to protect us, and the House must survive.”
I winced, but he was right. I hadn’t Ascended, so I couldn’t lean on the House for power, yet. I was in no condition to fight Mason. But I couldn’t abandon them. “How many will he kill?” I asked.
Great Aunt Marraine chuckled humorlessly. “With you gone and not around to threaten he won’t kill anyone. Harm, perhaps, but he is not so stupid to shed the blood of House Medeis wizards in House Medeis itself without the payout he wants. We can outlast him.”
I shook my head, but before I could stubbornly voice my discontent, Mr. Baree interrupted me. “You must leave us, Hazel. For the House.”
For the House.
In that moment, I hated House Medeis. It came before the people who were my family—which hurt something in my chest.
But as I looked from Great Aunt Marraine to Mr. Baree, I could see the determination in their eyes. They would sacrifice themselves for me. So that House Medeis would survive.
And just as I was powerless to protect them, I was equally powerless to stop them.
I gripped Mrs. Clark’s keys so hard they bit into my palm.
“Now!” Mrs. Clark barked.
Momoko burst forward, firing off her magic in shimmering clouds. One hit Gideon, who dropped to his knees with a mewl of pain.
Mr. Baree dragged me to the end of the hallway, plopping me down on a massive window seat. He unlocked one of the windows in the honey-comb shaped window seat and kicked out the screen.
“Stop him!” Mason shouted.
“House Medeis, don’t let them through!” Mrs. Clark cried.
The air crackled with magic, and with a numbing horror I realized I didn’t hear Momoko’s shouts among the others.
“Wait—” I objected as Mr. Baree set me on the edge of the window.
He ignored me. “Don’t stop until you reach House Rothchild.”
“Okay,” I agreed. I craned my neck as I looked back, trying to see Momoko through the storm of magic behind us. “But this is the third story—” My throat closed with terror when Mr. Baree shoved me out of the House, dumping me into thin air.
I slammed into the decorative eaves that jutted over a fancy second story window just below me. My momentum made me roll off it and skid over the side before I could even try to grab at a shingle.
I hit railing that corralled a tiny second-floor balcony. That took the air out of me, but it also slowed me down so when I fell over the side and landed in a lilac bush in the gardens below, I fell without much harm, miraculously still clutching the car keys.
I struggled to breathe for a moment, simultaneously terrified and confused. Had there always been a lilac bush on this side of the House? I didn’t think so…
“Thanks,” I squeaked when I got enough air.
The House was silent, though I could still hear shouts and the explosive boom of magic coming from within its walls.
“After her! She made it to the ground floor!”
Run. I had to run. Momoko, Felix, and the others had paid for my escape. I wasn’t going to let it be in vain.
I fought my way out of the bush, scratching my bare feet on some branches. Once on my feet, I stayed in the shadows of the few trees planted on the front lawn and stopped only when I saw the gate that normally blocked House Medeis’s driveway at night. It was ripped off its hinges and tossed to the side, another example of House Tellier’s brutality.
I couldn’t let myself cry, this was not the time for it, but I did hiccup as I threw myself at Mrs. Clark’s car—a blue Toyota.
It took me a few fumbling moments before I figured out her car was a press-button starter, but I managed to throw the car into reverse. Tires squealing, I backed the short distance out of the driveway—thank goodness Mrs. Clark had parked just inside the now busted gates—then threw the car into drive when I careened into the street.
Cursing that I still lacked a cellphone, I floored it, shooting down the darkened street as a few wizards emerged from House Medeis.
My heart pounded in my throat and I clutched the steering wheel with shaking hands, still barely able to believe what had happened.
House Medeis had been invaded, and I was running for my life, and for my family.
House Rothchild was only a ten-minute drive away, but it felt like hours of my life passed on that trip.
I slammed on the brakes at the curb just outside House Rothchild and threw the car into park before it fully stopped.
I almost fell out of the car when I kicked the door open, scrambling to the front gate and scraping my bare feet on the chiseled sidewalk. There was a buzzer on one of the gateposts, which I frantically pressed.
The gate didn’t open, and though there were three lit windows on the main floor, no other lights turned on.
“Come on,” I whispered as I tapped the buzzer so many times I lost track. “Wake up!” I strained my ears, listening for any sign of Mason and House Tellier driving after me.
Only crickets chirped.
Nothing on the street—or in the House—stirred.
House Rothchild was more of a colonial architecture style—rectangular, white, and with an endless front porch. Between the sole streetlight and the dim lights that flickered in House Rothchild’s front windows, I could see three people sitting on the front porch.
I jumped up and down and waved my hand. “I’m Hazel Medeis!” I shouted.
They didn’t move.
“House Medeis has been attacked! Please let me in!” I gripped the spokes of the gate and glanced back over my shoulder—still no sign of other cars. When I peered at House Rothchild’s front porch I saw someone stand, and I let my shoulders drop.
Finally, I’d be safe with House Rothchild. I’d have to explain to their Adept what had happened, but we had a sworn alliance between our Houses. They would help.
As I watched, the three figures all stood, walked across the porch, and went inside.
Shortly after, the lights turned out, and no matter how much I pushed the front buzzer, no one stirred.
House Rothchild wouldn’t help me.
A sob filled my throat, but I forcibly pushed it down as I hurried back to my car. “It’s okay,” I whispered to myself as I threw the car in drive. “We have lots of wizard allies. Someone will help.”
Except, they didn’t.
Chapter Four
Hazel
I went to the four other wizard Houses we were allied with. No one came to the door. No one would even see me.
Desperate, I drove to the Curia Cloisters.
I screeched into the cloister parking lot, and the car jumped the curb before I could stop it.
I abandoned it and ran for the doors—which were well lit and open.
It was still dark outside—I think it was only three in the morning—but the cloisters were open all night given the nocturnal tendencies of some magical species.
I sprinted up the sidewalk and into the cloisters, almost running down the brownie janitor who was mopping up what looked like a puddle of slime.
“I’m sorry, can you tell me who’s here tonight?” I said between gasps for air.
“The vampires are holding a meeting in the assembly hall to discuss the recent vampire murders,” the short statured brownie said.
“Anyone besides the vampires?” I asked desperately.
Vampires were among the strongest supernaturals. As a result, they tended to look down on the rest of us, and they barely adhered to society laws. Seeking refuge with the vampires was my last choice.
“Anyone from the Regional Committee of Magic? Any Pack Alphas or fae nobility?” I continued.
The janitor adjusted his hat. “A few Alphas are discussing hunting rights in the red meeting room.”
“Thank you!” I almost skidded out on the wet floor as I ran down the hallway, familiar enough with the cloisters to know my way to the red meeting room.
Hopefully I knew at least one of the Alphas present for the meeting.
Usually the various magical species kept to their own, but my parents had been among the strongest in their generation in the Midwest, so some werewolf Alphas and fae nobles knew them. If I was lucky, an Alpha would take me in out of pity.
With the rejection from the other wizard Houses, I was running out of options. I couldn’t easily drive out to some of the more obscure wizard Houses in neighboring states. I had so little magic it would be dangerous, and with House Tellier helping Mason, it would be easy for him to find me.