Alice had received a text with a time and an address. Nothing more.

It wasn’t like she had expected an excess of communication from Luka, but there was something intimidating about the lack of pleasantries, or any word that didn’t absolutely need to be there. Although, she might have argued that signing his name, would have been a helpful addition. Even pretty confident that the text was from Luka, she had texted Hadley for his number, just to make absolutely sure she wasn’t being led into something shady by a wrong number situation.

She hadn’t known what to expect, when she arrived at the building, but it was fairly nondescript. Large window panes were surrounded by red brick, and a large “156” was printed above the entrance. Balcony railings peeked over the edge of the roof, where the top floor was set back from the edge. It was hard to accept that it was apartments, that she was being allowed anywhere near his home. Somehow, she would have expected him to guard it like his greatest secret, but she scanned the mailboxes and found his name readily displayed: Luka M. Lavrin.

She had been so nervous about finding this place, about getting here in time, that she was half an hour early. She felt jittery, as if the boost Luka had given her yesterday, was still lingering in her blood. She decided to knock on his door, regardless of the time, hoping to relieve some of the pressure she felt, being here. When there was no response, she waited five minutes, then tried again. Still nothing. It was only seven thirty, and she couldn’t imagine where he would be, if he wasn’t home, but since she wasn’t supposed to be here until eight, she settled down to wait.

She pulled out her phone, to occupy the time, scrolling through Vision. Most of her friends were still busy familiarizing themselves with their mentors, and posted only sporadically. Even Teagan and Nick had gone mostly dark. So it was good that she didn’t need much of a distraction. It wasn’t long, before she heard footsteps on the stairs. Luka approached, wearing a black t-shirt and shorts, detailed in bright blue. He was returning from a run, she realized, as she noted his disheveled hair and skin shimmering with sweat. She pulled her eyes away from his bare legs, from the tight shirt, not sure why it all felt so indecent.

Of course he would have to exercise to stay fit, even if running was not the activity she would have picked for him. Given his silent aggression, she would have been far more inclined to believe in something where he was allowed to hit people. It was disappointing, in a way, to glimpse his humanity. She needed to believe in the myth of him and to think that he was superior. She needed to believe he was a superhero, because she needed to believe he could save the students. She knew they had no leads, no solution, but she had faith because this was Luka Lavrin. She didn't know what to do if he turned out to be just like everyone else.

"You're early," he said when he reached her and grabbed his keys from his pocket.

Alice shrugged. "I didn't think it would be a problem."

"It's not," he said. He unlocked the door and went inside, she followed and closed the door behind her. "But you are going to have to wait here, while I take a shower."

Luka led the way through the narrow cave of a hallway, and into the large main room, which held the kitchen and living room. A black metal stairwell led up to the upper level, where she could glimpse a bed between the low bookcases that replaced any real railing. The end wall was exposed brick between massive panes of windows, lighting up the room with the morning sun. Luka ascended the stairs, but turned at the top. "I expect a proposed plan of action when I'm done. And don't touch anything."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "A plan—" The end of the question was pointless, as Luka was already disappearing from view. The sound of a door closing, made it clear that he wasn’t listening.

She had thought about the details of the case, of course she had. They had circled her mind until she could no longer see them clearly, instead blending together until everything looked more like a dream than reality. It was the motive that still stuck in her mind. Like a song she couldn’t remember, it felt within reach. The bones of it was there, at the back of her mind, if only she could get the pieces to fit. It was about the Council, not the students, but targeting the students was the easier way in. Why? Because the Council was protected, but also because the students were more careless with their magic. It would spread faster that way, pose an indirect threat to the Council. So, it wasn’t even about physically hurting the Council, it was enough just to discredit them. To watch them fail.

Except, it worked slowly, because they wanted it to be solved. They didn’t really mean for the students to die, they only meant for a Rogue to solve it. Was it about the Rogues? Raising their status in the eyes of the Academies?

She moved around the loft while thinking. Luka had said not to touch anything, but she could look.

The kitchen was huddled beneath the bedroom, the black cabinets and brick walls lending to the cave-like feel of everything under the low ceiling. Next to it, the living room felt vast. The larger walls were painted white, and the massive windows reached the full height of the apartment. One wall was mostly occupied by the staircase, but held a couple of pictures. They were shot at night, dim except for bright neon details. One was of a gas station, another of a diner. She briefly entertained the idea of stepping on the stairs for a closer look, but it felt forbidden.

She glanced towards the bedroom, her fingers brushing the banister, wondering what the view would be like from up there, but she lost her nerve and turned away from the temptation of the stairs. The other wall was covered in bookcases, and she stepped closer, sliding her fingers over the spines of the books that were lined across the entire wall. Some were in Russian, the Cyrillic letters almost deceptively recognizable, but most of them were in English and on various subjects, mostly medical and mythological.

Books also littered the coffee table, sitting alongside a slim laptop and a coffee cup, along with medical journals and printed articles. She discovered various materials on magic. Articles and small volumes on everything from potions to spells. She wondered if any of them worked. She wondered what kind of person would publish something like that to the public.

She was still flipping through the articles, when she heard the door upstairs. She shuffled the papers back into a pile, and straightened up, hands in her pockets. Luka came down the stairs and steered towards the kitchen. Alice followed him and watched, while he measured up coffee grounds. His damp hair was combed back, and he had changed into a pair of black slacks and a dark pinstripe shirt. He wore the collar open and the sleeves rolled up, but that was the only casual thing about the outfit. Alice suddenly felt under dressed in shorts and a polo t-shirt.

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“You didn’t mention a dress code,” she noted, hoping it was a joke and not a mistake on her part. He had only ever told her not to wear the uniform.

She saw his eyes flicker to his clothes, but only for a second, before returning to the coffee.

"What's the plan?" He asked.

Alice slid into one of the stools by the kitchen island, that separated the kitchen from the living room.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I kind of thought we didn't have anything."

"Not quite," Luka said, turning on the coffee maker. "There is a clue in the virus, but it isn't in the spell itself."

"So you cracked it?"

Luka shook his head. "Not necessarily. It's an idea. It's something. I could be wrong."

"Tell me," she urged.

"The spell uses untethered magic, but the Academy is warded against it. Which means…" He gestured for her to finish the thought, but she wasn't sure where he was going with this.

"The spell wasn't introduced to them at the Academy? But how does that narrow down the options?"

Luka smiled. "You've never broken an Academy rule, have you?"

"I—" Alice didn't break rules. She could — Nick and Teagan had roped her into skipping school, to underage drinking, to those little things that everyone did, that barely even felt like rule breaking — but she usually didn't. "I'm not…" She didn't know what she wanted to say, she didn't know why it felt like an insult. Something about Hadley, maybe? Something about the way Luka treated him, like protocols and rules were unforgivable things.

"Well," Luka said. "You haven't broken this one."

"I don't understand," she said.

"You will."

The coffee machine stuttered to a stop, and Luka turned to pour the coffee. He poured another mug for her, and pushed it towards her. She wasn't offered milk and sugar, but she could drink it black if she had to. He sipped his coffee, even though it must have been scalding.

"Are we not going into the Academy today? Is that why we're meeting here?"

"No, we are. There's one thing I want to do before we go to Mutiny."

She almost asked about Mutiny, but something clicked in her mind. She had heard whispers of it, hadn't she? Not enough to know what it was, but enough to know that it was something. Enough that it triggered something in her memory. Somewhere connected to the Academy, but not connected to the Academy. Somewhere without wards, where a mage might pick up a deadly virus from a spell.

"You think it's a trap?" She asked instead, cradling her coffee between her hands while waiting for it to cool. She didn't like the idea of stepping off the Academy grounds, getting closer to the enemy. It was the part of this entire arrangement she felt least prepared for. Even though they were taught to fight, that was always people on their own level, always people they knew. This would be so very different, and she knew it.

"Not the way you're thinking."

"What am I thinking?" She cocked her head. Luka was so confident in his ability to be right about everything. Even when he admitted he might be wrong about this idea of his, he didn't really think he was.

"Ambush," Luka said, and he was entirely right. She had pictured an attack. "Mutiny is frequented by a number of mages. There is no practical way to arrange an ambush. That doesn't mean that any information that might be there will be free."

No, of course not. They already knew this person was proficient with spells, and depending on how the virus spread, was it even safe to go there at all? She didn't have to fear a physical threat, not as much as she needed to fear an invisible one. She feared her first confrontation, her first real, actual fight, but she didn't even fully grasp the possibilities of spells. She wouldn't know what she was getting into at all with those. She looked into the black void of coffee in between her fingers, clutching it harder, the heat making her hands sting.

"You don't have to come with me," Luka said.

"No," Alice said. "I'm fine." She did have to go with him. She was his partner, and she had promised Hadley to stop him from being reckless. Whatever they were getting into, it seemed like one of those moments that might encourage recklessness.

"I read your file," he announced, even though she knew he must have.

"What does it say?" She did wonder, but wasn’t sure she really wanted to know. It would be a purely analytical assessment of her value to the Academy, and even if she was at the top of the class, she knew what it meant to not be a Legacy.

"It says a lot of things," Luka said. "That's not the most relevant question."

“No?” She looked up from the coffee, now realizing this was a test. “What is?"

"Your mother was a Mage, but left her Academy as soon as she could. When you manifested, you were unprepared and almost died. Even at a disadvantage, you managed to befriend a couple of Legacies, and you made it to the top five in most of your classes. You're a talented Mage, but you never requested a mentor."

He said all this, answering only her first question. He wasn't going to hand her the answer to the second one. She could see that he had expectations, and that she wasn’t currently living up to them.

"What does that tell you?" Alice asked.

At this, Luka very nearly smiled. "Better. It tells me that they chose you, because of our differences."

"Yes," Alice said. "Hadley told me as much."

"What it doesn't tell me," Luka continued, "is whether or not you have what it takes."

Alice nodded. He thought she would ask the question, but he wanted her to answer it instead. What did Luka Lavrin value? She barely knew him well enough to guess.

“You’re concerned about my weaknesses,” she ventured. “The indecisiveness, the conformity.”

“I’m worried about your loyalty.”

“Ah.” It stung, once again, how right he was. “Yes. Hadley asked me to… keep an eye on you. To report back.”

He said nothing to that, just let the silence stretch out until it became uncomfortable. “I don’t want to be caught between the two of you,” Alice admitted, then. “It doesn’t seem like a nice place to be.”

It was a mistake to tell him, but she wanted to earn his trust. She understood what Hadley was worried about, but she was going to be in the field with Luka. They needed to be able to trust each other. Trust started with the truth, even if it threatened to open a chasm between them. Luka remained silent. He had turned his back to her, and was leaning against the counter, sipping his coffee. She wished he would say something, so she knew what he was thinking.

“This thing between the two of you, it’s going to be me who pays for it. I understand, that you don't want to talk about it, but I really think some context would help. How can I earn the answers to my questions?"

Luka turned halfway towards her, and she caught the flicker of a smile. "You want to earn them? Fine. Break an Academy rule.“

She might have laughed, if it wasn’t such an annoying move. Not only would he have ammunition against her, if he needed it, he was also corrupting her perfect record.

“I already have,” she said. "I used your spell. Does that earn me an answer?“

He put his mug down an leaned over the counter. “One.”

“You were friends once, right?”

“Yes. We were.”

“What happened?”

She caught the glimpse of victory in his expression, before he straightened up. “That’s two questions.”

“So, every time I do something Hadley would disapprove of, I get an answer to a question. Is that how the game works?”

“And that’s three.” He picked up the mug, rinsed it out and placed it in the sink. When he disappeared into the hallway, Alice faced her untouched coffee and sighed, before copying his movements.