As it turned out, Agent Phillip Barnes was a rookie. He was barely older than Alice, and seeing him in the hospital bed was sobering. Healers had attended him, of course, but they had left the bruises, and could do nothing about the blood loss leaving him looking gray and sick. Phillip had rich brown hair, but that was about as much as she could tell about his appearance. She wasn't sure she would be able to recognize him without the bruises. His face was painted in blues and purples, covering his skin in galaxies, and more covered his arms. Alice remained in the doorway. She wasn't sure if she should impose on this moment. She had every right to, she supposed, since Hadley had accepted her as his apprentice, and it wasn't like Luka's actions weren't her business.

She took slow steps into the room, following behind Hadley, trying to look like she belonged there.

There were already so many people in the room, and one more person wouldn't make a difference, but it still felt invasive to get this close. He looked small and fragile in the bed, and she wished the Healers would at least have taken care of the worst bruising.

The second Phillip laid eyes on Hadley, he spoke. His voice was hoarse, strained, but the message was clear: "Luka Lavrin is a Blood Mage."

Hadley stumbled to a halt. "What?"

Phillip coughed. Something was still wrong with him, something the Healers either hadn't bothered fixing, or been unable to.

"He did this to you?" Hadley asked, once Phillip stilled.

"No," he wheezed. He cleared his throat and his voice came back slightly more solid. "No. The leader told me. He wanted Luka to demonstrate, but when I…" His eyes flickered away. "He didn't."

"It's okay, Barnes," Hadley said. "You survived. That's the important part."

Phillip nodded, but his eyes were on his hands, folded in his lap. He was embarrassed at having cracked so quickly, and he didn't realize that it wasn't his fault. He'd been alone, surrounded by the enemy, and he was too young for any of it. He should never have been there at all.

"Tell me what happened," Hadley urged, gently. He sat down on a chair pulled up to the bed, lowering himself to Phillip's level. Alice placed herself at his back.

Phillip started his story at the capture. He said he was taken to a large, empty building, that they put a suppressor on him and tied him to a chair. He was surrounded by people wearing suits and animal masks, and then Luka and the other man entered. Neither of them were in masks, and the man stood out. He was wearing a floral shirt. He gave a brief description — dark, curly hair, a tattoo on his neck, tall — none of it meant anything to Alice. Hadley didn't seem to recognize anything in the description either. He didn't comment, only urged him to continue.

"He knew my name," Phillip said. "Luka."

"They knew," Hadley said, after a moment. "They knew who I sent after him."

Phillip nodded. "He mentioned you. He guessed you had provided the coordinates."

"Are you sure he's a Blood Mage?" Alice asked. She had hoped the full story would provide more of a context, but it seemed like there was none. And idle threat, nothing more.

"Alice," Hadley said, and there was a hint of a warning in his voice.

“Sorry, I just… What exactly did he do?”

Phillip looked between the two of them, but he was meant to report, so he continued. “He called his magic. He reached for me.”

Hadley glanced at her, as if that should be proof enough.

“You know what he can do,” she argued, even though it was the wrong thing to do. Especially here, in front of other Agents.

“Did he deny it?” Hadley asked.

Phillip shook his head.

Alice pushed on, hoping to make some sense of this. “What did he say?”

“Not a lot,” Phillip replied. “He knew I hadn’t followed him. He knew Mage Thomas had provided the coordinates. He asked what I was meant to do once I got there.”

“That’s all?”

“He mostly let the other guy talk.”

Hadley rose from the chair. “Excuse us for a moment.”

He dragged Alice with him into the hallway, and far enough from the room, that they wouldn’t be overheard.

"I thought you were done with him." He had his voice lowered to an angry whisper, even though they were alone. Alice pulled out of his grip. She wasn't supposed to defend Luka, but condemning him shouldn’t be allowed to be that simple.

“I want to understand. I don’t get why you don’t.”

Hadley took half a step away from her. “He had access to his magic. He was moving freely. There’s nothing in that account to suggest he was held against his will.”

“Right,” Alice said, “but we don’t know—”

“Yes. We do. Whether or not he’s a Blood Mage isn’t the point. This confirms that he’s working with them.”

She bit her lip, knowing she had to tread lightly. There was a fine line between suspension of disbelief and delusion.

“You know him,” she said, a final desperate attempt. She already knew it wouldn’t work. Hadley was too angry for nostalgia to placate him.

“No. I don’t. Neither do you. So unless you can come up with a single explanation for all of this, that doesn’t make him a traitor, we have no choice but to treat him as one.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

She couldn’t tell him what she had seen, what she had understood about Luka’s actions. She couldn’t tell him that she believed he had driven Luka to this.

She settled for a shake of her head. "I don't want him dead, Hadley."

“Yeah, well. That’s going to be up to him.”

“Is it?”

Hadley straightened up, pushed his shoulders back, and slipped his hands into his pockets. It was because of his position, that she knew he had the power to do something, but seeing him slip into it now, she knew he wouldn’t.

Maybe Luka was already dead to him. Maybe he just wished he was.

“I know you can’t be objective about this, but—”

“I’m sorry,” Alice cut in. “Do you think you’re being objective? You brought him in. You trusted him, and he betrayed you. It’s personal, but turning your anger and hurt into blind hate isn’t helping anyone."

She knew she had overstepped, even before his eyes narrowed. "Go home," he said. "You're done."

"Absolutely not," she said. "Our subjectivities cancel each other out. If you want objectivity, you need me."

"I don't think that's how it works," he said, but something about her logic left the barest ghost of a smile on his lips. He shook his head slightly, as if to clear it. “So, what would you have me do?"

“Take a step back,” Alice said. “Luka isn’t the problem, Floral Shirt is. You can use Luka to find him, but you need to focus on the real threat and the real solution.”

He backed up, literally, and exhaled slowly. “You’re right.” He turned to face the window into an empty room, but neither one of them needed a body resting on the bed, to remind them what was at stake. It was in every beat of their hearts.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

"It’s okay." She reached for his arm, for a light touch. "We're both angry. I just handle it better."

He allowed himself to echo her smile, but his thoughts were already elsewhere.

"Okay," he said. "Let's go back inside."

Her hand was still on his arm, and she tightened her grip, just enough to halt him.

"Hadley, I would ask you to do your best to take Luka alive. And that's not because of some romantic notion that he's a hero. It's for closure, for both of us. Unless you can honestly say you don't want to know the truth."

"The truth about what?"

"Why he did it. Don't you have questions?"

He looked at her, for the span of two breaths. "I don't know," he said and walked back towards Agent Barnes’ room.

She let him go, and followed him inside.

This time, she placed herself next to him, as he sat in the chair. She was within easy reach of his shoulder, and she imagined resting her hand there, for the physical act of support, but settled it on the back of the chair instead.

"Go on, Barnes."

Phillip nodded. She heard him swallow, and he cleared his throat. "The guy, he stepped out with Luka. When he returned, he told the others to let me go, but to make sure they had a head start."

Hadley nodded. "So, that's when they…"

"Yes," Phillip said, his bloodshot eyes glistening, reflecting the harsh lights in the room. Silence stretched, as they all knew what happened next. He was left there until a team of Agents found him the next day. He shouldn't be alive. It was a miracle that he was.

"Anything else?" Hadley asked.

"They jumped." His voice was a whisper. "From the building. They must have."

Hadley glanced at Alice, but she was as surprised as he was. "Are you sure?"

Phillip nodded. "They must have. You can't jump within 20 minutes of that place, but I never heard any engines. I never saw any cars. They left, but I don't think they walked."

"Was Luka with them?"

"I don't know. He never came back with the leader. I didn't see him."

"Okay," Hadley said. "Thank you, Agent. You did well." He reached for him, but struggled to find a part of him free of bruises, so he laid his hand on his arm, barely a touch, for just a second. "Get well soon."

"I'm sorry," Alice added, uselessly. What did you say to someone who had bled for a cause you didn't believe in? She couldn't say nothing, she couldn't ignore his sacrifice, but it was Hadley who should have been sorry. He should have been sorry for allowing any of this to happen in the first place. All Alice could do was express her regrets that it had.

They rode the elevator down to the ground floor. Hadley was planning something. Alice could feel it in the heavy silence, and she waited for him to share his thoughts, but he never offered. Her own thoughts were revolving around the small glimpse of Luka she had gotten from Phillip's account. She didn't consider him entirely reliable, when pain and fear was bound to color his account, but she still tried to reconcile that Luka with the one she knew.

Hero.

Traitor.

Villain?

She thought she knew who he was, but what if she was wrong?

"What are you thinking?" She asked, as they stepped outside. The feeling of being left in the dark was too painfully familiar, and maybe it meant that he was just settling the details before sharing, or maybe it was that he didn’t want her to know.

"Nothing," he said.

"You're plotting something," Alice said. "I can tell. Something Phillip said, it meant something to you."

"They're jumping between hideouts. I've gotten no reports of activity at the hospital, but the Agents are watching from afar. What if there's nothing to report, because they aren't using the doors?"

Alice stopped. She reached for him, and he turned towards her.

"They might have been under our noses this entire time," he added, misreading her expression.

"Hadley."

"What?"

"What are you going to do?"

"If I'm right, we'll surround them. Hopefully, we'll be able to take them by surprise." He put a hand on her shoulder, and squeezed. "I want them alive, Alice. No one dies unless they have to."

"Have to?" She asked. His eyes were the color of crisp autumn leaves, but there was nothing brittle about the determination in them. It was unsettling how steady they were, while he was planning people's deaths. Regardless of how reluctant he might be to see a body count, he didn't look like someone who had a problem with the concept.

"If it's between a Rogue or my Agent, I want my Agent to survive, Alice. If Luka is there, he should be okay, as long as he doesn't resist."

She nodded, not sure what she could say to that. Hadley reached into his pocket, and pulled out his phone.

"I could still be wrong," he said, and dialed.

She barely followed the conversation. He was telling his Agents to check for activity inside, but without being seen. He asked them to call back if they saw anything.

The moment he hung up, a countdown started in her mind. It had always been there, in the distance, but now it sat right next to the countdown of her heartbeats. She’d retained the hope that Luka would return, would be able to stop this in time, but they had moved too fast. There was no more time to give.

This might be the only real option they had, even if it felt like a mistake. But mistake or not, the fact was that she was infected. Her days were numbered, and she thought Luka would save her, but what if he didn't? Did she want to die for her faith in him? A faith that had been challenged, more than once. A faith that had become shrouded in fog.

When Hadley's phone rang, it nevertheless felt like her world ended. And that was when she made the decision: too late.

"They're there," Hadley said, and she realized he was talking to her. "We got them."

She watched him call team after team of Agents. She watched him coordinate an ambush, a raid, and she was numb. They weren't even in his office. They were still in the courtyard, no more than a hundred feet from the hospital. It was all so easy, so informal. Effortless.

She wanted more time. She needed more time.

How long did it take to gather these Agents? How long before they were ready to charge?

"How long?" She asked.

He was scrolling through his phone, but now he looked up. He looked at her like he had forgotten she was there. "You're not coming."

"Yes," she said. "I want to be there. I need to be there."

"Right," he said. "Fine. Just, stay with me."

She nodded. "How long?"

"A couple of hours?"

"Okay," she said. "Okay. I just need a minute. Don't leave without me."

She turned back towards her dorm, trusting her feet to take her there. She knew staying with Hadley meant staying out of the action, but she could still change her shoes as a pretext. Really, she just needed a moment to breathe, to think.

She took out her phone and texted Luka one last warning.

She only hoped he would actually read this one.