It was as though an electric shock hit the entire room at once. Everything stopped, and every head snapped to the door where Omega himself stood.

  Wind started gathering on Hailey's side of the room. Bright blue rings of fire burst into life around Jessica's wrists. A snake of water uncoiled from somewhere behind Cinza, rising into the air as if it were about to snap forward. Josh and Ryan jumped to their feet in unison, casting identical spells to make themselves stronger.

  The rest of the room hadn't reacted yet, either stunned into shock or too afraid to move. Rachel was the first to recover. She stepped forward between the group and Omega, raising a hand to forestall her allies. "We can't beat him here. Save your strength."

  "Smart move," Omega replied. He leaned against the wall near the door, glancing around the room. "It's been a long time since I've been to one of these."

  "Why are you here?"

  He shrugged. "To be honest, it was a convenient place to kill you all, but it looks like you found a way around that." Without warning, he launched himself forward.

  Rachel stood an instant away from death. He was coming at her and she wasn't moving an inch. She just stared him down with a mixture of hatred and fierce unwavering determination.

  At what seemed like the last possible second, she appeared. The girl—looking like a dwarf between the two towering giants of Rachel and Omega—simply popped into existence between the two. Her silver-grey eyes flashed with bitter rage. Grey-eyes raised her hands and flicked two fingers on each, making a cutting motion in midair.

  A massive wave of force hurtled through the room. It looked like part of the room had shifted forward. The barrier slammed into Omega and hurled him back against the wall with a painful thump. He coughed hard from the impact.

  A second later, Grey-eyes disappeared, as instantly and suddenly as she had arrived.

  "Now what?" Rachel asked, calm as could be.

  Omega still looked a bit winded. "We talk, I guess."

  "Holy shit…" gasped Josh.

  "I know you, don't I?" Jackie asked. "Jackson Smith, right?"

  "I'm surprised anyone remembers me," Jackson replied. "I really didn't make much of an impact as a student."

  "I try to know everyone who comes into town."

  "That's good. Really good policing. I'm sorry for what I have to do to your home."

  Jackie frowned. "Why?"

  "Because there's no other way now. You know too much."

  A fireball suddenly hurtled across the room, bright blue and staggeringly hot. It was right on target—but a blur of motion and Jackson was suddenly on the other side of the room, while the fireball hit the far wall and dissipated into nothing. He had closed the distance with Jessica in an instant. His arm went to her throat, pushing her up against the wall.

  "No!" Hailey shouted. She sent wind hurtling at him, and it was strong enough that they both tumbled over onto the ground. An instant later, Jackson sped back to his original position by the door. Except for the way his clothes didn't quite sit right, he may as well have never moved.

  "Don't do that again," Jackson warned.

  "Hailey, please," Rachel added.

  Hailey nodded. She tugged at Jessica's arm. The girl was already back on her feet and had more rings of fire swirling around her wrists. She looked eager to throw down. Hailey was muttering under her breath and signing as quickly as she could.

  "How did you get in here?" asked Lily nervously.

  "I walked through the front door. Don't worry. If I had hurt your sister, this entire building would be gone, wouldn't it?" Jackson shrugged. "Wherever she's hiding, she's good."

  "Why are you doing this?" Gordon asked. "Why kill everyone?"

  "Because this whole experiment needs to end. We never should have started spreading magic. People are dying in horrible ways and killing each other over it. If it makes it to the whole world?" Jackson shook his head. "We're all doomed."

  "But you started the killing," Boris spoke up. It was the first time he'd spoken since arriving. "Would this not be a skewed perspective?"

  "Actually—"

  "He didn't," Rachel interrupted. "The murders in the RV… weren't murders."

  "What?" Jackie asked sharply.

  "It was an accident. That's how they broke Mason's Law. The spell backfired on himself and got out of control."

  "...Jesus Christ."

  "Think about it," Jackson continued. "If something that horrible can happen—to a child nearby—completely by accident, how can we let it escape into the world?" He leaned back against the wall. "We have to stop it."

Stolen novel; please report.

  "If you say 'for the greater good' I'm gonna fuck you up," snapped Ryan.

  "That doesn't justify murdering everyone in town, though," Neffie added. "Killing everyone with magic, sure, but why the rest of us?"

  "Oh, thanks for selling us out."

  Jackson shook his head. "I can't risk any knowledge of real magic making it into the world. I'm sorry, but you're a necessary sacrifice."

  "You're insane," Neffie murmured.

  "But we didn't get a choice," Gordon spoke up. "You're going on about choices, but what about us? We didn't luck into magic like you, we're just normal people. What does it matter if we know about it after it's all gone?"

  Omega glanced at Rachel, bemused. "You didn't tell them?" Rachel opened her mouth, but no words came out.

  "Tell us what?"

  "Anyone can use magic. It's not easy and it needs access to certain things, but there's no reason you couldn't learn to do it yourself."

  Gordon rounded on Rachel. "You lied?"

  "Of course we lied," Ryan snapped.

  "And what about you, Jackson?" Rachel asked, interjecting before the conversation got too diverted. "You didn't kill the first few, but what about Cinza's people? What about the doctor?"

  "Killed by your own town," Jackson replied. "A perfect example of what I'm trying to stop. As soon as the tools are put in your hands, all you do is fight and steal and kill."

  "So everything he's done has nothing to do with you?"

  Jackson shrugged. "He was more than willing to take lives when the time came. I wasn't even there. Is the gunmaker responsible for the man who decides to shoot up a corner with his wares?"

  "We just stay here then. No one leaves, magic dies out," Neffie said. "Isn't that enough?"

  "I can't take that risk. The world can't take that risk. Brian proved to me the danger of magic. One man with such power is too dangerous for the world to survive." Jackson put his hand on the doorknob. "I don't want to fight. I can promise you it'll be quick, at least. Quicker if you help me."

  He opened the door, but paused before he stepped out.

  "Anyone who tries to run will wish they hadn't."

  Hailey seemed like she might launch herself at him, but several hands held her back. Jackson let the door swing shut as he vanished back into the Market. The dull thump and click of the door latch echoed through the room like the last tick-tock of a clock about to die.

----------------------------------------

  "So he just went full supervillain," Ryan quipped. He'd evidently been trying to let some tension out of the room, but no one laughed. No one even smiled.

  "You lied to us," Neffie said.

  "We did," Cinza replied, her voice echoing through the frozen room.

  "Come on, can you blame us?" Ryan added. "If you guys knew everyone could get magic, we'd be a hell of a lot worse off than we are now."

  "He's just trying to divide us," Rachel said firmly. "Get in our heads. You can't listen to what he's saying."

  "Funny, because he's been a lot more honest than you," Gordon snapped. "Didn't even try to lie about killing us all. He could have lied to get us to help him."

  "Yeah, but he still wants to kill you," Ryan said. "Does it matter if he's an upstanding honest citizen about it?"

  "He did lie," Boris added quietly. "When he said he was not there. He had to be to create those electricity burns and frame Rika."

  Rachel seized on Boris' contribution eagerly. "Exactly. He's been trying to drive everyone apart from the start. Don't let him. He knows we can beat him." Gordon and Neffie still looked unconvinced, but they didn't speak up again. Jackie shifted uncomfortably in her chair and tried to look as surprised as the rest of them. "We've only got a little time before Jackson decides to start burning down the town. Hector—"

  "I'm in," Hector whispered.

  "What?"

  "I'm in," he repeated more firmly. "He's not giving anyone a choice. I… I have to help you stop him."

  Rachel nodded. "Then we know what to do."

  "Hang on. How are you goin' to get him?" Julian pointed out. Rachel looked surprised. "If he moves faster than Cinza can lay down her whammy, aren't y'all screwed? Seems like a one-shot deal."

  Rachel frowned. "How quickly can you strike a spot with it?"

  The robed girl shrugged. "How fast does magic travel?"

  "Speed of light?" Josh ventured. "I mean, it's gotta follow some natural rules, right?"

  "Magic. Natural rules," added Ryan sarcastically.

  Mason chimed in excitedly. "Actually, by our measurements magic might be instantaneous. It's difficult to get a precise measurement since I'm still bound by the speed of light myself, but based on the response time we've seen with some of the lab instruments, object telekinesis seems to be ahead of its visible position for picoseconds at a time. Actual motion using said kinesis wouldn't likely be able to exceed such a speed though since the energy output would kill the caster, either by recoil or by the explosion from the speed and mass of the object in motion, but the results of the mental action are carried out precisely at the time of the instruction, so to speak."

  "That doesn't help," Cinza replied. "Magnetic fields travel at lightspeed, but we still have to react fast enough to put it there."

  "So as long as he can move and react fast enough to avoid anything we try to do, it's gonna be impossible to catch him," Josh sighed.

  "Unless we can surprise him again," said Lily.

  "How'd you pull it off last time?"

  "I took command of his golem long enough for Natalie's wolf to get to him."

  "Perfect, just do that again," said Ryan.

  "He'll be expecting it," Lily sighed. "I had the impression he'd never been contested for control of a magical entity before. There's a trick to it. He'll know what to do next time."

  "That's still something though. Messing with his head, screwing up magic he should be the best at. What else do we got?"

  "His speed," Rachel said.

  "Well yeah, that's the problem. We gotta distract him."

  "No, we need to mess with his speed," Rachel replied.

  Ryan rolled his eyes. "How are we gonna do that? We don't have a clue what kind of magic it is. You ever seen someone else do shit that crazy?"

  Rachel's eyes flicked over to Hailey. She shook her head. "Never seen anything like it."

  The rest of the room seemed equally at a loss. Alden felt pressure building up in his chest. He'd been trying to avoid speaking for the most part ever since he arrived. Now that he was painfully aware of how little he mattered, and fully divested of his former guide and companion, Alden had decided to keep his head down and just try to stay alive.

  He couldn't stay silent any longer. In spite of their last encounter, and in spite of her abandoning him in the middle of a crisis, Alden still felt a twinge of loyalty to her. He didn't want to reveal what was ostensibly a secret power of hers, particularly since she'd been so reluctant to tell him its mechanics. She'd clearly kept it a tight secret, as not even Rachel knew about her access to the eighth branch of magic.

  It was too important and too powerful. They needed to know. No matter the consequences he might face, this might be the only way they could all survive. Alden cleared his throat and steeled his nerves. He was shaking as he stood to address the crowd, a mass of powerful and influential people to whom he was barely a passing thought.

  "I have."