I half expected to see Abby right away. For him to be waiting on the other side of the threshold, which immediately morphed into a corridor, the woods just yards behind us through the ward door.

But instead of Abby, I saw the usual milling about of mages that all hours at the Vault held. And though some of them gave Malachi a strange look, still bound and fully supported by Ailech and Kael as his head hung, his white hair hiding his ethereal face, most didn't seem to care that their Darkling population had more than doubled since we'd left.

Right on cue, Malachi stirred and Ailech dropped him unceremoniously, letting him fall into the wall. Kael set him down on the closest bench a little more gently. When Malachi's eyes fluttered open, they immediately found mine, the ghost of a grin at the edge of his lips as I'm sure he remembered why he had been helped along into mandatory sleep, again. But then he shifted his bright, animal eyes to James and lifted his tied hands before his face in a feigned cower.

"Please, don't hit me again. I promise I won't use the W-word anymore. Still a sore spot for you? What, you haven't fed into the 'weakness is strength', 'being soft is strong' bullshit yet? Well, that's one good thing I can report back to your father when I get out of...here."

He said the last word with a note of awe in his voice as he finally took in where he was. And I didn't blame him, the Vault was a sight to see. In fact, all of us seemed to be reveling on some level at the history we were amidst, the saving of an endangered race, all the knowledge and power. It made sense that the Collector wanted in.

I looked up the hall to see Ember with her nose to a book, walking toward us, totally oblivious to the school of sharks she was wandering toward. A few more steps and she looked up, her eyes going wide. But to her credit, she didn't turn and run in the opposite direction. Instead, she hesitantly continued, her eyes on Ailech only, like he was her anchor. I could almost feel his eyes rolling next to me.

"Hi, Ally! Glad you're back safe. Uh, hi...everyone else."

Ember kept her eyes trained on the floor after greeting Ailech, like she thought we could steal her soul if we caught her looking us in the eye.

"Ally? Wow. Just wow." Malachi smirked at Ailech before returning his attention to Ember, looking very much the cat to her mouse.

"Why hello, little fainting goat." He smiled down at her as he stood from his seat, his low, gravelly voice dripping honey as he cocked his head like the predator he was.

Ember's saucer eyes raised to look up at his height, seeing his tied hands, before jumping to me, then James, Nevaeh, and finally landing on Kael. Her neck strained back until she could see his face towering over her. He attempted a mild-mannered smile as her mouth fell open. Something that didn't actually sound like a word squeaked out before she made good on Malachi's joke and promptly fainted. I still forgot how Kael looked to others.

Ailech just barely caught his protege, plunking her down with an exasperated look on the same plush bench that Malachi had just vacated. Malachi was looking at Ember like she was his next meal, even going as far as licking his lips as his grin widened. I stepped between them and glared, to which he tried to show his palms in apology, but couldn't because of the way they were bound.

"So, when can I get these off? Are you making an electrum collar for me? Do I get a leash? Trust me, been there, done that. Got the T-shirt and the scars to prove it. I had a little rebellious period, you see. But I would prefer to be able to feed myself, bathroom, all that. And that's pretty hard without haandss." He raised his arms in front of him and wiggled his fingers for emphasis.

"Just because you're here doesn't mean we're going to let you just roam around. You're our...or you can only go...whatever, Abby will find a way to declaw you." Ailech muttered the last part, leading us in the general direction of Abby's office, but Malachi stopped dead in his tracks.

"Abby is here?"

For a second, I could have sworn I saw a younger Malachi in his face, in how he looked surprised, not an entirely unpleasant look, the lightening of his voice, even in the nickname used instead of 'Abraham' like James always called him. But he recovered quickly.

"I assumed he was dead."

His usual low, rumbling voice was back, playing at indifference.

"Why would you assume that?" James was watching him too, a line between his eyes. "Or did you not assume, and my father told you he hunted him down and killed him, to strip any hope once again?"

Malachi's look shot daggers at James, but he stayed silent.

"That's what I thought. You were lied to, yet again. Abraham made it out just like I did, and he created this place, a haven for mages. A place my father can't break into."

James turned and continued to walk, the rest of our group following, Malachi in its center.

"Is Grayson here?"

At this, it was James' turn to stop short. He spun around and looked Malachi dead in the eye for a long moment before leaning forward and tapping him on the temple, their eyes still locked. And even without my Gift I knew what he was saying - think. I just didn't know what that meant. Then Malachi gave a short nod and we continued down the hall.

It looked like James had given some silent instruction, an order, and for some reason Malachi had chosen to obey. I wanted to ask what it was, and why he was suddenly submitting, but didn't want to get anywhere near my Gift. And looking at James or talking to him still made images play in my mind I didn't want to linger on. So we continued our winding walk in silence.

Even with the Vault being a maze of corridors and open spaces, Ailech led us directly to Abby, who was in an office down the hall, not his own. I made a mental note to ask how my keeper always knew where the old wizard was. We walked in through double doors that made my stomach twist from similar ones I still remembered vividly, seeing James brace his hands against them in his father's chambers. I shook the thought and hung back, waiting to see the reunion between Malachi and his old tutor.

But Malachi didn't continue. He stopped yards away, his head down, watching the ground in a way that struck me as counter to his usual demeanor. Abby looked much less surprised than I had expected as he took in our group. Smiling warmly to Nevaeh and Kael, nodding to James and me. If he was as connected to the wards as he made it sound, he had probably known who our group housed the moment we got remotely near. But when his watery blue eyes found Malachi, they still sobered.

"I see you've found one more." He addressed James and me.

"Think you can spare a place? I would like him to stay." James sounded formal, though not empty or cold and I wondered if our act of only being Pairs, no other connection, nothing deeper, was still on the table. Or if Malachi's presence, all he had already seen, had made our plans of acting mute.

"There is always a place for defectors here." Abby's eyes dropped to the electrum. "Is he, in fact, a defector?"

"Not yet," James said with a smirk, his arrogant mask falling into its familiar place.

At this, Malachi chuckled darkly, his face still turned down, hiding his features behind his hanging hair. He looked like James; similar frame, if more muscular and maybe an inch taller, similar stance, just different hair colors. It sent a shiver down my spine.

"Well, while I consider how to contain him, will you please introduce me to your family? I've been waiting to meet them for years."

Abby's warm smile was back as he approached our patched-together group.

» ✦ «

Never did I think I would see Abby again, unless we met in some afterlife, though I assumed the mage was not going where I was. I had never even considered the possibility of his survival, his escape. I simply took my master's word that he had been found and dispatched as a traitor soon after James left. I had believed that for so long, I didn't know how to feel now.

He had abandoned me just like James had. But he had been good when he was there, good to me at least. He had helped me, went out of his way to. Put himself in danger to. I still remembered the note I had found from him on the morning of his disappearance.

It asked me to hold on, to not go down the path James was on, to not follow him, though he knew I tried to be his little mirror. He had apologized, and though I didn't know for what at the time, I soon realized he was gone, and then I understood. I had been angry at him, happy for him, sad for myself. It had been far too many emotions for me at that age, especially with my stunted capacity.

But now, again, I didn't know how to feel. I hated him, just like everything and everyone. I felt shame that I hadn't listened to his letter, that I was exactly what he had begged me not to become. I was relieved to see him alive, I think, maybe. And I was angry, at him, at James, at his Pair, at myself, this haven I was in, everything. So that was the familiar emotion I chose, held onto, the one I felt welling up in my chest, filling every inch of me, and I welcomed the clarity it brought.

I had always been able to read Abby's eyes. And when he first looked at me I knew he saw a monster. So, I would show him just how right he was. After all, the old mage was always right.

As everyone continued their pleasantries, I gripped the inside of my left wrist and palm, squeezing until I felt the crunch of broken pieces, grinding the bones to the center. All I needed was one second, one moment to end Abby, and then his Vault, his little project, would crumble. Then, in the chaos, we would win. All I needed was one second.

When I lifted my eyes, just barely to peer through my hair, tracking my target, I saw Jordan's silver stare on me, felt the strange weight of her eyes simultaneously. I winked and slipped my crushed hand from the binds. The rush of power I felt was hellish and whole. I hated electrum, a coward's instrument. Before the cords had even begun their descent to the floor I was across the short space between myself and my old tutor, the one who had abandoned me, left me to be used and warped into a weapon even as he paid lip service to the opposite. Like he had ever truly fucking cared about me.

The space between his heart and my outstretched hand was so slight, I could almost already feel his blood, feel his chest caving in around my fist, feel his heart beating it's last as I wrapped my fingers around it's slick heat. I was so close, just an inch more and I would get to him, my fantasies of killing him finally true.

But then I hit a wall, my unbroken hand colliding with something dense and solid and crumpling in on itself. Ripples from the impact shot up my arm, broken shards of bone breaking through my skin all the way up to my elbow. I felt nauseous immediately and had to focus to keep my stomach down.

I heard the electrum hit the floor finally, my attack beginning and ending quicker than gravity. But when I raised my black eyes from Abby's unmarred chest to his eyes, I didn't see the mage I had known. I didn't see any glimmer of his immense power in his eyes showing that he had shielded himself from me. No, he looked shocked, unprepared, the look quickly replaced with sadness, disappointment. He hadn't been expecting this, he hadn't been the one that stopped me.

I felt my body tense just before my legs gave out, as their soul eater drained my strength again. But as I fell, I saw Jordan, her hand slightly raised, and then I knew it had been her, some shield that she controlled had saved Abby. This time.

Her stormy eyes were the last things I saw as I lost consciousness.

Ooooh Malachi, you little sneaky boy. I feel like he'll be causing more than a few waves at the Vault.

That is, if they can even figure out a way to control him...

Ailech sure will be busy. And apparently Jordan and her shields, too.