CALL WOKE WITH a start. For a moment, he thought that he was lost in chaos, until he heard the familiar hum of voices and the distinct mineral smell of the caves of the Magisterium. He sat up, startling Master Amaranth.

He was in the infirmary. Call relaxed and slumped back on the pillow.

The mage came over to him, her coppery hair pulled back and her snake coiled around her head like some enormous headband. Today, it was a bright yellow green that turned to blue and then purple as Call watched. A moment later, red stripes emerged on its scales.

You almost died, Aaron said in his head.

“Oh,” Call said. He remembered something like that. Something about the hole ripped into chaos and trying to close it and trying to tap into his own soul.

I tried to hold on to you, but it felt like you were slipping away, Aaron went on. He sounded panicked and angry. Call guessed that made sense. If he’d died, Aaron would have died, too.

That is NOT the point — Aaron began, but Master Amaranth interrupted.

“Against my advice, your friend is still here,” she said.

Call thought for a bizarre moment that she meant Aaron, before he whirled around to see Tamara sitting on the cot beside him. She set down the anatomy book she’d been reading and hurried over to his bed.

“Sorry,” he said, although whether he was saying it to her or to Aaron, he wasn’t sure. “I guess I am not so good at defeating my enemies, huh?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” said Tamara fondly. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

You don’t understand, Aaron said. I wasn’t going to die. If your soul was used up, I would have been alone in here.

Call guessed that was one way that Aaron could get a body.

That’s not funny, said Aaron.

Tamara sat down in the chair next to his cot. She was smiling, and he was incredibly relieved to see her, too. Things hadn’t been looking good when he lost consciousness. “You’re all right?” he said. “Everyone’s okay?”

“Mostly,” Tamara said. “You tore Alex’s chaos tornado apart, and then you passed out and I didn’t exactly notice what else was going on.” She blushed. “But basically Alex escaped in all the yelling.” She bit her lip. “We lost Master Rockmaple, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Call said again. He knew he should have acted earlier.

“I told you it’s not your fault,” Tamara said, with a return of her usual bossiness. “I don’t know what we’re going to do about Alex, though,” she added. “After you passed out, I managed to talk to my dad. He said that Alex was right, that there’s never been a Devoured of chaos. There are so few Makars already and so few mages become one of the Devoured, and Makars never have before. We don’t know how to stop him. We don’t even know much about the Devoured. In the mage world, we don’t like to admit it can happen.”

Call thought of Tamara’s sister, Ravan, and of Master Rufus’s own teacher, Master Marcus. Both of them had become Devoured and, indeed, they were spooky. No longer quite human, not quite elemental. Call never knew whose side either of them were on, and no one seemed to know how much of their former selves remained.

Although, for what it was worth, Alex seemed exactly like the same evil, obnoxious self he’d been before he was a Devoured of chaos. Just with a lot more power.

“This is a mess,” Call said. “I have no idea how to stop him.”

Tamara sighed. “Me neither.”

You can’t tell her that, Aaron said. Say something encouraging.

“But I’m sure we’ll think of something?” Call tried weakly.

Tamara frowned.

Say that if we work together, we’ll find a way to defeat Alex. We always do.

Call repeated the words, trying to sound like he really felt that way. The way Aaron would have said them.

Tamara held up a hand. “No. Absolutely not. Why are you talking that way? The Call I know would never say that. The Call I know would be talking about packing bags and running off to a remote location where we could disguise ourselves and hide. Then later he might reluctantly do something heroic.” She gazed at him with deep suspicion. “Something is going on.”

Call winced and thought of his dad, who not too long ago had actually suggested they run away to a remote location. Tamara knew him alarmingly well. He couldn’t put off telling her any longer.

“Uh,” he said. “Aaron is in my head.”

“Call, don’t lie to me,” Tamara said. “This isn’t the time.”

“I’m not lying, and I’m not kidding,” Call said in a harsh whisper. “When Aaron died — on the battlefield — his soul passed into me. And not that sort of weird half Aaron, but real Aaron. Aaron’s soul is alive and it’s in my head.”

Tamara looked at him with her mouth open. She was clearly trying to decide if he needed a massive dose of medicine.

Tell her you can prove it, Aaron said.

“I can prove it,” Call said. “Give me a chance.”

After a long hesitation, she nodded.

Let me talk, Aaron said. Just for a minute.

Call didn’t exactly know what he meant, but he nodded. Tamara was staring at him — definitely noticing he was nodding for no reason — but Call was past caring. He needed someone to believe him that this was true. Go ahead.

“Tamara,” he said. He hadn’t meant to say it, the word had just come out of his mouth. He sat still — it was like listening to Aaron. What was he going to say next? “Remember that first night after the Iron Trial?” Aaron said.

Tamara nodded, wide-eyed.

“Call went to bed early. We were sitting in the living room and you said, ‘Don’t worry that he’s in our apprentice group. He won’t last the week.’”

She stared at him for a long moment. “You could have told Call.”

It was a good sign that she was acting like she was talking to Aaron. Good, but weird. Call had given Aaron permission to control his body, but he still didn’t like it.

“Okay,” Aaron made Call’s mouth say. “How about this? When I stayed at your house that summer, your dad kept walking around in that white robe with all the gold trim on it and one day you put it on and pretended to be him, but he caught you and he caught me laughing. Remember? I was so scared he was going to throw me out, but he just walked away and we all pretended it never happened.”

“Aaron!” Tamara cried, and threw her arms around Call. She was sobbing. “It is you. I know nobody else knew that.”

“I can’t believe this,” Call muttered. He was enjoying holding Tamara, but there was nothing about what Aaron said that he’d liked. “You both wanted to get rid of me! You suck!”

Tamara pulled back a little, her eyes shining with tears. “We got over it,” she said.

Call wasn’t feeling entirely over it himself yet, but he was glad she believed him. When she looked at him again, there was something new in her face, something she’d never seen before. “Call,” she said. “I was wrong. You did something amazing. I don’t know how you did it, but you brought Aaron back from the dead.”

“And that’s good,” Call said, not sure of how to navigate such a weighted conversation. “Right?”