“All right, Call,” Alastair said. “I know this wasn’t the flu or something like that. What happened to you? You were shouting about burning down cities and marching ahead of armies. Is this something to do with the Enemy?”

Be careful what you tell him, Aaron warned as Call opened his mouth. If he thinks you’re in danger, he’ll drag the whole Magisterium into it.

He was right, Call knew. So he told his father an edited version of events: that Constantine’s memories had been walled up in his head, that he had let them loose when he’d thought he needed to save his friends, that they’d overwhelmed him until he’d gotten control and shut them back down again.

Alastair was already half out of his seat. “I don’t like the sound of this. We should get Master Rufus — surely there’s something the mages here can do to make sure those memories either stay put or are removed forever.”

No, Aaron warned. If they start fiddling around in here, there’s no telling what might happen.

“Wait,” Call said. “What did they tell you? Did they tell you about Alex Strike?”

“The boy who came back as a Devoured of chaos? Yes, but …”

“Did they tell you they expect me to figure out how to defeat him?”

Alastair sank back onto the couch. “You? But you’re just a kid.”

“I’m the only Makar they have,” said Call. “And no one knows how to defeat a Devoured of chaos.”

Alastair looked at him in horror. “My car is parked outside,” he said in a low voice. “We could run, Call. You don’t have to stay here. We could lose ourselves easily out in the normal world.”

“But then,” said Call, “I think a lot of people would die.”

“But you would live,” said Alastair, intensity in his gaze. It made Call feel good to know that Alastair put Call’s life above everything else in the world, but the only thing that would make Call different from Constantine or from Maugris was if he didn’t.

Again he remembered the Cinquain, the line he’d added: Call wants to live. Again and again he’d thought about it, ashamed. Now that line seemed to cut to the heart of the terrible desire that had led him to become a monster.

Okay, several different monsters.

Call, Aaron said. Everyone wants to live.

And everyone deserved to live. Even if that meant Call put his own life at risk.

“I really have to try,” he told his father. “And I even have a plan. It just — I need some Devoureds to help me. I know a Devoured of fire, but I need three others, for the other three elements.”

“And what happens to them?” asked Alastair.

Call shook his head. “They un-Devour him. Regurgitate him. Get him puked up from chaos. And then they wind up being in the same danger the rest of us will be in, fighting a really angry regurgitated Makar.”

Alastair blinked a few times. Finally, he shook his head and spoke. “Yeah, I know a guy.”

“You do?”

“Up in Niagara. He was in the war. That was when he got Devoured. He might listen if we put the case to him.”

“Can you drive?” Call asked.

“What?” Alastair said. “Right now?”

“Right now.” Call stood up and started to wake his friends by banging loudly on their doors.

AN HOUR LATER the Phantom was flying up the interstate with Havoc’s head hanging out the window, pink tongue flapping in the breeze. Call was in the front seat with Havoc while Tamara, Gwenda, and Jasper sat in the back.

They’d stopped for fast food already and torn through a box of chicken. Cold sodas were balanced on their laps.

“Even better than lichen,” Jasper had said blissfully, gnawing on a drumstick.

The radio was tuned to some jazz station. Call tipped back his head and started thinking about the future. Once Alex was defeated, he would ask Tamara out on a date, a real date. She liked sushi, so they’d go somewhere for a big fish dinner. Then maybe they’d go for a movie or a walk, get ice cream. He started to idly picture it when he realized he wasn’t alone in his head. Quickly, he tried to think of something else.

He’d like to get Havoc a new leash. Yeah, that was good.

And me a new body, Aaron reminded him. If you ever want to kiss Tamara again without me being there, too.

Call sighed.

“You’re all good kids, helping Callum out,” Alastair said, which made Call feel humiliated and also about seven years old.

Tamara grinned. “Someone’s got to try to convince him to stay out of trouble.”

“Someone should,” said Jasper. “Too bad that someone isn’t you.”

Gwenda knocked him on the shoulder. “Why are you the way you are?”

“People love me,” Jasper said.

“So how’s Celia?” Gwenda wanted to know. Jasper scowled. “Still mad at you for being friends with Call?”

“We’ll work it out,” said Jasper.

“I hear she didn’t like that your father was in prison for helping the Enemy either,” said Gwenda, and shrugged when everyone stared at her. “What? I hear things.”

“We will work things out,” Jasper said, tight-lipped.

“I don’t think I like this Celia,” said Alastair.

“She came to visit me while I was sick, actually,” said Call. “And apologized.”

“She did?” Tamara was round-eyed.

Jasper seemed relieved. “I told you.”

Gwenda chuckled. “She apologized to Call,” she said. “Maybe she can date him.”

“But —” Tamara said.

Jasper looked at her with innocent eyes. “But what?”

“Nothing.” Tamara crossed her arms and stared out the window. It was getting dark, and there was almost no one else on the road. The GPS showed that they were in Pennsylvania, near the Allegheny National Forest. Tall spiky trees lined the road.

Alastair cut a sideways, amused glance at Call but said nothing, and the conversation turned to other things. Call stayed quiet, thinking through what lay ahead of them.

After another half an hour, Alastair pulled off the road into a motel that had a diner attached to it. Neon promised cherry pie and cheesesteak. Call and the others followed Alastair inside as he checked them all into separate rooms and told them to meet outside in forty-five minutes for dinner.

Call was just pulling on a new shirt and doing his best to stick down his unruly hair with water when there was a knock on the door.

It was Jasper, wearing a T-shirt that read ANGRY UNICORNS NEED LOVE, TOO. Call blinked at him. “What?”

Jasper strolled in and sat down on the bed. Call sighed. In his memory, Jasper had never waited to be invited anywhere.

“Is this about Celia?” Call said.

“No,” Jasper said, after a pause. “It’s about my dad.”

“Your dad?”

His dad’s still in the Panopticon with all the others who joined Master Joseph, said Aaron helpfully.

I know! Call said. I just don’t know why he wants to talk to me about it.

Maybe he thinks you have a sympathetic face.

Jasper went on. “One of the Assembly members told me that they’re considering putting all the mages who sided with Master Joseph to death.”