Alex looked worried, really worried. Call supposed that tearing off little bits of his soul wasn’t something Alex wanted to mess around with, but Call didn’t have it in him to be particularly sympathetic.

With a snap of his fingers, Master Joseph summoned back the other mages — which implied they’d been listening. “Let’s go,” he said to Alex, the threat of being dragged away to the experiment room hanging over him.

Call waved his fingers at Alex, pleased with himself and with the world for once. “Good luck!” he called after them.

Alex didn’t even bother to glare back. He looked too scared.

Finding a half-full cup of coffee abandoned by one of the mages, Aaron brought it to his lips. Call watched him, realizing that he was waiting for Aaron to demand they go after Alex, insist on saving him.

“Alex is the reason you’re dead in the first place,” Call said to that imaginary objection. “I don’t care what Master Joseph does to him. We should just stay here and have breakfast. I don’t care if his soul gets ripped apart.”

“Okay,” Aaron said.

Call grabbed a piece of neglected toast off one of the mage’s abandoned plates. Aaron wasn’t supposed to say that. He was supposed to say something about how Master Joseph and Alex were on Team Evil and how Team Good wasn’t supposed to behave like that.

Aaron didn’t say anything at all.

With a sigh, Call pushed his chair away from the table. “Fine. Okay. We’ll go check it out.”

Aaron looked puzzled but stood up and followed Call. Together they crept toward the experiment room. Within, they could hear muffled voices. Call squeezed one eye shut and looked through a keyhole with the other, but even though that worked in movies, in real life he couldn’t see much of anything.

“If you can’t find Drew’s soul, then you must not be much of a Makar,” he heard Master Joseph say from the other side of the door. “Perhaps you should be the vessel for Drew’s return. Perhaps Callum Hunt can push Drew’s soul in and your soul out.”

“I’m a Makar,” Alex whined. “You can’t do that.”

Call sucked in a breath. Here was the real Master Joseph, the one who’d been trying to hide behind elaborate dinners and kindly gestures.

“Your powers are stolen and you are inferior,” Master Joseph said, his voice thick with rage. “You were never meant to wield chaos magic.”

“I can do this,” Alex said. “I can!” There was a scraping noise. “Just give me some room to work.”

At that moment, Call heard a low groan from the room — one that sounded chaos-tinged.

“Master Joseph!” Call yelled, slamming his fist on the door. “Let us in!”

A moment later, Master Joseph opened the door to reveal Alex on the floor, looking stunned. There was no one else inside. There was, however, a corpse on the table, its skin tinted blue with cold. Call shuddered.

“I see you want to help after all,” Master Joseph said. “But for now, we’re fine as we are. Come back tonight, Callum, when you’re rested.”

And with that, the door closed on them again. The latch turned.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” Call said, feeling queasy. Could they bring back Drew? Call didn’t think they could do it without Drew’s body. Even the Chaos-ridden had a tiny bit of their own soul trapped in them — just as Call had realized when he’d accidentally made Jennifer Matsui into one.

But his own soul was Constantine’s, in a new body, after all. Maybe it would work. He cast a glance at Aaron, but Aaron didn’t look like he was worrying about whether they’d bring Drew back or not.

Call needed to do something. “Come on,” he told Aaron. “We can go around outside and look in through the window.” He grabbed for some boots and a coat.

“Are we going to watch him suffer?” Aaron asked, which wasn’t the right question at all. Call didn’t answer.

Heading outside they passed a scattered bunch of Chaos-ridden who dipped their heads and moaned as Call went by. Scenic, Call thought. Aaron frowned at them, hands in his pockets, and walked faster.

“Look around,” Call said. “See? This is the kind of trouble I get into when you’re not here. Since you died, I wound up arrested, then broken out of jail, then kidnapped and brought to the stronghold of the Enemy of Death, with Jasper, who spent the whole time talking about his love life …”

At that, the corner of Aaron’s mouth lifted.

“And I kissed Tamara, who hates me now! Without you, I can’t do anything right. You’re the person who helps me figure out what’s right and what’s wrong. I’m not sure I can do that without you.”

Aaron didn’t look like he felt particularly happy to hear it. “I don’t — I can’t do that for you now.”

“But you have to,” Call said. They had reached a small copse of trees. From there, it would be possible to sneak around to one of the windows of the experiment room, but in that moment, what was happening inside didn’t seem as important as what was happening with them. “You always have before.”

Aaron shook his head. “I don’t think about things the way I used to.” He put his hands in his pockets. It was cold out, with a sharp wind, but Call wasn’t sure Aaron could feel it. He didn’t seem cold.

“You’re fine,” Call said. “We just have to get you out of here.”

“When will we go?” Aaron asked.

“Tamara and Jasper and I tried to run before,” Call admitted. “They caught us and brought us back, but that turned out to be a good thing, because then Master Joseph told us about you. So I figured we would stay until we could bring you back.”

“And Tamara and Jasper agreed?” Aaron’s breath made white puffs in the air.

Call took a breath. “I didn’t exactly tell them.”

Aaron didn’t caution him, as he once might have done. He didn’t scold him. He really wasn’t doing a good job of being a moral center, Call had to admit.

Call went on. “I thought that once you were back, they’d agree it was a good thing. And I thought the Assembly would think so, too. Because I did it right. I mean, sure they don’t want armies of Chaos-ridden running around, because they’re basically zombies, but you’re fine.”

Aaron didn’t say anything. They walked on, leaves crunching underfoot. They’d gotten to the part of the woods where they should start back toward the house if they were going to look through the experiment room window, but Call wasn’t ready to veer off quite yet.

“Do you really think I’m fine?” Aaron turned a haunted green gaze on Call.

“Yes,” Call said firmly. He almost felt angry with Aaron, which made no sense, but he couldn’t help it. He’d worked so hard for this, and no one had understood, and now Aaron wouldn’t just act normal. “I’m not saying you’re exactly the way you used to be, but that doesn’t mean you’re not fine.”

“No.” Aaron shook his head stubbornly. “I feel wrong. My body feels wrong. As though I’m not meant to be here.”

“What does that mean?” Call asked, finally losing his temper. “Because it sounds like it means you want to die.”