As Havoc scampered around, Call and Aaron went straight to the experiment room, closing the door and locking it behind them.

It was only then they realized they weren’t alone. Alex was sitting on the floor, an array of books open around him in a strange circle. He was sunken-eyed and his skin looked blotchy.

On a gurney on the other end of the room was a bizarre dead body. The corpse was that of a grown person, but with a face that appeared a grotesque parody of Drew’s more childlike features. It looked as though it had been sculpted out of flesh, but with a butter knife. It was dressed in a parody of kid clothes: a shirt with a horse on it and red jeans. Just looking at it made Call’s stomach churn.

“Uh,” he said. “Sorry. We didn’t know anyone else was in here.”

Aaron just looked at Alex silently. There might even have been a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth.

Alex pushed himself to his feet, taking a few of the books with him. He pointed a shaking finger at Call. “You! You didn’t explain what you did right. You lied.” He tried to shoulder past where Call and Aaron were standing.

“Oh no,” Call stopped him with a hand on his chest. Alex was taller than they were, but it was two to one, and Aaron was a lot more intimidating now that he was back from the dead. “You’re going to help us.”

“I’m not doing anything until you explain how you brought Aaron back — the truth, not what you’ve been saying to make Master Joseph torment me.”

“I did tell you the truth. You just can’t do it.”

Alex looked straight at Call. For the first time the smirk was gone from his face. He looked sincerely scared. “Why? Why wouldn’t I be able to do it? Why can’t I just reach out and find his soul?”

Call shook his head. “I don’t know. I didn’t do that. We had Aaron’s body. You don’t have Drew’s. How are you supposed to find his soul?”

The despair on Alex’s face was obvious, but Master Joseph wasn’t going to stop wanting his son to come back. Even if it was impossible, he was going to insist on it.

“So there’s no hope,” Alex said.

“I don’t know,” said Call. “You help me with Aaron and I’ll help you with your problem.”

Alex had been studying longer than he had — he’d been going after those Evil Overlord Points that Call had been fighting against for years. And if there was any chance that Alex had the key to helping Aaron, then it was worth taking.

Alex looked at Aaron and frowned. Aaron sat down on the floor, where Alex had been, and picked up a book.

“He seems fine,” Alex grumbled. “Help you with what?”

“He’s not happy,” Call tried to explain.

Alex snorted. “Yeah, well, join the club. I’m not happy either. If I don’t bring back Drew, I’m in deep trouble. Master Joseph keeps eyeing the Alkahest.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have suggested he use it on me,” Call said unsympathetically.

Alex sighed, not really having a retort for that. “So we’re supposed to find some magical way to make Aaron happy again?”

Call frowned at Aaron, sitting on the floor, flipping pages as though he wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation. “He’s not unhappy, exactly,” he said. “He’s just — not in the right place. He’s like a guy who took a train to a station and then had to get off and back on because he forgot his suitcase and now he’s going the wrong way.”

“Oh yeah,” Alex said sarcastically. “That’s much clearer.”

Call didn’t want to tell Alex everything Aaron had said — that seemed private. But he tried one more time. “Aaron doesn’t have any magic. Fine, you stole his Makar abilities, but he should still be a mage, right? And he’s not. Whatever is cutting him off from magic, that could be the missing part of him that’s keeping him from feeling whole.”

Alex hesitated.

“Besides,” Call added, “if you brought back Drew without magic, that wouldn’t exactly thrill Master Joseph.”

Alex glared at him out of swollen eyes. “That’s true,” he said grudgingly. “All right, what are you suggesting?”

“We learned how to do the soul tap at the Magisterium,” said Call. “I feel like I should try to look at Aaron’s soul. Maybe see if I can tell what the problem is.”

“What am I supposed to be here for?” Alex wanted to know.

Call took a deep breath. “You’re older than us and you’ve been studying this longer. So think about what else we can check.”

“And if we can’t find anything wrong?”

“I could give him more of my soul,” Call said in a low voice. “Maybe I just didn’t give him enough.”

Alex shook his head. “Your funeral,” he said finally. “Aaron, get up on the experiment table.”

Aaron looked over at the gurney with the corpse on it for a long moment. “No,” he said. “I won’t.”

“It’s occupied, anyway,” Call said.

“We can dump the body on the floor,” said Alex while Aaron eyed him with distaste.

To prevent that, Call dragged a book-covered table from a corner to the center of the room. They cleared off the surface and Aaron climbed up on it and lay down, his hands crossed over his chest.

Call took a deep breath, feeling self-conscious, trying to remember how it had been to see Aaron’s soul before. This was the part he had to do alone. Alex didn’t deserve to see anyone’s soul, and definitely not Aaron’s.

Call closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and began. It was harder than it had been back in the Magisterium. Aaron’s resurrected body seemed to repel Call from being able to see through to the soul. It was surrounded by a kind of murkiness. He tried to hold on to memories of Aaron — Aaron laughing, and uncomplainingly eating lichen in the Refectory, and sorting sand, and dancing with Tamara. But they came dimly. What stuck out most clearly was Aaron’s body, still and cold on the gurney in this room.

He pushed himself to remember what it had been like to put a piece of his soul into Aaron — like electricity lighting up metal in the darkness. The memory washed over him and he finally felt a path open to Aaron’s presence. He saw the light of a soul, pale and clear, with a kind of golden light that was all Aaron.

But dark tendrils surrounded it, hooking it in place, worming into it the way roots of ivy worm their way into buildings until the stonework crumbles. His body seemed to pulse with chaos energy. Call reached out with his mind and felt a terrible overwhelming coldness.

The body. There was something wrong with Aaron’s body.

“What are you doing?” The doors of the experiment room burst open. Dazed, Call leaned against the table as Alex yelped and jumped backward.

It was Master Joseph, and he looked furious.

CALL TOOK A step back from Aaron, stumbling over a stray book. This was Master Joseph as Call hadn’t seen him before — wild-eyed and full of rage. He wore the Alkahest over one hand.

At the sight of it, Call’s breath caught.

Always before, even in the depths of his anger, Master Joseph had protected Call. In the tomb of the Enemy of Death, he’d even thrown himself in front of Call, ready to toss his own life away to save him. But now, he looked ready to murder Call without thinking twice.