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Chapter 739
White Tower stood two hours outside New Avalon, at the end of a road the state had stopped repairing.Beatrix drove them herself."You should know what you're walking into," she said."I read the file.""The file's three years old. It's worse now."She wasn't exaggerating.The gate had rust on it. Half the outer wall was scaffolded, and the scaffolding itself looked older than the crack it was holding up. Weeds came through the courtyard stones in lines, following the joints, the way weeds do when nobody has pulled them in a very long time.Alex counted four people in a courtyard built for four hundred.Two of them were sweeping. One was asleep in the sun."Five hundred years," Beatrix said quietly. "This place taught magic for five hundred years.""How many students this year?""Nine.""Out of how many applicants?"Beatrix didn't answer that one, which was an answer.If somebody had told Alex the White Tower would close next month, he wouldn't have been surprised. He wouldn't even ha
Chapter 738
The pill went into production on Tuesday.Beatrix stood at the head of the line, sleeves shoved up, lab smell still clinging to her hair.The Mana Affinity Pill was powder first — a formula meant to be swallowed, pulling the mana already drifting in the air straight into whoever took it, sharpening their reach for it instead of the person having to hunt for it themselves.She weighed the first batch by hand. Twenty grams. Forty. Four hundred.Then every line came alive behind her — four hundred pills an hour, each one, running clean.She stared at the readout like it might change on her. "It's holding. Every batch. Exactly the same.""You sound surprised."“There has never been a pill like this here before.” Beatrix looked at the sticker Alex was working on."I watched you burn through four hundred failed talismans before this worked." She looked up at him.Alex rubbed his jaw. "Took long enough to find a formula that wouldn't break down at scale."The second product came off a differ
Chapter 737
Cornelius Hargrove hung there in Alex's fist and finally understood the question.“You won’t dare to hurt me," he said.“Any reason you believe you are untouchable? Because thsis mayabe your last chance to still alive. “alex said."Ferrowgate." Cornelius was talking fast now. Faster. " Ferrowgate. Was on my back, if youd are to hurt me. They will destroy you and Regetn group."Sixty miles away, in Ferrowgate’s glass office with a view of the whole city, a very old man listened to a tile on his desk.Silas Kessler was seventy-one. He had white hair, a good suit, and a face like a closed ledger.He had not raised his voice in forty years. There had never been a reason to."Charges are live, sir," the tile said. "We have three inside — the girl, the Steinmeyer woman, and the target. Hargrove's in there too with some magicians form tower.""Yes," Kessler said."Sir — Mr. Hargrove and the magician are in there.""I heard you."There was a pause on the line."Sir, we can give them thirty se
Chapter 736
New Avalon hadn't changed.Same glass towers. Same clean streets. Same money smell in the air.Alex walked into the Regent Group lobby at nine in the morning and nobody stopped him.That was the first wrong thing.The second wrong thing was the front desk. Empty. No guard. No clerk.The third wrong thing was the elevator. It was already coming down.A young woman stepped out of it. Regent Group badge. Grey suit. Her hands were shaking so hard she had to hold one with the other."Are you Mr. Alexander?" she said.Alex stopped walking."Where is Beatrix?""They took her at seven." The woman's voice cracked."Who took her?""Her uncle.""Cornelius.""Yes." She pulled a folded paper from her jacket and held it out. Her whole arm trembled. "He left this. He said to give it only to you. He said you'd know what it meant."Alex unfolded it.An address. Nothing else."It's the storage works. West of the city." She was crying now and trying not to. "We hold new product there. It's ours. It's Re
Chapter 735
Varan offered a cold, dead-eyed smile."Here’s the deal," he said. "Get on your knees. Right there, in front of the lens. Confess to murdering my brother, beg for forgiveness, and hit the floor in a ten-count kowtow.""And then?""Then it's quick. One clean cut on your neck. You won't feel it." He shrugged."And if I don't?"Varan's voice didn't change at all."Then I start with your fingers," he said. "One at a time. Then your hands. Then your arms. And I keep going until you confess. Until you beg. Until you try to kneel and find out you don't have knees anymore."Behind him, three hundred soldiers stood and listened.Six hundred thousand people watched at home.Alex looked at him. He looked almost bored."You'll die in one move," Alex said. "Why would I kneel to a dead man?"The whole factory went still.Varan let out a dry laugh. "You have no idea who you're dealing with—or the nightmare waiting for you.""Quiet," Alex said flatly. "You get one warning, and this is it. Clear out o
Chapter 734
Vesper came out of the pen.He shouldn't have been able to. Poisoned twice in a week. Four days flat on his side under Alex's needles. But a bonded guardian doesn't get a vote when his house is dying.For half a minute, House Calder had a chance.He flipped a vehicle onto its side. Threw two men through a wall. Thirty Line troops gave ground, and up on the landing, something wild and stupid rose in Wren's chest. Hope."Cable teams," a voice said below. Calm. Bored. Like a man calling a card game.They stopped fighting him. They started processing him.Three teams, three sides. Stakes hammered into Calder stone. Steel line thrown over him like a net over a bird, men leaning back on the ropes in ranks while others put round after round into his legs.Never the skull. Nothing about it was angry. They'd done this before.His forelegs buckled. Then his hindquarters. Then all of him.They left him alive. Pinned under eleven cables, two men standing on his neck.Lord Calder came down his own
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