“Can’t you just stay?” Rachel said. “You don’t have to do anything. We can be Richard’s Chosen. Once he’s gone we can do whatever we like.”
“There’s no ‘we.’ There never was.”
“What?”
“Think about it,” Shireen said. “How many Dark mages have we seen? Hundreds, right? How many of them had more than one Chosen?”
Rachel looked taken aback. “I don’t know.”
“Think. Think hard.”
“I don’t know. Some of them.”
“Like who?”
“That guy in Edinburgh. And there was that Traysia woman.”
“Okay, that’s two out of how many?” Shireen asked. “Two hundred? More? Now think about it. Did Richard ever say he wanted more than one Chosen? Did he say there was room for more than one of us? Or did we just assume that was what he must have meant?”
Rachel frowned. “What are you saying?”
“Ever since we’ve been here, what’s the one thing Richard’s kept telling us Dark mages are supposed to have?” Shireen said. “Strength. The strong rule, the weak serve. Can you really see anyone who believes that sharing?”
“We’ve been working together,” Rachel protested. “I know there’s been trouble, but we’re supposed to be on the same side.”
“Uh-huh,” Shireen said. “And that’s why Tobruk went psycho? More psycho than usual, anyway. Tell me something. Did Richard say anything before Tobruk went off the deep end? Like about his protection getting taken away?”
Rachel hesitated.
“This is how it was always going to end up, Rach,” Shireen said. “Richard doesn’t want four Chosen. He wants one Chosen. But he’s not going to pick for us. He wants us to fight it out until just one of us is left, because that’s the Dark way. The meanest and strongest and smartest one gets to be top of the heap. And you know what? We’ve been helping him do it.” Shireen shook her head. “Not anymore. You want me to stay? I’ve got a better idea. We leave.”
Rachel looked confused. “Leave?”
“Leave. Both of us, tonight.” Shireen tried to take Rachel’s hands but Rachel pulled back. “Out of this mansion. No more missions, no more deaths, no more prisoners. We don’t need Richard or Tobruk or any of them. It’ll be just you and me again.”
“And we leave all this to Tobruk?” Rachel demanded. “Just let him be Chosen?”
“Who cares who’s Chosen? It’s just a name! We don’t need anything Richard can give us.”
“And where would we go?”
“Anywhere! Some other mage, some other place, I don’t care. Anywhere but here.”
Rachel stared at Shireen for a second. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
Shireen frowned. “What?”
“How did you find Alex?” Rachel asked. “How’s Tobruk going to find Alex?”
“You know how,” Shireen said. “Tracers.”
“And?”
“And we asked the mages he’d spoken to—”
“And they told you where he’d gone.”
“Yeah . . .”
“So they helped you and not him,” Rachel said. “If we run away, that’s going to be us! The only thing keeping every other Dark mage from selling us out is Richard. As long as we’re with him, we’re safe. But as soon as we leave, that’s it! You think anyone cares about a Dark runaway? You think we haven’t made enough enemies? Everyone who hates us, everyone who wants us, they’re all going to be chasing us down!”
“So what’s your plan?” Shireen demanded. “Stay here and hope for the best?”
“Yes! It’s just a week! Why can’t you wait that long?”
“Because it’ll mean that Catherine dies.”
“So what?”
Shireen drew back a little, startled. Rachel was glaring at her. “Have you talked to them?” Shireen asked.
“Who?”
“Catherine,” Shireen said. “Alex. Everyone who’s passed through those cells. Have you ever looked at them and talked to them?”
“Why does that matter?”
“You haven’t, have you?”
“So?” Rachel snapped. “What, you think talking to them means you’ve learnt something special?”
“YES!” Shireen shouted. “When you actually meet someone who’s going to die because of what you’ve done, when you look into their eyes and listen to their voice, it makes you think about what you’re doing! And that’s why you haven’t done it! Deep down you know what you’re doing is fucked up, but as long as you don’t talk to her you can pretend it’s not real. But it is, and if you keep doing this you’ll be murdering her the same way Tobruk murdered her boyfriend.”
Rachel flinched but didn’t look away. “Why are you doing this?” She sounded hurt, betrayed. “I thought I could trust you.”
“You can trust me,” Shireen said. “But as long as we’re in this mansion we’re always going to belong to Richard.” She glanced around. “Where is he?”
“He’s gone after Lesandra,” Rachel said unwillingly. “But he’ll be . . .”
“Whatever,” Shireen said. “I’m not sticking around to see who wins.” She started walking towards the far end of the chapel.
“Wait! What are you doing?”
“What I should have done a long time ago. I’m getting out and I’m breaking Catherine out too.”
Rachel’s eyes went wide. “Are you crazy?” She ran around, blocking Shireen. “You can’t!”
“Can you think of a better time?” Shireen demanded. “Richard’s busy with Lesandra. We’re not going to get a better chance than this. We’ll be out of the country by the time he even figures out she’s gone.”
“He’ll come after us!”
“When’s he ever done anything like that himself?” Shireen asked. “Even when Alex tried to break Catherine out he didn’t lift a finger. He just let Tobruk handle it all for him.”
Rachel stared at Shireen for a long moment, then shook her head. “Wow. You really don’t understand him at all, do you?”
“What?”
“Richard’s let us do whatever we like because we’ve never threatened anything he really cares about,” Rachel said. “He doesn’t care if we mess up the mansion or fight each other. But he cares about this. I don’t know where he’s going or what he’s going to do once he gets there, but it’s really, really important to him. If he loses that girl you think he’s going to say, ‘Oh well, too bad, let’s go home’? He’s going to come after her with everything he’s got.”
“So we go to someone who’ll help.”
“No one’s going to help! They didn’t help Alex and they won’t help us!”
“Maybe they won’t,” Shireen said quietly. “But at least we’ll be doing something decent for once.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Rach, think about it,” Shireen said. “Remember how we always talked about how we’d be the heroes? How we’d change the world? Look at what you’re doing right now. We’re not the heroes. We’re the bad guys.”
“No, we’re not.”
“You’re keeping a girl in prison so Tobruk can use her for his fucked-up games until Richard gets around to sacrificing her for a ritual,” Shireen said. “Wake up, Rach! What does that sound like to you?”
“Everyone always tells us what we’re supposed to do,” Rachel snapped. “Maybe we’re allowed to be selfish for once.”
“We’ve never not been selfish! When have we ever used our magic for anyone else?”
“Well, why should we? What’s wrong with using it for what we want?”
“We said we were going to help girls with magic, remember?”
“Yes!” Rachel shouted. “Girls like us! The two of us! Not someone else!”
Shireen drew back in shock, staring at Rachel. “Everyone tries to use us,” Rachel said. “We always have to be afraid of people like Tobruk and I’m sick of it. I want to be the one everyone else is afraid of. I want to be Richard’s Chosen and own this mansion and have people be scared of me.”
“Rach, listen to yourself,” Shireen said in disbelief. “This isn’t you. Richard’s made you like this. If you just—”