Alma smiled and eyed Havoc in a way that Call didn’t like. “So tell me about your mission. What’s your assignment?”
“I thought you said you didn’t care where we were going,” Aaron said to Master Lemuel.
“I don’t. I didn’t say nobody would care.” Lemuel’s half smile turned into a full, malicious one. “It’s not easy to run away from the Magisterium.”
“Drew sure found that out,” muttered Jasper.
Master Lemuel flushed. “Drew wasn’t really trying to run away. Everything he said about me was a lie.”
“Look, we know that,” Aaron said, raising his hands in a gesture for peace. “And we are on a mission, just not one that everyone at school knows about. So if you could tell us the fastest way to the road —”
There was a commotion outside.
A middle-aged man with a bald head and big bristly beard rushed into the room. “Alma, Lemuel! The Masters from the Magisterium are coming this way. It’s a search party.”
Lemuel looked smugly at Call and the others. “Not running away, huh?”
“Just for the record,” said Jasper, “these people kidnapped me and are forcing me to go with them on a stupid mission to —”
Tamara opened her hand. Jasper stopped speaking abruptly and started gasping for air. Tamara had apparently snatched the words from his mouth — quite literally — and taken the air he was breathing along with them. The adults hadn’t seemed to notice, but Call was impressed.
“Stall, Andreas,” said Alma calmly.
The bearded man rushed off in the direction he’d come.
Call leaped to his feet, heart in his throat. “We have to get out of here,” he said.
Aaron scrambled up after him, and so did Tamara. Only Jasper remained seated, still breathing hard and glaring at the others. “We’ll hide in the woods,” said Aaron. “Please, just let us go and we’ll never mention this place.”
“I can do better than that,” Alma said. “We’ll hide you. But you have to do something for us in return.”
Her gaze went to Havoc.
“No way,” said Tamara, moving to put her hand on the wolf’s side. “We’re not letting you do whatever it is you’re —”
“Do you promise he won’t get hurt?” Call asked quickly, interrupting her. He didn’t like to consider it, thinking of how his father had chained up Havoc, but he saw the covetous way Alma was looking at his wolf. He needed to agree, so he could stall for time until he found a way to get them all out of there, including his wolf.
“Call, you can’t,” Tamara protested, her fingers in Havoc’s fur.
“Of course he can,” said Jasper. “You think he’s going to be loyal to anyone or anything? Let’s just go back to the Magisterium.”
“Shut up,” said Aaron. “Call, are you sure —”
But Alma laughed. “You misunderstand. It’s not Havoc we want, although he’s very interesting. It’s Aaron.”
“Well, you definitely can’t have Aaron,” Tamara said.
“Without a Makar, we have so many theories, but no way to test them. We know you can’t stay right now, Aaron, but make me a promise that you’ll come back, and leave that wolf as collateral. When you return, all we need is a few hours of your time. And maybe when you see what you could do — how helpful to the world you could be as something other than a defense against an enemy with whom we’re no longer at war — then maybe you’ll decide to join us.”
None of them spoke.