141

141
Malachi's POV

The cell was tiny, dark and cold. Magic walls that were enchanted so no magic could go through. Guards waited outside, switching out every two hours, and campus security showed up too — different faces each time.

I laid curled up in a ball, knees huddled to my chest, and stared into the void where & when my magic used to gather… It felt like missing a limb. Worse than missing a limb. Magic had been an enormous part of my life for so long that without it, I wasn’t even sure who I was anymore.
Just Malachi. An old man who had made bad choices.

My empty spot throbbed with pain as I strained to sense my power, the emptiness where it had been. A phantom pain that I could do nothing to assuage, nothing to disperse. Each breath served as a stark reminder of what I had lost.

Footsteps approached outside my cell. I did not look up. I had learned fast that most visitors were not worth the attention.

"Malachi," a cold voice said. I recognized it. Alpha Thomas, from the Northern Pack. One of Diana's allies.

"Come to gloat?" I inquired, without turning to look at him.

"Come to question you. We found your journal. The one with your spies and collaborators.”

That made me look up. I'd been diligent about concealing that journal, encrypting it. They would have to, because if they did find it that meant they were looking more.

"I have no answer to you," I said.

"You will talk eventually. Everyone does."

"Will I? What will you do, torture me? That is beneath the honourable union of Diana the Pure.”

Alpha Thomas smiled coldly. We do not need to torture you. We just need to wait. You are insane already, Malachi. I can see it in your eyes. While I adore Giselle’s awakening from magic-assisted sleep, the cost of your gaze is your sanity.

He was correct, but I didn’t want to believe that. For years I had dedicated myself to dark magic and I put so much of my life into it that it became a part of who I was, literally. Without it, I felt incomplete. Wrong.

I’d even hear voices that weren’t there at all. Saw shadows in Ä®️ corners nowhere. Felt Seraphina's hand on my shoulder, and turned, to see that I was alone.
"Explain to me about the spy ring," Alpha Thomas added. "How many agents do you have? What details have they told you?"

I laughed. "Why the hell should I tell you? There's nothing more of value to me other than knowledge. I am not going to waste my time”

"And what do you want in return?"

"Freedom. A decent prison instead of this hole. Books and writing access. Better food." I paused. “And news from the outside. I at least know what's going on outside this place."

Alpha Thomas considered this. “I'll talk to Luna Diana about it. But I make no promises."

“Then I promise nothing, either.

He departed and I was alone once more with my shattered musings.

Time had a queer way in the cell. No windows, nothing to keep track of the sun and no idea what time it was — day or night. Guards came and went. Meals appeared at irregular intervals. I fell asleep here and there, not sleeping., yet.

Then more people started to come over the following days. Elder Miriam of the witch council. Commander Vale of the vampires. Dante himself had even made an appearance once and stared cold green eyes directly at me.

The questions that all of them asked were the same. How many spies? What were their missions? What else did I have planned in the works?

I told them nothing. Let them wonder. Let them worry. It was the only power I had remaining.

But in the darkness, alone, my mind kept pulling apart. I talked to people who were not there. Argued with the ghost of Seraphina about my decisions. Relived battles from decades ago.
I was slipping off from reality itself without magic to ground me.

Some time, I don't know whether it was night or not, I woke up and saw someone standing at the bars of my cell. Not a guard. Someone else. Someone familiar.

I blinked, trying to focus. The shape came up to the bars, and a torchlight shone on his face.

I recognized him. One of my spies, Kellan, who had worked his way into the Eastern Guard years ago. He was supposed to be undercover in Diana’s alliance.

"Kellan," I whispered. "What are you doing here?"

He looked anxiously about, but there was no one to see him. “I have come to bring a message, m'lord. And to receive instructions."

For the first time since my capture, hope flickered in my chest. "They did not catch you?"

"No, my lord. I wasn't in the journal that you wrote. haven't I been running on my own for years, as you told me to do.”

Smart. I had never put my best agents in written records — I trusted the cross references and coded verbal messages would suffice. Prevention, it seemed, had paid off.

"What message?" I asked.

“The fallback you instituted 5 years back. The one where they get the artifacts hidden in the old kingdom. It has been activated."

I sat up straighter. The contingency plan. I'd nearly forgotten about it, buried under all the other plans and schemes that had since piled up.

Five years before I had buried three ancient artifacts in the ruins of a fallen kingdom that sank centuries ago. And with them, I'd left explicit instructions and a spell that would trigger in case I was ever caught or killed.

The spell would call forth my followers, entrusted them with the artifacts and charge of freeing me, if possible or to carry on my work if it was not.

"Who activated it?" I asked.

"A woman named Cassandra. She worked for you twenty years ago, then went into hiding. The charm found her and she's collected others enamored by your cause.”

"How many?"

"At least fifty confirmed. Possibly more. She is also playing her cards very close to the chest regarding the complete scope of that network.”

Fifty was no army, but it was something. Better than I expected, actually. And as long as it was Cassandra leading them, they might have a chance. She was cunning and patient and barbaric.

"What are they planning?" I asked.

"That is why I am here. Cassandra told me to come and ask you what you want them to do. Should they attempt a rescue? Assassination of the top men in Diana’s alliance? Something else?"

I thought carefully. A straightforward rescue would probably be unsuccessful. Diana was too strong and too awake. Assassinations could be effective, but they would also trigger a huge crackdown that might reveal the whole network.

No, I had to be strategic. What would hurt Diana most? What would break her alliance and put openings in play?

Then it came to me.

“Have Cassandra double down on the spy network,” I murmured. "The one Diana discovered. Have our people start some rumours that everyone is a suspect. Make them paranoid. Turn them against each other.”

“Foment discord and distrust,” Kellan replied with a nod. “It will eat at them from inside.

"Exactly. And tell her to be patient. Do not rush. Let the poison work slowly. Diana's allegiance will fall apart of its own accord in due course, and then we can take our action."

"Yes, my lord. Is there anything else?"

"Yes. Learn all you can about Diana’s children. Where they are held, who watches over them, what their days consist of. But don’t act on that information, for now. Just control it and take care of the ball.”

Kellan's eyes widened slightly. “And you’ll be taking them?”

"Not take. Threaten. If I can shake Diana and make her feel like those kids are in danger, she's going to screw up. And mistakes is what I want right now.”

"I understand. i This i will i communicate to Cassandra.”

"One more thing. Account to her of Diana's binding spell on me. The one that had ripped me away from magical connection. It’s her job to figure out a way around it. There has to be something in the old texts, some way of breaking the spell or..."

"I'll have our academics check that."

"Good. Now off with you before the guards catch you loitering.

Kellan nodded and vanished into the dark. I listened to his foot steps traveling away, and for the millionth time that night, I was alone.

But I was no longer truly alone. I had allies on the outside. Plans in motion. Hope, however faint.

Diana was convinced she had bested me. I thought binding my magic and sealing me off would put an end to you. But she had held, however precariously, only one piece in a much larger game.

“I have been preparing this for decades.” Establishing networks, camouflaging resources, generating reserves. A setback, even one as crushing as this, could not derail everything I’d set into action.

I dropped back down onto the cold, stone floor, a smile growing across my face. My mind was shattered, was still slipping toward lunacy, but the sense of purpose made something solid for me to grasp.

This was not over. Not by a long shot.

Diana had won the battle. But the war? The war was far from over.
And I had only just played my next move.