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"You're making a mistake," I hiss to myself as I drag Ryker Snow's unconscious body down the gilded hallways. And really, I was. 

They would not hesitate to kick me out after they caught wind of what I'd done. I'd have to hide my voice like the Batman or wear a hood for Ryker not to catch me. And even then, I'd have a feeling that he would know who I am. 

He's incredibly loud against the tile floors and I wince as I drag him into an abandoned classroom that reads 'Mythical Studies' on the front in a gilded script. As I drop him in a chair, he moans and begins to get up, but I push him back down. His mind defenses are weak so I reach out and tug, holding him in place. As long as his defenses are down, he will answer anything I want.

Knowing Ryker Snow, they'll be as solid as ever within ten minutes.

The classroom is small, so I take the chair across from him, crossing my legs at the ankles, and wait for him to wake up completely.

Five minutes pass. Then ten. Then forty-five and I resist the urge to try to summon those glowing balls of orange and fling them at his face. I have to take the test tomorrow, one of the few who are doing well enough to get mine moved up and wavered to a new day. I don't have time for this, but it's my fault, so I wait.

"Why am I not surprised?" Ryker's voice is quiet behind me, but firm and I start to sweat. "You abducted me. We haven't said more than three words to each other and you abducted me."

"Technically, it's not abducting if I haven't taken you out of the school," I say coolly, tying my hair into a low bun and crossing my hands behind my back.

He laughs, a sharp, jarring sound. "What is it that you want, selbazyan?" Hero scum. The dirtiest of words in the language of villains, a dialect as old as the world of villainy itself and rarely used since the abdication of Council Leader Eloise in 1985. I send a silent prayer of thanks to the Duke for that one.

"Es tazya les ansies, for zie ansies les mai ."  I do not seek answers, for answers seek me. A code-word in the Council of the Old Villain's, a council that no longer exists, thanks to the ever-growing greed of men. The Snow family is the one that now makes all the decisions, but Ryker, being the councilman that he is, will know that codeword. He has to.

"Cute," Ryker leans forward, and the purple bags framing his eyes are palpable, "A selbazyan learned to talk like a villain. What do you want from me?" He wastes no time with small talk, baring his teeth like an animal, trying to faze me.

It doesn't work.

"Answers."

"Don't they seek you?" He replies, voice a deep, soothing hum, more like snow falling than pure ice. "Rushing into unfamiliar waters will soon cause you to drown."

"Yeah, well, I don't have time to test the waters. I need your help and I preferably need it tonight. It's your choice though," I roll up my sleeve, grabbing Ryker's knife from my sweatshirt pocket, "I could also say that you attacked me."

Ryker's face shifts briefly, into something between smugness and shock, but soon shifts back into his cool composure. "And how would you make me do that?"

"Your mind shields are still down. I could make you take the knife right now and force you to stab me in the leg. Your prints would be all over me," I inch a little bit closer to him, trying to hide my shiver as I grab his cold muscle, "Even if you tried to protest, you wouldn't know what happened. You'd be expelled. The Snow family name would be ruined and I would go on in this school, a little selbazyan tearing your masters' greed apart, stone by gilded stone." I don't let him hear how surprised I am at myself. The old Nora wouldn't have hatched a plan like this. The old Nora didn't even know mind control, only paying attention when her Dad first announced that he was sending her to Aurelia's. 

The new Nora was suddenly... a badass. She abducted villain's in their sleep, went deep into the belly of the beast to find answers, got in knife fights, made new friends, and had a glow-up.

I find myself liking her.

"Fine," Ryker leans back, lowering his shoulders. I could tell how much this bothered him. He was letting his family down by not letting them down even more. This feeling was a popular one in the Abraham family and for a second I almost feel bad for him. Almost. "What do you want to know, selbazyan?"

"Everything." I hiss, leaning on my knees.

"And so it shall be." Ryker sighs, not meeting my eyes.

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"My family has been allied with the Aurelia Clan for years now, longer than I've been alive." Again, Ryker's voice lowers and he looks less like a killer and more like a boy, lost, with no direction in sight. "My father does everything for her, and she controls him, as well as my entire family. We're comfortable with her, and even though she's our puppet master, there's no way out for us. There never will be."

"So how does she control people?" I ignore his sob story. Sob stories either make me cry or make me roll my eyes, pissed at people who dwell more on their own troubles than anyone. I need to focus.

"She uses their fears against them," Ryker's pupils dilate and his voice lowers to a dark, deadly hiss, "Have you ever run into a bear, Nora? A bear that will stop at nothing to see you dead is more deadly than a bear who has already killed you. Bears will use your fear of dying against you, and they will toy with you like a cat on a mouse. They will make you think you're safe until they find you and gut you like a fish."

"What do bears have to do with Madame Aurelia?" 

"She toys with you. Mary in the library? She was more than happy to attack you, but when Madame Aurelia set her on her girlfriend, she was powerless to resist. If you don't do what I want, I'll kill your father." Ryker hisses this, and his eyes grow shadowed. "That's how she catches us under her spell, by threatening the ones we love."

"So how can I stop her?" I ask but Ryker laughs, a low, sharp, scratch.

"Stop her? You want to stop her? Nora, there is no stopping her. She's too powerful."

"There must be a way."

"Not unless you want her to kill your mom." 

I almost lose it at this. Almost. I'm a hairsbreadth away from holding Ryker's knife to his throat, but I don't. "What do you know about my mom? Is she alive?" I try not to sound too desperate, knowing that any sign of weakness will make or break... whatever this is.

"I know that they're keeping Andromeda Abraham in the labs. She's building something for Madame Aurelia, though I don't know what it is. Selbazyan, listen to me. Madame Aurelia is not a woman anymore. She's a consciousness. She lives on through the minds of people in this school and she knows everything that happens and will happen. To slip something under her would take a miracle alone. I wouldn't do it if I were you."

"If I knew better, I'd say you were warning me." 

"It's a good thing you don't know better," Ryker holds up his hands, "I'll help you. Untie me."

"Why?"

"Are you really asking me that?" Ryker says, as I slash through his bonds. "What's the plan?"

In response, I shove a thought through his mind, nervous. I've never transmitted thoughts before. I can read them, control them, move objects with them, but transmitting and forming the sacred bonds that the Abrahams call shretva. The bond of kinship. 

I don't trust Ryker. I could just tell him the plan but he has a point. Aurelia knows everything, but only an Abraham can see a shretva. It should fly past her undetected.

"That's a horrible plan." Ryker says out loud, but my only response is a pronounced eyeroll.

The grandfather clock in the hallway strikes six bells. Six AM. 

"They'll be coming for us soon,"  Ryker says, smirking at me, "We should go."

"Fine. Meet at the same spot tomorrow. And yes, I'm bringing Devon and Li-Yang."

"Fine." He turns to leave, but before he can, the door that I locked, bangs right open. Wind blows into the room, and Ryker and I have to drop to the ground and take hold of the carpets in order not to blow out the wide windows.

"First of all," Devon walks into the room, Li-Yang behind him, "What the fuck are you two doing?