It was as good a throw as I'd ever seen from her, but for the first time, the Bloodspear stopped in midair, hitting nothing and stopping. Then it fell to the ground and disappeared.

As it fell, though, magical symbols appeared in the air. I recognized a few. Everyone in Stapledon had had to take a survey course in magic and magical creatures. While I couldn't read many, I recognized the one for blood and felt a burst of energy.

That worried me. I couldn't feel magic. Anything I could feel had to be Artificer-related.

As Dr. Mind laughed, Amy said, "The spear's fine, but the wards built into the skull are amazing. They're also disturbing. You know how I accidentally worked in some 'essence of Artificer' into the Rocket's gem when we fought The Thing That Sucked? The past Bloodmaidens think there's some of it wrapped up in his wards. I think they're right."

"I'm sensing something too," I said and concentrated.

The moment I did, the room changed—not completely, but enough.

Everything else was still there: the rows of cubicles, people in ominous black uniforms firing from behind them, others held to the ground by gravity, our team taking down one group of guards after another even as more arrived, but the skull's glow covered the middle of the room.

There are no English words for the color, and probably no human words, but I saw it. It emanated from Dr. Mind's skull, and the magical symbols I'd seen when Amy's spear hit hung around him. Could he be using an Artificer-created device to power the magic?

It wasn't impossible. Lee had told me that the Destroy faction had seeded the multiverse with both magic and technology.

I noticed one more detail. A spot in the lower middle of the skull glowed white hot. Technically, it was probably room temperature. My heat sensors weren't detecting anything abnormal, but in terms of Artificer stuff, he had something.

Dr. Mind shouted, "Was that a blood magic user? I've read so much about blood magic, but only a few know it well, and they're vampires. We're not getting along with vampires these days. So, I couldn't find any major texts. What I did find makes me crave more. Bloodmaiden, if you call off this attack and take me as a student, you'll be rewarded."

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Over our implant channel, Rachel asked, "Do you see what I see?"

"The glowing thing?" I asked.

Over the implant channel, Amy said, "You can see that too?"

"No reply?" Dr. Mind asked, turning toward where the spear had come from. "A pity," he added.

Then his eyes and mouth burned with greenish-white energy, and a beam extended across the room, this time above the cubicles, but toward where Izzy and Jaclyn fought the people in powered armor.

It didn't hit either of them, but it was a near thing. Izzy had lifted from the ground because her opponents surged forward at the perfect moment—if they'd wanted to drive her into the beam.

Overflow from Daniel's panic made it through our connection as he told Izzy, "Left!" She listened without question, twisting to the left and avoiding Dr. Mind's attack.

"Bloodmaiden?" Haley asked.

"I'm okay. I already moved," Amy said.

"We need to end this," Haley said.

"Let's see if this works," Cassie said, firing her gun.

A brilliant white beam lanced toward Dr. Mind, glittering in the air. It didn't hit, though. A golden force shield appeared around him, sparking and wavering as Cassie's beam hit.

For a moment, I thought it might fall. It didn't, but only because the skull whipped around more quickly than I'd have thought and burned a path through the cubicles toward the row where Cassie stood.

She'd flipped her camouflage back on. She wasn't stupid. Given the strength of Dr. Mind's weaponry, her healing wouldn't be enough for a direct hit—assuming he could hit. In theory, even though we could see her outline in our HUDs, Dr. Mind couldn't. Mr. Sparkles' beam was a less-than-subtle hint at her location, and he shot straight at her.

Her vitals went crazy in my HUD, reminding me of what I'd seen when Travis died. Her vitals didn't end, though. They calmed down, but her heart continued beating as hard as it might if she were exercising.

At the same time, her armor had reported losing all systems starting from her left knee down. It also reported repairs in process.

Marcus spoke via his implant, "I pulled her sideways. She's out of danger for now. Well, until he decides to burn down this entire side of the room."

"Thanks," Cassie said. "Mind got half of my left leg. It's growing back, but we're going to have to do better than throwing ourselves at him. Any ideas?"

Dr. Mind didn't burn down that entire side of the room. Instead, he faced loosely in the direction of where Cassie had been. "Clone 1237! Welcome home, my dear. I'd expected you'd try to kill me someday, but it's been a long wait. I'm so happy to see that you've mastered using the Citizen's Mark. I'd rather you'd used it in our service, but it validates my approach. Unfortunately, I lost my notes when your original killed my original. I can't replicate them. Still, I don't need much of you to try again."

Using everyone's PAs, I said, "Who's Subject 2a? The one who donated Cap's second X chromosome?"

The skull whirled around to look where he'd last seen me.

"Rocket," he said. "You've been reading my notes."

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