Free Frost Prisms (The Broken Prism Book 5) by V. St. Clair

his shock, Hayden did as he was told and settled into a seat beside Master Mandra, across from Asher. Both men greeted him pleasantly enough, though the latter looked tired and careworn. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a new look for Hayden’s mentor these days.
    “Frost,” Master Kiresa greeted him with a smirk. It was the derisive note in his voice that prompted Hayden to respond with, “What are you doing here?”
    “Normally, your unflattering disbelief would amuse me, but I’m far too tired for it right now,” the Prism Master answered flatly.
    “All of us want to stop Aleric before things get out of hand,” Master Willow explained patiently, shooting a brief glance at Kiresa to accent the point. “No one wants to repeat the ten years in which the Dark Prism ran around, unchecked, doing as he pleased with the world and everyone in it.”
    Remembering his last interaction with the Prism Master of Isenfall, Hayden wasn’t prepared to swear that was true, but knew better than to argue the point. If the Masters of Mizzenwald trusted him, that was good enough for him.
    Hayden almost jumped out of his seat when the last two people entered the room and shut the large doors behind them. Oliver Trout he halfway expected, this being his mother’s house and all, but the man beside him was another member of the Council of Mages. Hayden had mentally classified the entire Council as “the enemy” in his mind, with the exception of Magdalene, so seeing another member in their top secret meeting nearly made his heart leap out of his chest.
    “Calm down,” Oliver chided him, barely resisting the temptation to roll his eyes. “He’s on our side.”
    “For now,” Master Mandra muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Hayden to hear. Under the cover of everyone getting up to shake hands with the newcomers he added, “Laris wants Calahan’s job as much as Magdalene. They’ve both been gently feeding his fears and leading him to ruin in the hopes he will be deposed. When that happens, I expect Laris and Magdalene’s alliance to fall apart quite rapidly, as they battle over who will replace him.”
    Hayden raised his eyebrows to show he appreciated the whispered explanation, though he privately thought that anyone who put themselves against Magdalene Trout was a fool.
    “Let’s get started,” their host called everyone to attention, taking her seat at the head of the table. There must have been some planned order to this meeting that Hayden wasn’t aware of, because Master Willow immediately began.
    “Your colleagues are still tearing apart the school in search of Hayden, stone-by-stone,” he addressed Magdalene Trout. “We’re slowing them down as much as possible, but they’ll likely satisfy themselves that Hayden isn’t hiding there by tomorrow morning.”
    “Keep them looking as long as you can,” she answered with a curt nod. “Time is of the essence.”
    “Kirius can run them around in circles for a while longer,” Master Laurren opined gently, his purple-blue eyes and soft tone giving him an otherworldly aura. “It’s well-known that he dislikes Hayden, so he’s been casually fanning their suspicions that Hayden wouldn’t leave Mizzenwald without Tess and Zane at his side.”
    Magdalene opened her mouth to answer but Hayden managed to beat her to it by interjecting, “Why do we want those three Council members tearing apart Mizzenwald in search of me?”
    Laris, the Council member sitting beside Oliver, said, “The three people that Calahan sent after you were not chosen at random; they’re his greatest allies in the Council. The longer we can keep them from returning back to him, the better, especially as we have a meeting first thing in the morning, and it will be much easier to manipulate Calahan without his saner allies present.”
    For a moment Hayden almost felt sorry for the Chief Mage. True, he had never liked the man much, but even his closest circle of advisors were trying to