The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black, Cassandra Clare Page B

to the Magisterium?” Call asked. “Maybe I could get a ride with one of them?”
    “A ride? To the Magisterium? But no one’s even there,” Aaron said.
    “Someone’s got to be there,” said Call. “And I’ve got to stay somewhere. I can’t go home.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Tamara said. “You can stay here until school starts. We can swim in the pool and practice magic. I already worked it out with my parents. We set up a spare room for you and everything.”
    Call reached over to pat Havoc’s head. The wolf didn’t open his eyes. “You don’t think your parents mind?”
    They’d all heard her parents talking about him, after all.
    Tamara shook her head. “They’re happy to have you,” she said in a voice that made it clear they welcomed Call for good reasons and less good reasons.
    But it was somewhere to stay. And they hadn’t said anything bad about him, not really. They’d said Master Rufus must have chosen him for a reason.
    “You could call Alastair,” Aaron said. “So he won’t worry. I mean, even if he doesn’t want you to go back to the Magisterium, he’s got to want to know you’re safe.”
    “Yeah,” Call said, thinking of his father slumped against the wall of the storage room, wondering how dedicated he was to chasing after Call and killing him. “Maybe tomorrow. After we find out more dirt on Jasper. And eat all the food at the buffet. And swim in the pool.”
    “And we can get some magic practice in,” said Aaron with a grin. “Master Rufus won’t know what hit him. We’ll be through the Second Gate before everyone else.”
    “As long as it’s before Jasper,” said Call. Tamara laughed.
    Havoc rolled onto his back, snoring gently.

S PENDING TIME AT the Gables gave Call a new appreciation for what it was like to be rich.
    A bell woke him in the morning for breakfast, which was eaten in a big sunny room overlooking the garden. Though Tamara’s parents ate simple breakfasts of bread and yogurt, that didn’t stop them from putting on an impressive spread for their guests. There was fresh-squeezed juice on the table and hot food like eggs and toast, instead of dry cereal and milk. There was butter in creamy little pats, instead of a crumb-encrusted brick that got brought out meal after meal. Havoc had his own bowls, with chopped meat in them, although he wasn’t allowed to sleep in the house. He slept in the stables, on fresh hay, and made the horses nervous.
    Call had a hard time believing he was staying at a place where there was a stable with horses out back.
    There were clothes, too — bought in Call’s size from a department store, and ironed before being hung in the wardrobe in Call’s room. White shirts. Jeans. Swim trunks.
    Tamara must have grown up like this. She talked to the butler and the housekeeper with an easy familiarity. She called for iced tea by the pool and dropped towels on the grass and left them, certain someone would come and pick them up.
    Tamara’s parents had even been willing to tell Alastair that Call was on a trip with them and they’d bring him directly to the Magisterium once they got back. Mrs. Rajavi reported that Alastair had sounded perfectly pleasant on the phone and wanted Call to have a good time. Call didn’t actually think that Alastair had been happy to get the call, but the Rajavis were powerful enough that he didn’t think Alastair would come after him so long as he was in their care. And once he was at the Magisterium, he’d definitely be safe.
    He wasn’t sure what he’d do at the end of the school year, but that was far enough in the future that he didn’t need to worry about it.
    Despite Call’s uneasiness about his father, he let the days slip by in long sunshine-filled hours of swimming and lying on the grass and eating ice cream. He’d been self-conscious the first time he’d come out to the seashell-shaped pool in his trunks, realizing Aaron and Tamara had never seen his bare legs before. His left was