by Kaylin Lee
Bri nodded without looking up from the paper.
“But this time, it’s a long story about aurae,” Ella continued. “Something about how some government healers in the River Quarter discovered that purifiers can remove the most addictive traces of aurae if they treat it like the plague. I’m not sure. I’m still reading it.”
“Skip ahead, El.” Alba tapped the end of the article. “She says there’s credible evidence that the Wolves in Draicia are the ones responsible for aurae.”
I choked on my coffee. “What?”
Ella grabbed the paper. “Convicted aurae dealer Hal Dukas was executed last week,” she read aloud, “but before his death, he told this newspaper that though he never discovered the exact source of his supply of aurae, in his earliest years of dealing, before the plague, he picked it up from a shop on Helix Street in the River Quarter. His supply would be hidden in crates of Badlander’s Pride, an old brand of Draician spirits once produced by the Wolf clan.’ Sounds like credible evidence to me,” Ella muttered.
She read on, “‘The shop itself is now vacant, with no record of past ownership. But that raises new questions. Who scrubbed the local records clean of the previous owner’s name? Who received these massive shipments of Draician spirits with aurae hidden in false bottoms and hollowed centers thirteen years ago? And why would any Asylian citizen betray our city so cruelly?’”
“Helix Street.” My whisper was hoarse, my mind locked on that little slip of paper from Ambrose, right before the suffio bomb exploded in our classroom. Three company names, and a single address. A vacant shop on Helix Street.
“Yes,” Ella said, still scouring the paper. “That’s what I said.”
I stood abruptly. My own father—
“Belle? Are you well?” Alba looked at me strangely, but I barely heard her.
Andres appeared in the door to the dining hall, his expression grim. “Come with me, my lady. We have to talk.”
~
The briefing was quick and to the point. Estevan was present, but he stayed silent and let Andres and Damon do the talking.
“We need at least two witnesses willing to testify or hard physical evidence that your father is smuggling aurae,” Andres said. “Preferably both.”
I listened numbly to Andres’ instructions, half terrified of returning to my father’s villa, half relieved that at least I wouldn’t have to face Estevan in the Sentinels’ offices anymore.
“You’ll need these,” Damon said, handing me a small, black canvas bag.
I peeked inside. A glittering, silver ring and a small, battered mirror sat loose in the shabby, unassuming bag. I drew out the ring and inspected it.
Damon leaned back slightly. “Careful with that. But you can go ahead and put it on now.”
I slid it onto my finger, and my hand began to tingle. “Why does it hurt?”
“It’s old magic,” Damon said. “Ancient Kireth. Powerful stuff. One twist of that ring, wherever you are, and you’ll be returned to this room before your next breath.” He gestured around Estevan’s office. “It’s been in the royal arsenal since the city was founded. There’s nothing else like it.”
I shivered. I was wearing an ancient magical ring capable of transporting me across the city? I flexed my hand. No wonder it made my skin itch.
“And the mirror?”
“Leave it in the bag at all times, until you are ready to use it. It’s for communication. Another artifact from the ancient Kireths.” He pointed to a small mirror on Estevan’s desk. “It links with that mirror. There’s no way to turn it on or off, so keep it hidden and muffled unless you need to communicate with someone back here. One of us will always have it.”
I exhaled and barely managed to restrain an audible groan. So, I wouldn’t be able to escape Estevan after all.
I ran a light finger across the ring on my finger. “It’s tight,” I said. “What if I can’t turn it when I need to?”
Damon shook his head. “It adjusts to the wearer’s finger so that it won’t slip off or turn accidentally. You’ll need to use your other hand to turn it and use some real pressure. It won’t feel great. But it will work.”
If even wearing the ring caused my finger to tingle painfully, I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to be transported into the palace by it. I nodded. “Fine. I’m ready, then.”
The room was silent. I felt Estevan watching me, but I kept my eyes lowered as I stuffed the bag with the mirror into my dress pocket.
I stepped toward the door, but then Damon put one hand on my arm. “Are you sure about this, my lady?”
No. Not at all. “Of course I’m sure.” I rolled my eyes to emphasize the foolishness of his question. “My father has almost certainly been facilitating the import of aurae into our city, and no one has better access to the bank’s records than me. Once I convince him I’m still loyal to the family, I can start looking back at the bank.” Why did it sound like I was trying to convince myself?
“Fine,” Damon said quietly. “If you’re sure. Remember to use the ring the moment you sense any hint that your father might be suspicious of you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “He’s always suspicious.”
“More suspicious, then,” Andres said, frowning. “As soon as you sense any change in his demeanor, use it.” He narrowed his eyes. “Do we have your word?”
I looked around the room. Andres and Damon watched me closely, while Estevan leaned back in his chair, his arms folded in stony silence as he had been the whole briefing.
“You have my word,” I said after a pause when I realized they were actually expecting me to promise. “I’ll use the ring if he seems more suspicious of me than usual.”
And I would—if I was still alive after I’d done whatever I could to bring him down first.
~
I bathed and washed my hair, then brushed it as it dried and twisted it into the smoothest, neatest bun I could manage. My father would see only weakness in my common garb, but there was nothing I could do about that now. I only hoped he would not think my acceptance of Estevan’s less magical way of life made me more loyal to the prince than to our family.
I put on one of the ugly, common brown dresses I’d been wearing for the past six weeks and smoothed the wrinkles with my fingers as I imagined greeting my father in my head. The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, I would say calmly, as though I’d forgotten his threat, as though my bones weren’t about to melt from the heat of my fear. The palace had no cause to detain me any—
Someone knocked on my door. “Belle? It’s me—Ella. And Weslan.”
I opened the door. “Hello.”
Ella looked ready to cry. “Belle, I—” She stopped and shook her head, and Weslan tucked her in against his side, then kissed the top of her head.
The affectionate gesture made my chest squeeze with unbearable tightness.
“We came to wish you luck,” Ella said finally, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Thank you.” I kept my eyes straight ahead, fixed on the wall behind her as I stepped through the doorway and shut the door behind me. “I’m just about to leave, so …”
“We also thought you might want this,” Weslan said.
I glanced at him. “Want what?”
He lifted one hand and waved it casually. Before I could blink, a cloud of warm, golden sparkles engulfed me, then disappeared. The brown dress had been transformed into a snugly-fitting, long-sleeved morning dress the color of a pink rosedrop, with an elegant, scooped neckline. Its hem hit fashionably at mid-calf. The worn, scuffed slippers I’d pulled on were now slim, black boots that lifted my feet with delicate heels.
“Your hair and face are done too,” Weslan said, his lips twisting in a rueful half-smile. “We thought you’d want to be fully prepared, whatever happens.”
An entire morning’s worth of appearance work done in the space of a breath? He was way too powerful to be an appearance mage. I opened my mouth to thank them, but the lu
mp in my throat kept me silent, so I forced a thin smile onto my shaking lips instead.
“This way, my lady,” Cole said from behind them. “The fomecoach is waiting.”
I lifted my chin and followed Cole past Ella and Weslan and down the hall, dimly aware that they followed behind me in uneasy silence.
We took an unfamiliar path through the labyrinth of dark passages beneath the palace, and then we came to a narrow set of stairs leading up to a closed door. Cole paused at the first step. “This is it,” he said.
“Lady Belle.” A woman’s voice spoke from behind me.
I turned around.
Raven approached our group, her face grave.
“Yes?”
She placed a hand on her heart. “You honor the Crown with your sacrifice, my lady,” she said.
“You honor the Crown,” Cole echoed, lifting his own hand in a similar gesture.
Ella’s gentle hand brushed my arm. “It’s what the Sentinels say before a mission.”
“And it’s true,” Raven said. “We have no physical evidence tying your father to the Wolves and to aurae. If you weren’t willing to do this, we’d never be able to stop him.”
I swallowed hard, then nodded. “Thank you.”
I started up the steps, my heels clacking on the hard, stone stairs.
If at some point I heard a man’s deep voice, too far away to hear distinctly, and felt a familiar, dark gaze burning into my back, what did it matter?
I only wanted one thing now—to stop my father’s tyranny, whatever the cost.
~
The early winter sky was so bright, it hurt my eyes. I leaned back in the royal fomecoach and squinted against the white sunshine filtering in through the windows. A dusting of sparkling snow coated the city, making it look deceptively clean, light, and organized, especially after the dim, cluttered chaos of the Sentinels’ offices.
The coach swung around one corner, then the next, and a moment later, the Argentarius family compound came into view. I held my breath as we drew closer to the snow-covered iron gate and the garden within, still blooming even in the snow, thanks to our family’s grower mages.
The enormous main villa rose from the center of the compound like a mountain peak, the tall windows glowing like a multitude of eyes peering out at the wintry landscape.
I rubbed the ring with one finger as the cold bench of the palace fomecoach sent a chill through my legs. It wasn’t too late. One turn, and I could be back to safety. I tapped the ring but didn’t turn it. Not yet. Not until I’d done all I could to stop Father.
My knees bumped against the side of the coach as it rolled over the footpath and through the open gates of the compound, past a squad of armed guards, and came to a stop beside the fountain in the courtyard in front of the main villa.
The driver got out and opened my door, his expression grim, his eyes wary—he watched the front door instead of me.
My father stepped out onto the front steps of the villa. “My firework,” he said softly, his expression neutral, his voice strangely loud over the hushed, snow-muted city. “Done causing trouble at the palace?”
“Hello, Father.” My breath puffed out a warm cloud in the freezing midday air. I clasped my shivering hands at my waist, one finger touching the ancient Kireth ring on my other hand. “The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence,” I said evenly. “They sent me home.”
“And your prince doesn’t want you anymore.” His voice was neutral, but his lip curled as he spoke.
“Not my prince,” I countered coldly, pressing so hard against the ring it would no doubt leave a mark. “There is nothing between us. Never will be.”
My father’s lips tilted into a bare, empty smile. “You’re a liar, Belle. I didn’t mind when you were a faithful liar. But now you’re a lying, disloyal daughter.”
He knew. The Wolves must have told him I’d been working with Estevan. Was it time to give up, so soon? The ring tingled on my finger as though it sensed I was about to use it. How much did he know I’d lied about? Was there still a chance I could talk my way out of this?
A guard appeared on one side of me, and my eldest brother Lucas on the other. They grabbed my upper arms tightly. “Ouch! Lucas? What are you doing? What’s going on?”
My brother only smiled and squeezed harder.
“Put her with the other girls, Lucas,” my father said.
The other girls? I started to twist the ring, but Lucas yanked my arm and I lost my grip on the ring. I fumbled to get my hands back together, but Lucas and the guard pulled them too far apart as the rushed me toward the villa. “Wait! What are you doing?”
My father watched me with hooded eyes as they hauled me past him through the villa entryway. “You’ll see soon enough, foolish girl. And you’ll wish you’d stayed with your prince after all.” Then he reached out and grabbed my upper arm with a bruising grip. “What’s that on your hand?”
I tried to hide my fingers, but Lucas wrenched my arm around to show my father the silver Kireth ring I’d tried to turn. “Here it is, Father.” Lucas’ eager voice made my skin crawl.
“A transporting ring? That’s ancient Kireth magic. Priceless. It seems you’re not just the new royal pet.” His eyes were hard. “That prince must really want you to survive.” He yanked it off my finger and shoved it into his pocket. “He’ll be quite disappointed.”
~
Kaia’s bedroom door was shut tight, and two armed guards stood in front of it. My stomach sank as Lucas propelled me down the hallway toward the door. He avoided my eyes as he bound my hands behind me, then unlocked her door and shoved me through.
I fell to my knees in Kaia’s sitting room. Someone was sobbing quietly. Why did the air feel so cold—so tense? “Kaia?”
Jade sat up from where she’d been lying on Kaia’s couch. “Belle?” Her eyes were puffy and streaked with tears, bare of her usual mage-craft makeup. “What are you doing back? I thought you were safe.”
I shook my head wordlessly. “Where’s Kaia?” I rasped.
Jade jerked her head toward Kaia’s bedroom. How had I missed the silver glow? The halo around Kaia’s body on her bed was as bright as the one that had surrounded the man in the throne room.
“She’s not going to make it,” Jade said woodenly. “He gave us a choice.” She held up a small crystal vial. “Finish this and go painlessly, or he’ll make sure we suffer right until the end.”
I lurched toward Jade, unsteady on the elegant high heels Weslan had created. “But why—”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Jade said as though I hadn’t spoken. She stared at the vial with a numb look on her face. “But Kaia decided right away. I think …” Her voice broke. “I think she decided long ago.”
Chapter 31
“Why?” I repeated, my voice rising. I managed to wobble over to the couch and collapsed on it beside Jade, who barely acknowledged my presence. “Why is he doing this?”
“Because we’re the only ones who know.”
“Know what, Jade?”
“The truth about who he is. What he’s done.”
“You mean … about aurae?”
My sister nodded. “He’s the one who brings it into Asylia. He has ever since the plague. That’s how he kept the bank afloat when the market crashed,” she said numbly, then scrubbed at the tears on her cheeks. “That’s where our money comes from, Belle.” The self-loathing on her face broke my heart all over again. “He buys it from the Wolf clan in Draicia, and he sells it through dealers in the River Quarter.”
“I know,” I said slowly. “I just figured it out this morning. That’s why I came home—to find hard evidence, so Prince Estevan could arrest him.”
Jade jerked her chin at my back, where my hands were still painfully bound. “Good luck with that,” she mumbled.
I frowned at her as I turned her words over in my mind. “But how did you and Kaia find out about it?”
“He told us.”
“What? Why wou
ld he do that?”
“He’s mad. Who can say why he does anything?” Jade rubbed her hands on her bloodshot eyes once again. “He caught us with it last week. I’d gotten some from a friend at Adrian’s, and I’d been sharing it with Kaia. One of the servants must have seen the halo, because Father came barging into my room, laughing his head off. He told us everything—that he’d introduced aurae to the city, that he was responsible for its spread. It’s like he was proud.”
She hunched her shoulders and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “I think he wanted to tell someone. He’d gotten away with it in secret for so long, maybe he wanted someone to know what he’d done. The next morning, there were guards outside my door. Kaia’s too. And I realized what it meant, that he’d told us. He’d never let us go free.”
They’d been trapped here for a week. And now he’d given them enough aurae to end their lives.
“Can you untie me?”
“I’ll try.”
After several awkward, painful attempts, she finally got my hands unbound. “I don’t know what good it will do us. We’re still stuck here.”
I ignored her and went to Kaia’s bed. She was laid out like a sleeping princess from a fairy tale, her dark hair spread out around her head in a soft, beautiful crown. The glow of aurae’s halo spread from her skin to several inches above her body, making the air around her tingle. I pushed through the painful tingles and ran one hand over her forehead. Her skin was cool, her beautiful face pallid and slack. “How much longer will she last?”
Jade appeared at my side, rubbing her nose with a handkerchief. “I don’t know. Not much longer, I think. The glow is brighter every time I come over here.” She shivered, then crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve never seen anyone use so much— I mean, I knew it was dangerous, but …”
She fell silent, and I managed to keep from saying what we were both thinking—that this was her fault. That if she’d never brought aurae home, our father would never have done this.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered hoarsely. “It’s too late now. But I am sorry.” She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, then returned her gaze to Kaia. “For everything.”