“Liv?”
I stopped walking. Oh, crap. “Hey, Mum.”
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m just on my way to work.” Wearing armour. Maybe I should have told her I’d got a new job at a Renaissance Faire. It had always been easier to pretend, ever since the Order had shoved its way into my life, leaving her daughter on one side and a stranger in her place. She knew I’d changed, but not how I’d got there.
“Is it busy?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve taken on an extra job this week. It’s pretty much all-go, twelve-hour shifts until Friday.”
“Was that the job you were asking me about?” She tilted her head. “It’s with that young man who came to my house, isn’t it? He mentioned wanting to hire you then.”
“He did what?” The Death King and I had still been enemies at the time. Or so I’d thought. Had he seriously informed my mother that he’d wanted to hire me? “Wait, what else did he say to you?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Why, what’s wrong? You took the job, right?”
“Yes.” How could I even begin to explain my weird relationship with the King of the Dead? “I mean, I’m surprised because I wasn’t thinking of him as a potential employer at the time.”
“Well, things can change quickly.” She took a step closer to me. “Sweetheart, you might have gathered when we spoke on the phone that we’re going through some big decisions lately. Elise and I.”
“Oh?” I did my best to drag my thoughts away from the Death King’s absurd fixation on employing me, which had apparently begun five seconds after he’d realised I hadn’t stolen his soul on purpose. “Like what?”
“Children,” she said. “I know we have you, and you’re wonderful, sweetheart, but Elise always wanted to be a mother, and we’ve been looking into our options. When I was married to your father, I wasn’t exactly at a happy place in my life. If I had been, I might have considered having another child after you, but you know, life doesn’t always go the way you plan.”
“That’s—great.” I tried to inject some enthusiasm into my voice. “I know I wasn’t around a lot when I was a kid. After I went away to the academy, I mean. And you and Dad had split up, and…”
“And dating wasn’t going well,” she added. “Until I met Elise. I admit we put the decision off, considering… everything.”
Meaning: my dodgy memory and my fractious history with the Order. “Don’t worry about me, Mum. Do it for you. If it makes you happy.”
Elements knew one of us deserved some happiness in their life.
As for me, I had yet another reason to have stern words with the Death King. He’d better stay out of my life after Mum and Elise had their baby, or else he’d be down one spirit mage.
Mum and I parted ways, and I headed to the node, trying to get my thoughts back to the contest. Then I stepped through the node and landed outside the castle.
“What’s going on?” asked Dex. “I tried to get into your house and hit a dead end.”
“Devon and I accidentally turned off the node with a new mystery cantrip I got my hands on,” I said. “Turns out that’s what Cobb was stealing from the Order.”
He snorted. “What did the nodes ever do to offend him?”
“I don’t know, but if he broke into the Order to steal them after tricking them into setting him free, he did it for a reason.”
I walked to the castle with the strong feeling that I should have just waited for Sledge to wake up rather than trespassing in the Order’s prison while Cobb was on the loose. But if I hadn’t been there, I’d never have known Cobb walked free at all.
I entered the break room to find it empty aside from Ryan, who sat on the sofa, polishing their sword.
“Has my master visited you?” they asked.
“No, why?” I said. “Did you tell him about yesterday?”
“He’s furious about Cobb’s escape,” they said. “I told him that Cobb claimed the Order pardoned him. I think he’s going to see what they have to say to that.”
“Is he at the Order’s place?” I said. “I thought the contest was still on.”
“There’s only one round left, and then he can kick all the interlopers out of his castle,” Ryan said.
“Except the person who wins,” I added. “I need to talk to him, too. You know that cantrip I found Cobb stealing from the Order?”
“The one Devon turned on without knowing what it did?”
“That’s the one,” I said. “It turned a node off, Ryan.”
Their eyes widened. “Why would Cobb want to do that?”
“I have no idea.”
“Ryan,” said Felicity. “Liv. We’re needed outside.”
Okay. Contest first. Deal with the rest later.
I walked alongside Ryan. “Have you spoken to Sledge?”
“He’s completely insensible,” said Ryan. “Barely awake, and too addled for an interrogation. I think that cantrip of his messed him up.”
“Damn.” Reading between the lines, His Deathly Highness hadn’t been around for long enough to conduct an interrogation of his own. Not that Sledge was the highest priority, considering.
We went to join the other Elemental Soldiers in front of the arena, where the remaining contenders assembled.
“Today is all about teamwork,” Ryan told me. “It’s also the last round, so be prepared for the losers to kick up a fuss.”
“Believe me, that’s the least of what I expect to go wrong,” I said. “So—teamwork. They have to work together to solve problems.”
“Pretty much,” said Ryan. “Glad Sledge is already out, or else he’d have caused no end of trouble.”
“Don’t speak too soon.” He might be in jail, but he’d already tried to give us the slip more than once.
I moved closer to the arena, seeing the ground was covered with stone pieces of various colours and sizes. The goal, according to Cal, was for each group to assemble the stones into the right order like a jigsaw puzzle by using their magic to illuminate the patterns on the stones. Seemed straightforward enough, but I didn’t put it past them to make trouble anyway.
I positioned myself next to the node to watch the contenders. As it became apparent, half of them still didn’t have functioning magic. Lights flared up and went out, and dying flames flickered across the arena.
“Don’t worry about your magic,” Felicity called to them. “You have to solve the puzzles as a team.”
As long as one person’s magic was functioning enough for them to light up the puzzle, they would win. But why would someone still be intentionally sabotaging their rivals’ magic at this stage?
Whatever the reason, the number of contestants had been cut down enough that I figured I’d try the process of elimination and see who among the remaining contenders wasn’t losing their magic.
Pacing around the arena’s edge, I zeroed in on Harper’s group. Is her brother hiding in here somewhere? I’d failed to find him yesterday, but she barely seemed to be focusing on the puzzle. She kept fiddling with her hair and touching the scars on her face.
A bellow came from the jail. Ah. It sounds like our prisoner is awake.
I headed that way and halted in front of the liches guarding the entrance. Or I would have done, if the liches hadn’t been nothing more than piles of smoky shadows.
Someone had turned the guards to ashes. Someone… like a deranged fire mage hell-bent on escape.
A glow snagged my gaze, and I halted in front of the node. Within its streaming current, another light shone from a human-shaped figure. A sprite. Dex?
No, not Dex. It was a water sprite, judging by the bluish-white colour, with long curly hair and wide blue eyes.
I reached into the node and grabbed the sprite by the scruff of its neck. “Who are you?”
“Help!” the sprite said, in a high feminine voice. “Help me!”
“You’re coming with me.”
I dragged the sprite along
with me to the arena. Several contenders jumped to their feet, including Harper, who flinched at the sight of me with the sprite caught in my hand. “Mav! Don’t hurt her.”
“Come with me and I won’t,” I said.
She trailed after me, her head hanging low, while the others watched. Bria’s eyes narrowed, and that gesture alone told me she was in on this, too… whatever it was.
I led the way into the main hall of the castle and through into the side room where I’d conducted the last questioning. The sprite didn’t fight my grip, and she sank limply to the floor when I released her. “Care to explain?”
“I just wanted to win,” Harper whispered. “We need the money.”
“By suppressing your opponents’ magic?” I said. “Did you flood the castle, too? Because you nearly got people killed.”
“It was an accident,” she said. “The water levels weren’t supposed to get that high. I didn’t know…”
“Didn’t know what?”
Her eyes squeezed shut. “My brother gave me a cantrip to make my own magic stronger. I didn’t know it’d affect her, too.”
Before I could conjure up another question, the Death King himself strode through the closed door, his cloak swirling behind him. At least he’s actually here this time. Harper’s mouth fell open, her gaze darting from him to the door as though puzzling out how he’d walked through a solid surface.
“Come with me,” he said. “Both of you.”
The urge to tell him about Cobb hit me, but that would have to wait. Harper got to her feet, her entire body trembling.
“Please don’t let him lock me up!” she whispered to me.
“Pretty sure I have no control over that,” I muttered back. “You’d better hope this was your only crime, for your own sake.”
I kept one eye on Harper to make sure she didn’t run off, as we followed the King of the Dead into the empty hall.
With no apparent care for his effect on her, he turned to me. “Care to tell me what’s going on here?”
“Harper is the one who caused the flood,” I said. “She also had her sprite companion dampen the magic of the other contenders in order to win.”
“I see,” he said. “Did she give her reasons?”
“Except for her desire to win the contest? No.” I turned to her. “Well?”
“I—” she broke off. “I needed the job for security. My brother and I are being hunted by a group of mages who used to belong to the House of Fire. If they catch us, we’re dead. You don’t know—”
“Olivia, escort her to the exit,” he said, still without meeting my eyes. “I can trust you to expel the other traitors, can I not?”
“Yes, but—”
He turned and walked away, while Harper let out a soft gasp, swaying on the spot. Her sprite settled on her shoulder, making soothing noises.
“Come on.” I beckoned to her. “The sprite, too. Be thankful he didn’t order me to lock you up.”
Sure would help if he’d stuck around long enough for me to warn him that Harper wasn’t the only traitor. Someone had turned the liches to ashes, Sledge was throwing a tantrum in jail, and I doubted she was the only person in here with links to these mages connected to the House of Fire.
We walked out of the castle and descended the stone staircase into the grounds. Behind the arena walls, the other candidates cowered behind one another or stared in awe at the castle, no doubt because of their brief glimpse of the Death King. Most of them wouldn’t have laid eyes on him before, considering he’d been absent for most of the trials. Hell of a way to meet the new boss. I wouldn’t blame some of them for having second thoughts about this whole venture.
I snagged Ryan’s arm on the way past the arena. “Take those two outside. There’s still a traitor among the contenders.”
Then I made for the node, treading carefully, one hand on my cantrip pouch. The light brightened… and I spotted someone lurking nearby. Bria.
I threw the cantrip at the node, flicking the switch as I did so. The current of energy vanished from sight. Bria spun around with a curse, a cantrip in her hand. Spirit magic blasted from my palms, causing her to drop her weapon, but she kept her balance with startling grace. I grabbed the cantrip where she’d dropped it. A paralysis cantrip, or something similar.
“Where’d you get that?”
She lifted her chin in defiance. “The Death King’s storeroom.”
Well, hell. “You and Harper were in on the same plan. Care to tell me who else was involved?”
Around us, countless liches filled the grounds, dark shadows cloaking them, surrounding the castle to protect their master. Bria’s gaze flicked to the spot where the node’s light had gone out. “What did you do? How’d you turn it off?”
“You aren’t getting away that easily,” I told her.
Light flared outside the gate, and Bria bounded to her feet. “Sorry, Liv, but I have backup.”
She hurled a cantrip at my feet, then ran. I shook off the paralysis with a curse and ran behind her towards the gates, where the node outside had ignited. Figures filled the swamp outside—human figures, outlined in light. I skidded to a halt at the foot of the steps leading to the castle.
“Death King!” I shouted. “Greyson!”
He appeared, gliding down the steps, as one individual pushed through the crowd at the gate.
“Lord Blackbourne,” said the Death King. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
My heart gave a jolt. Vampire. I’d expected Bria’s allies, whoever they were, but not them. They weren’t working with the rogues from the House of Fire, were they?
“I wish to speak with you,” the vampire lord said. “If you deny me, my associates will deny you the new Fire Element you desperately crave.”
“Fine,” the Death King said, a touch of impatience in his voice. “If you insist.”
What the hell? Lord Blackbourne couldn’t have betrayed us, too, could he? It made no sense.
“We have come here for justice,” said Lord Blackbourne. “Hand over Olivia Cartwright and Brant Edwards, and we will gladly leave you to your games.”
17
Nobody moved. The contestants remained in the arena, and I knew there was no point in hiding. The vampires had already seen me.
Of all the rotten timing. I should have guessed they wouldn’t let the deaths of their emissaries go unpunished, but they must know I’d have nothing to gain from getting on Lord Blackbourne’s bad side. Brant, though? He wasn’t even here.
The Death King strode forward to position himself between the liches and the new arrivals. “Call off your cavalry, Lord Blackbourne. This posturing isn’t necessary.”
“Posturing?” he said. “Two of my ambassadors were killed while she was with them. And her fire mage boyfriend.”
“He’s not—” I cut off the automatic response. “He’s with the Order. They recaptured him. Which you’d know if you’d asked them about why they let Brant out of their sight. They were trying to set me up.”
“That’s not what I heard,” said Lord Blackbourne. “I was told you were looking to plead on the fire mage’s behalf. Yet when I offered you the opportunity to bring him here, you killed two of my people and let him walk free.”
“I didn’t kill them,” I said. “Assassins did. If they hadn’t, I’d have come to talk to you right away.”
“She speaks the truth,” said the Death King. “As I told you, I arrived myself shortly after the fire mage fled and saw the assassins leaving the scene.”
“The last I heard, they perished in your jail, which you neglected to mention to me.”
Oh, hell. “They committed suicide rather than admit who sent them.” Dammit, I did not have time for this crap. “Might have escaped your attention, but we’re in the middle of kicking out interlopers who’ve decided to use the Death King’s trials for their own ends. If you wanted to see me, you could have just sent an invitation.”
The vampire bristled, but the Death King spoke up b
efore he could eviscerate me for my rudeness. “She speaks the truth. I decided our safety was pertinent when I took the two assassins to my own jail. And if you don’t mind, I have some traitors to expel.”
I managed to refrain from gaping at him for his outright lie. Why was he covering for Ryan and me? He must really be confident in his ability to fend off half a vampire army. That, or he didn’t think the vampires would turn on him.
“So I see,” said Lord Blackbourne. “Is that more important than the well-being of your Court?”
The liches moved forward, as did their master. “I wouldn’t threaten me, Lord Blackbourne.”
Crap. They weren’t seriously going to break out into a fight, were they? Did that mean the vamps had been against the Death King from the start? It made no sense for them to be, given that we’d helped them against the Crow, but it couldn’t be more obvious most people were out for themselves alone. And they thought Brant and I had betrayed them.
Admittedly, I’d let the guy walk away free to save my own skin, only for him to sacrifice himself on my behalf again, but in the end, it had all been for nothing.
The vampires closed in, but the liches met them more or less equally. There were as many of us as there were of them, which left us at a stalemate. The liches couldn’t die. The vamps were technically more vulnerable… but the calculating expression on Lord Blackbourne’s face was not a pleasant one.
“Not a threat, Death King,” Lord Blackbourne went on. “A reassurance. It seems many think you have lost your touch, so I wanted to let everyone know that I maintain control over the city of Arcadia. You, however, seem to be having trouble clinging onto this stretch of wasteland.”
“You are misinformed.” The two now stood almost face to face. “As you can plainly see, I control a substantial army, and I have no intention of letting your people overrun my castle. If need be, I will take you down by any means necessary.”
I glanced behind me and to see most of the contenders were fleeing the arena through the back exit. I didn’t blame them in the slightest. Except Bria had disappeared, too. Dammit.
Trial of Shadows (Order of the Elements Book 3) Page 17