by Mari Dietz
The chilly smile stilled on his face, and his teeth glinted in the light. “It’s hard to give up a family member to Haven.” His face twitched, and his old gaze stared into Vic. “Remember, my sister is there too. Do you think I’d let any harm come to her?” Sincerity dripped from his voice like acid. It crept under her skin.
Vic shifted so her blade remained between them. “Who are you?” The words had left her mouth before she could stop them.
Why did his gaze seem to see inside her? “You don’t know me very well, Glass heir.”
“I don’t think I want to.” She backed toward the entrance.
He watched her move away. Shadows flickered. “One question.”
“You didn’t answer it.” Her throat tightened. It felt like she was the one who needed help now.
Another slow blink. “That’s all you want to know? Are you sure?” As he spoke through his smile, it didn’t move.
Vic could ask him something that would help Verrin. She didn’t care. This city wasn’t her concern. “Is my sister alive?”
“I believe she is.”
Those words pierced her mind. Fear curled up inside her. “What? How can you not know?”
This man wanted her help? She lifted her relic and swung the blade toward his neck. She paused, resting it next to his neck but not touching it.
Tristan leaned his head back and pushed his neck to her blade. His eyes never left hers. Her relic pressed lightly against his skin. “If I’m not back tonight, she won’t be alive by morning.”
“You’re lying!” Vic’s arms tensed, and she pushed the blade forward. A thin line of blood ran down his neck. “Why is her life tied to yours? If I hadn’t found you here, she would have died anyway? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Kill me or leave me to die, it won’t change what I told you.” Tristan closed his eyes. His body relaxed. “You know more than you should. Information is dangerous to have in Verrin, Glass heir.”
“Didn’t you just dig your own grave? I help you tonight and you kill me tomorrow?” What could she even do with this information? Try to storm Haven tonight?
His lips parted, and he chuckled. “If I thought you had any power, Glass heir, you’d be dead already.”
A hollowness overcame Vic, and her arms dropped. Her senses floated around her. The expanse of the city entered her mind. She opened her mouth to rebuke him. Even if all the reapers believed her, why would they fight with her? Who did she have on her side? Kai? William? Bomrosy? Her father? She’d never made a list of allies, but now that their names had passed through her mind, the hopelessness of what they stood against filled her.
Tristan let out a bored sigh. His features shifted back to the familiar. Answer time was over. “What are you trying to do? Get your sister? She can’t leave the relic. If GicCorp is gone, what problem are you solving?” He laughed. “It’s kind of cute, really, the delusions you’re entertaining. The blight will still be there, even if you get rid of GicCorp. People will still need to be connected to the relic. So I’ll ask again, what are you trying to do? Isn’t it childish?”
Childish? Cute? She was running around with no guidance, and Tristan knew it. It had started out with her not wanting her sister to leave forever, but the longer she dug into Verrin, the stranger it seemed. Something was off. When she’d discovered that Xiona had been creating mogs, it had proved that something else was going on behind the walls. Find one bad apple and you’ll find an entire case rotted.
Vic tensed. “Go ahead and write me off.” Her eyes burned. “I don’t want you to see me as a threat.”
“I look forward to it. I answered your question. Will you guide me to the surface? I wouldn’t want to bleed out down here.”
“It would be tragic.” She folded her scythe, put it back in her harness, and leaned over to pull him up more roughly than necessary. All he did was chuckle.
Vic limped along with Tristan. Despite her effort not to have any more contact with him, his body leaned heavily against her. Her back hated the extra weight, and she shifted to relieve the pain. As they trekked back the way she’d come, she wanted to drop him and leave him to rot. He had answers. She doubted this version of Tristan would answer. What did that mean? She wished she could ask Em. Her sister often saw things others didn’t.
Through her eyepiece, she saw a red glow form under the water. “Ugh, not now.”
The black mass slunk out of the sewage and moaned low notes. This mog stood on multiple short legs, and its extensive body swiveled in an S pattern as it approached them.
Vic dropped Tristan and maybe even shoved him away hard. He fell with a pained grunt. She drew her scythe and flicked it open. The blade flashed, and her hands smeared muck on the smooth, warm handle.
“I’ll have to shower for a week after this,” Vic muttered.
The mog reared up and flailed its multiple legs at Vic, its movements not as smooth as those of other mogs. Vic found an opening, and her scythe heated as she hit its black flesh. It threw its weight against her blade, surprising her. Mogs usually avoided relics. Her blade cut into the mog, draining it, but one of its legs got closer and kicked her in the side of her face. She tried to go with the flow of its kick, but her scythe was lodged in the creature’s flesh, not letting her move away. Tears blurred her vision. She didn’t want to let go of her relic, but as more legs came to hit her in the head, she dropped to the ground. The mog moaned and plunged forward, its legs thrashing around her relic.
“Duck!” Tristan shouted from behind her.
Vic dove past the legs and hit the ground. An invisible force flowed above her, brushing her hair to the side. The blast knocked into the mog and flung it against the wall. It gargled and its legs flailed as it tried to right itself, mimicking a bug on its back. She grabbed her scythe’s handle and drained the mog until its misshapen bones clattered to the stone ground.
Her gicgauge was almost full from that one mog. She flicked her scythe closed and placed it back in her harness. She turned to Tristan, and he slumped to the side, his wand out.
“I think we need to go quickly,” he said, his voice weaker.
Vic heaved him back over her shoulder, and she tried to walk faster. It had been a while since she’d seen that kind of imb magic—the Nordic magic of pure force. There was nothing to imbue, so how could he move the mog? They reached the main sewage line, and her team was where she’d branched away.
“There you are!” Ivy ran forward and paused when she saw Tristan. “Who’s that?”
Freddie came forward and removed Tristan from her shoulders. She stretched out her back with a groan. “The GicCorp heir. I found him down a side path.”
Ivy’s brows shot up, and she took in Vic’s appearance. “Did you bathe in the wastewater?”
Vic glanced down at her clothes. Her entire bottom half was covered in the muck, and the stench made her want to gag. “There was also a strange person who attacked me.”
Freddie grunted and easily carried Tristan as they trotted toward the entrance.
“You had an eventful night, and we aren’t even into the first hour.” Ivy kept pace beside her and noticed how she tried not to limp.
“I have all the luck. I need to empty my gicgauge before I come back.”
Freddie frowned, and Ivy shook her head. “No, we’ll manage. Take care of him, and we’ll handle it.”
Vic’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry.”
She didn’t want to leave them, but she dreaded the thought of running the rest of the tunnels covered in sewage. Her back ached, and her face burned from the mog’s kick. She touched her cheeks, and they felt puffy.
Ivy held up her hand. “No need for that. You’d do the same for us.” She looked thoughtful. “Don’t let Landon see you come in early. I’d like to get out of sewer duty one day.”
“Tell me about it.” Guilt ate at her as her team helped her and Tristan. She always ended up needing so much help. When would she finally be the one to help them?
A healer greeted them at the door and rushed them inside. He cleared his throat at the smell of waste coming from them. Freddie left. Vic was now alone with Tristan.
He lay back on the wheeled gurney. “Thank you for your assistance.”
The urge to punch someone came back in full force. “I may regret this.”
He chuckled as the healers took him away. They glanced at her and stayed a good distance from her sewage-covered form. Without wasting another moment, Vic turned on her heel and walked out. Instead of going to the Order, she headed to her house. Her clothing clung to her, but she needed to talk to her father. With her sore body, she regretted not hiring a water taxi to her old home. Walking home in her condition was taking longer than normal. The streets were dark and strangely quiet, even though it was good that people weren’t out with the mogs. The canal babbled softly in the night, and Vic stayed close to the alleys to avoid other Nyx reapers. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, but Ivy was right. If Landon saw her leaving a shift early, he would make her life more miserable.
After almost an hour of walking, the Glass home stood silent and dark up ahead. She burst into her old home and tracked her mess through the clean halls, the clear glass walls muted in the night lighting. Light glowed in her father’s office through the glass doors. She slammed open the doors, and her father’s head shot up. He reached for his wand but stopped when he recognized her.
He strode to her. “What happened? Is everything okay?” He sniffed the air and coughed.
She paused at the concern in his voice. They’d never recovered their relationship, which had fractured in the last year, before Em had left. “I don’t know. I met Tristan in the sewers tonight. What’s going on? Do you know why he was down there? He said Emilia wouldn’t live if I didn’t get him back.” The questions poured out.
“He told you that? Do you think he was lying?” His hand gripped his left arm, and he swallowed.
“I don’t know.” Vic slumped. “I don’t know. I saved him.” She met her father’s eyes. “Did I make a mistake?” She didn’t know if she could kill a human. In the Dei battle, she’d come close to killing Xiona, but William had saved her from that decision.
He sighed. “I don’t know. He doesn’t think you’re a threat if he shared that much.” His red hair was ruffled like he’d passed his hand through it multiple times. Her father looked like he’d slept in his suit for a few nights, maybe in his office chair. It seemed like no one was getting enough sleep these days. Bags had formed under his green eyes, which mirrored her own.
“Yeah, he pretty much said that. What’s going on?”
He moved closer to Vic. “I wish I knew more. I’ve been researching the relic that the vitals connect to ever since Emilia was born. It has no history. I’ve failed her.”
The sudden honesty surprised Vic. “I thought you were all about duty?”
“I had to play this part for many years. Do you think I could make any difference if I lost my place as a founder?” The rich office seemed to mock him. “It didn’t matter. We might be too late.” He fell back into his chair behind his desk.
Vic wanted to sit down but remembered she was filthy. She leaned on the wall with her elbow that was cleanish. “What do you know?”
“Did you notice anything different tonight while patrolling the sewers?” He tapped his wand and formed little figurines of glass with the sand he kept on his desk. The glass rose and fell as they talked. He claimed it helped him think.
Vic thought about the stranger in the shadows and their fight. “Someone attacked me, but am I supposed to know why?”
Her father shook his head. “That isn’t good, but something else?”
She furrowed her brow. When she’d tried to track mogs tonight, there had been too many footprints in the muck to pick out a trail. “A lot of traffic. Too many people down in the sewers. How did you know?”
Her father laid his head back on his chair. “Before, they only took one or two. I’m not sure who they are. I think you’ll find many people missing from Nyx territory now.”
She pushed away from the wall. “How many?”
“I wish I knew. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Tell your commander to check the houses. The figures dressed in black seem to only be taking from you.”
She tapped her fist against the glass wall. “That way, if they get caught …”
“They’ll blame Nyx.”
GicCorp needed to be stopped, but they’d found themselves outplayed. “We need to get into GicCorp.”
“I’m looking in the sewers too. They’re the only thing in this city that hasn’t modernized. I’m trying to gain allies against GicCorp, but it’s more trouble than I thought.” He drew a figure in the sand with his fingers. “They seem happy with how things are and happy to believe the vitals are okay.” He went to his drink cart and poured them each a drink. He handed her a clear glass with amber liquid. “They care more about who will be in charge of the rebellion.”
Vic took the drink and swallowed it in one gulp, welcoming the burn. Of course the founders wanted power. They didn’t care about the city. “You think they have something down there?”
“Maybe.”
The masked figures could be protecting something. Why now? Her father reached, and she lifted her arm so he could take her hand. Vic studied his lined face. She’d never noticed him getting older, but he looked thinner.
She handed the glass back to him and gave him an encouraging pat. “He might think we aren’t a threat, but I want him afraid for once.”
A glimmer of fight flashed in her father’s eyes. “We can do that.”
3
Vic
Vic cleaned up before she ran back to the Order. In her bathroom at home, a spray bottle of sanitizer waited for her. Finally feeling clean, she went to talk to Kai. Outside his office door, she heard Landon inside.
“This is what they’re doing.” Something thudded in Kai’s office. “What are you going to do about it?”
“I’m talking to Tristan today.” Kai sounded tired.
“As your second in command, I should go with you. Something happened, and if we’re being punished for Xiona’s mistakes, we need to explain what happened.” Landon’s voice reached a new pitch unknown to the human world.
“I said I would take care of it today.” A mean edge came from Kai, one Vic had never heard before. His temper got shorter by the day. With the amount of pressure he faced, she could understand why. Having Landon as a second must not make it easier.
Vic heard a shuffle. “Let me guess, you’re taking your precious founder with you to the meeting.”
“That isn’t your concern.”
“But it is!” Another thud sounded in the room, and Vic’s hand hovered over the doorknob. “I’m your second in command, and you’re keeping things from me.”
“Then tell me what I’m keeping from you so I can get it over with!” A chair skidded across the floor. “If you spent less time torturing others, maybe I’d see you as someone I could rely on!”
“Fine, why don’t you make the founder bitch your second?” Vic jumped back as the door flew open. Landon sneered at Vic. “Just in time.”
Vic tried to move out of the way to avoid more damage, but he plowed into her and stalked away. Her back twinged painfully.
She peeked into Kai’s office. Not much had changed since Xiona had left it. Kai tended to be more on the orderly side, but papers were strewn over his desk and dust motes floated in the air. He sat at his desk, his back outlined by the windows, his face resting in his palms. She went to stand behind him and lightly rubbed his shoulders. He di
dn’t move to look at her.
“I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry for?” Tiredness laced his voice.
Vic shrugged. “Nothing, but I suck at comforting people.”
Kai raised his head and shook it. “I suppose you heard that?”
“Another Landon hissy fit? Yeah, I think the entire hall heard it.” Did her relationship with Kai have that much of a negative effect? She barely saw him anymore. How could others believe he favored her when she went into the sewers every night without his intervention? Landon worked on a list of assumptions. She saw a large bone leaning on a chair. “What’s that about?”
Kai followed her gaze. “According to Landon, Boreus is putting out meat scraps to attract mogs. He found these on the edge of Nyx territory. We can only assume they’re baiting mogs to come into their lands from ours. That might be why our mog count is down.”
“Meat? How can they afford it?” She rarely ate anything but fish, even as a founder. Her mind went back to her makeshift weapon in the sewers.” I did find a bone tonight in the sewers.”
“I’m guessing GicCorp supplied the bones for them. We can assume the theory about a mog’s sense of smell is accurate.” Kai leaned into her hands.
She felt a dozen knots in his neck.
“Are you really going to see Tristan today?” Vic wanted to go along. Her sister wouldn’t be near Tristan, but she couldn’t help it.
Kai half-heartedly picked up a yellow paper on his desk before setting it down again. “I have to go. Nothing will be done, but the reapers need to see me take action.” He faced Vic. “Should I tell them we’re suffering because GicCorp wants us to turn humans by force?”
“What are you afraid of?”
“They might be upset that I didn’t tell them sooner, but I’m more afraid that they’ll want to take part in GicCorp’s plan.” He pushed all the papers together on his desk and plopped them aside.