“How white of a lie are we talking?” Lanz adds.
“Eh,” Kai says, “as far as they know, Luther's still alive and nothing doing over here at Caliburn. Business as usual.” He shrugs. “Oh, and I told them we beat St. Ignaty’s in the tournament. That felt justified.”
Lanz blows out a long exhale. Callahan's eyes are wide behind his glasses.
“Why would you…” Lanz starts.
“Don't,” Kai puts up a hand. “I'm not relitigating this. I made the decision. It was the best course of action. Luther Pendragon was going to leave his entire robber baron fortune to them wrapped in a big red bow, and…” He swallows. “Wouldn't we all agree that's probably not what needs to happen right now?”
The room is silent.
“So, yeah,” Kai says. “I think we’re on our own to solve this one.”
I breathe in, breathe out, not realizing how shaky my hands are until I fold them in my lap.
“I just have to ask,” I say, before I lose my nerve. “We're not going to…you all won't…”
“No,” the four of them say it at once.
“Gwenna,” Kingston says.
“We'd never—” Lanz starts.
Callahan just shakes his head like he can't even consider it.
“Well, then…what?” I cry. “How are we supposed to fix this? We can't go to the Consistory. Emrys has nothing for us. And you're all too gentlemanly to murder me for my blood.” Cal winces, but Kai gives a faint smirk. “What else even is there? Who else do we go to for help?”
Something sparks in Kingston's eye. He looks up over all of our heads, above the table, to the stone wall where a sword is mounted. Not a fencing weapon, exactly—still long and thin, but with a broader handle. Too antique to be a piece of sporting equipment. But more than just decorative, too.
“I know,” Kingston murmurs.
I don’t know what he means. But Kai does.
“What?” Kai cries. “No. No.”
Kingston looks back down, resolute. “If anybody, anything, would know about any magic in this place, any curse, any cure?—”
Across the table, Lanz flinches. “Yeah, I don’t know,” he says. “I don't know if we should?—”
“Well, Idoknow,” Kai interrupts, “and weshouldn't. That's dangerous shit.”
Cal, too, looks a little pale.
“Whatis?” I interject.
“Magic,” Kingston and Kai say at the same time—and in very different tones of voice.
“Magic,” I repeat. “What’s wrong with magic?”
“Kai doesn’t believe in it,” Lanz says darkly.
“I dobelievein it,” Kai says. “I just don’t fucking trust it. And none of you should either.”
For some reason, that gets under my skin a bit—especially since, through context clues, I assume we’re talking about goingto Morgan for some kind of help. “Oh, really? You were just fine using that enchanted salt to detect poison at St. Ignaty’s,” I point out.And that salve on your back,I add silently.
“That’s different,” Kai mutters. “That’s fuckingdifferent,and all of you know it.”
He slams his hands on the table, gets to his feet, and storms out.
