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What doesit matter if Lumi and Dimitri make this battle their own? But Tal was mine as well. It belonged to the average people only wanting to make ends meet more than the heroes and rebels. It belonged to those who danced and laughed, not only those who sought to right old wrongs through blood.
No.
I could no more walk away now than when I learned Dimitri lay injured in Lowtown. People were still dying, and more would follow if I understood von Lemerch’s words—she wanted the streets flooded with the recently dead. Morovara had confirmed Spirits could be controlled—but what could I do?
I gathered the pieces of myself while watching the ginger cat play with a dust mote, unable to catch it but distracted from the food on the table. I was no more than a speck flying in the wind but perhaps that could pull an undead ruler from her plans. Distract her until others could figure out a way to stop her.
Hope never left me alone. It beat through my blood and warmed my extremities. It gave me a direction.
I met Morovara’s shrewd eyes. My magic could not read her. Still, I chose to trust my great-grandmother. It might make me a fool, but I was done acting alone.
I squeezed her fragile hand again, finally sensing the deep calm underneath. Morovara knew her place in the world, had never questioned it. While the things she told me shook me, she’d lived with them for decades.
“If I found a way, would you help me stop it?”
“The cult of Ealhswip?”
“The dead. The priestesses. All of it. If I found the answers, would you help?”
She placed her other hand over mine. “However I can.”
I nodded and knew seeking Morovara had been only the first step. Before I met the prince tonight, I needed to take another. My position was not one of strength, I was the one in between the royals and the rebels, Temple and von Lemerch. No one else connected them all—perhaps that could be my path. A bridge for others. The magic hummed in approval. I was not turning hearts but connecting them, and it would require both kindness and leaps of faith.
My eyes locked on the cat chasing the dust in the air. It leaped onto the ledge, balancing above the drop. As I well knew, one shove, and anyone could fall. To pull someone off their path, you needed to understand what they wanted. And, like a proper thief, take it from them.
A smile spread across my lips. “Where does Councilwoman von Lemerch live?”
* * *
Three bells later, back cramped and mouth parched from lying unmoving on a tree branch while spying on von Lemerch manor on 9thStreet in North’s Place through the foliage, little of my previous enthusiasm remained.
I’d thought if I identified and followed her associates, I would find the thread that unwound this whole web. There must be documents, evidence, or at least clues I could bring Dimitri. Something that would lead him to send the Guard here without the curse silencing me.
But there had been no guests. The drawn curtains had not moved. And von Lemerch’s coach, the black one which had delivered Lana and me to the palace a month ago, stood clearly visible before the stable. Had it been absent, perhaps desperation and boredom wouldhave made me brave enough to break inside. With her home, even I would not take the risk.
When the sun sunk, I knew I could delay no longer. Dimitri was expecting me. If I did not show, he would think I ran away after all.
As I climbed down, the manor door swung open and a figure I remembered too well despite only meeting her twice appeared.
Chapter five
Dimitri
Flying this high, Cherny’s wings rode the gusts, sailing more than beating. The riders flanking me lay flat in their harnesses, reducing wind resistance and benefiting from their great creatures’ body heat. When the scouts returned this morning after finding another abandoned farmstead, I had not been able to resist escaping the court and reports for the afternoon. If Tal was death, this was life.
There were no places to hide on the grassland below. After finding a single woman in all of Tal, surely I could find the robbers and missing food out here.
But with Tempest, I’d had somewhere to start. The off-duty guard I’d paid to watch her stepsister’s house had reported spotting her. They lost her again when she left in the direction of Rivertown. From there, it had been easy to learn she visited drink halls, asking for information, though people had been cagey about what.
It had taken two more days of searching before our paths crossed.
I had not truly believed it until she turned around—same emerald eyes, wild hair, and elegant steps—in Lowtown coat and pants that clung to her curves like a second skin.
I’d burned to touch and reassure myself she’d not been a figment of my imagination, but she had been someone else’s tool. Someone forced her into my life for unknown reasons.
Getting answers from her was supposed to bring me peace. Instead, the pain of my friend’s death tore me apart when she shared her memories. It was as if I had been there myself. The rain-slick street, Alexei already on his knees, the older man speaking to Vanya like he knew her. Then the knife.
She had known nothing of the murder the moneylender talked about, but I did. Alexei had died for my revenge. I killed Zakhar and left his partner able to identify us, thinking it would have no consequences. All because I could not wait until I wore the crown.
