by Ella M. Lee
I took a hesitant step back toward him. He patted the bench with one hand, inclining his head.
“It’s not a betrayal of anyone to have a conversation,” he said. “Even Nicolas shook my hand yesterday.”
I sat down. “I don’t like you.”
He laughed. “You don’t have to. I’m not here to be liked. I’m here to get things I want.”
I nodded, all the pieces coming together in my mind. “You want me.” I frowned. “Why didn’t you push harder today?”
“I didn’t need to,” he said. “I’d rather have this private little chat with you.”
“Get to the point. It’s cold out here.”
“I want to study you and your magic,” he said. “You want to fix the, ah, problems in your sanctum. I can help you with that. After Nicolas left Smoke, I completed his research. When it comes to binding and unbinding life from magic, I know all those methods now. If that is your issue, my work can solve it. So I give you what you need… and you give me what I need.”
Nicolas will kill you if you say anything other than no, if you do anything other than shut down this conversation. But what if Stephan could offer me the key to releasing Daniel from our sanctum? Would it be worth that sort of alliance?
If Nicolas doesn’t kill you, Stephan will, my brain reminded me. He tortures people for his “experiments.” He only does things for personal gain.
“How are you so sure you’re right about your assumptions?” I asked. “You’re reading a lot into my words. Didn’t you hear Nicolas today? Our magic is amazing.”
Stephan didn’t smile. He didn’t react at all. He simply said, “Now… that would be telling. You and I aren’t allies. You don’t get the keys to my secrets. You get my very generous offer to help you, and that’s all. For a price, of course.”
Well, that didn’t work. We still had no idea how Stephan got his information about us—or anyone else.
But I couldn’t overlook the fact that he’d nailed the problem right on the head. Every fiber of me wanted to know what the solution was.
“If…” I began. “If I had any interest at all in a trade, what would I be receiving?”
“I’ll give you all of the results of Nicolas’s research… and mine,” Stephan said. “With that, Nicolas should be more than capable of figuring out the necessary steps.”
“What makes you think he won’t figure it out on his own?” I asked. “He’s a brilliant genius, in case you forgot.”
Stephan laughed. “Genius he may be, but he spent eight years working on this project and didn’t even come close to a solution. I suppose you could wait for him to work it all out… if he can. If he wants to.” Stephan shrugged. He must have noticed my uncertain expression, because his snakelike smile appeared. “Ah… I see that you doubt him. Well, then.”
I wanted to say I didn’t, but I couldn’t find the words. Instead, I asked, “All right. And in return, you want me. What does that mean, exactly?”
Stephan looked me up and down, and chills crept over me. “I want the opportunity to study you,” he said. “In my personal lab. At my leisure.”
Sheesh, could you sound creepier? I shivered. “Never mind, I’m going inside.”
“Standing offer,” he said as I picked myself up off the bench and headed toward the house.
Stephan rose swiftly to follow. He caught up so quickly that I angled myself toward the right edge of the path, walking in near darkness, nervous and eager to be away from him. I looked at my feet, embarrassed, ashamed, weak.
Something glinted in the corner of my vision.
I turned my head, peering into the bushes just off the path. It took a moment for my vision to clear, for the hazy white and gold and red and black to resolve into something my brain could understand.
“Oh my god,” I said, staggering forward.
“Fiona?” Stephan’s voice sounded distant as I studied the ground in front of me.
I let my eyes travel up slender pale fingers to a thin wrist, the gold bracelet catching the light, and beyond to the dark splatters of blood.
My eyes found a face, half in the ground, covered by her pale-yellow hair, with only one open eye visible—glazed and dead.
Juniper.
Her throat had been cut, and blood had pooled under her, already sticky and coagulated, drenching the white snow.
Chapter 18
I whirled around. Stephan stared at his co-pinnacle member, his face a horrified mask, his wide eyes flicking over Juniper’s body. Finally, he lifted his incredulous gaze to mine.
“Call Nicolas,” he said.
“But—”
“Call Nicolas!” he growled. “Get him out here.”
Stephan dropped to his knees next to Juniper, checking her pulse. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her gaunt face and twisted neck as I fumbled for my phone in my pocket and tapped Nicolas’s name with shaking hands.
“Fiona,” he said, picking up on the first ring.
“Can you come out front?”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, the words clipped.
“I… really need you to come outside.”
“Are you all right?” Nicolas’s tone was now alarmed, and I heard Ryan’s muted voice asking questions in the background.
“Just come here.”
“On my way.” The line went dead.
I waited at the edge of the path, shaking. Nicolas flew out the front door, banging it open, Ryan at his heels. Both of them had glowing, cracking shields up around themselves. When Nicolas saw me unharmed, he slowed the slightest bit, jogging to my side.
“Fiona?” he asked, casting his eyes around. He reached out to me, but I stepped away.
“Look,” I whispered, pointing.
Both Nicolas and Ryan’s gazes followed my finger. Stephan was still on the ground, his knees and the cuffs of his jacket now soaked in blood. Nicolas drew himself up, his eyes flicking over the scene. When he saw Juniper, he took a startled step back, his expression dismayed.
“Oh no,” Ryan said, stepping forward.
Stephan bristled. For the first time this weekend, his magic manifested, clouding around him, taking on a minatory sheen and charging the air with a heavy pressure.
“Did you do this?” he hissed at Nicolas.
Nicolas seemed incapable of speech, frozen. With a sudden jerk, Stephan stumbled to his feet, running and lunging at Nicolas. Nicolas’s instincts kicked in immediately. He shifted his weight back, letting Stephan’s wild punch fly by him, catching Stephan’s arm and throwing him down.
Stephan, shaking and enraged, flung his arms out to grab Nicolas, but Nicolas avoided them.
I took a step forward.
“Stay back,” Nicolas called, his eyes landing on me for a brief moment.
I froze. It wasn’t like he needed my help. Nicolas was clearly a better fighter than Stephan, and his cool, collected mindset weighed heavily in his favor.
“Did you do this?” Stephan demanded again.
Nicolas held him at arm’s length, avoiding Stephan’s flailing limbs, doing his best to deflect rather than harm.
“I didn’t harm her,” Nicolas spat, his expression hard and vicious. “Why would you think that?”
“Did you see that it would happen?” Stephan asked, grating the words out. He had stilled, no longer trying to attack Nicolas. Rather, his shoulders had slumped, and it looked a lot like Nicolas held him up.
“No,” Nicolas said. Stephan’s eyes narrowed, and Nicolas went on, “Do you think I have time to track everyone’s fate? I can barely hang on to a few threads without going insane.”
Nicolas tossed Stephan away from himself, and Stephan let out a harsh, vicious breath. His magic dissipated slowly, the fog of it clearing.
“Help me find out who did this,” he said, his eyes still locked on Nicolas.
Nicolas studied Juniper’s twisted body again, his eyes tracing over the wound, over the blood, over her outstretched fingers as though she’d tried to claw her wa
y toward the house.
“I’m not your attack dog any longer,” Nicolas said coldly, turning away. “Ryan? Fiona?” He motioned toward the house. “Let’s go.”
Stephan’s expression as he watched us go was almost pleading.
And, damn me to hell, I almost felt bad for him.
“What the fuck do we do now?” I asked once we’d let ourselves back into our suite and locked the door.
Nicolas sat heavily on the couch, putting his head in his hands.
“I hate to ask such an indelicate question,” Ryan said, removing three glasses from the sidebar and splashing whiskey into each of them. “But did you kill Juniper, Nicolas?”
Nicolas snapped his head up. “Are you insane?” he asked Ryan, accepting a glass from Ryan’s hand and downing the whole thing at once. “No. I didn’t lie to Stephan. She and I went to the greenhouse after dinner and admired the flowers. Stephan found us, and the three of us went for a walk. I obviously didn’t want to, but Juniper insisted. They wanted to discuss further access to Lightning. After an argument, Stephan left, and Juniper and I had a quick drink in the dining room before I retired up here the first time. Last I saw her, she was wandering into the library. I didn’t encounter her when I was walking alone the second time.”
Nicolas rubbed his face and looked at me. “What happened before we got there?”
“Nothing, really,” I said. “I went to have a seat on the bench outside. Stephan joined me. He annoyed me until I decided to leave. As I was walking back, I saw… I saw her bracelet. Stephan was following me, so of course he saw her, too. He told me to call you.”
“Stephan suggested that?” Nicolas asked.
I nodded. “Does he really think you did it?”
“Likely not,” Nicolas said. “He knows I have no motive. I prefer to deal with Juniper over Stephan. Why would I murder her?”
“How could someone murder her?” I asked. “I thought the safeguards here provided protections against violence.”
“Only magical violence,” Ryan said. “No offensive magic can be used, but it is up to each magician to safeguard their own body from harm.”
“She was caught from behind,” Nicolas said. “By someone about her height, given the angle of the wound. Probably a female attacker. The cut was forceful enough to kill but not deep, and her limbs weren’t broken or distorted. If I, or someone of my height and strength, attacked her, she’d be in worse shape.”
“She was killed in that location,” Ryan added. “The amount of blood, the lack of disturbance in the snow… and there were no footprints.”
“That’s not hard to achieve,” I said. “Practically any magic could correct the snow. How long was she dead? Could you tell?” Death was certainly not my area of expertise, but Nicolas was well-acquainted with it.
Nicolas pursed his lips and checked his watch. “I saw her no more than two hours ago. Did you see anyone or hear any struggling when you were outside, Fiona?”
I shook my head.
“You went outside nearly thirty minutes ago. That leaves a small window in which she could have been attacked.”
“It only takes a few moments to cut someone’s throat,” Ryan said. “What will Stephan do now? Protocol says he should notify Sky. Will he?”
“I don’t see how he could get around that,” Nicolas said. “He won’t be able to call for a portal inside the premises without triggering the alarms, so he can’t clean up this mess himself. I think, at the least, he will need to bring Juniper’s death to the attention of the conclave.”
“What is our next move?” Ryan asked, pouring more whiskey into all three of our glasses.
Nicolas closed his eyes several times, searching for visions. Finally, he shook his head. “With both me and Stephan here, I can’t see anything at all. I think it’s best if we wait.”
“Do nothing?” I asked skeptically.
“Exactly,” Nicolas said. “There’s a truth-teller here, and we’ve done nothing wrong. We need to look as helpful and open as possible, true to our desired portrayal of Lightning.”
“Should I tell Teng?” I asked.
“Not yet,” Nicolas said. “We’ll know more soon, I imagine. Frankly, I’m expecting a knock on the door at any moment.”
I looked at the glass in my hand. I hated whiskey, but I downed the second shot of it anyhow. Once I’d placed the glass on the sidebar, I took off my coat and shoes, having forgotten about them entirely.
Ryan went into his bedroom, and I was left alone with Nicolas in the sitting room. He hadn’t moved from the couch, his dark expression and slumped shoulders showing weariness I rarely saw from him.
“Are you, um, sad about Juniper?” I asked quietly.
His eyes focused on me. “Sad?” He repeated the word as thought he’d never said it aloud before. “No, not sad. More confused than anything. Angry, I suppose. She was a good person. The type of leader I admired and aspired to be. Smoke was better because of her.”
My heart leapt into my throat. I’d forgotten that Nicolas had likely known her for a very, very long time.
He sighed, shaking his head. “She didn’t deserve to have her throat slit in the middle of the night.”
“No one deserves that,” I offered. I sat down next to him on the couch, creeping close enough so that our thighs were touching.
He cupped my chin with his fingers and gave me a weak smile. “My beautiful, compassionate Fiona.”
He put a hand on the small of my back and tugged me into his lap. He kissed my neck, and I leaned against him, trying to relax, but between our fights these past few days and the shock of Juniper’s murder, it felt like there were worlds between us.
Regardless, I stayed in his arms until a series of sharp raps on the door startled us apart hours later. Nicolas spread his hands at me, and I sighed, picking myself up and opening the door.
On the other side was one of the Wind staff members that had been serving us and taking notes for the duration of the conclave. “Excuse me, Ms. Ember. You, Mr. Demarais, and Mr. Zhang are wanted downstairs.”
A cacophony of sound met us once we were on the ground level, having dressed hastily and made our way downstairs in the predawn light. The meeting room was once again filled with magicians, most of whom had no idea what was going on.
Juniper’s body had been brought inside, and now it lay on a makeshift wooden pallet by the windows, covered in a piece of heavy white fabric. Stephan stood nearby, his hands and knees still bloody, streaks of reddish dirt on his face. The stony look on his face and the agitated cloud of his magic had everyone eyeing him warily.
Gemma was the only quiet, composed person in the room. The staff hurried around, turning on the lights. The other clans talked among themselves, except for Water—Claudius and Arturo were clustered with the Verdants. Andrea let out small shrieks while Kostas tried to shush her.
More magic filled the room than I’d seen the entire weekend, everyone cautious and attentive to what exactly might have pulled them out of bed so early and suddenly.
“Excuse me,” Gemma called finally. “There’s been a… mishap.”
I understood her desire to avoid the word “murder,” but the dangerous look on Stephan’s face told me Gemma would regret not treating this seriously. Even Nicolas bristled behind me, his magic sparking.
I reached out my hand and gripped his fingers, our display hidden by our bodies.
Gemma cleared her throat. “Juniper was found dead just a little while ago, a hundred meters from the front door, on the path to the driveway. Her throat was slit, her body exsanguinated.”
Low gasps and murmurs rose up from the assembled magicians, everyone’s eyes darting around the room nervously before landing on what could now obviously be recognized as Juniper’s body. Edmond stepped forward, almost reaching toward it, shocked and clearly aggrieved. Stephan lifted his chin, his magic poised dangerously. He couldn’t attack Edmond—we all knew that—but Stephan’s tense, protective posture was enough t
o make the other man step back once again.
Gemma cleared her throat again, choked up. Of course. She’d also likely known Juniper for a long time. “We don’t know—”
“Where are the Meteors?” Stephan’s low growl was harsh enough to cut through Gemma’s words.
I looked around. So did everyone else. Xiao and Jabari weren’t here. Flynn quickly pulled aside a staff member and whispered some instructions. The staff member hurried off toward the entryway.
“Who saw them last night after dinner?” Gemma asked.
“Jabari was with me for a while,” Laurine volunteered.
“And Xiao?” Gemma pressed.
No one responded.
Small, short, slight… Nicolas’s assessment of Juniper’s theoretical killer came back to me.
He squeezed my hand. I don’t think you are far from the mark at all, lamb, he said silently.
The staff member returned quickly and whispered something back to Flynn. He turned to address all of us. “Their things are gone. They aren’t on the property. Our wards recall them crossing the boundary forty-five minutes ago.”
Well, that was damning.
“Assemble everyone on the property in this room,” Gemma said to Flynn. She turned to the rest of us. “No one leaves. We have a truth-teller and a mind-reader here. The least we can do is investigate and clear everyone present.”
The next hour would have been mind-numbing if not for the thick cloud of magic and tension that overshadowed the room, setting everyone on edge. Nicolas, his face pinched in annoyance, questioned pinnacle members and staff one by one while Edmond fluttered nervously at his side, confirming truthful statements.
When it was my turn, I shifted nervously in my seat, my palms sweating. I hadn’t killed Juniper—hadn’t been involved at all in her death—but I hated interrogation. I was the type who always felt guilt, even if it wasn’t warranted.
Nicolas handled me with the same neutral tone he’d used for everyone else.
“Did you murder Juniper?”
