Shawn’s expression smoothed out. “Is that what you believe? Miles is more of a traitor than even your friend Harper is.”
Damn. So it’s true. “What the hell did you do with him?”
Garber’s eyes narrowed. “You should have just given up. That would have been easier for you.”
His hand shot through me, and pain split my soul down the centre. I bit back a whimper of pain.
“Don’t kill her,” Shawn commanded. “We have to leave her in one piece.”
“Someone else is calling the shots, are they?” I wheezed. “You’re pathetic.”
“I’d prefer not to watch you die,” he said. “I need to find Miles, and the slimy little shit has given us the slip. Did you have anything to do with that, Bria?”
“You pretended he was on a mission for you, didn’t you?” The truth dawned, too late. “You sent him into the tunnels to die.”
“And you helped him escape,” said Shawn. “I should have known.”
Garber relaxed his grip on me. “You know we have your precious Tay, don’t you? I can torture that little bitch whenever I like.”
Fury crashed over me like a wave. “The House of Fire never had her. Everything you said was a lie.”
“Almost everything,” said Shawn. “I didn’t lie when I told you that Tay was doomed unless you helped us.”
A red glare filled my vision as flames leapt to my hands, but a warning growl beneath my feet reminded me of their prisoner. The warning look on Shawn’s face told me if I hurt any of them, I’d be the first to lose a limb.
“You asked me to do the impossible,” I told them. “The Death King is well aware there are a dozen different shitheads trying to steal his soul every day of the week. His own Fire Element tried it, which you really ought to have told me beforehand, considering the Death King expected half his potential new employees to try exactly the same thing. Let me guess, Davies was one of your allies, too.”
Shawn was silent for a moment. “You know, I really thought you’d see things our way.”
“You kidnapped my best friend,” I said. “Did you do the same to the relatives and friends of half the other participants? Didn’t you expect us to talk to one another?”
“Enough of this crap,” said Shawn. “Tell you what, we’ll make a deal. You give us Miles’s location. I’m sure you can convince him to tell you. You don’t care about him that much, surely. It won’t make a difference to you… but to Tay, it might be all the difference in the world.”
Chills ran through my bones. “You can’t kill an innocent person just to get me to help you. Why do you need me, anyway?”
“Why indeed?” he said. “You’ll have to ask Tay. Assuming she survives.”
“Tell me where you’re keeping her,” I warned. “Or I swear to the Elements, I’ll kill you.”
“You’re in no position to be bargaining with us.” Garber seized my arm in his painful grip. “And you’re never to come back here again.”
He gave me a shove. I stumbled back, flames leaping to my palms, but I knew better than to think I could fight against a pack of spirit mages in a place they’d created, which had even outlasted the war.
As for me? I couldn’t even save one person.
Tay. If she’d been taken as bait for me, she couldn’t be dead. I had that much working in my favour… until Shawn got bored of her, that is. Maybe he already had.
I left the citadel, trying to tell myself that my own survival was enough for now. Who knew, I might be able to convince the other contenders they’d brainwashed that we could overcome the traitorous spirit mages if we worked together, but would the others go for that?
Besides, it wasn’t Shawn and his allies who I truly feared. If he was working in the name of the Family, then only one person could be giving him orders.
When I arrived back on the Death King’s territory, it was to find Harper waiting near the node. “You’re back? I thought you were gone for good.”
I rose to my feet, shaking off the pain of the transporter. “I was always going to come back. I wouldn’t leave you to suffer the consequences for what Shawn and the others did.”
“You spoke to him, didn’t you?” she said. “Did you pretend to still be on his side?”
“Not quite,” I admitted. “I couldn’t restrain myself from telling Shawn he was a piece of shit, so I guess I’m out of here when the Death King finds out.”
She bit her lip. “They’ll punish all of us for this. And their hostages.”
I looked down. “You guessed it was them who had Tay, right?”
“Yeah,” she murmured. “Who is she to you, anyway?”
“My best friend,” I said. “We worked together, but she disappeared when Shawn and his friends wrecked our last job and then everything went to hell. I thought the House of Fire had her, but I never guessed the Family might have been working with the spirit mages.”
“She’s a fire mage, then?”
“No.” I studied my palms. “But the Houses are the authorities in Elysium, so there’s always been the risk of them catching us again. Miles suggested coming to the castle to lie low while he and the others looked for Tay, but he didn’t realise the betrayers were right next to him.”
She was silent for a moment. “My brother… he’s still on the run, but there’s only so many places you can go for shelter when you have a target on your back.”
“I understand,” I said. “I should have seen through their act from the start.”
“This Miles person isn’t involved with them?” she asked.
“No, he’s with the real Spirit Agents,” I said. “Shawn and the others pretended to be his allies and then tried to bump him off. I accidentally helped Miles escape, so at least I did something right this week.”
“I shouldn’t have taken it out on you,” she said. “It’s not your fault they came after my brother. He’s the one who caught their attention to begin with. Lost a bet with the wrong person, and then I ended up having to bail him out by coming here in the hopes of gaining the position of Fire Element.”
“I’ll do my best to make sure you win,” I said.
She gave me a faint smile. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me, but… the Death King said this wasn’t the first time you’ve dealt with the Family.”
“You might say that.” I weighed the odds, then I said, “I grew up with them. The Family, I mean.”
“Seriously?” She shot me an awed look. “How’d you get out?”
“I escaped them when I was a teenager,” I said. “I’ve been on the run since I was sixteen. I knew they were crooked long before then, but it wasn’t until the Houses caught them that I was able to get away. I thought they were still in jail, but someone from the Family has Tay held hostage. Either I give them Miles, or she dies.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “They’re liars, you know they are, and they might not be telling the truth about having your friend hostage. Or they might be lying about setting her free if you hand over Miles.”
“I know,” I said. “I haven’t even seen Miles in ages. Maybe they already have him.”
But if they did, they wouldn’t have threatened me over him, surely. No, he’d ditched me to do his own thing, and I didn’t know whether that was on my side or against me.
I was reasonably confident that Shawn and the others wouldn’t dare come back here with the Death King watching out for trouble, at least, but I doubted I’d get away from the castle today. I’d have to lie low for the night and go back to look for Miles tomorrow. He’d evaded the others thus far, and getting more allies on my side wouldn’t be a bad idea. I was sure there must be others among the contenders who needed convincing that Shawn was a conniving dickhead.
On my way back to the dormitory, a tall blond guy approached me. I cast around for his name and drew a blank. We hadn’t spoken a word to one another, but the instant we crossed paths, he aimed a punch at me. I blocked instinctively, the movement jarring my arm.
“Let me g
uess… you’re one of Shawn’s lot.” I deflected another blow. “Look, you realise the guy told a dozen of us a totally different cover story, don’t you? He told me I was the only spy.”
“He said the same about me.” He yanked his arm from my grip. “One of us is full of crap, and it isn’t me.”
“It’s Shawn.” Carla stepped out of the shadows behind us, her arms folded. “He told me the same. Except with different details. Herod, stop trying to hit Bria. She’s not the enemy.”
“He got to you, too?” His deception must have begun long before he’d targeted me.
She inclined her head. “He and his buddies cornered me about a week ago, before the trials were due to start. They said I was the only person they trusted.”
“I guess he needed several contenders in case one of us was knocked out of the running,” I said. “I should have figured that out from the start. I guess his plan relied on making us all think we were special.”
Herod cracked his knuckles. “Fuck the contest. I want to rip his head off. Wherever he’s hiding.”
“You don’t know either?” asked Carla. “He said he lived in a top-secret bunker.”
“Said he lived in the tunnels under Arcadia,” said Herod.
Don’t they know where he is. I knew he and the others were hiding in the citadel… but he was bound to have defences in place, and besides, he might have used the citadel’s transporter to travel somewhere else. Not to mention that monster he’d tied up downstairs might well be on the loose, ready to take a bite out of any trespassers.
“Wherever he is, he’s holding people hostage.” Harper stepped out to join us. “He got to me, too. But collectively, we outnumber his allies.”
“You too?” said Carla. “Who else?”
I counted on my fingers. “You two, Harper, Sledge, Bark…”
“Sledge?” said Herod. “Wait, isn’t he in jail? I heard them saying.”
“Yes, and I think Bark is, too,” I said. “He set them up to take the fall. The same might’ve happened to any of us, if we hadn’t seen through him.”
“So what now?” said Carla. “How do we find him?”
“Not yet,” I said. “He and his buddies can astral project from anywhere, so they can run away easily. We need to get to them in person. Luckily, I have enough cantrips to go around.”
I revealed my stash, to general approval from the others.
Herod whistled. “You’re giving them to us?”
“If you can refrain from getting caught with them.” I handed the invisibility cantrips out. “They only last an hour each, so only use them when you’re backed into a corner. We need someone to talk to Sledge, too. I think Shawn tricked him into attacking the guards, but he got caught.”
Carla scowled. “He’s a scumbag of the highest order.”
“Damn right,” I said. “But he also has hostages, including a friend of mine. If he shows up here and tries to give any of you a cover story, send him my way. I’ll get him to tell me where the hostages are. Then we can feed him to the liches.”
“With pleasure.” Herod’s fists clenched. “If I see him in person, I want to knock his lights out.”
“Do as you like,” I said. “The important thing is not to get caught. Any of you. The Death King suspects something is going on, but if Shawn and the others are caught before we can get the hostages back, they might be killed as collateral. He has other spirit mages on his side, at least a dozen of them.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen him with someone different every time,” said Carla.
“Same here.” That was part of his act, the dickhead, and it’d worked. Except on Miles, who’d seen through his act, and had made himself a target in the process. I had to make it up to him.
But first, we needed a plan.
I addressed the group. “He won’t be back here today, but tomorrow is his last shot. Here’s what we’re going to do.”
14
It seemed Shawn had rightly assumed coming back to the castle would be a bad move, because he didn’t show his face in front of any of us that evening. We traded watches outside the castle and kept an eye open for Shawn and his friends from sunset onward, though Sledge, being the closest to the node, would be in a better position to alert the rest of us if the spirit mages came in via that route. Some agreed to watch the gates in various places, while others went outside under the guise of invisibility cantrips to keep their eyes open for any signs of Shawn or his friends out in the swampland.
Other than that, all we could do was watch our backs. In the end, I didn’t tell the others about the citadel. If any of them went in there alone and got killed by the monster, it would be on me.
I needed to find Miles first. As soon as possible.
After all the Elemental Soldiers had retired to bed, Harper and I headed out into the main part of the castle together.
“You’re sure we won’t get caught?” she whispered to me as we walked through the silent corridor. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the Death King might have our backs after all, but if this goes wrong in any way, it’s Percy who’ll pay the price.”
“I need to warn Miles,” I said. “Shawn wants me to hand him over, which suggests he hadn’t found his hiding place yet, but what if Miles went looking for Shawn himself? He must suspect the dickhead is working against him, and I don’t know how many allies Miles has left.”
“You’re right,” she said, “but I have one invisibility cantrip left.”
“Same, but I think now’s a good time for another visit to the Death King’s storeroom,” I said. “Can you keep watch outside? I won’t be long.”
“Sure.” Harper and I parted ways outside the mail hall, and I turned on my last invisibility cantrip. Then I crossed the hall to the door leading into the room which contained the Death King’s personal cantrip store. I didn’t see Dex anywhere, but perhaps he’d retired for the night, too. With the hall of souls already protected in a million ways, it must be tedious to be stuck there for hours on end with nobody else to talk to.
I eased the door open and slipped into the storeroom, then I set about gathering as many invisibility spells as I could. With my contraband safely secured, I slipped out of the room and closed the door behind me.
“Stolen enough cantrips yet?” asked the fire sprite, hovering in front of me.
I jumped. “What the hell? Can you see me?”
“If I know where to look.” Dex flew up to me and perched on my invisible shoulder. “Also, I heard you talking to Harper outside. I’ve spoken to her sprite, too.”
“Right.” I released a breath. “I know the Death King probably won’t like me stealing his cantrips, but Harper and I need them. To go—”
“To go and do something ill-advised and dangerous,” he finished. “Just so you know, he probably has a perfectly good idea of what you took and when. Little escapes him. I’ll say that much.”
My shoulders slumped. “Look, there’s no need to rub it in. Someone I know is going to be in serious trouble if I don’t sneak out of the castle and find them. I don’t have time to get caught.”
“Ooh, a dangerous quest?” he said. “Excellent. I’m coming with you.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the hall of souls?” I reminded him.
“Aria took over from me for the night.” He beckoned, and a second sprite fluttered out of the shadows near the door. “She’s a little shy.”
“Oh,” I said. “I’m not here to steal the Death King’s soul, by the way. That was a misunderstanding.”
“Like I haven’t heard that one before,” he said. “In fact, you’re just one in a long line of wannabe-criminals who think they’re worthy of the soul of the Death King.”
Dex flew at my shoulder as I walked out of the hall, and Harper froze when she spotted him. “He caught you?”
“I’m not here to turn you in,” said Dex. “Provided you let me accompany you on your daring quest.”
Harper gave me a sceptical look. “Yeah
, I don’t think this is going to work. Call me untrusting, but isn’t he friends with the Death King’s spirit mage?”
“I’m not going to betray you,” he said indignantly. “Liv doesn’t even have to know. She’s at home.”
“Good,” I said. “Because I doubt she’d understand.”
“Liv has her own problems to deal with,” he responded. “I won’t breathe a word to her. Provided you don’t do anything to endanger the afterlife of His Deathly Highness, that is.”
I snorted. “Can you ask the liches to let us through the gates? Or distract them? I’d rather not have to burn any more of them to get out without being interrogated.”
“That was you?” He snickered. “I heard a couple of them moaning about some upstart fire mage turning them to ashes in the hall earlier. Shouldn’t’ve agreed to host a fire mage contest, should they? All right, I’ll distract them.”
Dex went to distract the liches at the gate while Harper and I slipped out into the swampland, towards the node outside. Dex caught us up when we stepped into the node’s path and reappeared in the city of Arcadia.
“Nicely done,” said Dex. “I could get used to this espionage stuff. So, who are we spying on?”
“Nobody,” I said. “We’re looking for a friend of mine. Some dickhead spirit mages claimed to be on his side and are now looking to kill him, so I want to warn him first.”
“Sounds heroic.” He flew overhead as Harper looked up and down the street, towards the towering shape of the citadel overlooking the square. Darkness filled every corner, and I found myself fervently hoping the revenants would stay far away this time.
“I haven’t been here in forever,” Harper muttered. “Not without Percy.”
“Her brother,” I explained to Dex. “He’s on the run from Shawn and his friends, too. Part of their strategy was to take hostages.”
“You’re not going to the Withered Oak, are you?” he said, eying the building over my shoulder. “I know this place. Liv and I were here earlier this week.”
I stopped walking. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Liv came here?”
“She isn’t there now,” he said. “We suspected it to be a hideout of those House of Fire scum… and their associates.”
Cage of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 1) Page 15
