And Prospero felt a fool for not thinking it sooner. She slid into Scylla’s mind, looking for the emotions for this moment, plucking them from terror to calm. She let her friend see her, know that it was not an enemy’s arms that held her still, and as she did so, she felt Scylla relax. In the privacy of her friend’s mind, she selected a long-ago conversation between them and pulled it forward.
The two women sat in Scylla’s home. A bottle of wine that Prospero brought as a birthday gift sat on the low table to Scylla’s side.
“You’re not as much of a coldhearted thing as Sondre warned me,” Scylla said mildly. She glanced over the rim of her half-filled glass and held Prospero’s gaze.
“Says you. I make an excellent enemy if I am inclined.”
“Indeed.” Scylla’s expression shifted into a wide smile. “I don’t think you want me as an enemy.”
Prospero sighed. “I suppose we’d best be allies then.”
“The word is ‘friend,’” Scylla corrected, lifting her glass.
“Call it what you will. I have your back, Marie.” Prospero still slipped and used her birth name, her before-magic name. “I had it when you arrived, and I have it now that you are head of House Scylla. I will always have it unless you betray me.”
“Same, girl. Same.”
As Prospero nudged the memory forward, reminding her friend that she was protected, Scylla opened her mouth and said, “Never betray you, P.Look.”
Prospero went back into Scylla’s mind, diving toward today’s memories. Prospero saw her walk into the woods, saw the capture, saw her free herself.
Scylla pressed her hands against her belly, as if she could keep the blood inside.
“It’s not personal,” Jaysen whispered. “We were just getting you out of the way, dude.”
“This wasn’t the plan,” Jenn muttered.
“It was a hope ofmine,though.” A man’s voice was close enough that Scylla could smell fetid breath, a mix of vomit and alcohol. “Never did like you. That feltgood.”
Him. He was the one with the gun.
As Prospero shoved through the memory, noting that Aggie was there, she tried to see the other faces.Who did this? Who was he? Who shot Scylla?She recognized three of the witches desperate enough to take a life, to tear down the barrier, to destroy everything. Jaysen. Jenn. Aggie. Someone would have answers. Unfortunately, the New Economists believed that they should be allowed to be in the Barbarian Lands, so finding the villains to get any answers or stop disasters from coming was a lot harder now that they were in a place with billions of nonmagical people.
Then Scylla went limp, knocking Prospero toward the floor as she was forcefully shoved out of Scylla’s memories. Prospero caught herself on a nearby stretcher, scraping her arm as she slid past it, and hit the hard edge of a rolling cabinet. A glance up revealed Mae jabbing two fingers inside the wound on Scylla’s belly.
“She passed out,” Mae said through gritted teeth. “Come here, you bastard.”
Prospero’s eyes widened. They weren’t friends, but that was an uncharacteristically harsh thing to say. Then Mae jerked her hand out of Scylla’s belly.
“Got you.” She held up a tiny piece of metal.The bullet.Mae’s hand was blood-slick, and she was wavering on her feet, but she was smilingin victory. “Now, I can heal her. Her heart kept trying to stop, and the bleeding wouldn’t.”
Mae wobbled and muttered, “Sorry. All out of juice.”
Prospero leaped up as Mae started to crumple. “Shit!”
Then she was standing with a bloody doctor and an unconscious patient. She hefted Mae onto the next cot over and then she yelled, “Hob!”
One of the castle hobs appeared, glanced at the witches on the cots, and said, “They aren’t dead. I only take dead bodies.”
Prospero swallowed the words that wanted to escape her mouth and instead ground out, “I need witches from Dr. Jemison’s house, ones she trusts, to look after them. Please, fetch them now.”
The hob gave her an unimpressed once-over. “You have a bit of blood just there.…” He gestured at her from foot to face. “You might want to fix that.”
Then the hob popped out, still scowling, only to return and leave repeatedly in less than a minute until Prospero was left with four witches.
She wiped her hands as they watched.
“Keep them alive andsafe.No one enters unless I’m with them.” Prospero straightened her shoulders, resisting the urge to touch her hair in case there was still blood on her hands. “Dr. Jemison’s depleted herself. Lord Scylla was shot.”
