“Where… where is this tower?” I ask.
The three Eros brothers shrug, each one looking at me vacantly.
“It’s in the marshlands at the very edge of Onyx Quarter,” a deep, booming voice says, and when I look up towards the house, I see Fox striding from the main door, down the porch steps towards us.
“Where were you?” I ask.
“We hid him,” Dirk explains before Fox can answer. “The guards didn’t seem to know he was here.”
“Thank goodness,” I mutter, racing towards the Professor and flinging my arms around his neck. He squeezes me tight.
“We have to go, Briony. We can’t stay here.”
“I know, I know,” I say, leaning back and looking up into his pale face. After those two feeds from my neck, he looks strong and healthy once more. But there’s something more, something a little different about him. He always had more color in his cheeks after a feed, but his skin is not so ivory or porcelain. It looks a little more like mine now. And his eyes seem different too. The amber has a hint of blue in it, swirling through the glowing color. But I haven’t got time to think about that now.
“Do we go to the Black Tower?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “That would be suicide, Briony. It’s heavily guarded, the most heavily guarded place in the whole of the realm. Besides,” he says, “I think that’s what she’s hoping you’ll do.”
“She?”
“The Empress. She knows you went tearing out into the demon wastelands to save me. She’ll expect you to do exactly the same thing for the Princes.”
“You think it’s a trap?”
“Of course it’s a trap,” he says.
“You know I’m not going to stand back and let her take them from me,” I say, taking a step back from him and landing my hands decidedly on my hips.
A smile glides over Fox’s plush lips. “Yes, I know you well enough to be quite aware of that. But we both know the Empress is not Bardin. Sure, the Madame is powerful, deadly, and pretty unhinged, but she’s nothing compared to the Empress herself – the woman has been ruling this realm with a steel fist for the last three decades. She has seen off plenty of challengers and rivals, has refused the hand of several all-powerful men, and has bred a whole clan of heirs.”
“And she also apparently wants me dead.”
“We need to find out if they really are in the Black Tower,” Fox says. “I have contacts, some of whom I think may help us.”
“So do we,” Dirk says.
I narrow my eyes at him. “You sure you can trust them?”
He nods enthusiastically. “Dray’s an asshole,” he says, “but he’s also a kind of hero in these parts. Lots of people love him, and they’ll be willing to help him. I’m sure of that.”
I turn to the other two. Dray’s youngest brother obviously adores him. That might be clouding his judgment. “Do you think he’s right?”
“Yes,” the first twin says. “I hate to admit it, but Dirk is right.”
“Okay, so we determine exactly where they are, and then what?”
“Then we work out a way to get into the tower and free them,” Fox says.
All three of the Eros boys scoff at that. “Not possible,” Dirk says. “There hasn’t been a successful escape from the Black Tower in the last three hundred years. You know that. You’re a professor, right?”
Fox hesitates, meeting my gaze, and then nods.
“Shit,” I mutter. Why is nothing simple? Then I straighten my spine. Everyone said trekking out to the demon wastelands was suicidal. They said we’d never make it back. They said pursuing Bardin was signing my own death certificate. They told me that Fox had betrayed me.
There’s lots of things people have told me over the years, including that my own sister had died in a tragic accident in the academy. I’m finished with listening to what other people, with their limited expectations of me and their perceived prejudices, have to say.
“So there hasn’t been a successful escape from the tower in three hundred years. Maybe it’s about time there was one,” I say. “We’ll find a way.” I nod way more confidently than I feel. “Sowhere do we go now?” I look around at the man in front of me and the three boys. No one seems to have any idea. I peer back at my dragon, sitting, waiting, ready for his next instruction like a good, obedient boy.
