“Whose rules?” Calder’s voice stayed soft, which somehow made it worse.
“The... the rules.” The hunter checked his clipboard as if it might save him.
“She’s asking for personal items, not weapons.” Calder moved slightly, just enough to put himself between Pip and the hunter. “What possible threat could a lamp pose?”
Pip’s wings fluttered faster, and even in the dim hallway light, I caught the way her hands went up to stroke her pointed ears. She stared at Calder like he’d just offered to slay a dragon for her. Which, knowing Calder’s protective streak, wasn’t entirely out of the question either, if the Guardian caused any trouble.
The hunter fumbled with his papers. “I don’t... it doesn’t say why. Just no personal items retrieved from residences.”
Lucette stepped forward, eyes deliberately scanning the paperwork. “Then who do we talk to about changing that?”
“I don’t know.” The hunter was already backing toward the stairs. “I just... I have other duties. Your rooms are assigned.That door for the witch, the Ripper across from her, the Heartless One at the end. Shifter beside him. Sprite keeps the one she claimed.” He practically ran down the stairs.
“Well,” Lucette said dryly. “He was helpful.”
I pushed open my assigned door, needing space from Wickett’s constant presence, from the weight of eyes and expectations. The room was exactly what I’d expected. A bed that looked like it had witnessed misery. A desk scarred with old knife marks. One window, too small for escape but just large enough to remind me the outside existed.
Silas grew in size the moment I shut the door. He took up most of the floor space, and he fixed me with a look that could have peeled paint.
“You’re not my keeper, Silas. You’re alive, I’m alive. It’s fine. We’re all fine here.”
He took an ominous step toward me, those fucking eyes piercing.
“I know.” I said, shaking my head as I turned away, refusing to take him seriously. “I’ll tell you what. To make up for being reckless, the next time the Ripper pisses me off, you can eat him.”
A knock came at the door. Soft but deliberate. Calder.
I opened the door to see two sprites zip past, clutching scrolls marked with red wax. One nearly collided with Calder’s shoulder in its haste, squeaking an apology before vanishing down the corridor. Another followed seconds later, wings a blur.
“Busy day for messages,” I said.
Calder stepped inside, his eyes already sweeping the room. From his pocket, he produced a worn piece of charcoal and a folded paper—the kind of things he always carried for leaving messages in places words couldn’t be spoken.
He wrote quickly:Check for runes.
Of course. Privacy was a luxury the Magistrate wouldn’t grant. I moved to the wall beside the bed while Calder took the area near the window. We traced stone and mortar with careful efficiency, fingers searching for telltale grooves and unfamiliar marks.
I found one behind the old headboard, then moved to check the desk. My hands ran along its underside until I found it, small, delicate, carved with so much precision my mind stirred with professional appreciation.
I snapped my fingers to get Calder’s attention, then pointed at the rune and mimed writing in the air. His eyes widened with understanding.
He held up three fingers, then pointed around the room. He’d found three more.
Without ceremony, Silas stalked across the room, grabbed the transcription rune in his beak, and ripped it from the desk with a crack, sending splinters raining to the floor.
“Silentii,” I whispered, barely breathing the words.
Water coalesced around us, forming a sphere that shimmered like soap film. Inside it, sound wouldn’t penetrate the bubble. To anyone listening, they would only hear scrapes and scuffles of presence, but no words.
“That was a transcription rune,” I said once the bubble solidified. “Every word we spoke would have been written down somewhere. Probably in the Magistrate’s offices.”
“Good catch. I found three dampening runes. Behind the door, near the window, under that loose floorboard. Standard power suppression.”
“There’s one behind the headboard too. They really don’t want me getting ambitious in here.” I glanced at the hole Silas had left in the desk. “Though apparently they didn’t account for griffins.”
Si preened one wing with exaggerated dignity.
“We need to get to Eda Mire,” Calder said, returning to business.
