That ledger had been there for years and years. A planted prop and nothing more, but always her security blanket.She listed members of government, heretics, kings in other countries, people that supposedly lived in cities that didn’t exist. She was the smartest person I ever knew.
Lucette looked past my shoulder and into the shop where the Oracle had joined the Guardian. Where Eda Mire, the fury-born, lay dead.
I lowered my voice until the ache I’d buried came to the surface. “I wouldn’t lie. This is the first time we’ve been alone. Look, I’m grieving, and Istilltook the first opportunity to tell you the truth. My life is on the line now, too. You know what it feels like to lose family. If I were lying about her, you’d see it written on my face.”
Though there was a long pause, though the rain had soaked Pip’s wings so much they sagged, Lucette finally nodded. “No other witches volunteered. It was suicide the moment you stepped forward. Why take the stage?”
Time to bait my trap.
“Because I had something to fight for even before Eda Mire was murdered,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Everyone wants to believe the witches are the problem. But Calder and I,” I jerked my chin toward him, steady at my side. “We knew Vitoria better than most, I’d bet. We worked beside her, listened to her, saw her come and go. We may not know where she is now, but that doesn’t make us useless. It makes us the best lead we’ve got.”
“Or complicit in her crimes,” Wickett said.
I shot a glare at him. “If you’re suggesting?—”
“You lived with the Phoenix. You found her next victim before anyone else. Youbothjoined the Mortalis. I’m suggesting,” Lucette said softly, “that coincidences pile up like bodies, and eventually someone has to count them.”
“Then let’s count the only facts that matter.” I stepped forward, letting real anger bleed through. “Count the fact that we’re bound to hunt her and die in thirty days if we fail. Countthat I just lost the last person from my childhood to someone I thought I knew, if we’re to believe the crime scene. I can’t stop you from wasting your own time suspecting me. But do it while we search, because every second we stand here arguing is a second Vitoria is using to disappear.”
Lucette studied me, rain dripping from her jawline, eyes as sharp as the blade still in her hand. Then finally, she nodded, her voice sharp but not unkind. “Elena Brightwater is a friend of mine. You’ve heard of her, I assume. She plays Nexus. And if she’d been given the choice, I think she would’ve stood on that stage too. I’ve always known witches to be brave.” The knife tilted, not in threat but in warning, and I felt more than I saw Wickett shift when Silas grew larger, agitated by the weapon. Lucette continued. “Bravery doesn’t excuse recklessness. If you mean to live through this, share everything you know. No secrets, no hesitation.”
My mouth curved, though I kept it small enough to pass as grim agreement. The teeth of the trap had closed.
“And you?” the hunter asked, turning the focus to Calder. “Did you simply forget to mention it to my father during the Mortalis? I’m positive people would have taken note.”
Calder grinned—actually fucking grinned—as he drew his own blade and swirled it around his fingers. “The witch volunteered. She’s the one with a backbone. I was forced to stand there. Forced into this blood oath. And quite honestly, I don’t trust any of you enough to tell you shit. Your leader? She’s right there,” he said, jutting his chin at me. “The rest of us are useless.”
I met Wickett’s stare, letting the tiniest smirk tease the corner of my lips. He was predictable. And easy to push.
Hope you like playing with fire.
“Your apartment. We search it now,” Wickett said, gesturing to the road.
“Search away,” Calder said. “We’ve got nothing to hide.”
But Lucette smiled, thin and knowing. “Everyone has something to hide. The question is whether your secrets matter to our hunt.”
The walk home was silent except for the rain on cobblestones and Pip’s occasional exhausted whimpers. When we reached our street, I gestured to the building with the black facade, gold lettering and flower boxes outside that hung just a little off kilter. “We live above Thistle and Thorn.”
“Abookstore?” Wickett’s tone annoyed me.
“A very old bookstore,” Lucette corrected, reading the ancient runes carved into the doorframe. “I think these protection marks predate most of the city.”
They sure did.
Interesting she would know that. But then again, I was beginning to realize the shifter knew a lot more than she said aloud. She was smart. Dangerously so. And perhaps that’s whyshevolunteered.
The door opened before we touched it. Mrs. Deliana, a scorched woman, stood there, her white hair wildly twisted up with a pencil. She pursed her lips as she studied each of us in turn.
“Venatori,” she said mildly, eyes glossing over me and Calder. “Looking for the fire girl? She used to come for the poetry section. Had a weakness for tragic endings. She hasn’t been here for days.”
“We need to search—” Wickett began.
“Search away.” She stepped aside. “Mind the third shelf. It bites.”
Thistle and Thorn had always felt alive to me in the way certain old places did, their shadows deeper than they should be, and the lingering smell of moldering paper with arcane secrets. Candles flickered in sconces and lanterns, but the light seemedlazy, bending around the shelves instead of cutting through, letting corners sleep in darkness.
The main floor was crowded with stacks of books, some balanced in impossible towers, some spilling across tables with care amidst the chaos. In many ways, this was home, but in a thousand others, this was simply another place I was destined to burn one day.
