“I don’t mean Meera,” Wynter said. “I figured you’d run straight to Nox HQ the moment you woke up. I’m actually impressed by your willpower right now.”
That made Viri pause. “What are you talking about?”
Hearing the bewilderment in her tone, Wynter’s expression turned confused, then alarmed. “Wait—you don’t know?”
“Knowwhat?”
Wynter’s alarm seemed to grow. “I overheard Mom talking with Captain Farrow this morning. Someone was captured last night. Someone important.”
At the mention of Darik Farrow—the captain of the Nox Custodia—Viri relaxed. The city guards and hunters worked closely when it came to protecting the city, but they were still separate entities, with the Nox overseeing general law enforcement, and hunters specializing in reapers. The only news that might have caused Viri to sprint straight to Nox headquarters would have had to come from—
“Meera was too busy doing damage control to report in herself,” Wynter went on, making Viri’s thoughts stutter to a halt. “No need to let word spread and cause a panic—or so Darik told Mom.”
Viri’s blood turned to ice, then fire, as both dread and anticipation coursed through her. “Who was captured, Wyn?”
Wynter shook her head. “I didn’t hear a name. All I know is that it’s a high-ranking reaper. Someone in the Priest’s inner circle.”
The air left Viri in awhoosh.
Finally, after so many years of searching, this could be the break they needed in gaining access to the Reaper Priest.
“I need to go,” Viri said, rushing to her bedroom door, only for Wynter to grab her arm.
“Clothes, V.” Wynter indicated the bundle in Viri’s hands, spinning her toward her private bathroom. “As much as I love the image of you interrogating a deadly reaper in your pajamas, you should probably stick with your usual badass hunter vibe.”
Viri glanced down at her pastel-pink nightshirt and cursed before racing off and dressing in record time, finishing by coiling her fillium around her forearm.
“Go get ’em, hunter,” Wynter said as Viri hurried back into the bedroom. “I want a full debrief later.”
Viri was already sprinting out the door and down the long hallway of their apartment, Wynter’s words fading behind her. She could hear Sarielle in the kitchen—a rarity, given how busy her job kept her—and for a second, Viri considered heading in that direction. But her guardian kept a strict boundary between work and home, so she would be tight-lipped about anything Darik had shared. Better for Viri to go straight to the source.
Dashing out the front door, Viri bolted through the inner-mountain tunnels, inhaling the earthy, filtered air as she careened around corners at breakneck speed, her path lit by flameless everbeacons affixed to the black rock. Not for the first time, she was grateful that living with the Magistratus meant a prime cliffside location with few neighbors, limiting the foot traffic to the nearest wayportal. She was even more grateful that her late start kept her from colliding with the early-morning commuters she normally passed on her way to training. Instead, she was able to run straight for the shimmering magestone arch and leap through it without delay, mentally guiding it to the portal nearest to her destination.
The headquarters of the Nox Custodia were located deep within Mount Verta, the southernmost peak of the Tridus Mountains. While Mount Tembris had apartments like Viri’s built all the way through it up to the summit, Mount Verta was mostly hollow in the middle, its thick rock walls carved by the ancient mages into upward-spiraling levels that housed the various guilds, city services, and market districts—giving citizens plenty of space inside the mountain to work, study, and socialize.
Since the Nox needed easy access to the Underlock, their headquarters sat at the base of the inner-mountain—a place Viri reached in mere seconds through the connected wayportal, exiting the shining arch straight into the white-marbled reception area of Nox HQ.
Two uniformed guards manned the public entrance, like always, and Viri gave them a quick nod as she marched past the front desk and into the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, she jammed her finger on the down button, rolling her neck against the skin-crawling feeling of magic as the ellixen-powered lift began its descent.
It was only a short ride down to the Nox’s main administration level, where the city guards worked when they weren’t on patrol. Usually, the cubicled space was quiet and calm. Today, however, Viri was met by chaos when she stepped out of the elevator, finding black-uniformed guards bustling about in apparent disarray and even a few red-cloaked hunters interspersed among them, clearly waiting for news. Viri knew she should join her colleagues, but she didn’t have the patience, not when she needed answersnow.
Striding between the workspaces and past open office doors, Viri headed straight to the farthest end of the floor, stoppingwhen she reached a wooden door hewn into the mountainside, the golden plaque sayingCaptaindarik farrow. She was just about to knock when a voice halted her.
“It’s about time you showed up. I was close to sending out a search party.”
Viri whirled around to find her other best friend, Soren Archer, standing with his arms crossed over his Nox uniform, the silver buttons and buckles of his black trench coat all polished to perfection. With sandy-blond hair and warm brown eyes, he was the poster child of the Nox Custodia, not just because of his boyish good looks but also because he was a stickler for the rules, already rising through the leadership ranks. To Viri, however, he would always be the scrawny kid she’d met on her first day of training—her as a hunter, him as a city guard—the two of them paired in a joint sparring exercise to test their raw skills. They’d forged a bond in blood and bruises and been inseparable ever since.
Aside from Wynter, no one knew Viri as well as Soren, so it was unsurprising that he’d expected her to arrive as soon as she heard about the captured reaper. The teasing grin on his lips said as much, but that grin transformed into a frown when he took her in fully.
“What the hell happened to your face?”
“It’s nothing.” Viri waved off his concern. “Much better than earlier. I can barely feel it now.”
Soren’s features tightened as he realized what that meant. Like Viri, he didn’t approve of Wynter’s obsession with alchemy, but that was more because she was breaking the law and less because of how dangerous it was.
“Don’t start,” Viri said when his mouth opened. “Yell at Wynlater, not at me.” She turned toward the door. “Right now, I need to see Darik and find out what’s—”
“He’s not here.”
