Katherine grunted, thankful for the save but needing this interaction to be over. She mumbled something incoherent and hustled toward the door. She heard Fiona calling after her as she walked, but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop, as she marched toward her grim future.
She sucked in a breath as she arrived at Sylvia’s office, stuffing her hands in her pockets in an attempt to hide her still-raw knuckles. It was pointless—Sylvia knew exactly what she’d done, and soon all of Aestas would too.
She walked inside. Took her usual seat across from Sylvia. Registered, briefly, that Sylvia looked different—she’d forgone her usual red lip, and was wearing a simple long-sleeved top, instead of one of her expensive cardigans. Her hair was in a ponytail, something Katherine had never seen. That, Katherine chided herself, was how stressed she had made the one person who had given her everything.
“You know why you’re here,” Sylvia said.
Katherine nodded.
“This could be very, very bad for us, Katherine.”
Her words were grim, but Katherine’s mind snagged on just one of them—us. Us.Us.
Did that mean…
“But I think I might have a way out of it.”
Katherine’s heart kicked into high gear. Her job was to enforce consequences, and she’d always taken it seriously, holding the law—or at least, the laws based on common human decency, like not beatingsomeone to a pulp—above all else. She had been prepared to accept what was coming to her, but presented with an out, it was impossible not to want to run toward it at top speed. The urge to immediately accept Sylvia’s help was so strong it almost choked her. It would be so easy to fall into that old habit, to let Sylvia fix everything, just like she always did.
But there was one thing she needed answered first. One doubt that had ping-ponged across her mind all morning, a simple question whose answer could change everything.
“Did you set fire to the InterContinental Hotel?”
Sylvia sat back, her eyes flicking to her hands, and Katherine knew what the answer would be before she said it. Still, Sylvia waited, as if she was struggling to get out the word. Finally: “Yes.”
Katherine swallowed around the growing lump in her throat.
“Silas was asking questions,” Sylvia continued. “And he found my caster in the evidence from Hollywood and Highland. He thought I was the one who sold the altum and caused the explosion, and he was threatening to use that to get me kicked out of Aestas.”
Katherine bit her lip, her mind contrasting Sylvia’s words with Silas’ from the night before. She couldn’t picture him threatening Sylvia like that. “But he said—” she started, but Sylvia cut her off with a glare.
“He lied, Katherine. That’s what his family does. They lie, and they cheat, and they steal—whatever they need to do to hold on to their power.”
Even though Katherine didn’t think that was true of Silas, Sylvia was right about Vikrant and Nina. Noctis was all about taking and maintaining power, no matter what the cost. They meted out spellbooks and runes and basked in the glory of that at every turn, but they kept the most powerful spells secret instead of sharing them with the wider witching community. They hoarded enough resources to provide their son with a pocket spellbook. They forced unsettled witches out of their homes, made them fend for themselves, then ostracized them when they tried to rejoin society.
And despite all of that, Sylvia had managed to make a safe haven for so many who had been rejected by their system. And now they were trying to take that away.
How had Katherine let herself forget that?
“I got everyone else out first,” Sylvia said. “I warded the place so they’d all feel dread and leave. I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. I’ve been tearing my hair out about how the whole building burned down. The fire was supposed to just target his room, but you know how unreliable old magic can be.”
Katherine nodded, her head swimming. She shuddered as she was assaulted with memories of smoke pouring under the door, the room getting hotter and hotter. The rough walls of the building cutting into her hands as she prayed to everyone who would listen that her spell wouldn’t fail.
“I was there,” Katherine admitted.
Sylvia reeled back at that, her face going slack. “Why?”
Katherine scrambled to come up with a lie, her instincts still telling her to cover up what had happened with Silas—but there was no point. “I wanted Silas’ help coming up with a spell to track Byron. He was evading everything I tried. I was desperate.”
“Desperate enough to go to your enemy, but not desperate enough to tell me what you were doing.”
The betrayal was clear in Sylvia’s voice, written into every line of her tense body. Katherine shifted in her seat, guilt pummeling her. Both she and Sylvia had kept secrets from each other. Both of them had made mistakes and hurt people who didn’t deserve it.
They were supposed to be in this together. Ineverythingtogether. Yet another thing Katherine had forgotten.
“I’m sorry,” Katherine said. “You’re right. I should have come to you. I made a mistake, and I’m willing to accept the consequences.”
Sylvia leaned back, surveying Katherine with cold eyes. Seeing that expression on her face was a stab in the gut.
