I swallow and catch eyes with Will. He’s the only one who knows, and it’s very clear he’s kept my confidence. Behind him, Katrine watches calmly.
I take a deep breath and turn to Sofie, who’s mowing me down with that unflinching glare of hers. “The sea witch who changed me into a human needs the ring to stave off war from my father, the sea king. Happy?”
Shock blinks across her features and then morphs into something closer to camaraderie. “And I thoughtmyfather was an ass for aiding a war. Your father is going tostartone? Doesn’t he know we’re already busy enough with our own up here?”
“That’s exactly why he’s doing it, Sof,” Will says, as he sets Agnata more gently than she deserves onto a dining chair. “Strike ’em while they’re down. Works in world domination just as well as it does in boxing.”
I nod. “For reasons that are partially my fault, Father is in a position where he needs more magic. He has a monopoly on the sea’s lot of it, so he’s coming to claim the only magic that isn’t his—ours.”
Sofie accepts that news by dropping into the closest dining chair, her bones heavy. “I did not renounce my family, become a witch, and destroy royal property to be assassinated by some magical merking.”
I draw in a deep breath. “Sofie, this wasn’t exactly my plan either, but it’s what we’ve got. At this point, the only way we—and any other witches within our general proximity—are going to survive this attack is with the sea witch’s help. We need to get her Niklas’s ring, and we can’t wait. Those dead fish? They’re just the start.”
“Well, we all knowIdon’t have the ring,” Sofie sniffs, crossing her arms over her chest.
“No,” I say, before tipping my chin to our captive. “But she might.”
Sofie and I search Agnata’s pockets, Will watching and waiting with a frown. We all know it won’t be there, but it’s still a disappointment when we find exactly nothing of the sort. Though we do find a small drawstring bag of krone.
Agnata indeed sold us out for more than just her freedom.
Will pockets the coins as I crouch down in front of the girl and remove her gag. Her head lolls to the side, dark hair fallen out of her braid.
“Vakti.”
The moment the spell is out, the girl’s eyes fly open and she inhales a deep breath as if she’s been underwater for the last couple of hours, not asleep. Her eyes snap from my face to Will’s before finally settling on Sofie’s. Katrine ignores her altogether as she puts on the kettle.
“Am I still... here?” Agnata’s eyes narrow on mine. “I thought you were going to murder me. Like you did those guards. Those poor men were doing their—”
“Save your righteousness. They’re not dead, dummy.” Sofie shoots to her feet. “You’re lucky you’re not, though, so I’d save your critiques for someone else.”
“Where’s the ring?” I ask, because we really don’t have time for this.
“The ring...”
“Agnata, seriously, I’m ready to singe your eyebrows off, and Sofie would do worse.Niklas’s ring,” I snap. “I had it onbefore I was knocked out and dragged into the warehouse. Where did it go? None of the guards we frisked had it.”
“I—I,” Agnata stumbles.
Sofie takes four long strides and lights her inked arm in wildfire like it’s nothing. I feel a pang of pride. “How do I aim this stuff at her eyebrows, Runa? Still learning.”
“No! I’ll tell you,” Agnata screeches, her eyes squeezed shut as if that can protect them. Her voice comes quieter this time. “Just please put that away.”
Sofie kills the fire, glaring hard at her former friend. “It’s easy to see why you didn’t last long under castle guard interrogation.”
“Go on, Agnata,” Will says.
“After you were knocked out, I sold it to the man you heard the night before—the messenger. He’s a member of the king’s guard, not the Holsten contingent, so he wasn’t at the warehouse... but he was waiting in the vœrtshus. And then I joined you as a captive in the warehouse.”
Oh, Urda. We can’t go into the castle looking for a random guard with the ring.
“Where is he now?”
Sofie waves her arm in front of Agnata’s face. “Before you say ‘I don’t know,’ I want you to again consider your eyebrows.”
Agnata scrunches her whole face into a ball before answering. “This man, called Møller, he said he had a buyer for it. Promised me another ten percent once it sold.”Her eyes flash open. “He planned to meet this person at the vœrtshus tonight. Eight o’clock. He told me to be there by nine to collect my cut.”
I glance to Will and Sofie. “Time to brew another plan. And quick.”
