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Drip.

Drip.

Silence.

For the first time in a decade, I wanted to cut through it with a scream. Quietness was no longer a choice. It had become acceptance, and I would not accept this. I couldn’t lose him—even if he would never be mine.

“Where’s the King?” I cocked my head and sneered at Torran. It was a dangerous move, but I wasn’t sure if I cared anymore.

The only tell that my question had landed was the vein on his throat that pulsed. Aster groaned, knowing what I was doing, but I needed Torran emotional, and I was betting that this was the only way to do it. “No one has seen your father for quite some time, have they? No one ever sees him during Yule because he’s so terrified of the rogues that attack each year. So where does he hide? Where is safe?” I tugged sharply at my wrists as I leaned forward, and one of the picks Ember had placed in the cuff of my dress slipped into my fingers. But they were too wet to grip it properly.

“Why are you asking about the King?” asked Torran, his black smoke now caressing my neck and then wrapping around it.

I glared at him while trying to keep my fingers locked on the pick. When I didn’t answer, Torran nodded to the Barren Rider with the lifeless blue eyes. Fire shot out and whipped over Aster’s back—more smoke—more stench of burnt skin. And this time he couldn’t stop the scream that broke free.

Every muscle in my body rippled with rage.

Before I understood what was happening, the whip of flames came for me. It whipped over my arm and up my shoulder. White, blazing pain swept down my side. Agony spread over every inch of skin. I bent in on myself out of instinct. There was nothing but stabbing, shooting pain… nothing else but the need to try to breathe.

My head slumped, and I closed my eyes, willing my mind to leave my body and seek refuge. I would take more if it meant they left Aster alone. He wouldn’t last much longer.

The door crashed open, and I opened my eyes to find Kit standing there, gripping the frame. Was he there to stop it all? Was he there to save us both?

“You started, then?” was all he said, turning to the Barren Rider. “Si, you always did like your little fire whip, didn’t you?”

“Where’s your father?” I asked through clenched teeth. I remembered Aster’s words. He wasn’t talking about Lex. Ember had found out months ago where Lex was being held with the other Lost, in a tower in the Wilds. “Hidden somewhere on this floor. Or is he locked away here? Is your brother really in power?”

Torran froze, and his black flames danced in his eyes. I was speaking too much truth for a Yule night.

“Oh, she’s good, isn’t she?” Kit closed the heavy wooden door and leaned against it.

I slipped the pin into the lock of my cuffs and watched the Barren Rider’s eyes glaze. Exactly as I had planned, he was telling his phoenix, who would tell his flock, and they would all start asking questions. Like who was the last to see the Northlands King.

“The King’s ill; my brother rules in his place for a short time.”

I tried to smile, but the pain in my shoulder dug in too deeply. “And your brother isn’t king, so his commands don’t touch you… don’t compel you.” The pin found the mechanism. I just needed one more twist…

“She knows about the oath?” the Rider asked. “How?”

“She’s Lex’s sister, and he never kept anything from her. He told her everything.”

He didn’t. He hated who he had become, but I could read him better than anyone.

“Wren…” Aster wheezed. “Don’t…”

“Don’t what? Do everything in my power to stop this…” I shouted at him as I tried to get the pin in the lock again. “Az… please.” Please fight back and get out of here. I couldn’t even sign to him like this.

When he returned my defiant look, I took the only other course of action I had… manipulation.

“You know, don’t you?” I turned to Torran. “That Lex was taken after some argument with my uncle. Aster found him in some… special room. One where my uncle kept Riders in a silver cage. He told us that they had fallen out of line. But I suspect that he experimented…” Torran shifted from one foot to the other. So he did know. “Az found Lex there along with some interesting books written long ago. The codex that he told you about… a guide to Wild Witch Traditions.” The book that first mentioned the FootPaths and the one I had given to Ember. “So many books hold a hidden past.” I turned to the Rider. “Malar and the Northlands are looking for the FootPaths into the Ruckus, aren’t they? So they can invade. I know…”

“Enough.” Torran’s smoke whipped out and swept down my throat.

The Eleventh Night of Yule

— The Reckoning

On the eleventh night, all things return to the place where they were set in motion.