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My breathing turned ragged as I struggled not to panic. There is someone out there stealing my tonic, I thought, unable to contain my fear. Why? What would anyone want with it?

I couldn’t explain the irrational terror that clawed through me. Logically, I knew this wasn’t anything earth-shattering; I could make more tonic. I knew the recipe. It would be easy.

But then a sneaking sliver of dread slithered its way into me and asked: What else was Gran hiding from me?

There it was. My anxiety mounted, and my thoughts began to spiral. It wasn’t just that my tonic was missing—it was that Gran had been keeping secrets, she’d had the amulet of the Mage King in her possession, and she’d been murdered. Now, the vials of tonic she urged me to take every day were missing.

It was all too suspicious.

There were questions that needed answering, pieces of the mystery I still couldn’t solve, and that frustrated me to no end. I needed the truth.

Resolve coursed through me, and I started pushing aside piles of broken furniture. Shards of glass clinked, and feathers floated in the air from my movements. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I was so damn tired of being kept in the dark.

Gran had to have kept something in here that would tell me the truth. Just once, I wanted to uncover what she had hidden from me.

Several minutes passed, and all I had to show for my search were several cuts on my hand from the broken glass. I was just about to give up when I noticed something small and white sticking up from underneath a broken floorboard.

I froze, my heart seizing in my chest. With careful movements, I inched closer to the floorboard and eased it upward. Something had been buried underneath, but it must have come loose when the room had been torn apart.

There was only one thing tucked inside—a folded up letter. The handwriting was unfamiliar to me. My hands trembled as I unfolded it.

Heron,

Everything is in place. All that’s left is for you to do your part with the amulet. I don’t need to remind you how vital it is that you fulfill your end of the bargain. If this fails, we are both implicated.

I have spies tracking our target now. I know which inn he will be staying at, and I have procured the poison from the contact you gave me. If all goes according to plan, he will be dead within a week.

The realm will be safer when all this is over, and you have my word the Wolven Mages will never set foot on your lands again. Soon, you will be the most powerful being in the Wind Court, just like you wanted.

Send word when it’s done.

Sparrow

My panic returned anew, my breathing turning into sharp wheezes.

Storms. I had wanted to uncover something, but now that I had…

No. It couldn’t be true. This—this could mean anything. It didn’t necessarily mean Gran had worked with a Mage to kill the king. And even if it did, perhaps she had a good reason for it. Maybe she had been coerced or blackmailed into doing it. Or… or…

I scanned the letter again and again, trying to find something I could cling to, something that proved my grandmother wasn’t a murderer.

He will be dead within a week.

The Wolven Mages will never set foot on your lands again.

Soon, you will be the most powerful being in the Wind Court, just like you wanted.

If it hadn’t been the Mage King, Gran had certainly conspired to kill someone. And it didn’t look like she’d been forced to do anything.

It looked like she had desired power, and killing the king had given it to her.

Oh gods. I couldn’t breathe. My vision spun, and my hand trembled so violently that the letter fell from my grip. It fluttered to my lap, the damning words on the parchment taunting me. Laughing at me. Mocking me for being so blind for so many years.

With a growl, I snatched the parchment and shoved it in my bodice, unable to look at it any longer. My chest cinched tighter, and I hunched over with a groan, lungs straining to get more air.

The Oracle was right. Gran had helped kill the Mage King.

It was true. It was all true.