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“I am not good at magic,” she replied. “I am exceptional. And now I have orchestrated the downfall of one of the five most powerful men in the world. Here you are. At my mercy.”

“So I am,” Landwin said. “Why don’t we skip past all of this and go straight to the negotiation?”

Ren lifted an eyebrow. “Is that what you think this is?”

“I know how all of this works. Better than you could imagine. I’ve captured people before, you know. I’ve even been captured. When I was a little boy. Someone wanted my father’s attention, so they took me. You are playing a game that I am intimately familiar with. If you were going to kill me, you would have already done it. People keep prisoners alive this long when they want to negotiate. So, why not skip to that part?”

“Gods.” Ren shook her head. “He doesn’t remember, Mother.”

Behind her, Agnes Monroe spat on the stones. “Remind him.”

“I am Ren Monroe—daughter of Agnes and Roland Monroe. I have to imagine you learned that from your research. You had people following me. You conducted magical examinations of places I’d visited. I have no doubt there was a file on me somewhere with all of the relevant information. Including my father’s name. But you actually forgot who he was. Didn’t you?”

Landwin looked like a man who’d been thrown overboard into dark waters, unsure how deep it went or what else might be swimming there. “I’m a public figure. I meet many people.…”

“Roland Monroe. Ten years ago, he helped form a union that inconvenienced your progress on the canals. You arranged a meeting with him on the bridge by Crossing Street. And you also arranged for that bridge to collapse. He and four others died that day. You attended his funeral.” Ren pointed back. “That is his wife.” And then she set one hand to her chest. “I am his daughter.”

Now he looked like a man who was craning his neck, doing his best to keep his head above the waterline. A man who knew how dangerous it might be if he slipped down any farther.

“This is not a negotiation,” Ren said. “Aside from your life, what could you give me that I have not already taken from you? Theo has assumed control of your house. Thugar is dead, Tessa imprisoned. Your wife signed our transfer of power and most of your guards have already sworn their loyalty to Theo. Those who didn’t had their contracts sold to other houses. All of the minor houses are coming around to his banner. You have nothing left.”

Landwin shook his head. “I am not without allies. I have cousins who will not like the idea of having Theo in charge. People will come looking for me.”

“No one is coming,” Ren said calmly. “If they are looking for you, they’re looking in all the wrong places, because no one else knows this place exists. I had to get the stones to tell me about it. You didn’t tell your wife. You didn’t tell any of your children. It is the one secret that you kept from the rest of the world, because you wanted a perfect fail-safe. Which is what also makes it the perfect trap.”

Now he was a man whose head was being held underwater. His mouth moved, but no sounds came. Ren did not care to hear him speak again.

“You know, I did my research too. I found out that the architect who designed this building is dead. So are the three builders. Every single one of them died in a tragic accident. A lot like the bridge that collapsed to kill my father. Almost like someone wanted to get rid of them.”

Landwin Brood’s face was pale and bloated. His eyes desperate. A drowning man.

“As I said, this is not a negotiation. It is an execution.”

Ren almost always used her wand. The horseshoe grip that had gotten so comfortable over the years. Now, however, she set it aside. The dragon-forged bracelet began to glow on her wrist instead. A gift from her father to her mother—long before Ren had even been born. She felt it was the appropriate vessel to store the spells that would kill the man who’d killed her father.

“You know what I love about magic?” Ren said. “There’s a spell for everything.”

She’d imagined this day for a long time. She used to practice the spells and the motions and the steps. All the pretend countermoves he might try. There were a lot of different ways a person might use magic to destroy another person, but Ren had eventually decided on the most practical one: a killing spell.

Landwin Brood started begging for his life right as she dispelled the null trap. It vanished in a breathy whisper. Her first blast struck a moment later. Killing spells did not kill the entire person. They could only kill one part of him at a time. The first blast hit his neck. Ren heard his voice gutter out. Dead. Her second blast hit him directly in the chest. He clutched at his shirt and let out a wordless cry. Black streaks were spreading under his skin, creeping up his neck. Dead. Ren hit him again. His right hand shriveled into nothing. Again, his left eye burst within its socket.

Ren destroyed Landwin Brood, piece by piece by piece.

It ended with him slumped on his knees. No voice to beg mercy. No eyes to look out with. Everything about him had been reduced to nothing. She’d always thought of her own father as a king without a crown. A man who ruled his small world with great intention and care. Landwin was the opposite. The golden hair and the fine suits and all that polish. He wore those bright crowns to hide the rot that existed underneath.

Now Ren saw him as he was.

She looked back once more to her mother. One more request for permission. Agnes Monroe offered a tight nod.

“For my father,” she whispered. “For Roland Monroe.”

She carefully adjusted the iron bracelet, lifted her hand, and cast a final killing spell. It caught Landwin Brood right in the chest. Where his heart should have been. The force of it sent him sprawling backward. Ren did not need to check vitals or listen for the sound of his breathing.

The magic had done its dark work.

Landwin Brood was dead.

EPILOGUE