Page 35

The brilliant light of the circle that surrounds us fades, revealing a dilapidated bedroom. Vaulted ceilings support a chandelier that has recently seen more spiders than flame. A grand four-poster bed is covered in as much dust as it is threadbare blankets.

“What is this place?”

“An abandoned manor house at the edge of Starburst Row. It was once used for the education of Arcanists in the city, and as a secret point of rest for nobles making the pilgrimage to the Chalice…before all arcane education fell under academy control and Kaelis’s command.”

Before the academy’s founding, every clan educated their own, raising their own Arcanists born into their families and onto their lands.

Mother told me of how the clans would endlessly war over Arcanists just as they had once warred as kingdoms over the resources used to make cards.

Tensions arose from some clans simply being luckier and having more Arcanists born on their land, which led to jockeying for power and then, ultimately, to the Clan Culling—a legendary war that wiped out half the clans.

From that war, Oricalis rose, and the laws governing Arcanists were put in place.

This history almost makes the academy seem…

fair. It created an equal education for all Arcanists and gave clans—and theoretically the people high and low who belonged to them—equal access to magic.

It allowed all Arcanists to go before the Chalice and unlock their full potential regardless of innate ability.

But, just like the old ways, the academy is merely a different system for treating people like cattle and herding their services and powers into the hands of those above them.

“How do you know of it?” I remember him saying he had to know of the place to teleport to it, and that he had entered the academy under Kaelis. He shouldn’t have been here.

“After I was discovered as a Major, I was taken here—to this room. The academy was very new, and my powers manifested earlier than most.” His expression is hard, closed off. Voice as hollow as the abandoned rooms that surround us. “My family…”

“What happened to them?” I recognize that blank stare, the emptiness.

“What did they do to them?” Silas’s eyes drift to mine, coming back into focus.

I offer him a bitter smile. It’s not necessary to say who “they” are, we both know.

It’s Kaelis, the crown, the clans, the whole bloody system.

“I know what they do to people like us—to the families and loved ones of people like us. Especially if those families would have the audacity to hide you.”

“As your family did for you?” The question is a gentle probe. But I fold anyway. I can’t help it; I see myself in him—a kindred spirit.

“You’re not the only one who showed aptitude early. My mother…she knew what I was well before I did. Did everything she could to hide me…and herself.”

“She was an unrecorded Arcanist,” he whispers, as if there are enforcers here with us. “Unmarked, even?”

I nod. “They killed her for it.” Perhaps for even more…

if my growing suspicions have merit. Kaelis has clearly known what I am for some time.

While he was founding the academy, Arina and I were living on the streets just across the bridge.

“My sister and I swore to do whatever it took to find her killer and avenge her.”

“She mentioned.”

“Did she?” I’d assumed she’d been more sparing when it came to the information she gave him, but…perhaps not.

He nods. “Did you manage to get your revenge before you were sent to Halazar?”

I shake my head. “My search started with nothing but disbelief and a hunch. Then, I found people my mother had worked with who had conflicting stories compared to what the enforcers had told me of what happened that day. I found a man who said he saw her rope at the Descent and it looked cut. I managed to sneak my way into an enforcer’s record hall once. But there was nothing.”

“Do they keep records of accidents at the Descent?” he asks delicately. I hear the real question: Do they care enough about lowborns like us to even keep track of our deaths?

“Not detailed, but there’s usually at least a note in a ledger.

Especially since she’d already done her mandatory stint at the Descent and this was a second stint for payment.

I found out that Stellis were called to the Descent the day before.

But the page for the day my mother died had been torn out of the book entirely.

” I frown. After Bristara had taken Arina and me into the Starcrossed Club, she told me to give up the search.

When she learned I hadn’t, she warned me that I was hunting down ghosts that shouldn’t be found.

That if it was something the enforcers hid…

then powerful people were likely involved.

That only cemented my need to search even more.

Mother was engaged in illegal activities, that much I knew.

She did everything and more that the crown hated, and they had the means to kill her.

But why they murdered her covertly when they could’ve put her on trial and condemned her to death still eludes me.

“Every lead went dry for a while…until I had one lucky break. Or so I thought. It didn’t work out. ”

I cross to one of the windows, as if I could physically remove myself from this conversation—and from the memory of the failure that got me caught.

I should never have trusted Griv. In the brief time I knew him, he always seemed to know just what I needed to hear—what to say to get me to blindly trust him.

But it’s not like I made it hard for him, being as transparent as I was and am when it comes to Mother’s death and the nobles.

The curtains are pockmarked with holes left behind by hungry moths. I’m surprised the fabric doesn’t disintegrate between my fingers as I peel it back, unveiling the view of Eclipse City.

The districts are stitched against one another as in a patchwork quilt.

Neighborhoods that gleam with lanterns and spotlights stand seamlessly flush with neighborhoods where the windows are so thickly coated in grime that not even candlelight could penetrate them.

A dark swath is lit more by starlight than by magic or practical illumination.

The slums sprawl to the east, toward the foot of the mountains that arc around the city, a pit of despair… and a nest of resistance.

Silas comes up at my side. “I’d stare out this window for hours.”

I hum and shift my weight, leaning against the windowsill. I’m surprised it holds my weight given the condition of everything else in this room. I say nothing, waiting.

“I’d imagine that, maybe, I’d see my family walking in the streets below,” Silas says finally.

“What happened to them?”

“I…don’t know.” Silas rubs the back of his neck as if he’s unsure. As if he’s never told this to anyone else before. “I think, sometimes, if I follow the crown’s rules and do everything right, then I’ll be able to find out.”

There’s the reason he was so hesitant to leave. My vague notions of ditching him begin to vanish. I can’t do that to someone else…not after what I’ve been through, and if there’s still a possibility his family could be alive.

“Use them, Silas,” I advise. “But never trust them.”

“Do you trust Kaelis?”

“No.”

“Even though you’re engaged to him?”

“It’s a temporarily beneficial arrangement,” I tell both myself and him. “As soon as its use has dried up, there will be nothing between us, and we’ll be enemies once more.”

“Do you think he can help you find your mother’s killer?”

“Perhaps.” I sigh. Stale air that clings to the upholstery fills my lungs. That singular mission is all I’ve known for years. The one thing that gave Arina and me purpose when all else seemed lost.

Nothing was the same after Mother died. We lost our guide and guardian. Our home. We threw ourselves into finding the truth. Into pushing every boundary if it meant acting against the crown and its laws. Vengeance won’t bring her back, but it might bring some amount of peace.

“But first things first, I just want to make sure my family is safe, and be with them again, that’s all,” I say.

Silas’s chin dips slightly, eyes drifting to the floor. “I’d give anything to see my family again…”

“Maybe the club can find a lead on them. We’ve helped people out before in similar ways; it’s what we do.” I push away from the window. “I know where we are. We’ll get to them quickly.” I can’t see the Starcrossed Club from this vantage, but I know certain landmarks like the back of my hand.

“With necessary stops for me to ink.” He shrugs the shoulder his bag of inking supplies is thrown over.

“Of course.” I’m curious to see a Major card being successfully inked. Perhaps it’ll give me some clarity on my own card.

He leads us out the bedroom door and through the decrepit rooms of this remnant of a bygone era.

Down a staircase, we turn away from the main entry and into the kitchens.

In the back is a small receiving door—an alleyway is a much better place to slip out.

Who knows how busy the main road this manor sits on is.

Though I suspect not very, given its condition.

Silas hesitates at the threshold of the door, eyes shining in the low light. He seems to shrink in on himself, shoulders arcing inward. For such an imposing figure of a man, and even with all his muscles, he’s quite good at making himself seem small and demure.

They have his family. He didn’t say so outright. But given the circumstances…we can both assume it to be true. A physical cage wouldn’t work on a man whose magic can go anywhere.