Page 5

“The same woman who is said to be able to ink any card with anything ? A feat so impossible it’s already becoming legend in the underbelly of Eclipse City. Tell me, Clara, in Halazar, how did you manage to ink Coins and Cups cards for your escape with powder for Swords alone?”

“You…you made sure there was only powder for Swords there,” I realize.

His eyes threaten to consume me whole. Waves of hair partially obscure the fire smoldering in his gaze.

I had been used. Tested. My escape…no, even before that.

The warden had me ink all manner of cards with practically nothing.

Kaelis could’ve killed me from the start, if he wanted to.

Perhaps my whole imprisonment was a test, all the way back to the night I was captured.

“What do you want with me?” I return to my earlier question.

“I wanted to know if you were the real deal, Clara.” He scrutinizes me through his long lashes. “I wanted to see if you had not only the skill, but the grit to survive what comes next. To give me the World.”

“I will never help you,” I say, seething.

“Thrive in my world or die in yours. Help me and be rewarded. Fight me and everything—and everyone—precious to you will be annihilated in ways beyond your worst imagining.” It is a promise, not a threat.

Arina flashes before my eyes. She’s right here at the academy, under his control. I think, too, of my crew at the club, which I must assume he also knows about.

My hand flies for his throat like a viper. I press wells into his ghostly skin. Even after almost a year of not seeing the sun in Halazar, my skinis still slightly tanner than his. Kaelis’s lips split into an all-out grin.

“Don’t you dare.” Even as my fingers tighten, they quiver. He can feel just how weak I am. Was putting me in this state part of his plan, too?

“Then do exactly as I say.” He speaks with ease, despite my pathetic attempt at choking him. I don’t even have the strength to reduce his words to a wheeze.

I want to break him. I want to squeeze until his eyes bulge. I don’t care what it means for me: My life is forfeit anyway. That much has become apparent. Prince Kaelis is known for breaking his toys.

Without warning, the door slams open with such force it rattles the windows. There’s a burst of light and the fizzle of magic from a card that, judging from the deep gouges it left in the doorframe, I can only guess was some kind of Sword.

In the doorway stands another man. He has dark hair and black eyes like Kaelis, the same shade of skin, and the same arrogant aura.

But the two are opposite in every other way: This man wears a finely tailored coat of gold with a white shirt and white trousers.

His boots are a warm, honeyed color. Even the sword pendant at his neck is different.

It’s made of a brilliant silver that shines so brightly even in the low light that I can see it from here.

I let go of Kaelis with a shock as I realize I’m beholding Prince Ravin, heir to the Oricalis throne and regent of Eclipse City.

Kaelis leans away from me, still nonchalant, as if I hadn’t just nearly tried to choke the life from him. “Hello, brother. Have you ever heard of knocking?”

“As if you’d unlock the door for me.” Ravin’s eyes dart between us. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I’m not sure who the question is intended for, so I keep my mouth shut. Especially since I don’t know if Ravin saw me with my hand at his brother’s throat.

“I could ask you the same.” Judging from Kaelis’s tone, there is no warmth between the brothers.

“I was coming to inform you that I just received word from Glavstone that Halazar has an escapee.”

My blood freezes over. Especially when Ravin’s gaze settles on me.

“And that is my concern because ?” Kaelis draws out the question, somehow managing to sound both annoyed and bored.

“It was an illegal Arcanist. Cell two hundred and five.” My cell number. “This matter must be taken seriously and investigated to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Of course it will be. I’m sure Glavstone has the matter covered.”

“Indeed. I’ve granted Halazar guards leave to sweep Eclipse City.”

“Good of you.” Condescension is thick in Kaelis’s voice.

“They will come here next.”

“Exceptional.” Kaelis shrugs.

Ravin’s agitation rises at his younger brother’s performative ease. “I assume you will grant them access to conduct a search, since the academy doors are open tonight.”

“Yes, of course.” Kaelis shifts his attention pointedly back to me. A mix of shock and fear freezes me. I’m not sure where to look. And I wish I had something more than a slip of a nightgown to protect me. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m busy.”

“With what?” Ravin’s attention is harsher than the lamplight in the depths of Halazar.

“I’m informing the latest applicant to the academy what will be expected of her in the upcoming Fire Festival tonight.”

That’s tonight? Then that means today is the first day of Wands, my birthday. Worst birthday ever.

“Applicant?” Ravin and I say in near unison.

“Has she not aged out of being an applicant?” Ravin asks.

“You make me sound ancient,” I mutter under my breath, indignant. I turned twenty-one today. Though after Halazar I probably look eighty.

Still, twenty-one is technically outside the limit…

All Arcanists in Oricalis are required to join the academy in the year after they turn twenty.

The timing mirrors the twenty Major tarot, one year for each Major, with the belief that an Arcanist’s skills can’t mature until they’ve had enough time to live a year for every Major.

Those who refuse to enter the academy, or are discovered afterward by enforcers as Arcanists in hiding, are automatically Marked and sent to the powder mills. The academy offers a chance at a better life, if you succeed in getting in. Though…most fail the year one tests, or die trying.

“Her birthday is today.” A slimy sensation coats my flesh at Kaelis’s remark. He’s clearly done his research on me.

“Then she should have joined last year. I’m not sure what entertainment she is to you, but your amusement isn’t above the law.”

“I disagree,” Kaelis japes. His playfulness sends a vein in Ravin’s temple bulging.

“Mark her and send her to a mill. Or kill her. Either way, be done.” Ravin’s eyes flick to me, and a frown tugs on his lips.

“Exceptions are made for nobles,” Kaelis counters. “It wouldn’t be the first time a nobleman’s son or daughter joined the academy a bit late so they could finish their other tutelage.”

“She’s not a noble.” Ravin is far too certain of that fact for my comfort.

“But she is.” Kaelis reaches into his coat and withdraws a folded paper.

It’s yellowed and frayed at its edges. The prince crosses to his brother.

“You see, I’ve been doing some digging. You know how…

plagued with guilt I’ve been these past five years.

” The words fill the air with the heaviness of what’s left unsaid.

Five years ago… No one knows the truth of what happened the day Clan Hermit was destroyed.

The official statement is that the noble clan revolted against the crown and so Kaelis annihilated them all with inexplicable power.

Innocent people. Countless lives. Gone. All by Kaelis wielding unknown magic so far-reaching and fearsome that it sparked rumors that the only thing it could have been was a reversed card.

An unnatural force that is said not to exist. But what else could it have been? the rumors and whispers ask.

“ You looked up something regarding Clan Hermit?” Ravin is a mix of shock and doubt.

“I wondered if, perhaps, someone survived.” Kaelis hands his brother the paper.

I can’t read it from here, but what he says next fills in enough of the blanks.

“As you can plainly see, this is Clara Redwin, the multiple-times-removed niece of High Lady Hannah Tymespun—watering down the bloodline just enough to spare her on that fateful day and making her the last surviving heiress of Clan Hermit.”

What in the Twenty is he talking about? When I was captured, the last name I went by was Graysword. Before that, Mother told Arina and me to say our name was Daygar. Redwin is completely new.

As Kaelis walks back to me, I’m too stunned to speak.

His dark eyes shine the way they did before he left the room in Halazar.

Then he stands a bit taller, brushes the hair from his face, and laces his fingers with mine.

It’s oddly intimate, and the only thing that keeps me from shoving him away is the pure, full-body shock at what he says next: “Which means, as a noble and future High Lady of a clan, she is more than eligible not only to join the academy late, but also to be my future bride.”