Page 157 of Blackheart

An hour went by before we found Keeper’s Street. It was like a cheap version of the Silver Circle. The loop of houses with bulbous black and gold roofs was freshly maintained for the Witchlords, and Ansel was inside one of them.

“The one all the way to the right,” a familiar voice said. I turned around, grinning at the Draker. It had been some time since Riven had worn the uniform, but I’d recognize his voice anywhere.

I nodded to Beck, and he quickly shadowed all of us, including Riven, as we hurried to Ansel’s assigned residence.

The door was unlocked. As we entered, Ansel was sitting in a brown leather chair, smirking. We each picked a spot in the spacious living room, Amzee and I falling onto either side of the couch.

We’d made it. Part one of the plan was complete.

“I do love a full circle moment,” Beck mused, propping his feet on the oak coffee table.

“The full circle,” Ansel said, “will be when we return home.”

Chapter 45

Blood

“The Princess is said to be spending her honeymoon within Whimcastor Hold. The Chronicle extends its congratulations to the newlyweds.”

—The Castivian Chronicle

Amzeeand I each claimed a bedroom upstairs, while the men fell asleep wherever they saw fit. Each space in the house had been claimed for some purpose; even the dining room had transitioned to the planning room.

I melted into my pillow. Of all places, the Waywards was where I finally hit my point of exhaustion.

We all woke early to have our first meeting inside the ‘Wards. Once we were sitting around the table, I felt the true weight of this mission, and just how much was on our shoulders. Thousands of lives were at stake, including our own.

As the meeting commenced, it was made clear by Ansel that we each had a job to do. Riven would be meeting with other Rogue Drakers throughout the day, organizing operations for when the ships arrived. We would also inform any Drakers joining our side that they would receive safe passage andpardons once they reached Castivian. Riven was silent as usual, nodding and dismissing himself from the meeting first, disappearing into the Waywards.

We knew from Riven’s contacts that there was a group of Dark Natured already planning an uprising. Amzee’s job was to find them and be our contact. She was excited for the task, exuding confidence that she’d be able to do her job and recruit more rebels as well.

“I’m a people person,” she bragged.

“That you are,” Beck agreed.

He had a task as well, aside from shadowing us in and out of Keeper’s Street.

With Beck’s natural gift of observation, Ansel trusted him to search for any weak points in the walls or otherwise. He would also report to Amzee any information on meeting spots and other rebels if he were to come across them.

Informed of their tasks, Amzee and Beck left together, shadowing in silence out the front door and into the rowdy streets, leaving me as the sole person sitting across from Ansel in a now too-quiet room.

His dark hair curtained the sides of his face as he surveyed the parchments in front of him.

I crossed my arms. “What am I to do?”

He gathered the documents into an orderly stack and placed them neatly in the center of the table. He went over to the door frame and leaned on it, eyes locked on me.

“This house is vulnerable. It has our plans, and that information is too valuable and dangerous for anyone else to see. Beyond that, I’ll be gathering weapons to store here, enough to arm the rebels. We can’t risk losing the stash. You’ll be staying here. ”

“I didn’t realize I’d come all this way to sit in a house for two weeks.”

He slid his hands in his cloak pockets. “Someone needs to be here.”

The glorious story I hoped to have seemed unlikely, and while I wanted to push for a more important task, I’d rather sit in the house than be the whining burden of the trip. What good was it to have a different job only because I’d begged for it?

“Fine.”

“Thank you.”