Page 43 of Fortress of Ambrose (House of Marionne #3)

Thirty-Six

Quell

Tippets Square is empty as the sun rises over the buildings.

When I returned to Chateau Soleil, Yaniselle told me she followed Jordan here, where he disappeared inside a church.

And didn’t come out. Panicked, she returned to find me, and we traveled back here together.

I linger near a fountain’s edge, looking for some indication where Jordan could have gone.

But it’s an earsplitting scream that sends a jolt through my ribs.

Leaving my mother in Nova Misa was hard, but I made my choice, and it isn’t goodbye forever. The Dragunhead is after my magic, and I won’t stand for it. No one else is dying to fight my battles for me.

I will stop him myself.

I will glide on my own wings.

The air shreds a second time with a bloodcurdling scream.

I look for where the noise is coming from and in the dim morning light spot a girl with cropped dark hair standing over a charred body on the sidewalk that rims the square.

She’s covered in bruises, and the closer I get, I realize I know those thick black-liner-streaked eyes, combat boots, and mixed-metal jacket.

“Abby!”

She turns, and morning light illuminates her whole face. It’s really her. I run harder, slamming into her.

“Quell?” She sobs against me, hugging me tight.

“You’re okay.”

She shakes, falling to her knees. I smell the body’s stench before I see it up close.

“It’s Mynick.”

I gasp. “What happened?”

She points at the church. “He tried to get in there, and when he crossed those steps, he caught on fire.”

The last time I saw Mynick, he pretended to help me look for my mom at a ball, when he was really plotting a raid to capture me. “You hate him.”

“I do, but he showed up at the Tavern one night for one of the shows. I was hoping to slash his tires or something to make myself feel better. I couldn’t help myself.

” She folds her arms, and I hug her again.

It hurts to see her so upset over someone who isn’t even worth her time.

“But when I went looking for him, he was meeting with some people who mentioned Jordan. I’ve been following him ever since, to see what he was up to.

I worried he was setting Jordan up to be raided like he did to you, but no one ever came.

Now he’s dead.” Her grip on my hand is iron.

“Quell, have you been reading the papers?”

Darkbearers. “I have.”

“I was in one of those neighborhoods that got destroyed. I watched Mynick and those guys—” Her voice cracks. “She was just a little old lady, Quell.” She breaks. “Why? Why would he do this?”

I hold her tighter. “Some people only feel good about themselves when they make others feel bad.”

“He wasn’t like this before. It’s that poison. That toushana. He should have never touched it.” She looks at my hands. “I don’t mean— I’m sorry, Quell.”

Every person in the Order has been taught that toushana should be despised. It’s going to take time for her to see how wrong that is. “I’m just glad you’re okay. Check his phone.”

“Good idea.” Abby digs through what’s left of Mynick’s pockets and pulls out his phone. “Who is that?” She points to Yani.

“Jordan’s ex. Long story.”

“Do we like her?”

“We definitely don’t like her.”

Abby gives her a condescending sneer, and my heart swells. I’ve missed having a friend.

“Jordan went into the church—” Abby says, and Yani takes that as her cue to invite herself into our conversation. She looks at Mynick.

“Knew he wouldn’t last. The overly eager ones never do,” she mutters.

I approach the stone edge of the fountain. “Walk me through it again, Yani.”

She explains how Jordan hung back at the fountain and then went to the church steps.

“He used a card to get in or something.”

“How did the card work?” I ask.

“If I knew that, we’d know who he was meeting already.” She folds her arms, dark hair draped over her shoulder. She is annoyingly beautiful.

“Why are you here?” I ask.

“Where else was I supposed to go?”

“Literally anywhere. You lose your home, and you follow Jordan like a kicked puppy? You either have no self-respect or are up to something.”

She scowls.

The cold magic inside me awakens. “What are you after?”

“I’ve told Jordan everything. Sounds like he didn’t share.”

“Rude—” Abby starts, but I stop her.

“I know Jordan,” she goes on, “better than you ever could. I made him into who he is. You’re all wrong for him.”

“This from someone who worshiped at the altar of Beaulah Perl.”

“From what I heard, we weren’t all that different a few months ago.” She quirks a brow. “Besides, I’ve turned over a new leaf.”

“Your opinion doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t need to matter to you. Only him.”

“It doesn’t matter to him.”

“Then why didn’t Jordan rat me out to Willam and the others as a heartless traitor who could never be trusted?

” She’s so close to me I smell her flowery scent.

It turns my stomach. Nothing she says matters.

If he is foolish enough to fall for her, he was never truly mine.

I busy myself skimming the area again, but I can feel her glare still on me. Abby encourages me with an eye roll.

“You can’t understand him,” Yani goes on. “Especially now, with so much power—”

I tighten my fists, keeping my back to her.

“You don’t know what it was like growing up—” she rattles on.

“Don’t I?” I say to her face. “A childhood living in shadows, being seen by others but not ever really being seen at all, impossible expectations, feeling like you’re losing some part of yourself, being haunted by nightmares of things you’ve seen, isolating, self-deprecating, dabbling with darkness and liking it. ”

She swallows.

“I’d rather be burned alive than sing the Order’s pledge anymore.” I smell a lock of her hair. “You still smell like Hartsboro.”

Hatred burns in Yani’s eyes. When suddenly behind her a figure shaped like Jordan appears across the Square. He strolls with steps sharper than a blade, holding a box.

“Something’s wrong,” I say, trying to reconcile the sublime expression on his face.

“Or something’s right,” Yani says.

“What is he holding?” Abby asks.

I book it toward him. His mouth bows in a clever smirk. He shimmies the box, and when we are close enough, he whispers, “The Sphere’s proper magic in an ancient diadem.” He clears his throat. “All of it that was inside me is gone.”

I look back. Abby watches, gaping. Yani gasps.

“What? How? Wait. That means—the Sphere’s toushana is still in you?” I hover a tentative hand near him and feel cold radiating off his skin. “Are you okay?” I ask. He has the Sphere’s toushana inside him. Only toushana.

“Quell, the extraction procedure they used to get this out of me is the same one we’ll use for the toushana.

There were a few mishaps, unfortunately.

Some of the magic was lost.” He turns the diadem, and I can see gaps for missing stones.

“We’ll have to refine the procedure a bit before executing it again.

But we know how to do what we want now. This is the best news. ”

He smiles. I hesitate. “We should get back behind the gates of the Chateau.” The protections my grandmother put in place should hopefully help keep him from the Darkbearers hunting him and the Dragunhead after me.

“W-We have to leave!” Abby drops Mynick’s phone, and it hits the pavement with a thud. She’s as pale as a ghost. I pick it up, and despite the damaged outer case and cracked screen, I make out his last messages.

Mynick: Target found. Confirming, the magic in his body seems to be doing fine. Appears physically intact from what I can tell. Apprehend?

But it’s the response that chills my blood.

Them: Send me your location. He is my Heart. I will do this myself.

Mynick: Tippets Square.

My heart drums faster. My mother’s warning about the Dragunhead haunts me, connecting with something Jordan said some time ago.

Darkbearer attacks are too coordinated to be random.

My stomach plummets. The last several days crash together in my memory, the conversations about Jordan I kept overhearing, the swift way word spread, the absence of Draguns, Mynick’s death.

Darkbearers are moving like a unit, an army, well organized.

Darkbearers don’t want Jordan.

Their boss does.

“He is behind the Darkbearer attacks.”

“Who, Quell?”

“The Dragunhead.”