Page 52

I STUMBLE OUT OF THE W EST T OWER, J ACKSON’S HAND IN MINE. A BIGAIL and Finn follow us with frantic urgency.

Mia doesn’t.

Everyone else—Grace, Tom, Sofia—waits wide-eyed in the courtyard. I don’t hesitate, rushing toward the parlor doors. The crowd dissipating from the rampart indicates Abigail reached Deonte and he ended the Kevin Webber cinematic distraction.

Holding up my hands, I divert family members heading our direction. “Stay back,” I warn, understanding the nerve-racked impression we make, with my hair haywire, Jackson’s nose bloodstained.

The guests’ confusion doesn’t last long, however.

From the dungeon, a huge explosion rocks Volenvell Castle.

We’re flung to the cobblestones. Jackson’s arms enfold me, screams surrounding us. The whole mountaintop lurches, rumbling from the detonation. I’m honestly worried the castle will collapse down the mountainside, our own Alpine avalanche. The last legacy of our misbegotten Switzerland heist.

Instead, the ground finally stops shaking. I pull away from Jackson. Standing, I find Deonte and Kevin running our way. “You guys okay?” Deonte asks. “What happened?”

His eyes sweep over us, focusing intently on Abigail. Which is when I notice my sister looks pale.

“You’re bleeding,” I say.

Dazed, Abigail looks down. Her eyes find the slick red on her palm. “I tripped,” she says. “Running up the stairs. I’m fine.”

Deonte reaches gently for her hand. “Let’s get this cleaned up,” he says. Abigail follows him wordlessly.

“No one is coming out,” Tom observes.

I follow his stare to the dungeon doorway. In his nervous expression, I realize that while Tom wasn’t willing to join Mia’s side, he still cares about her. He knows she’s a person, with hopes, fears, desires, sadness, and only seventeen years to her name.

No one has emerged. I rationalize the likeliest options this presents, dreading them equally. Either the Knives’ risky plan worked and Mia is sacking the vault, or she’s hurt… or worse.

I don’t dare hope they’re waiting for the foundation to stabilize, or hiding to regroup, or other fragile possibilities. Hope has no place in heists.

Otto Karlson enters the courtyard. With him come men I recognize, Leonie’s drivers—weapons drawn.

The firepower startles me, and I realize the drivers double as Volenvell security.

Of course my grandmother wouldn’t leave her mountaintop compound unprotected.

Running, they descend the dungeon stairs.

“Come on, Mia…,” I murmur.

“What’s going on here?”

The voice ringing out in the cold is the one I want to hear least in the world. Not Dash’s. Not Leonie’s.

Hammond Owens strides into the courtyard, shining shoes clipping on the cobblestones. He looks dour, as usual. Indignant at the uncouth disruption to his day. Explosives? How drab. “Who is responsible for this?” he demands.

The rest of the family gathers. Leonie, I’m stunned to find, looks… remorseful, concern shining in her sharp eyes. Dash doesn’t. “Your daughter seems to be missing,” he remarks to Hammond.

“Mia would never cause this manner of property damage,” Hammond replies.

Dash merely looks pitying of Hammond’s pathetic ignorance, unconcerned for his young niece potentially crushed under the family castle.

Leonie turns away from the tower, facing the gathering family.

“Someone tried to blow their way into my fortune, and it may have cost them their life,” she announces, her eyes narrowed.

“ This is the curse I seek to free you from, don’t you see?

Do not make the same mistakes. Whatever damage has been done in there,” she promises, “the vault will be repaired tonight.”

Dash’s gaze meets mine in an unspoken reminder of our conversation. He still wants Mia’s cuff links in exchange for the ring.

Does he… want me to steal them off Mia’s body?

What a fucking thought.

I wrench my eyes from his, staring forward defiantly. While the family watches, security removes the henchmen’s equipment from the dungeon, then Grace’s. Even from here, I know Jackson’s fear was realized. Grace’s drill is destroyed.

Which I suppose removes the evidence we were down there.

Pulling my gaze to the parlor, medics appear with guards carrying stretchers. My stomach knots. My pounding heart feels ready to leap out of my chest. I can’t help glancing at Hammond, who has presumably realized Dash’s remark was not mere suspicious sniping. His daughter is missing.

The medics descend. While he’s gone paler, Hammond does not move or respond. Nor does his contemptuous frown change.

First, the medics emerge with one stretcher. The inert form lying there is not Mia-size. His face is covered in blood and dust—presumably from being flung by the sheer force of the explosion into the wall or the floor—the first of the vault crackers is unconscious.

Security follows with the other man in handcuffs, limping badly. They haul him out of sight.

No Mia.

The passing minutes feel like eternity. Until finally—

The other stretcher emerges from the dungeon. Otto follows.

I don’t hesitate. Pushing past my uncaring family, I rush to the stretcher, where I find Mia. Her sweater is no longer white. There’s blood smeared with soot on her forehead, bruising already purpling her neck. But she’s conscious. Awake. Alive.

The urge to say something seizes me. I just don’t know what. Sorry I couldn’t get you out? You were a worthy opponent? I’m glad you’re not dead?

In the end, I don’t get the chance. Leonie strides past me. Holding up her hand, she halts the stretcher.

Mia’s eyes find her grandmother, a maelstrom of fear, guilt, and pain.

Leonie leans closer. The remorse hasn’t faded from her expression. “You understand you’ll have to leave now, don’t you, Mia?” she inquires of the patient, leading the way one would address a child.

Tears shine in Mia’s eyes. She nods, wincing.

“Good girl. This life was never for you. Don’t be sad,” Leonie consoles her, clasping my cousin’s shaking hand.

“Will you have me arrested?” Mia manages to ask.

“No, no, my dear, no. You didn’t succeed in stealing anything,” Leonie reassures her, indulgent. She releases Mia’s hand. “You’ll just never be welcomed back to Volenvell.”

In the echo of her words, Leonie leaves the courtyard. Mia starts weeping silently, and while her stretcher is escorted into the castle, I wonder if my cousin would have preferred jail.