Page 25

S HE WAS SHOVED INTO A DARK CLOSET at the circus and locked in.

It took time for her eyes to adjust, but she found a broom to snap in half, making a weapon.

It felt like hours that she waited. Briony thought she’d be given to Reighven immediately, but maybe the payment process was more complex than she assumed.

When the door finally burst open and the light hit her eyes, she had lost all her adrenaline. Her heart kick-started into gear.

But it wasn’t Reighven. Gains glared down at her as if she hadn’t just made him a very rich man.

“Up.”

Briony stood, not even bothering to hide the sharp stick from the broom handle. With a flick of his fingers, Gains tossed the stick aside.

“Come with me.”

Slowly, she followed him out of the closet. He led her down a staircase and twisted her through the backstage of the circus. She didn’t hear a sound behind any of the closed doors, and she wondered if every one of her friends was already gone.

When Gains stopped at a closed door that said Acrobats , he pushed the handle and stepped aside for her to enter. She expected to find Reighven. Maybe a cot or a chair where he’d force her down and push up her dress.

She didn’t expect to find Larissa Gains. She hadn’t expected to find her ever again.

Larissa seemed to feel the same as she sat up tall from the counter she’d been leaning on, eyes wide and hungry. They were in a dressing room with mirrors on the walls and large candles flickering.

Gains shut the door without looking at his daughter once, locking them in.

Before Larissa could say a word to her, there was a sharp burning on Briony’s left arm.

Her mouth opened in a silent hiss of pain.

She looked down to where Lag Reighven had been inked into her skin.

The letters sizzled. She squeezed her fist and watched as the ink lifted, rearranging until a different signature formed on her skin.

Toven Hearst.

She blinked down at the letters, her vision swimming. It couldn’t be …

Larissa was at her side, grabbing her arm.

“Ha!”

The sound jarred her.

Larissa turned away, running her nails through her hair. The mirrors allowed Briony to see that she’d pressed her eyes closed, squeezing her lips together.

“Incredible.” She spun around to face her. “How much?”

Briony shook her head, deciding that Larissa didn’t need to know.

“Thirty thousand?” Larissa guessed, gazing at her assessingly. “Thirty-five thousand?” she said when Briony didn’t answer. “Come on, now. I’m curious. Forty?”

Briony turned away but was unable to find a wall in which Larissa’s face did not reflect back at her. Her own face was almost unrecognizable, with deep circles under her eyes and dry skin. Her jawline stuck out unpleasantly.

“Tell me,” Larissa hissed over her shoulder. Briony met her eyes. Something stormed inside Larissa’s expression, like the moment before thunder cracks. As Briony watched, Larissa’s blue gaze flooded and she took a slow breath before asking, “More than forty thousand?”

Briony looked away, shivering. She caught sight of the ink on Larissa’s arm—a matching Toven Hearst.

Before Briony could fully piece it all together, a furious gust of wind swept through the dressing room. She raised her hands to shield her face, and Larissa did the same. When she peeked, a wide gaping hole was in the room. A black entrance to a portal.

Larissa and Briony looked at each other. Briony didn’t know what kind of choice they had. Someone would come to force them through, she was sure.

Larissa tried the door one last time to no success, and then she grabbed Briony’s hand and tugged her through.

The pressure gripped her chest, and when they popped out the other side, Briony’s face was battered with thick raindrops. She gasped soundlessly as lightning flashed the sky, illuminating a sprawling dark castle before them. The wrought-iron gates were closed.

Briony had read about Hearst Hall but had never seen it in person. It was built at the base of the Armitage Mountains, in one of the few plateaus of flat land in Bomard. Hearst Hall was only one of the Hearst properties, but it was their most prized and therefore their most frequently inhabited.

Larissa gazed up at it through the rain with apprehension, as if she didn’t know if even she would be safe there.

Briony turned in a circle, finding the edge of a wood behind her in the lightning strikes, dark and impenetrable.

They could make a run for it now. She could take Larissa’s hand and flee into the forest, letting the Gowarnus elixir work its way out of their systems until they could properly portal away.

She had decided to do so when suddenly there was movement in the trees. Briony stepped back, and Larissa turned to see what got her attention.

A large fox had slunk around the trunk of a tree, watching them. Maybe it was a small wolf.

A clanking behind them made the women spin back to see the black metal gates swinging open. At the end of a long park, the door to Hearst Hall was open.

Briony turned in every direction. Was there a way out that wasn’t toward the creature in the forest or toward the dark castle?

She grabbed Larissa’s arm, pointing toward the left where a pathway split around the corner of the outer wall. Larissa shook her head mutely, her eyes flicking between the creature in the forest and the open door of the house. A ball of light was moving slowly down the long drive toward them.

Briony dropped Larissa’s arm and made for the pathway. She could do it alone.

There came a snarling snapping of jaws, and Briony jumped back, finding the animal in her path. It was a fox, she could see, but with a deeper growl.

She stumbled and slipped in the wet grass, tumbling onto her backside. Larissa helped her up as the ball of light zoomed forward, stopping at the gates. It hovered, and Briony realized it was similar to the navigator flame that sailors used to guide them in the dark of the ocean.

Briony looked at the fox, who was licking its chops, and started forward to follow the light, dragging Larissa with her.

The fox lunged, and in a panic, Briony and Larissa separated. Briony fell forward past the gates, and Larissa scattered to the outside. A sharp pain sparked in Briony’s left arm, and before she could get to her feet, the black gates were swinging closed, locking her in.

Briony ran for the gates, grabbing the metal and tugging while Larissa did the same from the outside.

Lightning split the sky, and a crack of thunder followed no more than a second later.

Larissa’s wide eyes were on the fox as Briony tugged with all her might, her fingers slipping under the rainwater, and her relocated shoulder burning.

The fox turned with a final glance and headed back toward the trees. And a second later, a deep-black portal opened on the edge of the forest. A hooded man stepped out, and Larissa lunged for the gates with a cry, begging them to open for her.

The man held out his hand and screamed, “Don’t!” He pushed off his hood, and Finn Raquin’s anxious eyes were on them. “Don’t cross the barrier, Larissa.”

Larissa choked on a sob and ran into his arms.

Briony watched in silence as Larissa buried her face in her friend’s chest. And she wondered what was happening to Cordelia at this moment. To Didion.

Without a glance to Briony at the gate, Finn grabbed Larissa’s arm and pulled a vial from his pocket. He pulled the cork out with his teeth and said, “This is going to hurt.”

Larissa’s eyes went wide as he poured the elixir over her arm—over the tattoo with Toven’s name.

Briony watched in horror as Larissa’s skin burned away.

The blond woman screamed and tried to pull back, but Finn held her firmly.

When the vial was empty, Finn tossed it on the ground and quickly started casting a spell over Larissa’s arm.

Lightning lit the sky, but not even the boom of the thunder could drown out Larissa’s wailing cry as Finn pulled black smoke from her skin, inky and wet.

Larissa drooped and passed out, but Finn held her tightly to his chest as he tugged and tugged until the smoke turned to blood.

He summoned a leaf patch to place over her burned skin, then tucked her up against his chest, carrying her back to the portal without a glance at Briony.

Briony’s heart galloped. She banged on the bars, desperate to make him hear her. When he turned, she extended her arm as far as it would go, begging him with her eyes.

Me next.

Finn stared at her and took a deep breath.

“This is the safest place for you, Briony.”

Her eyes widened in horror as she watched him glance at Hearst Hall and then turn to slip into the portal, Larissa dangling from his arms.

The portal closed with a zip , and then Briony was alone in the rain on the wrong side of the gates of Hearst Hall.