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Chapter 27

Theo

Lotte fell without questioning that he would catch her. And he did, arms going around her, lowering her to the ground. Edmund faltered for just for a second as Theo stopped, his eyes going to Theo, then Hilde, for guidance. But Hilde didn’t hesitate.

“Go!” she ordered Edmund, wrenching open the door of the automobile. She was right, there was no time to waste. In a second, Edmund was in the driver’s seat, peeling off behind Hilde, leaving Lotte and Theo behind.

Theo felt the war raging in his chest still as Modesty, wearing the ring, vanished out of his reach.

The fox girl called something out, the three Grims taking off behind the automobile, even as her gaze stayed on Theo for a long moment before she turned and followed. They wouldn’t catch up. Edmund was a reckless driver at the best of times. Modesty was safe.

Theo turned his attention to Lotte now.

She was limp in his arms, but this close, he could see that she was faking. Her eyelids dashed open quickly.

“They’re gone,” Theo confirmed, righting Lotte, feeling the warmth of her leave him as he pulled away. He tried to right his mind too.

Just because she didn’t have a ring didn’t mean she wasn’t in danger. He could hear the sounds of the approaching mob. Of windows smashing, raised voices. Some voices carried a chant about abolishing the new curfew. Others were just raised in inarticulate anger.

Lotte had just saved him. It was his turn now.

Theo passed his jacket to Lotte. “Here. Put this on,” he said even as he stripped off his doublet, proudly emblazoned with the Holtzfall woodcutter. He draped it over a nearby railing, divesting himself of signs he was sworn to the enemy of the rioters.

Lotte wrapped his jacket around herself, covering the expensive cut and fabric of her half-made dress. “What now?”

“We need to get back to the first circle before anyone realizes who you are. Keep your head low.” Theo said, turning the collar of the jacket up, his thumb grazing her face involuntarily. Lotte tucked her hair in the back, though there was almost nothing that could be done to hide the Holtzfall blonde. Together, they moved out from the back alley behind the shop, merging into the protest swarming through the streets. The Old Kingsway was crammed with people. Some held placards, but for others, marching was an excuse to turn to rioting and looting. They passed smashed automobiles. A shop window was shattered, rioters dragging the expensive clothing off the mannequins. The city had descended into chaos while the heiresses had been trying on dresses.

To the north, toward the 1st circle, Theo could already see the flicker of shielding charms going up around homes.

Everything he had ever been taught as a knight was alive in Theo as he moved both of them through the crowd. Every time they were jostled, he crushed the instinct to fight back. They had to go unnoticed in the midst of an ever-growing crowd.

The anger was thick in the air in the low light of the setting sun, threatening to turn more dangerous with every moment they moved toward night. And he was walking through it all with a Holtzfall. It wouldn’t matter she’d only been one for a few days; there were those who would gladly rip any one of them limb from limb for having more than they did.

Finally, Theo saw an opening in the crowd. They broke free into a side street, cutting away from the chaos. Breathless, they pressed themselves into the side passage, watching the people stream past.

Theo’s oath thrummed as he tried to think of a path to the 1st circle.

Lotte had kept her head low as instructed, but she raised it to him now as she felt his gaze on her. She looked the same as she had when he’d pulled her out of the crowd of photographers that first night. The affectation of blithe innocence was gone. Her eyes were lit with real feeling. Real fear.

“You’re a mind reader.” If he’d had any doubt before, her expression was enough to confirm it. “That’s how you’ve been playing Modesty’s game. That’s how you know—” Know that I’m a traitor. No. He wasn’t, not yet. Thanks to her.

Theo’s heartbeat was slowing, and there was some part of him that wanted to reach out for Lotte. To press his fingers into her pulse and see if it skipped with a lie. But she just leaned back against the wall of the alley across from him. “I won’t tell anyone your secret if you don’t tell anyone mine.”

She made it sound like an even deal.

But if her Holtzfall gift were found out, she would become one of the most exceptional Holtzfalls in centuries. Meanwhile, if it was discovered that Theo had even considered breaking his oath, he would be executed.

She didn’t seem to realize the power she had over him.

Lotte pulled his jacket close around herself. “What are you going to do?”

Theo glanced out at the crowd. “There’s a chance we might be able to break through the riots at—”

“About your brother I mean.”

“I don’t know.” Saying it eased a weight off his chest. He had lain awake nights trying to find a third option. One that meant neither delivering a Holtzfall to the Grims nor turning his back on his brother. Theo had been loyal to the Holtzfalls his whole life. But still he found his gaze straying to the ring on Modesty’s hand far too often.

And today, Lotte had saved him from making that choice.

“We’re supposed to rescue Holtzfalls,” Theo said finally, “not the other way around.”

“I owed you one.” Lotte rubbed her hand over her face ruefully, as if erasing the last of the liar. “For not telling Modesty that I’m a liar and a fake.”

Theo let out a laugh in spite of himself, and a small smile pulled at Lotte’s mouth.

That was when the screaming started.

Theo drew up straight, reaching to shield Lotte without thinking as the shouting from the riots was suddenly interspersed with cries of pain and panic.

“That’ll be the police cracking down on the rioters,” Theo said. “We need to get out of here.” Theo reached for Lotte’s hand again, but she curled her fingers back. Stopping him from bypassing her hindern. From inadvertently letting her into his mind. He thought of all the other times the hindern barrier must have been broken. The first night in the hallway, the moment he had shielded her from the cameras—he wondered how much she knew of him.

“You already know my worst secret,” he said. “I have nothing else to hide.”

Lotte’s gaze searched him for a long moment, and he found himself wondering what she was thinking. Wishing he could read her mind as easily as she would his.

She took his hand.

They moved together to the other end of the alley, Theo silently focusing on what they needed to do. Hoping that Lotte could draw that from his mind. That she would know that if it came to it she should run and he would fight.

The rioters were more spread out here. Theo and Lotte passed through unnoticed in the eddies of people moving toward the larger swell of the protest.

They stuck to smaller side streets, making their way north. It was painstakingly slow work, and Theo could feel the tension running through him anytime someone came close enough that they might recognize Lotte.

Until they reached the 6th circle, and the side streets disappeared.

Here, in the wealthiest parts of the city, there was nothing but wide tree-lined avenues with nowhere to hide. And here was where the police had run the protestors aground.

A fire was blazing where Muirhaus Department Store stood, smoke billowing through the streets and sparks dancing over the rooftops. No doubt that had drawn the police like a beacon because here they were, locked in a line against the rioters in their wolf masks.

As Theo and Lotte rounded the corner a called-out order came, and the line of police sparked their weapons to life even as they pulled their own masks over their faces. Thick charmed gas masks. In one violent burst fumet charms exploded into streams of smoke that engulfed the protestors. They were LAO inventions meant for this exact purpose, to end revolts before they could start, the inhaled smoke bringing the protestors to their knees in agony.

And it did.

Screams of pain ripped through the crowd, bouncing off the high white marble walls of the expensive town houses even as the police drew immobilidat charms from their belts. He felt Lotte tense next to him, no doubt reading what was next even before the officers began firing into the crowd, striking the writhing figures through the smoke randomly.

With each protestor who was hit by the immobilidat charm, one more scream died away. The charm gripped their muscles, paralyzing them in place, turning them into living statues of agony.

“The smoke, it’s coming this way,” Lotte said. And she was right—as the gas-mask-wearing officers waded into the subdued protestors, the smoke from the fumet charms was billowing down the street toward Theo and Lotte.

Theo’s mind raced. This wasn’t an enemy he could throw himself in front of for Lotte. They couldn’t outrun this. Fleeing in any direction would only lead them back into the riots.

But there was no other choice.

They both turned, aiming away from the smoke. But before they could even take a step, a sudden burst of air buffeted them back. Theo shielded his face, rooting his feet against the blast automatically even as Lotte staggered. But as he glanced back over his shoulder, he saw the smoke change direction with the sudden gust of wind, moving away from them now, back toward the police.

Another burst of air came, pushing it back farther, and as Theo drew his gaze ahead again, he saw a familiar dark-haired figure moving down the street. Hands raised, twisting a gold bracelet on her wrist, sparking violently with magic.

Nora was wearing what looked like a silk dressing gown.

In the middle of citywide riots.

Of course she was. She strode forward with the confidence of someone who had an army at her back, flashing them a smile as if to say fancy meeting you here . Like they’d just run into each other on a casual afternoon stroll.

“I saw a fire,” Nora offered as an explanation as she came within earshot.

“And you ran toward it?” Lotte asked.

“I thought it might be a trial.” Nora’s eyes were drifting past them, to the police in their gas masks, manipulating the frozen figures as if they were dolls, pushing them to the ground. Clearly she still thought it might be a trial. Theo knew Nora well enough that he could tell she was taking in the scene, looking for some way she could prove herself to the Huldrekall. Lotte’s gaze followed Nora’s, as if drawn in by the same hope, and Theo felt apprehension rising in him.

“It’s not a trial,” he pressed, his oath thrumming in his blood, urging him to get them both to safety. “It’s a riot.”

“It could be both.” Nora didn’t move. The smoke was billowing back toward them again. And Theo was more aware with every passing second that the rioters were closing in. Lotte, he might be able to keep concealed. But Nora…

“No.” It was Lotte who spoke now. “It can’t be a test. They’re too—” Her voice caught for a second. “The anger is so real.”

“And you know all about the Huldrekall and the history of the trials, do you?” Nora raised her eyebrows at Lotte.

“I know enough that I’m not staying here to prove something to no one.”

Lotte turned, but Theo drew her back. “We can’t double back. They’ll come up North Street.”

“Or the Kingsway,” Nora added, finally unstitching her attention from the chaos, seeming to accept that there was no trial here.

“The first circle will be sealed off by now.”

“The factory won’t be.”

Theo followed Nora’s gaze. Over the top of the delicately gilded white mansions around them loomed the four immense brick towers of LAO factories.

“We won’t make it three blocks out in the open like this,” Theo argued.

“We only need to make it one,” Nora said.

Theo had learned it was easier not to question Nora, even when her mind had skipped ahead too swiftly for anyone else to follow it.

They ran then.

All three of them. Running from the encroaching riots. Running from the fumet charms that were bursting all over the city now, filling the streets with cries of pain.

Suddenly Nora took a sharp left, leading them up the steps of a town house.

It was an innocuous-looking facade, identical to the ones on either side. But Theo watched as Nora deftly twisted up the door number, revealing a combination lock hidden below.

She flicked in a quick code: 14-15-18-01. The door came open under her hand, and all three of them pressed inside, slamming the door on the swelling sounds of the approaching riot behind them.

Theo’s hand was still wrapped around Lotte’s.