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Chapter 51

Lotte

The room was filled with dust, and the explosion rang in Lotte’s ears, drowning out anything else.

The back wall of the Clandestine Court was gone, and people with wolf masks were flooding in, the sleek charmed weapons they had pillaged from LAO drawn as they climbed through the debris and the rubble.

Silent shots went off, the metallic spark of magic filling the air as the Grims fired into the crowd. Mere feet away, a shot hit a girl square in the chest. Lotte watched the effects of the charm spread from her sternum to the ends of her fingers, stopping her in her tracks, a scream caught in her throat.

An immobility charm. Like the ones she’d seen the cops use to break up the Grims’ protests. But instead of just immobilizing the girl, her fingers turned gray, the color spreading through her whole body as she turned to stone. A statue of a screaming girl.

Lotte’s ears cleared, and now she could hear the screaming. Shot after shot, struck around the room, cries of pain rising to meet them.

The Clandestine Court had devolved into chaos, bottles and tables and glasses smashing to the floor. Ballgown- and tuxedo-clad figures pushed for escape into the street while their enemy poured in around them.

Lotte ducked down, taking cover under the lip of the stage where Nora and Modesty crouched, hidden even as the Grims swarmed over them.

“We have to get out of here.” Modesty’s voice was spiked with panic.

“We have to get everyone out,” Nora replied. She was already wrenching the brooch off her chest. The shielding charm she wore. Lotte had learned to recognize the bitter crackle of pouring too much magic into a charm. It tasted like burning metal in the air as Nora forced the charm past the limits of its intended use. It was meant to protect one person, and Nora was stretching it to protect everyone. Everyone who was left, everyone who was still scrambling. All of a sudden, a wall of invisible force sprang up in the Grims’ path, blocking the wolves off from their 1st-circle prey.

“Go,” Nora said, her voice strained.

Modesty didn’t need to be told twice. She was on her feet, joining the rest of the 1st circle in a mad scramble for the door, through overturned tables and the statues of people caught by the charms.

Lotte didn’t move.

“Go,” Nora said again, and she could hear the strain in her voice. “Someone has to stay behind to hold the charm, but—”

“No,” Lotte said simply. There was still blood on her hand from where the gravedigger had sliced her palm open. She closed it over the charm in Nora’s palm, flooding it with the magic from her blood.

In a split second of contact, Lotte’s mind was engulfed with Nora’s thoughts, so fast and urgent that she could barely capture one, until the surprised realization rose to the top. Lotte really was staying. The rush of loyalty, of surprise and gratitude, almost overwhelmed Lotte. And Lotte felt the same rise in her chest in answer.

They stayed like that in the chaos of the room as the Grims hammered and raged against the shield. Lotte was aware of some of the Grims turning back, going the way they came, pursuing their quarry through some other path. But she couldn’t worry about that now.

She could feel the charm in between their palms growing hot. Overheating as they pushed the magical circuitry far past its limits. They were not going to be able to hold this forever. Maybe not even long enough for help to come.

Looking down, Lotte saw a crack forming across the pattern etched in the gold between her bloody fingers.

“You should run now,” Nora said quietly. The Clandestine Court was almost empty, and from the corner of her eye, Lotte was aware of the Grims coalescing on the other side of the shield. “I can hold it long enough for that.”

Lotte looked up, her eyes meeting Nora’s. But it wasn’t sacrifice she saw there; it was intelligence. “You have a plan,” Lotte said.

“I have an idea.” The Grims were waiting for them to falter. “It’s a few pieces short of a plan at the moment.”

“Then let me hold them off,” Lotte said. Nora hesitated. Lotte took a breath, ready to tell Nora that she could manage it. She might not be as well trained with charms as Nora was, but this she could do. Then she heard the rogue thought. It wasn’t that Nora didn’t trust her. She was unused to having an ally. She was supposed to do it alone.

“You don’t have to do this alone,” Lotte said. “I’m with you.”

Finally, with a nod, Nora released the charm.