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Chapter 59

Nora

Competition! Tonight!

Dance until you drop!

100 zaub to enter!

Last couple standing wins 1,000 zaub!

The words were written in lights on the marquee of the dilapidated dance hall, reflecting off the automobile they pulled up in.

“Are you sure your journalist is here?” Lotte’s skepticism echoed Nora’s own. For one, she was reasonably sure just by looking at him that August wasn’t a good dancer.

“No, I’m not.” Nora peered down at the wristwatch in her hand. There was no denying that the locanz charm was pointing here. Nora, Lotte, and Theo had circled this dance hall enough times. The diamond earring Nora had planted in August’s shoe the first day they’d met was inside this dance hall. Whether or not August still had it was another question.

The death count had been climbing all day. Upper-circle heirs had died. Grims had died. Innocent bystanders had died. The new governor had been on the vox, making vague promises of measures to be announced tomorrow.

But tonight, there was a frenetic energy in the air through the city. A wild, untethered sense of freedom. Nora heard it even now in the frantic music pouring out of the dance hall. With the police dealing with the aftermath of the attacks, no one was enforcing stupid little things like curfews.

It was hard won and easily lost tomorrow.

If they had a chance of saving Alaric, they needed to get the ring to the Grims before whatever these measures were. But the Grims weren’t exactly easily found.

Especially after last night.

Those who weren’t locked away or dead had gone to ground.

The boarded-up betting shop where Theo had met them once was empty, and the girl who worked in the Paragon hadn’t shown up for work this morning.

Which left August.

If the Grims could communicate with each other through the Bullhorn , Nora could do the same. She’d used the same code they had used in Isengrim’s letters. Encoding with spelling mistakes and typos one short phrase.

I have the ring.

Crude but effective. Hopefully. Effective enough to lure the Grims out of hiding to find Theo. Except when she’d gone to deliver her article to the Bullhorn , August wasn’t there. None of the other journalists had seen him since before the Grim attacks that had shaken the city.

“I gave all of them two days to get me something that made it worth keeping them employed here,” the editor informed her, a sneer pulling at the scar on his cheek. “I guess I’ll take his absence as his resignation.”

“That seems like a poor employment strategy,” Nora had commented.

The editor’s eyes dashed up. “Who did you say you were again?” The suspicion that passed across his face was enough to make Nora retreat.

Which left Nora going back to the same way she had found him that first day.

The locanz charm.

She’d figured it might lead her to August’s apartment. She was already formulating some lie to tell his mother as they moved through the city. But as the charmed watch led them here, Nora could slowly feel uncertainty taking hold. For all she knew, August might have sold the earring off days ago. And people had died in the attacks. It wasn’t impossible a journalist too close to the action might have gotten hurt. Or worse—

“If you wanted me to take you dancing, all you had to do was say.”

August looked like he’d just washed off a very long night. And there was a shadow across his rueful smile as he moved down the sidewalk toward them. But still, Nora felt relief crash over her.

“For a thousand zaub prize?” Nora tried to hide her relief. It wouldn’t do to let on that she was glad to see him alive. “I’d need a higher price to make it worth my while.”

She caught Lotte’s raised eyebrows and found herself grateful her cousin wasn’t reading her mind right now. “Lotte, Theo, August.” She waved a vague introduction, feeling strangely like two very different worlds were crashing together. “And vice versa.”

“I would shake your hand”—August nodded to Lotte—“but your knight looks like he might kill me if I get any closer.”

“How did you find us?” Theo asked, eyeing up August suspiciously.

“You’re two heiresses and a knight in an odd part of town. Word gets out.” August shrugged. He’d been looking for her too. And he’d found her, no less. How very annoyingly competent of him.

“I could have saved you the trouble, if you’d just kept my earring.” The watch in her hand was still firmly pointed toward the dance hall, not August. “I gave you that for safekeeping.”

“Well, I figured it’d be put to better use tracking down Lukas Schuld.”

Nora’s attention snapped to August so sharply he almost took a step back. “You mean to say Lukas Schuld is inside this building?”

“Who is Lukas Schuld?” Lotte asked.

“He’s the man who killed Verity Holtzfall,” Theo said.

“He’s the man who confessed to killing her,” Nora corrected, an idea already sparking in her mind. “Big difference.”

“He escaped Wirr Prison in the blackout last night. I figured we’d need a way to find where he’s hiding out. Ask him some questions.”

“What were you doing in prison?” Theo asked, still seeming suspicious.

“I got arrested because someone, who shall remain Honora Holtzfall, wasn’t where she was supposed to be.”

“That sounds right,” Theo admitted.

“All right.” Nora liked it better when Theo was suspicious of August. She couldn’t have them ganging up like this. “How was I supposed to know where you were?”

“I sent you a note.”

“I didn’t get a note.”

“Did the servants not pass it on because it wasn’t on fancy enough gold-leaf paper?”

“Are we after a murderer or not?” Lotte interrupted, turning everyone’s attention back to the dance hall.

“This doesn’t seem like the most inconspicuous place to hide out,” Theo remarked, nodding toward the building, where lights blazed on signs, inviting any and all to come in and spend their money.

“Maybe he’s celebrating his freedom.” August shrugged. “Maybe he’s trying to win that prize money to make a run for it.”

Competition! Tonight!

Last couple standing wins 1,000 zaub!

Nora had traveled a long and frustrating road of questions and half answers and suspicions alongside August, but they’d arrived here at last.

Lukas Schuld had confessed to a crime he hadn’t committed.

Nora wanted to know why.

“I tried to get answers from him last night, but maybe a Holtzfall heiress might be more effective.”

“Maybe.” Nora knew what August had in mind. Bribery, probably. The old-fashioned way. But she had an even more old-fashioned way—a Holtzfall gift that hadn’t been seen in two centuries. Her eyes went to Lotte at the same time that Theo’s did. “But I’m not the right Holtzfall for the job.”