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Chapter 69

Theo

The Passenger Hotel stood as a crumbling monument in the 17th circle of Walstad. Far away from any of the other hotels in the city. Georg Bauer, a shoe salesman from the middle circles, had put everything he had into it.

But the Otto-Raubmessers owned just about every other hotel in the city, and Mercy Holtzfall’s sister Temperance had married into their family. She had complained to her sister about the competition. And the Holtzfalls, who owned the land, like they owned all the land in the city, had raised the rent.

The Passenger was closed within the year. It had stood empty ever since.

The fox girl led Theo silently through the arched stone entryway. He was barely over the threshold when two mechanical forms lurched out of the dark, sharp jaws gnashing. Theo’s hand flew to his weapon, but the fox girl twisted something on her wrist and the wolves stilled, then retreated, sitting back on their haunches on either side of the door.

Theo felt the now-familiar sickening twist of guilt. That was another spoil of the Grim break-in at the factory. The lights in the hotel were dim and flickering unsteadily, making the wolves look like they were still shifting.

The fox girl made it a few more steps before noticing Theo wasn’t following. “I thought you wanted to see your brother.”

“He can be brought here.” Theo stood his ground, the entryway at his back.

The fox girl considered him. “Alaric is not being surrendered before Isengrim sees that ring. And Isengrim is not coming to you. So either you come to him or we send Alaric’s body to the Holtzfall mansion.”

Theo was all too aware of how foolish it was to follow her farther into their lair.

But he had come this far.

He was holding a thousand-year-old ring in his hand for his brother’s life.

They passed what had once been the ballroom, and Theo saw figures milling around a large map of the city. Weapons stolen from LAO were stacked against the wall. Hundreds of Grims had been rounded up after the attacks, but there were still a lot of them here, free. And they didn’t seem to be licking their wounds.

Nora seemed content to hand the ring over. To leave the Grims to their fate in the woods. Let them eke out what power they could. But there was a feeling here of preparing for war.

A girl with pinned-back blonde hair glanced up as they walked past, her eyes tracking them until they turned right, down a hallway lined with doors. Theo could feel the walls closing in around him. A smart man wouldn’t let an enemy leave after seeing this. And Isengrim didn’t strike Theo as stupid. His hand tightened on his weapon.

One way or another, he would go down fighting.

The fox girl came to a stop in front of a door.

She rapped a quick, careful pattern. A moment later, the door swung open.

Theo had been prepared to find his brother bound, beaten bloody. Worse than he’d seen him a week ago. Instead, Alaric was looking in a mirror, straightening the cuffs on a knight’s uniform. He looked up when they entered, smiling at Theo a second before a jolt of power went through Theo’s body, sending him to his knees.

Through the sudden ringing in his ears, Theo heard his brother say, “Easy there! He’s not the enemy.”

Theo had been trained as a knight since he was a child. His instinct to fight back overpowered everything else for a moment, drowning out the shock and betrayal as he tried to pull himself up. But his legs didn’t work. “A gift from LAO Industries,” the fox girl said above him. “You’ll be able to stand again in a few hours.”

“Alaric—” Some part of him was still reaching out to his brother for help even though he understood it wouldn’t come.

Alaric crouched down across from him. “I’m sorry for the deception, little brother.” He clasped Theo’s shoulder reassuringly, the way he had a million times before. “It was the only way.”

“You were never a prisoner.” He should have seen it the moment they had first dragged his brother out. Alaric Rydder, the greatest knight in their generation, would never be subdued by a rabble of Grims. He would have fought them.

Fought them to the death.

It had been a trick.

This was how the Grims had known about the Clandestine Court. How they had known where and how to come after the Holtzfalls. The answer, over and over again, was Alaric.

“It’s for your own good, Theo. I don’t want you getting killed running to their rescue. Not until it’s all over.” He sounded so much like the brother who had corrected him time and time again on the handling of his sword. “You moved mountains and Holtzfalls for me. To get us into the woods. We’ll take it from here, but you need to stay safe.”

“You’re breaking your oath.” Theo wanted to stand in front of his brother. Wanted to be able to look into his eyes and see the treason there. He wanted to see if everything their father had instilled in them, everything Lis had trained them for, had all meant nothing. He wanted to know when his brother had chosen this cause over his oath. He wanted to know if it had been an easy choice, when Theo’s battle the last few days had nearly ripped him apart.

His brother’s expression darkened. “I never swore any oath, Theo. Neither did our father. Neither has any Rydder since Hartwin a thousand years ago. But we unthinkingly serve them anyway. When Verity died, I saw my chance to be free. To join a fight I chose. Not one a long-dead ancestor chose for us.”

“This isn’t you,” Theo pressed. “Isengrim has brainwashed you.”

Alaric straightened. “I’m doing this for you, little brother. For all of us.” And even as Theo watched, a glamour slipped over his brother, changing his appearance. Theo’s own face smiled back at him, a mask over Alaric’s real face. “We were made to be wolves, not lapdogs.”