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Chapter 75

Nora

It had been a trial.

A final damned trial when she hadn’t been expecting one.

It was meant to be one trial per contender.

There were four of them left.

There had been four trials already. Temperance. Bravery. Unity. And selflessness.

But there had been five of them once. Before Constance died. And now a fifth trial on the eve of their entry into the woods. A trial of honesty, which Nora had just badly failed by lying to August…or some illusion of August conjured by the Huldrekall.

Nora forced her mind to slow down, to tamp down her self-recrimination, touching the ring she still wore. She had a way into the trials tomorrow no matter what. And—she was still holding the scrap of paper. It hadn’t vanished when August had. It was still solid in her hand. And when she opened it, there was an address scrawled on the inside.

She wondered if a trial meant to test her honesty would lie to her.

She had to be home by midnight.

The charms on her wrists and ankles were a keen reminder of that.

Which meant Nora had an hour.

Nora climbed up on the railing of the boat. Before she could think better of it, she dove into the Wald. She just had time to hear screams from the boat, a knight calling her name, before she hit the water.

She cut through the circles quickly, making her way downtown. Ignoring the looks that passersby gave her, a soaking-wet heiress. No matter where the Rydder knights thought to look for her it wouldn’t be here.

The address was for a modest house in the 7th circle. A boring middling part of the city. Looking at the brick-and-white-fronted house, amidst all the others just like it, you’d never know it belonged to the most notorious criminal in the city.

But from where she stood in the street, Nora could see some of the charms embedded in the walls. To keep the house from burning down. To avoid break-ins. There was a single light in the window on the second floor. It was quiet this late at night. No cars roamed the roads. No one out for a stroll.

She pinched her own charm between her thumb and forefinger, flooding it with magic.

And then she ripped the facade of the house off.

None of his charms guarded against that.

The bricks shattered with a terrible noise, mortar, concrete, and pipes all crumbling into dust. Until all that was left of the street side of the building was a cloud of slowly settling dust.

Nora waited. There was shouting from the nearby houses, doors being yanked open, people screaming. No doubt someone would contact the police soon. But she still had time before they arrived.

Time to deal with him.

If Nora had learned anything from the past three days locked up in the Holtzfall mansion, it was how to wait.

Finally, emerging from the cloud of dust over the debris, coughing, stumbled Oskar Wallen. He was wearing paisley-printed pajamas in yellow and blue.

“Mr.Wallen.” Nora greeted him, feeling her blood run cold with rage. “Thank you for meeting me at this late hour.”

Oskar Wallen’s eyes were almost as big as his ears. She had caught him defenseless. Whatever charms he wore wouldn’t be enough. Nora had magic to burn. Tomorrow she would either be the heiress to more magic than anyone knew what to do with or she would be stripped of any she had left. She might as well spend it now.

Nora reached for another of her charms. “See, here’s the thing. I didn’t realize when you said you were sorry for my mother’s death that you were actually apologizing to me.” A burst of flames emerged just in front of his feet, sending Oskar staggering backward.

“Miss Holtzfall,” Oskar Wallen started, sounding more composed than a man in pajamas standing in the rubble of his house had any right to be. “I’d love to be able to tell you I know what you’re talking about. Really, I pride myself on having the best inform—” He was cut off as the next jet of flames blasted up, singeing the toes of his slippers.

“Explain to me, then”—the flames sprang up again, this time encircling him—“why you were paying off Lukas Schuld?”

Oskar Wallen paused, the facade slipping. “Miss Holtzfall.” His voice was darker now, not the man who she had exchanged pleasantries with in the Silverlight Market. “I believe platitudes are for the weak-minded, and neither of us is that. So I implore you, listen closely when I tell you again: I wish I were able to tell you that I know what you’re talking about.” His teeth were gritted, and his voice carried a weight and significance that made Nora pause, even in her rage. “You are here because there are some things you already know,” Oskar Wallen said, his eyes boring into hers. Like he was trying to tell her something wordlessly. “But you must also realize you don’t know everything yet. You should have come to me when you had all the answers.”

Nora felt restless. “Since I’m here so early, why don’t you just give the rest of them to me?”

Oskar Wallen was at her mercy, his house in ruins behind him. She could kill him at any moment. And he had the nerve to laugh, a sound that traveled down the street, merging with the sirens approaching. “I would if I could, Miss Holtzfall.” And then he looked her squarely in the eyes. “By my oath, I would tell you if I could.”

By my oath.

They were words that had followed Nora her whole life. From every knight on the heels of a Holtzfall. Every time her grandmother gave an order, those words were echoed back. As they protected them. As they pledged to them. As they obeyed.

“It’s true what they say, you know,” Oskar said. “It doesn’t matter how powerful one is in this city. So long as there are Holtzfalls.” He bared his teeth in an angry smile that looked like an ugly caricature of his gentlemanly affectation. “You’ll make an excellent heir to your grandmother one day.”

Somewhere in the city, a clocktower struck midnight. Nora felt the charms on her arms and legs spark to life, wrenching her away from Oskar Wallen.

Dragging her back through the streets of Walstad. His words echoing in her ears like a taunt over and over again.

By my oath. By my oath. By my oath.