Page 37 of Zel (The GriMM Tales #2)

Similar to the mist that had formed the phantom cat, wisps unleashed from Ulrich’s fingers, but rather than become violet or mold into any shape, it vanished as it moved toward the door. After a few moments, two distinct thuds were heard.

They hurried on, thankful that neither of the now sleeping guards had fallen across the entrance’s threshold.

Most Thieves Guild entrances were open archways, but this one had a door.

Zel could not hear anything within, as the walls and door were thick.

Inside should be two more guards, Lothar, and possibly others if he was in audience with anyone, such as for a mission debrief or torturing information out of a target.

Zel and Ulrich shared a nod, then Zel threw the door open for Ulrich to rush in first.

The room was dark when Zel dashed in after him and soon became pitch-black when the door closed in his wake.

“There is no one here,” Ulrich said.

“How can you tell? I can’t see anything.”

“See as I do.” Ulrich covered Zel’s eyes with his cursed hand, and when it moved away, Zel’s vision could pierce the dark.

The only thing in the room was Lothar’s empty throne.

Zel lowered his mask. “But why post guards when he isn’t even here? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Are there other entrances?” Ulrich lowered his mask as well and drew back his hood, moving toward Lothar’s chair.

“None. Where could he be?” Zel spun in place, admittedly panicking. They had contingencies for facing more enemies than planned, but everything had hinged on Lothar following his routine and being here.

“There is a piece of parchment on that chair,” Ulrich said as he neared it.

Zel squinted after him. While he could see, the room was still dim to his senses. There did appear to be something on Lothar’s chair, like a waiting note. “What does it say?”

Ulrich picked it up and read aloud, “Not so powerful now, are you?”

“Ul—!”

But Zel’s warning cry came too late. Whatever trap had been set sprang into action with Ulrich lifting the note, causing half of a metal cage to spring up from the floor, just as its second half fell from the ceiling.

The two halves met so swiftly, Ulrich merely clanged against the bars when he reacted and tried to move.

“Can’t you—” Zel vaulted toward him, but Ulrich had clearly been thinking the same thing, for though he seemed to attempt to become shadow and slip through the bars, all that happened was a brief aura of shadow erupting from him that immediately snuffed out.

Ulrich grabbed the bars but lurched his hands back a moment later when they started to sizzle. “Iron. Enchanted specifically to nullify magic.”

Zel reached toward the bars too but hesitated to touch them.

“Don’t,” Ulrich confirmed. “They will hurt you too.”

“But how do I get you out?”

“You don’t.”

The voice sent a biting chill through Zel’s chest. He turned to see the door opening behind them, permitting Lothar to enter—flanked by Zel’s parents carrying torches. Sophie and Gregor stared blankly, their actions stilted and strange as if not moving their own bodies.

They were wearing control collars!

“How did you—”

“How did I know to not trust them?” Lothar said, as Sophie and Gregor lit the sconces on the walls to brighten the room. “Because I knew to not trust you.”

His smirk was insufferable as he approached after closing the door, effectively trapping Zel with the enemy. If he had ever truly had magical luck on his side, that luck had run out.

“The Queen has many trinkets she has bestowed upon me for my services with the guild. This is one, and quite a useful one for spying.” Lothar pulled a gilded hand mirror from his belt, similar to Ulrich’s but gold instead of silver.

When he aimed the glass at Zel, it did not reflect him nor the sanctum but an entirely different view, as if through the eyes of another.

It was the Thieves Guild common room. Zel could even see background commotion of members wondering where the phantom cat had gone, which Zel imagined had vanished as soon as Ulrich was caged.

But whose eyes was the mirror seeing through?

“Rudy…” Zel answered his own wondering, for he knew few others with glass over their eyes, and starting the night of Zel’s final mission, Rudy had worn brand-new spectacles.

“Mirrors with various uses are one of the Queen’s favorite tools.

” Lothar tucked the mirror away again, since it had done its job and trapped Zel in his hubris.

“I saw everything young Rudy did. Like you killing your own people at the tower. I heard everything as well. To think, you went and fell in love with that monster.”

“You are the monster,” Zel spat. He had to think. He had to subdue Lothar somehow.

“I would have made good on my promises, you know,” Lothar said. “You couldn’t even do that, after all I’ve done for you and your parents these past twenty winters. But, if you submit yourself to me now, perhaps I can be lenient.”

Ulrich shook the bars of his cage behind Zel, and when Zel glanced at him, the fury in Ulrich was palpable. He might not be able to wield magic from there, but he had not lost his luster nor the ominousness of his aura. He kept his blackened hand around one of the bars, even as it sizzled again.

“At least you did part of your job,” Lothar sneered, “since it seems the sorcerer has also fallen for you. But then, who am I to be surprised, when you are so desirable.” He seized Zel’s chin with a sudden lurch, causing Zel’s hood to fall back.

Though he instinctively brought up his dagger, Lothar caught him by the wrist. He squeezed so hard that Zel yelped and dropped the dagger to clatter on the stone floor.

“I was a little jealous watching my pretty petal’s lips wrap around young Rudy’s prick so lustfully. ”

The anger at hearing that pet name again was almost as strong as Zel’s revulsion at Lothar’s touch. Since Rudy had worn his new spectacles that night, Lothar had been able to watch them.

“Do not blame him. He thought the spectacles a gift. He didn’t know about the mirror or how I manipulated him to keep an eye on you with some well-placed doubts about your safety.

Honestly, I don’t even care that things have ended like this.

I’ll still have the tower and its secrets.

And you will still be mine. Whether by free will or with a collar of your own. ”

Ulrich raged against the bars again. “You will not touch Zel!”

Lothar threw Zel aside, nearly causing him to trip. His dagger was still at Lothar’s feet. He could use his hair, but how? When? Any move he made had to be the right one, or he would lose the advantage his hair granted him.

Gregor and Sophie flanked the door, having secured their torches into empty sconces. Should Zel free them for reinforcements or focus on Lothar? He had to decide. He had to act! But it had to be at the perfect moment, or everything could be lost.

“I will touch what I want to touch,” Lothar mocked, grinning at Ulrich through the bars. “But first, to deal with you.”

ULRICH

Z el had lost his dagger and seemed to doubt making use of his hair, likely because his parents were involved now, enslaved by Lothar’s collars.

Ulrich had to rein in his anger toward this wretched man—and toward himself for having fallen prey to such an obvious trap. For all their sakes, he had to help Zel regain his resolve.

“Iron, even enchanted this powerfully, cannot kill me,” he informed the overconfident guild master.

“Oh, I know, but this cage can prevent you from using your magic while you’re in it, which is all I need for now. I will keep you here until I learn how to kill you, since it seems my assassin failed.”

“How did you know I would be caught in this cage instead of Zel?”

“It was a gamble. But if things had been reversed, I still had my bargaining chips.” Lothar kicked Zel’s dagger back toward the door. “Sophie, take that. Then, dear Pipers, restrain your daughter.”

Zel faced his parents with a start. Their subjugation complicated what might otherwise have been an easy win. Zel was well trained, but his heart was his weakness and the reason Ulrich knew he deserved better than a cursed life in that tower, however blissful it might seem for a time.

Sophie, who Ulrich remembered well even with the addition of twenty winters and the scar on her cheek Lothar had given her, claimed the dagger and sheathed it among several others on her person. But neither of the collared Pipers made a move toward Zel.

The truth of their stillness almost made Ulrich snort. They had no daughter, not as far as they knew—nor as much as Zel had decided yet.

“I said ,” Lothar barked impatiently, “restrain Rapunzel now!”

The pair immediately marched toward Zel. Pity he got closer to the truth that time.

Behind the blankness of their eyes, Ulrich saw the real Gregor and Sophie watching in panic. He could see the honest warring in Zel’s eyes too, whether to choose Ulrich over the two other most important people in his life.

“Don’t,” Ulrich said, shaking the bars again, much as the iron stung him. “Do not let him taint you, Zel, with the vileness you managed to rise above.”

“Rise above?” Lothar scoffed. “Do you think the hands of that girl so clean?”

Zel’s head snapped back toward Lothar, even as his parents advanced. There was the true Zel, stronger than the fear that hobbled him. “No one’s hands are clean in this world, Lothar,” he snarled, “but the blood we stain them with is not created equal.”

Golden tendrils lashed out from Zel’s braids, unravelling to act as whips that wrapped around Lothar’s arms and legs and brought him to his knees.

“And I am hardly a girl .”

There was Ulrich’s little cabbage, unbreakable and dazzling.

Gregor and Sophie descended in their attempt to restrain Zel, but he used his hair to keep them back too. Most of it was focused on subduing Lothar, some of which he was tightening more and more around Lothar’s throat.

“P-Pipers,” Lothar croaked, “use Rapunzel’s hands to cut the hair!”