37. Harlow #2
I watch them in my periphery, but I keep my entire focus on my father. The blue light around him picks up speed. He’s furious. I can’t help but brace myself with my hand gripping the seat of my chair.
It’s been many years, but I have still not mastered the cold, paralyzing terror of knowing he’s angry. I doubt I ever will.
“I knew about their well, but we didn’t need it,” my father says, his voice wavering with barely leashed anger.
I scoff. “You weren’t curious about what it might do?”
He slams his fist on the table and points at me.
“What would you have done? There was a horde of those evolved things coming at the city. I tried my best to brace for it, but I couldn’t hold the tide of them back myself.
Even with Able’s help, it would have been impossible.
So I did what I had to do to ensure they headed north.
I set part of the forest on fire. You know how fast holy fire spreads.
I used all of my magic to force them away from the city.
Then I rode out and shepherded them all the way to the wall of Mountain Haven.
Once they smelled the blood inside, they stopped trying to fight their way back to the city.
I left them there without looking back. I thought the wall would hold.
I didn’t realize how much they had evolved, but I’d do all of it again for our people. ”
Able is so still, I’m not sure he’s breathing.
After a long moment, my brother laughs—a loud, hysterical laugh. “Yes,” he says between great, gasping breaths. “I’m sure you did it all for our safety and not your own greed.”
He laughs harder, and my father’s aura swirls faster; he’s getting angrier by the second.
Able looks at me. “I didn’t know about this, but I—” He gasps with laughter. “I saw the aftermath. Those things found a weak spot in the wall and they clawed at it over and over. When we went back to investigate afterward, we found the remnants of claw marks in the stone.”
Able can’t seem to stop himself. His eyes tear and he completely comes undone in a fit of laughter.
The dining room door cracks open and Able’s bodyguard, Nick, rushes in with Gaven close behind him. Nick has something in his hand that looks like a syringe. When Able sees him, he just laughs harder.
“Come to shut me up again, Nick?” Able shouts.
Nick plunges the needle into his arm, and Able’s laughter cuts off abruptly. He sighs, and a moment later, he slumps back in his chair, unconscious .
“Get him out of here,” my father says.
Gaven and Nick enlist the help of my mother’s guard, Fallon, and the three of them carry my hulking brother from the room with great effort.
Moments later, the doors open and the servants return to clear our plates and replace our soup with roasted chicken. My parents eat as if nothing is amiss. I pick at my food, knowing that I need my strength, but still too unsettled from the stress of the day to keep much down.
“Why did you summon me back already?” I ask.
My father sets down his cutlery and leans back in his chair.
“As you saw tonight, Rafe is becoming a very big problem. He publicly asked for more responsibility. Of course, he framed it as a way to prove to the people and the Divine how sorry he is for his failure last night, but he’d already run the idea by several of the magical houses before he announced it today.
He wants his men to take over the full guard duty of the northern half of the city. ”
The chicken suddenly tastes like ash. I swallow it down, trying to breathe through the uneasiness.
“He’s coming for us, Harlow,” my mother says.
“So you want me to—what? Kiss him?”
My mother clears her throat. “We know you have as contentious a history with the man as the rest of us, but unfortunately, he’s only become more connected over time. Our hopes to wrangle him have not been fruitful.”
Aidia. She means Aidia hasn’t been able to control him.
“We can’t take him out, but we could possibly spin a story from our history,” my mother says.
I stare at her. “I don’t follow.”
She sits taller in her chair. “If any of us suggested that Rafe somehow influenced the horde all those years ago to attack Fallen Hold, we would seem like we had an agenda with the accusation. But if Henry had reason to believe there was another option—one that we all know personally makes tremendous sense based on his temperament and desire for power here—I think we could not only win your new husband’s trust, but rally him against our common enemy.
Not to mention the fact that while our high magical houses may look down on him, he’s not someone embroiled in city politics. His word will carry more weight. ”
My brain finally catches up to what she’s saying. She wants me to convince Henry that Rafe is to blame for the fall of Mountain Haven.
It’s not a bad plan. Rafe is blessed by Polm, and his influence is known to be very powerful. Who better to manipulate a horde of Drained to turn away from the city than the man who loves to play the role of savior? I shudder, thinking about the kind of compulsion that could move a mob of beasts.
It’s terrifying to watch my parents work this way, but they haven’t held on to power this long by being friendly. They are diabolical.
I fold my hands neatly in my lap. “How do you expect me to casually bring this up to Henry?”
My father waves a hand dismissively. “You’re a smart girl. You’ll figure it out. We just need the accusation out there at the perfect time.”
I bite my lip. “When?”
“By Dark Star Festival.”
My mouth goes dry. I have been dreading Dark Star Festival for months.
It’s a celebration and remembrance of the time when Divine Stellaria made the whole world dark in protest of Polm stealing her husband Asher. As an eclipse sends Lunameade into three days of full darkness, the city begins a three-day party. Each day follows a theme of the story.
Day one is the Agony, in honor of Stellaria’s grief and rage at her love being stolen from her.
It’s the day when all of Lunameade honors those who have died in the past year.
Ceremonial floral pyres are burned and the people bring letters to their lost loved ones to add to the fire.
People gather in bars and private homes to tell stories and celebrate the lives of those they’ve lost.
It’s not the grieving I dread, though. It’s convincingly performing my grief for a crowd by pretending I miss my first husband, Marc. It’ll have the whole city watching me and, by proxy, Henry.
“You want Henry to make the accusation on Agony night,” I say. The puzzle pieces in my mind click together. “Everyone will be looking to me, because of Marc.”
My father opens his mouth to speak. “And?—”
But my mother, seeing that I’m on the hook, grabs his arm to silence him. I’m shocked that he lets it happen .
“They’ll be looking to me—and Henry will be with me,” I say. “You want him to lay blame then to start the groundwork.”
“With that much attention, it’s sure to catch fire as quickly as the pyres,” my father says. “Even the magical houses who like Rafe won’t risk supporting him then. I swear to the Divine they’re only pretending to now to get things from me. None of them actually want that animal in charge.”
There’s terrifying satisfaction on my mother’s face, the hint of delight that she’s about to get away with something.
“During Descent, we will continue to ensure the rumor spreads,” my mother continues. “The mayor always starts the celebration by summoning the Descent drummers to begin. We will ensure that there’s some kind of public scene to make things worse for him.”
Day two of the festival, the Descent, echoes the part of the story where Stellaria descended from the sky to take back her love.
Polm cursed the land where he hid Asher so she couldn’t retrieve him herself.
He cast his malice magic on the land so that no one of sky or earth, living or dead, could set foot there without burning up.
That is why Stellaria created the first Drained, a being of both life and death, a man of earth transformed by her star magic and reanimated by Asher’s ending magic.
For the Descent, women put on their finest dresses and take to the streets in search of their lost loves.
They can bargain with men dressed as Drained, who will go into the crowd and retrieve the man she wants.
While it’s largely considered a night for single people to meet and get to know each other, there are plenty of committed people who join in the fun.
“And I assume this will culminate in some major event at the Dawn,” I say.
“By the Dawn, there will be some evidence found to link Rafe to the crime. By the time the sun comes out on the fourth morning, he’ll be the most hated man in Lunameade,” my mother says. “We will take it from there.”
They look so certain I’ll agree that I want to hold out just to spite them. But I picture Aidia’s face when she knows he can’t hurt her anymore. I picture life beyond these city walls in another town somewhere far from here—and that vision gives me the strength to stay silent .
I take a bite of my chicken and chew slowly, letting the silence stretch as I sip wine to wash it down.
I slide my chair back and stand, planting my hands on the table so that they won’t see the way I’m trembling—how much it costs me to stand up to them.
“I will do this, but I want your word that you will give me what I want,” I say, ignoring the breathlessness in my voice.
“Before you make assumptions, this is not a suggestion or the start of a negotiation. I am risking an enormous amount behind enemy lines and I want to be clear now that I expect to be rewarded for it. These are my terms. When this is over, Henry has skewered your latest rival, and I’ve delivered you the information you need about him and his family, you will give me the tunnel key, and you’ll make all of my siblings cooperate to let me out with any supplies and resources I request, and without Gaven tailing me. ”
The crease in my father’s brow deepens, and I know I’ve hit my mark. That was his plan. He agreed to let me use the tunnel, but he intended to send my guard with me to keep him informed.
My chest clenches. I can barely draw in a breath. Until now, I wasn’t sure how I would get Aidia out of the city. She can glamour herself, but my father would still be able to see her aura. Seeing a woman with a silver aura leaving the city with me would instantly make him suspicious.
But now that I know Henry has a ring that hides auras, I could steal it for her and pretend she’s just one of the lovers Gaven thinks I sneak out to see at night.
My father’s hands flex on the edge of the table. He wants to avoid offering me the safest way to escape the city and losing access to me.
Finally, he meets my eye and offers a stiff nod. “Fine.”
He’s only ever seen me as a currency. He’s not considered me a worthy adversary.
Maybe not today, but someday I’ll change that.