Chapter 36
Wickett
If a scorched volunteers for dangerous work, let them. They’ve been rationing their magic since birth—they know better than anyone what they can survive.
The knock woke me from the first real sleep I’d had in days.
I jerked upright, hand going automatically to my blade on the nightstand, the movement pulling at the stitches in my side. Pain flared sharp and immediate, dragging me toward full consciousness.
The hall was loud. Buzzing with more traffic than I’d ever heard in Chancellery House.
The knock came again. Insistent. Someone had died.
I opened the door to find Calder standing there, his face grim. Hunters, dozens of them, hustled up and down the hall while a swarm of sprites zipped back and forth. I couldn’t see what was happening beyond Calder’s massive fucking frame blocking most of the doorway.
“What happened?”
He swept his hand through the air, indicating the chaos. “None of these fuckers will tell me anything, but I have a feeling I know what it’s about.” He looked over his shoulder and then back at me.
I stepped to the side, letting him into my room with a wince as the wound in my side resisted the movement. But rather than ask questions, Calder got right to the point. He held out a folded piece of parchment. “Delivered by Silas five minutes ago.”
My eyes flashed to the little beast at Calder’s feet before I took the message, unfolding the note.
DeC discovered. Safe. EM Cottage. Twenty-four bells.
Black, Buttons & Brains
At the bottom, almost hidden in the fold was a small symbol: a water droplet struck through by an ‘X’.
Calder deciphered the note. “They figured it out, and somehow made it out to the Bloodwood. And now they’re giving us twenty-four hours to get there before they chase after whatever they found.”
I shifted my weight and glared at the Rune Eater. “I can read. However, it could be faked. They could have been taken from their beds, someone forcing her to write under duress. The buzz in the hall—”
“See the mark at the bottom? That’s real. It’s ours. Mine and Syn’s. We use it when we need to verify messages are actually from us and not intercepted.” His eyes met mine with absolute certainty. “No one else knows it.”
I studied the symbol again, looking for any sign of forgery, any indication this was a trap. I found nothing but careful handwriting.
“She left.” The words came out flat, tactical. A statement of fact rather than emotion, even though something in my chest had gone cold. “Actually left the city. Without telling anyone.”
“She told me.” Calder’s tone carried no apology. “Through Silas.”
The griffin made a low sound, agreement and irritation mixed together in a way that suggested he wasn’t thrilled about being used for messenger service.
Calder crossed his arms. “They’re alive, ahead of us, and we’re wasting time.”
He was right. I hated that he was right, but strategy didn’t care about my feelings.
“We need weapons and an escape plan.” I was already moving, grabbing my knives from the desk, ignoring the brush of pain in my side. “Now. My father has the city on lockdown. No one in or out without his explicit permission.”
“I’m guessing they were seen sneaking out, and that’s what’s going on out there. Their rooms were searched. I could paint a picture if you want, but my guess is they were caught sneaking out and Silas created a distraction for them to get away.”
I nodded. “Let’s go.”
Calder fell into step beside me as we stepped into the chaos in the hall, Silas vanishing immediately. Not a single hunter looked at me. Because they’d let them get away and only punishment would follow.
The Rune Eater’s low tone was nearly swallowed by the echo of indiscernible shouts coming from downstairs. “Riot flies over the city regularly. If there’s a weakness in the watch, he’d have seen it. We can use that to get out.”
“Agreed.”
The Oracle’s chambers were at the far end of the residential wing. I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened before I could touch it.
Aureth stood there, blindfolded as always, yet somehow still looking directly at me. “Wickett Veyne. Calder Grimm. How punctual.”
Behind her, the room was already prepared. Packs sat near the door, provisions carefully organized. Riot stood by the window staring out.
“You already knew we were coming,” Calder said, following me into the room.
Aureth nodded, closing the door. “You’re here to ask about escape routes. Weaknesses in the city’s defenses. Ways to get out without getting yourselves killed.”
“You don’t have to go,” I said, because someone had to. “It’s safer for you here. My father would never move against you.”
“Safe? You think I’m safe in a locked-down city ruled by a man who sees me as an inconvenient obstacle to his assumption of absolute power?” She tilted her head. “Tell me, hunter, what happens when your father decides he no longer needs the optics of keeping me alive?”
I had no answer. Because we both knew what would happen if she truly got in his way.
The footsteps in the hall paused outside her door before the hall fell silent.
I moved instinctively, positioning myself between the Oracle and the door.
Six hunters filed in without welcome, my father’s personal guard, all armed.
The leader, Marcus, one of my father’s most loyal, took one look at me and froze.
They’d all been so frantic in the hall, they hadn’t even noticed Calder and me.
A security problem if ever there was one. And he knew it, based on his shock.
He stammered only a second before addressing the Oracle. “By order of the Magistrate’s council, all quarters are to be searched for evidence related to Magistrate Tiberius Veyne’s disappearance. You will stand aside and permit inspection.”
My father’s disappearance.
Of course. Of-fucking-course this was his play.
He’d go missing. Blame it on conspiracy.
Use his own guards to search Chancellery House while the whole city waited for answers.
Or he’d find whatever “evidence” he’d already planted.
Lock her up and call it justice while actually trying to start a revolution that would end with every Fury hunted and his power absolute.
He’d ordered the Venatori blood oath as proof of his commitment to the Furies.
And now, if they moved against him, he was the victim. He was justified in his actions.
Brilliant. Ruthless. Impetuous.
And no one had notified me out of fear of my wrath when I learned of my father’s disappearance. They were trying to solve the mystery before I stepped out of my room. They’d gone to the council for that exact reason.
I looked at the Oracle. She gave the slightest nod.
She saw this coming.
Fuck it. Time to give them all exactly what they expected from the Ripper.
I stepped forward, letting my perfect mask slide into place. I let all emotions slip away. My stance widened. Every ounce of my father’s training, every lesson in intimidation and control crystallized into the version of myself I needed to be.
“Stand down,” I said, my voice carrying the absolute authority of someone who’d never been denied.
Marcus’s attention slid back to me. “Commander Veyne, with all due respect, the Magistrate is missing. Protocol requires—”
“Protocol requires you follow orders from a superior officer.” I moved closer, and to his credit, Marcus didn’t back up. “I am giving you a direct order. Stand. Down.”
“Sir, we have reason to believe—”
“You have rumors.” I let contempt color my voice, knowing I was really facing off with my father here. Marcus probably knew exactly where he was. “You’re using my father’s disappearance as an excuse to harass a fury-born while she’s under the Magistrate’s protection.”
“With respect, Commander,” Marcus said carefully, “the timing is suspicious. Three Venatori disappeared last night—”
“The Venatori are hunting the Phoenix,” another hunter spoke over him.
“Or they’re supposed to be. Instead, they vanish without orders, without explanation.
” His eyes moved past me toward the Oracle’s chambers.
“And if there’s nothing to find here, seems you’d be eager to let us search these rooms. Make sure the water witch isn’t hiding behind fury-born skirts. ”
The implication was clear. Furies conspiring with witches. The perfect narrative to turn public opinion, justify harsher laws, tighter control.
Except it was fucking foolish. My father could never actually turn the world against the Furies. No one would back him. Not the other countries, not even Vestra. The Furies were too ancient, too respected, too woven into the fabric of how magic came to be.
Which meant Tiberius Veyne was losing his grip on reality. Enacting plans that would destroy rather than strengthen him.
I couldn’t let him weaken the hunters’ credibility with this fucking nonsense.
“You must let us search this room, Commander Veyne,” the reckless one said.
The hunter’s throat was in my hand before he could blink, my fingers pressed against his jugular.
“There is no place for conspiracy in law. The water witch is bound by oath to hunt the Phoenix. Her loyalty is now compelled by her desire to live.” I applied just enough pressure to make him gasp.
“She is investigating. Working. Fulfilling the single task my father gave her the second he labeled her a Venatori.”
I stared down at the hunter, seeing only red.
When he had the nerve to glare back at me without a thought, I snapped his neck, letting him crumble to the floor, and stepped over his body.
“You are bound to protect your leader,” I said, commanding every breath in the room, every heartbeat.
Every damn blink. “You are also bound to keep the monster population down and to follow orders. Yet none of that is fucking happening. My father is missing, but no one even tried to rouse me? And now you’re harassing individuals bound to the same death as me?
Why should I trust any of you to do your jobs? ”
Silence. Heavy and absolute.
“Here’s what’s going to happen.” I didn’t raise my voice. Didn’t need to. “Marcus, you take twenty men and search the Crook. Every abandoned building, every known hideout. The Magistrate has enemies. Find them. Question them. Report back to me in four hours.”
Marcus nodded once.
“Garrett, you take the docks. My father was investigating smuggling operations. Someone down there might have information.” I turned to the youngest hunter.
“Thomas, check our records. Pull every file involving threats to the Magistrate in the past six months, then bring me a list of where they’re coming from. ”
They stood frozen, almost stuck.
“Move!” The command cracked through the room like thunder.
They moved.
The door closed behind them, leaving a sudden, ringing silence that seemed to fall about the dead hunter.
I counted to thirty. Made sure they were actually gone. Made sure no one stayed behind to eavesdrop.
Then I turned to the Oracle. “We have maybe five minutes before someone realizes I just sent them on pointless chases in the wrong directions.”
She smiled. “Then we should go. Now would be best.”
“I need Timber,” I said, not making it a request. “I’m not going into the Ash without my cinderhowl.”
Calder raised an eyebrow. “We can send Silas.”
“Even if that grumpy fucker understood what you were saying, he has no idea where my kennels are.”
Calder chuckled. “You’d be surprised what that griffin knows.”
Silas stepped from the shadows in the corner of the room before launching himself out the window with no direction given.
Now our only problem was getting out.
The rune eater leaned a fraction closer. “The hunters at the wall won’t stand down just because you order them to. Your father’s lockdown is absolute. They’ll have standing orders not to let anyone through, Commander’s authority or not.”
The Oracle laughed. Actually laughed, the sound bright and unexpected in the tension.
“Oh, darling charidryn. We’re not going through the front gate.” She moved toward Riot. “We’re going over it.”