Chapter 42
Forty-Two
Iavoid his gaze as we sprint towards the exit, not bothering to check if any of the councillors survived.
They can rot in the Voyd for all I care.
Riven is a wall of tense, shaking fury, his hands fisted by his sides as he runs, his jaw clenched. I open my mouth to apologise, to admit he was right, but the words don’t come. I can’t bring myself to regret my actions, not now that I've managed to confirm how deep the corruption has spread.
“How did you know I was here?” I grind out instead, still refusing to look at him. We come to a stop at the doors and he throws an arm out to stop me, grabbing my chin with his other hand and forcing me to look at him.
“Because,” he breathes through gritted teeth, “Your actions have consequences, Little Wren.”
I frown in confusion, but he answers my unspoken question by flinging the door open, and revealing the view of the city outside.
I gape in horror, frozen.
Beyond the gilded gates of the Memosyne, the silhouette of the city is hidden behind a towering wall of fire.
“What—how–” I choke on my words, turning to him with wide eyes, desperate for an explanation. He grabs my hand and marches me outside to the road leading to the gates, walking so fast I have to jog to keep him from accidentally yanking my shoulder from its socket.
“I had a vision,” he growls. “The minute you walked into the council chamber there was an explosion. Someone attacked the Division.”
“What?” I gasp. “How could—this isn’t–”
My words trip over themselves, unable to form sense.
As we sprint through the gates, the entire courtyard before the Memosyne is lit hellishly orange, flames clawing up to the sky, the smoke so thick it’s blotting out the higher tiers of the city, joining with the Veil above.
Wardens sprint in and out of the inferno like frantic shadow-puppets.
Someone shouts for water, someone else for backup, and still the flames rise, greedy and uncontrollable.
I stagger to a halt, my gut twisting.
“Why burn the Division?” My voice cracks. “Why here? How is this connected?”
Riven’s fingers tighten around my wrist, the pressure almost painful.
“I don’t know,” he mutters under his breath, voice low with dread.
“But someone clearly knows you’re onto them.
You charging into the council chamber to confront them must have been the catalyst. There’s something bigger going on here. ”
I feel the tremor in his hand and realise, with a jolt, that he’s not just furious. He’s terrified.
We run.
Ash falls like black snow as we sprint through the chaos. Broken glass crackles beneath our boots, the destruction worsening the closer we get. The remains of the roof are sagging inward, beams collapsing, a mural of smoke and heat warping the air.
“Henrick!” Riven’s shout tears from him, raw and panicked.
I follow his gaze.
Chief Starling lies slumped against the ruined doorway of the Division, half-buried in rubble, blood matting his greying beard and pooling darkly beneath him. His chest rises shallowly…barely.
Riven drops to his knees so fast I hear the crack of bone against stone.
“Stay with me,” Riven demands, gripping his friend’s shoulders, voice breaking. “You’re not dying here. Not like this.”
Starling’s eyes flutter open. He focuses on Riven first, then his gaze slides toward me, confusion washed in pain.
“You…shouldn’t be here,” he rasps, coughing blood. “They are—after you–”
I freeze.
My stomach twists into something cold and sick, but I force myself forward, kneeling beside them both, the flames scorching a suffocating wall of heat up my back.
“Chief,” I whisper, voice shaking. “Who did this? What did they want?”
The flames crackle louder around us, the building beginning to groan as another section collapses inward. But Starling manages to lift a trembling hand, gripping Riven’s wrist.
His voice becomes surprisingly firm given his grievous injuries, like he’s using up all his energy just for this. “It’s too late. They’re going to use it. Tonight.”
Riven goes dangerously still.
My breath stops.
The Codex?
Guess I was right about him being in Riven’s pocket after all.
He lets go of Riven and turns his head to me, grabbing my cloak with both hands, his eyes desperate.
“Octavia, please forgive me. I took you off that case because I thought whoever sent you those notes was trying to point you to Riven. I had no idea it was Riven himself sending them. I was trying to protect him.”
“Henrick, no–” Riven starts.
I nod shakily. “I understand.”
I don’t.
He continues, his breath starting to rattle.
“When you—when you started getting involved with those murdered seers…he told me to let you. So that night when you broke into the morgue I made a show of arresting you. I knew Blackwood would come to your aid, he’s so predictable.
I let you convince yourself he was the only reason I let you on the case. ”
Starling was in on it the whole time?
Before I can demand more answers, he starts coughing up more blood and his hands slip limply from my cloak.
I grab his shoulders in panic, trying to lift his head, but it’s no use, the blood keeps coming.
He pins me with a terrified expression, the look of a man who knows death is imminent.
He grasps blindly for me, pulling me close again as he whispers in my ear.
“Stay close to Riven. You—you can trust him.” He pauses, choking on his blood. “I’m sorry…I failed…you.”
He falls limp, quiet.
Slowly, the hand clutching me slips, his last breath an ominous rattle in his chest. Riven bows his head, jaw clenched so hard it trembles. No tears, but something just as visceral flickers across his face.
Behind us, the Division continues to burn.
“No!” I run my fingers through my hair and they come back covered in blackened soot. “If one more person dies for this stupid, Voyding conspiracy–”
I can’t take this anymore.
I jump to my feet and kick a piece of debris into the roaring fire, frustrated tears streaming down my face, tightening my skin where they congeal with the grime and soot plastered to me.
I scream.
Every awful, confusing, frustrating thing that’s happened in the last two weeks rips from my mouth in the form of a blood curdling, guttural scream, my throat feeling like it’s tearing to pieces as I let it out and inhale the burning smoke.
When my voice is lost and I can’t scream anymore, I slump my shoulders, panting heavily, angrily scrubbing the tears from my face.
I turn back to Riven, and I startle when I realise he hasn’t moved an inch the entire time.
He’s still on his knees, one hand on Starling’s lifeless body, face pale, eyes unseeing.
Tears of a different kind start to fall down my face.
What am I doing?
He’s just lost his only friend—and I’m fairly sure it’s all my fault—and yet I’m standing here having a very public meltdown about my own issues while the world burns at my back.
I fall back to my knees beside him and pull him away from Starling, holding him tightly in my arms. He numbly lets me embrace him and I choke back a sob.
“I’m so sorry, this is all my fault,” I gasp, clutching him tight. He pulls back and grabs my face with both hands, forcing me to look into his bloodshot eyes.
“His blood is on their hands,” he says with a rasp, his mouth set in a grim line. “And we are going to make them pay.”
I nod fiercely, a sense of purpose settling onto my shoulders as I match his determined stare and place my hands over his. “Gods help me, I will cut down anyone who stands in our way.”
He gives me a small smile, but it drops as his gaze snaps up over my shoulder. For a moment, I think he can sense my Shadow again, but as a very real shadow falls across us I turn and find a towering man standing behind me, silhouetted by the flames.
“That’s big talk for someone whose days are numbered,” Xavier growls, staring down at us both in disgust.
I shrink back and Riven wraps his arms round me protectively, pulling me tight against his chest.
“Is that a threat brother?” he snarls, gripping me tightly.
“Because if you even think about harming her, there is nothing in this world that will save you from me. If you lay so much as a shadow on her, I will become the nightmare that hunts you until your last breath. I will tear this world apart to reach you. There won’t be a corner of existence left for you to hide in.
No law, realm, nor God will shield you from the ruin I will unleash. ”
I inhale sharply.
Xavier laughs cruelly.
The man I considered my friend is no longer there. What stands in his place is a mere husk of his former self, all his light replaced by cloying darkness, and I don’t think it’s caused by Riven’s curse.
Some wardens shout out, but I can’t hear them over the roaring flames. Xavier shouts commands back at them and they disperse.
“Xavier,” I choke out, my voice shaking. “What are you doing?”
He sneers at me, all traces of our life-long friendship seemingly gone. “I told you before. You’ve made your choice, now I’m making mine.”
The blood drains from my face. “What do you mean?”
Another warden trips as he approaches us, shouting desperately as he spots Starling’s corpse. “The Chief! He’s—he’s–” He swallows hard. “What do we do? Who’s next in command?”
Xavier doesn’t break my gaze as he responds. “I am.”
The warden pales. “Sir, the seers, your sister…their bodies are gone. The morgue is empty.”
Horror leaches through me, but Xavier doesn’t even flinch at the worrisome news, like he didn’t even hear it. I glare back at him and my stomach hollows out as it dawns on me what he’s about to do.
And I’m powerless to stop it.
With the Chief no longer in his way, there’s nothing to stop him–
“Rivenéan Ashfell, you are under arrest for murder. And Octavia Wren, you are under arrest for obstruction of justice and accomplice to murder.” He stares at us with utter contempt as he gestures for the closest wardens to apprehend us.
“Seize them.”