“Of course I’m happy for you.” Rune handed it back to him. “This is what you want.”

It just wasn’t what she wanted.

Alex was her safe place. She could be herself with him. Alex, along with Verity, had filled the gaping hole in her life after Nan died. He and Verity were always there—after every dangerous night of saving witches, after every ridiculous after-party where Rune’s head ached from gossiping and flirting and pretending to be someone she wasn’t, in the quiet moments and the loud ones.

And unlike Verity, who was a fire constantly spurring her on, Alex was a cool spring, giving her a place to rest and recover, reminding her that she was a girl with needs and weaknesses, not some invincible savior.

What will I do without you?

Maybe that was the problem. Rune needed Alex more than he needed her. He’d given her so much, and she’d given so little in return.

She was doing it now. Being selfish. The selfless thing to do was let him go.

Rune swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth and tried to be a better friend.

“I want you to finish your studies.” She smiled, hoping it didn’t look forced. “And then I want you to become a world-famous composer whose name I can flaunt at parties, telling everyone I knew you when you didn’t know the difference between adagio and allegro.”

He studied her for a long time, deliberating something.

“Will you come back to visit me?” she asked.

“If … you want me to.”

It wasn’t the answer Rune needed. She wanted him to want to come back. To need her the way she needed him.

Sinking back down to the piano bench, his eyes locked with hers. Alex had the most beautiful eyes. Bright gold with flecks of brown.

“But it’s easier for you to make a clean break,” she said, putting voice to the thing he wouldn’t. “To put this island behind you.” More quietly, she said, “To put me behind you.”

“No.” His voice was soft but firm. His hands lifted to gently cup her face. “Rune, never. I want …”

Before he could finish, Verity flew into the room with a tray of tea and cookies. “Is anyone else starving?”

Alex’s hands dropped and he turned sharply away from Rune. As she watched him slide off the bench and stand before the fireplace, quietly stoking the flames, she remembered Gideon’s words from the garden.

When I saw Alex at your side, I knew exactly who you were … a girl who was entirely off-limits, because my little brother found her first.

Rune had thought he was talking about ruining her and Alex’s friendship. Now she wondered if he’d meant something else.

“So? How did the dinner go?” Alex asked as Verity set down the tray and poured out three cups of tea.

Verity relayed everything she’d told to Rune already—about witches being kept beyond the seventh gate, and the access coin they needed to move through the prison—before telling him about the spellfire Seraphine used to nearly kill Rune.

Alex spat his tea back into his cup. “Seraphine did what?”

Rune, still on the piano bench, crossed the room and lowered herself into the love seat. “We don’t know for sure that it was her. It shouldn’t have been possible, with her hands in restraints.”

“Who else would it be?”

Silence answered him.

With the fire roaring in the hearth, Alex set down the poker and joined Rune on the love seat.

“If they’d intended to purge her tonight,” said Verity, “Seraphine’s days are numbered. We have to break her out of that prison as soon as possible.”

“If Seraphine is being kept in the prison’s seventh circle,” said Rune. “In order to get her out, I’ll need a Blood Guard uniform and an access coin for Fortitude Gate.”

The question was: How would they obtain them?

Verity withdrew her pad of paper and pen from her gold clutch.

“If I used my Ghost Walker spell to sneak into Blood Guard headquarters, I could steal a uniform and someone’s access coin there. The problem is, I only have one blood vial left. I’d like to save it, if I can. In case something goes wrong inside the prison.”

Verity tapped her pen against her chin, thinking. “I might be able to get you a uniform. There’s a girl in my dormitory who’s an intern at the Ministry of Public Safety. She wouldn’t have an access coin, but they gave her a uniform as part of her training.”

Verity looked Rune up and down. “You’re about the same size. All I’d have to do is get into her room, which is easy enough. And the access coin—”

Alex cut in. “I can get the coin.”

Rune and Verity glanced at him. “How?”

“You said every Blood Guard of high rank carries one.” Alex spun the slender silver ring on the smallest finger of his left hand. “My brother is a Blood Guard captain, and he has only one weakness that I know of. If you give me a few days, I’ll get you his coin.”

For as long as she’d known Alex, he’d refused to choose a side. Or rather, refused to choose Rune’s side over Gideon’s.

What had changed his mind?

“Unless you think they’ll purge Seraphine before then.”

“I have a feeling they’ll wait until Liberty Day,” said Verity, eyes shadowed in the firelight.

Liberty Day marked two years since the New Dawn—the night revolutionaries overthrew the queens. There was always a citywide festival, with celebrations from dusk till dawn.

“I agree,” said Rune. “It’s a public event, and the Good Commander always wants as many eyes as he can get on a purging when it’s a legendary witch he’s slaughtering. With Liberty Day less than a week away, he won’t have to wait much longer.”

They were deprived of their entertainment tonight, and Liberty Day was the next best opportunity to make a spectacle of Seraphine.

Which meant they needed to be ready to set this plan in motion before then.

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FORTY-ONE RUNE

A CRASH OF THUNDER shook the house, cutting their meeting short.

“Perhaps it would be best if you both stayed the night,” said Alex as the rain came down harder, roaring against the roof.

Verity shook her head. “I have an exam first thing in the morning.” She rose to her feet. “I need to go.”

“Then take my carriage,” said Rune, noticing how her friend drooped with exhaustion. “It’ll keep you dry, at least.”

Lightning flashed, and the windows in the conservatory all lit up at once. Rune went to look out. Already, water was pooling on the ground. She hoped the roads weren’t too muddy. The last thing she wanted was her friend stuck on the street in the middle of a storm.

After giving instructions to her driver, Rune watched from the front doors of Thornwood Hall as the carriage drove off with Verity inside.

Alex stepped up beside her. “I’ll have the servants make up a room for you.”

RUNE HAD STAYED OVERNIGHT at Thornwood dozens of times. But that was before Gideon told her the terrible things that had happened in this house. She suspected there were things he hadn’t told her, sparing her the worst of it. Thinking about them made her skin crawl.

As Rune lay in the guest bed, staring at the ceiling she’d slept beneath so many times before, she couldn’t help wondering: Which room did Cressida lock their dying sister inside? Which bed did she coerce Gideon into, night after night?

Was it this one?

Rune sat up, her entire body prickling. This was a mistake. She should have gone with Verity. There was no way she’d be able to sleep in this house when all she could think about was Gideon and his sister here, at the mercy of a cruel witch.

Throwing back the covers, she trod barefoot to the windows and pulled back the curtain. The thunder had only grown louder in the hour since Verity left, and the rain hadn’t stopped. If the roads were muddy before, they were swampy now. It would be foolish to ride home to Wintersea.