Chapter 41

The entire lower quad heard Ren's cries for help.

It was still break. The campus was mostly empty, but a few professors and doctoral students heard the noise and came thundering down the marble steps of nearby buildings. A search party had gone out for Theo Brood and Clyde Winters several days ago. It had taken a little longer to realize that Ren Monroe, Timmons Devine, Avy Williams, and Cora Marrin were also missing.

Witnesses and schedules and friends had corroborated the theory that they'd all been heading for the waxway room before vanishing. Investigators had arrived and known immediately that something had gone wrong. One of the deans had suggested combining their estimated distances and creating a search radius that way. The building had been temporarily boarded up.

Now figures rushed across the manicured lawns. Ren could only imagine how she looked clutching pale Theo in her bloodstained arms. "Get the medics, now!"

Theo was gently lifted from her. A professor led her into a waiting room as word of the incident spread. Investigators were quick to interview Ren. She walked them back through the entire story of what had happened. From the malfunctioning portal all the way to the standoff on the bridge. The emotional deaths of her friends. Discovering a farm that trafficked in the breath. She took great care to provide full details about Theo's affections for her, making sure to mention their new bond magic several times. She still didn't know if he would actually survive. If someone tried to deny the connection later, she wanted to get two steps ahead on countering those accusations. The investigators wrote down every single word in their official records.

Ren was permitted to take a bath after they left. She cleaned up, changed into new clothes, then stood vigil outside the operatory where Theo had been taken. Rumors were making their way around campus already. Whispers of what had happened. People were rightfully claiming that she had saved Theo's life. A chariot arrived outside the medical building. She'd been expecting her mother. It shouldn't have been a surprise to see Landwin Brood marching across the quad instead.

Theo's father was an older version of him. A little sharper at the chin, a little more lifeless around the eyes. He had not changed much since the first time Ren saw him. A decade-long hatred rumbled to life in Ren's chest. She saw a series of ugly little snapshots. Landwin at the canal railing, glorying in the sight of her father's broken body below. The smug smile he'd worn at the funeral the following week. She even imagined the dog, somewhere on his estate, bearing her father's name as some final insult. She took all that hatred and set it aside in a box. She would need it later to power her efforts. But this would be a long game. Her first move mattered.

Ren dipped into a respectable bow. A moment later she straightened her shoulders. "A Monroe always stands tall," her father used to say. Her voice didn't tremble.

"You're Theo's father?"

He nodded. "I am."

"We have much to discuss, sir."

He looked at her with pure distaste. "You're the girl who was with him. The other survivor. Look, I'm grateful he's alive. I'm told you performed some basic magic to help him. But I hope you'll understand if my priority right now is my son. I do not have time for side discussions."

It was the kind of dismissal she'd expected from him. He offered a final look before circling around her, aiming for the hallway that led to where Theo was being treated. Ren considered letting him go, keeping her head down for now, but she'd waited too long for this moment to let it pass by.

"Not even a discussion with your future daughter-in-law?"

Those words wiped the smugness off his face. She enjoyed the unsettled expression that crept up instead. "Excuse me?"

"Oh. My sincerest apologies. I thought you already knew."

It was a pleasure to drink in his confusion. She could see him struggling to form a response. Ren held out one arm. There was a distant scrape of stone wings. Vega had nestled out of sight, up in the rafters of the great domed ceiling. She landed now with a flourish on Ren's wrist.

"Theo and I are bonded."

Landwin Brood seemed to see her for the first time. His eyes narrowed at the sight of Vega perched so comfortably there. She knew he was an intelligent man. Smart enough to see what his son had done, and all the implications it had on their future. Ren drove the dagger home.

"It will be such an honor to join your house."

He took a single, threatening step forward, but his words were cut off by the groan of a door. Down the hallway, one of the medics emerged. Ren saw an afterglow of golden light from whatever spells they were performing to keep Theo alive. A pair of surgeons followed. The witnesses forced Landwin to bite his tongue. The brief flash of anger in his expression was smoothed over by that same polish Theo had summoned so many times in the woods.

"Your son is awake," the medic called. "If you want to see him."

Landwin spared Ren a look. "I can't wait to learn more about you."

And then he was walking. The surgeons stepped aside. He entered that magic-brightened room and slammed the door shut behind him. The others took that as their cue to leave as well.

"Good work," the medic said to Ren. "It wasn't pretty magic, but it saved his life."

Ren nodded. She was still too shaken up by her first encounter with Landwin Brood to respond. She stood there, staring at the closed door to the operatory, until pain laced down her forearm. Vega's claws had dug into her skin. A spot of blood showed through the fabric. Ren watched the darkness spread in a circle.

It was a good reminder. There would be blood. She may have struck first, but Landwin Brood was well protected. His house was flush with assets. Destroying him would require great sacrifice. It already had. After a moment she shooed Vega into the air.

Carefully she rolled both sleeves.

"Learn everything you can about me, Landwin Brood. It won't save you."