Chapter 30 Ren Monroe

Ren never thought she'd write a letter to Landwin Brood.

She penned each word carefully. The same way she might have approached a question on an exam. Thinking about who her professor was, what kind of answers they preferred, and how she might use the knowledge she had to best fit their standards. It was not a dissimilar process.

I have come around to your position, but I feel we are still not settled on the terms of our arrangement.…

She knew she needed to be both appealing and appalling. Luring him in with the promise of what he wanted, while simultaneously enraging him with the size of her request. A delicate balance had to be struck.

If you are inclined, I would meet you at the Brood estate. Let us discuss these matters in private and come to an agreement that would suit us both.…

Vega cooed from a corner of the room as Ren signed her name. She sealed the letter with dripping wax, pressing the borrowed emblem of House Brood down as hard as she could. On the desk, there was also a note from Seminar Shiverian. A weekly review of Ren's spellmaking work. It praised certain projects and critiqued others. Ren's eyes traced over the words once more. The review was a glimpse into the world that could have belonged to her—if only she'd chosen it.

But she'd chosen vengeance instead.

Ren held her own letter up. Vega swooped down. It was too perfect to not have the livestone bird deliver this final letter to her enemy. She wanted him to know that his gambit with Warden Carrowynd had failed. The great lord of House Brood would never admit to backpedaling, but Ren knew she had him in the exact corner she wanted him in. It would look as if she'd waited all this time to leverage her position for the best possible payout.

"Happy hunting, Vega."

The bird swept through the open window with the letter clutched in its talons. Ren did not have any time to waste. There was a candle burning in the corner of the room. The wax had dripped down to the golden plate beneath. She knew the only way she could travel without the Brood scouts following her was by waxway. It was possible they had ways of tracking her movements, magically determining which direction she'd traveled, so they could follow her whenever she surfaced elsewhere in the city. Fortunately, she had just one more place to visit. Ren reached out and snuffed the flame between her fingers.

There was a whisper in the dark—and then she was elsewhere.