Twenty-Seven. Rune

TWENTY-SEVENRUNE

THE CARRIAGE BUMPED ANDjostled Rune as Alex’s driver took them down the cobbled lanes of the city. Verity and Alex sat facing Rune, who sat alone on the opposite bench.

She should have felt victorious at the look on Gideon’s face when he realized she’d turned the tables on him. Instead, she felt … drained. Like she could sleep for a month straight if given the chance.

Maybe that’s what I’ll do in Caelis,she thought. Then caught herself. She still hadn’t decided if she was going with Alex, never mind going for a month.

An unfamiliar tension radiated between them since leaving the warden’s study, and she could feel his eyes on her from the other side of the carriage. What had he been about to say before Verity barged into the room?

“Let’s get a look at this map.”

Right.The map.

Outside, the moon was almost full. It cast just enough light through the windows to see. Sinking down to the floor of the carriage, Rune pulled out the tracings and unrolled them, piecing them together.

Verity and Alex leaned forward to get a better look.

“There are seven sections,” said Rune, squinting at the circles she’d traced. A gate marked the entrance to the first and biggest section, the outermost circle. In each concentric circle after it, moving toward the center, were more gates. Seven in total. And each entry was named after one of the seven Ancients.

Mercy, Liberty, Wisdom, Justice, Amity, Patience, Fortitude.

Rune remembered when the opera house columns still bore the painted likenesses of the Ancients. The images were destroyed by fire when patriots ransacked the building during the revolution. The columns had since been painted over, but Rune could still picture the renderings of the witches in her mind: Amity, mid-laugh and her hair a wild tangle; Wisdom, with her secretive smile; Justice, turning her face toward the sky …

“Do you know which section they’re keeping Seraphine in?” asked Alex.

Rune shook her head. Not only did she not know what section or cell Seraphine was in, Rune didn’t know how many guards she’d need to evade. Or how one passed through the gates, which would be locked. Who held the keys? Once she was on the other side of all the gates, how would she get back out?

“This feels impossible,” said Rune, her shoulders slumping.

“There’s a reason they call it impregnable,” said Alex.

“Unhelpful,” said Verity, shooting him a look. She joined Rune on the floor, crossing her legs beneath her dress and leaning over the map as the carriage jolted beneath them. Rune’s nose prickled. One of these days, she would gently suggest to her friend not to dab so much perfume on …

But not tonight. Tonight, if Rune felt exhausted, Verity looked it. There were dark circles under her eyes, and every few minutes, her loud yawns broke the silence in the carriage. Not for the first time, Rune felt guilty stealing Verity away from her studies, certain her friend’s grades were suffering for it.

Verity would scold her if she knew what Rune was thinking. She and Rune were in this together. In it in a way Alex never would be. Rune had lost her grandmother to the purge; Verity had lost her sisters. Both wanted to rescue as many witches as they could—to make up for the ones they hadn’t been able to save.

“I wish I had a spell for walking through walls,” said Rune, leaning her head back against the carriage seat and staring at Alex.

“Is there such a thing?”

She shrugged. “I’ve never come across one.”

Verity pushed her spectacles up the bridge of her nose. “I’m sure there’s a spell for blasting through walls. But you’ll need a lot more blood to pull off that kind of thing. Blood you don’t have.”

She pulled a pencil and notepad from her pocket and started writing. The edge of her tongue popped out of the corner of her mouth as she dutifully made a list.

“We’ll need to know: where Seraphine is located; how the gates work; roughly how many guards …”

“How Rune will get out after she gets in,” Alex added, sounding displeased but taking part.

“What day they’re planning to purge her,” said Rune.

This was her last chance. If she arrived too late this time, she wouldn’t get another.

When she finished her list, Verity lowered her notepad to her knee and started tapping the paper with her pen. “That’s a lot of information.”

“Laila will know some of these answers,” offered Alex. “Her mother’s the warden, and she’s a witch hunter. She’ll have been inside that prison more than once.”

“The girl who shot me tonight?” Rune arched her brows, remembering the opera house, and Laila’s less-than-playful guesses about why she’d been late.

Verity seemed to remember the same thing. She shook her head. “I don’t like the way Laila looks at Rune these days. Best to avoid her. However …” Mischief danced in her eyes. “Her brother might be helpful.”

“Noah’s not a witch hunter,” Alex pointed out.

“But his sister is, and his mother is a warden. Noah’s smart. He pays attention. And …” Verity spoke to Rune now. “… he’s at the top of your list of eligible suitors. If you got him alone—”

“Eligible what?” interrupted Alex. He looked to Rune. “What is she talking about?”

Rune winced, remembering how they’d excluded Alex from this plan. Deciding it was well past time to fill him in, she said, “Verity made me a list of eligible men to—”

“No.”

The ferocity of the word surprised them both.

“I’ll talk to Noah,” said Alex, his voice like quiet thunder. “I’ve invited him and Bart over for cards this week.”

Rune glanced up to find him glowering at her.

“What are you going to do, casually ask him how to get past the gates of his mother’s prison?” She shook her head. “The likelihood of Noah knowing any of these answers, never mind all of them, is so slim. It’s not worth the risk of raising his suspicions.”

Alex opened his mouth to argue, but Rune didn’t let him.

“I already have a better solution.”

It had been burning inside her this whole time, like a quiet candle flame. She hadn’t mentioned it because she knew what they’d say.

Verity looked up from her list. “Let’s hear it.”

“Gideon knows every single one of these answers. If I use my truth-telling spell—”

“You tried that already,” Verity pointed out. “It didn’t work.”

“You tried that already?” Alex dragged his hands through his hair.

Rune ignored him.

“It didn’t work because he refused the wine,” she argued with Verity. “But I can fuse the spell to anything. A coat. A shoe. A watch. I could enchant a thimble and slip it into his pocket. He wouldn’t even know it’s there.”

“He’ll know,” said Alex. “He’s well acquainted with magic.”

“Not my magic,” countered Rune. “Every witch’s essence is unique.”

After the trap he’d laid for her—a trap she’d stupidly walked straight into—Rune wanted nothing more than to end things with Gideon. He was altogether too clever. But to cut him loose now, when he suspected her most, would be akin to an admission of guilt.

Rune couldn’t retreat. She needed to go on the offensive. She had to appear smitten. Like she’d never encountered him at that mine tonight.

“As a Blood Guard captain, Gideon has brought witches through those gates hundreds of times. He’ll know where Seraphine is, as well as her purging date.”

“He already suspects you, Rune!”

“He didn’t arrest me tonight,” she pointed out. She’d bought herself more time with that luncheon. How much time, she didn’t know.

This didn’t seem to soothe them. Rune couldn’t exactly blame her friends. She might have outwitted Gideon temporarily, but she hadn’t thrown him off her scent for good.

“All I need is something to enchant. Something he’d wear on his person.”

“And the spellmark?” challenged Verity. “He’ll see it and realize what you are.”

“Then I need to enchant something where I can easily hide a spellmark. I’ll figure it out, okay? The Luminaries Dinner is in four days. I’ll ask him to accompany me. And afterward, I’ll use the spell to get the answers I need from him.”

“Afterward,” said Alex, darkly.

Verity said nothing. She’d gone utterly quiet.

They suddenly both annoyed Rune. Couldn’t they see this was their best option?

“If either of you come up with a better solution, I’ll call the whole thing off. Until then, this is the plan.”

Alex turned sharply to the carriage window, his fingers twisting that silver ring around and around his smallest finger. Verity merely scowled.

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AFTER ALEX DROPPED HERoff at Wintersea House with barely a word of goodbye, Rune dictated a telegram for Lizbeth to handle:

GIDEON SHARPE

113 PRUDENCE ST, OLD TOWN

COME WITH ME TO THE LUMINARIES DINNER?

RUNE

Afterward, she promptly fell into bed, trying not to think about Alex’s anger, or his tempting invitation to Caelis, or the tension between them tonight. Fighting with Alex made her feel unbalanced. Like a ship they’d been sailing smoothly on for years had suddenly plunged into stormy waters.

Alex never blurred the line between his loyalty to Rune and his love for Gideon. He liked to keep them separate. In courting Gideon, Rune was shrinking the gap between those parts of his life, and it was making him anxious. That’s all this was. That’s why he was being so protective.

Rune shook her head. She couldn’t afford to be distracted right now. So she put her oldest friend out of her mind and fell asleep.