“I want to help you,” he told her. “But…”
“But what?”
“But no curse can be broken from the outside.”
Briony sucked in a breath. “You’re telling me I’m too late.”
“I’m telling you that only a champion can end the tournament.”
There was still time, then. She could find Innes. She could save herself, save them all, if only Briony could convince her.
“But how would a champion break it?” Briony pressed. “And what would happen if they did?”
Reid hesitated. In the darkness of the alley, his black clothes rendered him nearly invisible. “It’s hard to say. When curses break, it’s either because they’re taken apart delicately, or because they’re smashed to bits. Avoid the second option. It would definitely leave all the champions dead.”
Briony didn’t have time to waste discussing what wouldn’t work. She’d thought of a thousand different false solutions over the last day. “So how do you take it apart delicately?”
“Briony … this is all just theory. What makes you think you can—”
“Because I have to,” Briony snapped. “I mean, she—my sister—has to. Or she’ll die.”
“Well then.” Reid licked his lips. “You’d need to dismantle the high magick that holds the tournament together, piece by piece. So you have to ask yourself, what are those pieces? They are—”
“The seven Landmarks,” Briony answered quickly. “And the seven Relics.”
Admiration glinted in his eyes, and for the first time in two weeks, it felt like someone was really seeing her.
“So you have been reading,” he said. “Yes. The seven Landmarks and Relics. But also the story itself. The patterns, repeating every generation, reinforcing the magick and making it stronger.”
Stories. Patterns. Clichés. That was how Innes had talked about the tournament before. Maybe Briony could convince her there was something to this.
“But how do you dismantle all those pieces?” she asked. “Would you have to do it all together?”
“You can safely take a curse apart piece by piece. I assume high magick works the same way.”
“And if you do that, it won’t collapse? What if it destabilizes everything?”
“Do you think I have all the answers?” He looked at her disdainfully. “I’ve spent years studying the tournament, but I’m not from your so-called ‘great’ families. I’ll always be on the outside. All I know is that curses last for centuries when nothing about them changes. Somehow, after all this time, the tournament has managed to stay the same. If you go back to the beginning, find its patterns, and break them, then you could destroy its very foundation. Maybe build something new. Maybe burn it all down.”
Briony had more questions—a lot more. Maybe Reid would know the answers and maybe he wouldn’t.
“I—” she started, but he shook his head.
“You need to hurry if you want to reach her.”
Briony knew he was right. Innes knew the tournament and its history inside and out. There would be time for her to find the answers once it began.
“Thank you,” she told him, then she raced out of the alley back to the square. Most of the guests had left, but thankfully, the Thorburn family was so massive that they were still wishing Innes good luck. They’d congregated at the edge of the square beside the forest, shaking hands with her one after the other. Briony spotted Agent Yoo in the line, saw her grip Innes’s hand, and felt a rush of fury. This was all her fault.
Briony shoved to the front, stumbling in her heels. When she burst through to Innes’s side, no doubt looking distraught, Innes waved the rest of their relatives away. They hesitated at first but soon dispersed, allowing the sisters this one small, final moment.
Briony seized Innes’s shoulders. “There’s a way,” she heaved. “The tournament can be broken.”
“What?” Innes blinked at her, shell-shocked.
“Reid MacTavish. He told me. The tournament is held together by high magick. There’s the seven Landmarks, the seven Relics, and the story. The story that keeps repeating. If you can—”
“Bri, you’re not making any sense.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry. There’s still so much to figure out. But if you find the pattern within the story…” Briony’s voice cracked with excitement as an idea came into her mind. “Like the Mirror and the Tower! The pattern! You have to—”