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.
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.