Voices flooded the hallway as we reached my father’s office, proving I had guessed correctly. The door stood open, revealing a mostly empty room. The rest of the cabal was likely elsewhere in the house, busy holding and reinforcing wards against the Council’s attack. But the room’s two occupants were the only ones I truly cared about.
Bile rose in my throat as I recognized Ruelle Thibodaux sitting behind my father’s desk as though he owned it. My fingers itched with the urge to call down the lightning, but attacking him would never be that easy. He and the others had undoubtedly surrounded themselves in Magical protections to prevent me from doing that exact thing. Standing at Ruelle’s right shoulder, Jackie Faercourt sipped from a tumbler of amber liquid. Whisky if I had to guess. Gone were his rumpled, wrinkled clothes. He wore a severe suit, charcoal-gray pants and a jacket cut to show off his elegant build.
I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to electrocute first. Good thing I could wield more than one lightning bolt at a time.
“There’s a strange Magic in there, Evie.” Brigette’s voice was so low I could barely hear her. “Dark stuff. Corrupted. Like poison and death. I don’t know if I can—”
I pressed my lips to her ear and breathed my next words. “You’ve done enough for now. Go back and get Gideon and the others. Tell them I’m inside and the Council is almost through the wards.”
But before Brigette could turn away, Ruelle Thibodaux locked eyes with me and smiled. A cold streak shot down my spine. “Well, don’t just stand there, Evie. It’s rude. Please.” He waved, gesturing for me to enter the room. “Join us.”
I shoved Brigette. “Run.”
Thibodaux curled his finger. As if he’d somehow tied a rope around me, he yanked me into the room. “The Magic in your cloak is clever,” he said, “but not clever enough.”
I struggled against whatever force he’d used to pin me in place—his bindings were steel bands of overwhelming power. He stood and brushed wrinkles from his jacket, a garish blue satin affair. Embroidered silver butterflies adorned the blue waistcoat straining across his belly. His high-pitched chuckle raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
He snapped is fingers, and I could feel my invisibility recede. The empty feeling the Thunder Cloak gave me faded, and my figure threw a shadow across the floor. How he’d seen me, I didn’t know, but that no longer mattered. If Brigette had managed to escape and safely make it back to Gideon’s side, I’d gladly face down my enemies alone.
But my bravado and bravery disappeared the moment a tall, bespectacled man with curly dark hair strode into the room, tugging a fully corporeal Brigette behind him. He held her by her biceps like a wriggling fish he’d removed from his line. She struggled against him, but his grip was merciless.
“Baron Fontaine,” Jackie purred like a contented cat. “You’ve found yourself a prize.”
“You were right, Faercourt. I didn’t quite believe it was truly my daughter until I saw her with my own eyes.”
Ruelle grinned, but his smile held no joy, only cruelty. “I’m so glad we could all be here to witness this lovely family reunion.”
Chapter 30
“Daughter...?” The word pierced me like an arrow.
Brigette’s gaze shot to me, and her face crumpled into a pleading expression, brows drawn, eyes huge. “It’s not what it looks like, Evie.”
“You mean betrayal?”
“I didn’t betray you. I just... didn’t tell you everything.”
“Like the fact that your father was a member of Le Poing Fermé?” It explained so much, such as the source of her impressive Magic. I shouldn’t have been surprised she’d withheld such sensitive information, but her persistent deceit stung my heart.
“I hate him.” Brigette seethed. “He abandoned me.”
Her father jerked her arm. Disgust showed in the curl of his thin lip. He resembled his daughter in his long, lanky limbs and in the shape of his sharp chin and jaw. “Don’t blame me, girl. You abandoned yourself. And your Magic.”
“No, Father, I have not abandoned my Magic.” Brigette yanked free from her father’s grip and stepped back several paces. She bared her teeth and raised her hands, which glowed bright red with her rising power. A feeling like a fog of static electricity filled the room. She released her Magic, and her bolt of energy zipped toward her father.
He raised his hand—
And caught it.
Chuckling, he crumpled her red orb in his palm like a bit of paper, and the light disappeared.
My stomach sank.
She slung three more orbs in quick succession, zing, zing, zing. He dodged or caught each of them, his laughter growing louder with each one.
Brigette shrieked in frustration and raised both hands, teeth gritted in an angry grimace. Energy buzzed in my ears. Internally, I cringed, half expecting her to blow up the entire room, taking us all down with her anger. Before she could act, her father crossed to her side, hissed a sharp word, and touched her temple. She gave him a momentary look of dark hatred before her eyes rolled up, and she slumped to the floor.
I exhaled a breath of relief.
He gathered her limp body like a rag doll and dropped her onto the couch. “Stay there, and stay out of the way, girl.”
Another round of Magical artillery rammed against the cabal’s exterior wards. Fallstaff’s walls shook. The gaslights guttered.
I turned my attention to Thibodaux, temporarily putting the problem of Brigette aside. “The Council’s almost through your barriers, Thibodaux.”
“The Council isn’t here for us. It’s you they want, Stormbourne.” He tented his fingers over his broad stomach. “You’re the one who broke into their sacred temple and stole their prized possession.”
“If they take me, you’ll never get what you want.”
“What I want? I’ve gone along with Jackie’s schemes this long because he convinced me you were worth the trouble, but you’ve turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.” He opened his hands at his sides and slowly spun around, his gaze scanning the whole room. “Sitting on Inselgrau’s throne is more satisfying than I’d ever considered. I underestimated the appeal. And if the Council arrests you and takes you away, that removes all legitimate claims to the throne. Inselgrau would belong to me, free and clear.” He clicked his tongue, tsk, tsk, tsk. “You should’ve been more careful, my lady. If you had completed your task the way we’d asked you to—quietly and without giving yourself away—there’d be room for negotiation between us. But now you’ve brought the Council into it, and that... complicates things.”
I frowned, considering his words. Was he playing me, or had he truly changed his end game? Even so, nothing had changed for me. Le Poing Fermé and Thibodaux, in particular, had to go. “So you think you can make a deal with the Council? Hand me over and in return they’ll walk away and leave you with the keys to my kingdom?” I pointed at Jackie. “You know they’ll want your prized pet back too. Will you also give up Jackie to appease the Council?”
The assaults on Fallstaff’s exterior were coming harder and faster. The house shuddered like an ancient beast resurrected from its primordial grave, shaking off dust and flexing stiff joints. Distant voices cried out from distant rooms and hallways, shouting orders and desperate requests for reinforcements.
The three cabal members in my father’s office ignored their colleagues’ cries, acting as though their wards weren’t coming down around them and that the Council wouldn’t be storming their fortress any moment. My stomach swirled in anticipation. I reached for the skies and tightened my will around the lightning.
Thunder crashed, a distinctly sharper and harsher explosion than the Council’s missiles. I hoped Gideon and the others recognized my signal—my call to prepare for battle.
