herself to all of Osera, and the next the entire western side of the palace had flattened as though stepped on by an enormous, invisible foot.
For three heartbeats, the people simply stared, and then the crowd turned as one and began to stampede out of the square. Tesset calmly retreated to the recessed entry of a nearby building as the tide of people surged past. Eli dove behind him far less calmly, pressing himself flat against the painted door as far from the panic as he could get. He was thinking about picking the lock when a wind’s voice giggled in his ear.
“Helping you was more fun than expected,” the wind said. “Now, you said you’d make it worth my while?”
“Of course,” Eli said, recovering instantly now that there were deals to make. “How about a favor of your choosing from the prince of Osera?”
“A favor from a human?” the wind puffed, considering. “That’s a fine turnaround. I’ll take it. I’ll call him when I think of something.”
“Do, please,” Eli said.
But the wind was already blowing up into the sky to tell the others about how a human owed him a favor.
Tesset patted down his collar where the wind had blown it up. “You do realize that when the wind comes to claim that favor, the spirit-deaf Prince Josef won’t be able to hear him.”
“Winds like having favors more than claiming them, in my experience,” Eli said. “But if it does ever come to that, I’m sure the wind will find a way. They’re very resourceful.”
“I’m sure,” Tesset said, eyes darting pointedly to the square. “You should look to your young lady.”
Eli followed Tesset’s look and saw, without surprise, that Nico was no longer beside them but across the square and pushing her way toward the palace wreckage. With a long-suffering sigh, Eli started after her. Tesset went with him, gently pushing the panicked people out of their way with his long arms.
They caught up with Nico at the edge of the crushed palace. Eli was about to ask why she’d stopped when he felt it. The Heart’s spirit was still open, sitting on the wreckage of the palace’s western corner like an invisible mountain. Another step and Nico would have been on the ground like everything else.
The Heart had done a very neat job, crushing only the area around Josef and Adela but leaving the rest of the palace intact. It looked like someone had dropped a brick on this corner of the building, ripping away the walls and the roof but leaving everything else mostly intact. Servants were already peering over the ragged edge from the now-open rooms, their eyes as wide as dinner plates.
Where the Heart’s spirit was open, however, nothing moved. Even the dust was pressed indelibly into the ground. The stone wall had been crushed into the palace’s foundations by the Heart’s weight, bringing the roof down to eye level from the ground, and there, lying on her back and half buried under a cascade of cracked tiles not a foot away, was Adela. She lay completely still. So still that, for a moment, Eli thought she was dead. Then he saw her chest rise in a tight, tiny gasp, and he realized the truth. She was crushed, like everything else. In fact, the only thing not crushed beneath the Heart’s enormous weight was Josef.
He sat at Adela’s feet, watching her with a disgusted look. When he saw the three of them waiting at the edge of the destruction, Josef stood, walked over to what looked like a tangled ball of steel, and held out his hand. With a squeal of ripping metal, the Heart cut up through the twisted steel like a knife through ribbon and leaped into Josef’s grip, its hilt pressing firmly into its swordsman’s palm. The second Josef’s fingers closed on his sword, the monstrous weight lifted.
There was a whoosh of air as the winds rushed to fill the void. Josef let it blow over him, breathing deeply as the bleeding from his shoulder eased, then stopped altogether. When the wound was staunched, he turned and walked back to Adela. Now that the weight had lifted, the princess was coughing and struggling to roll over. She’d made it to her side by the time Josef reached her, and Eli saw her eyes widen in fear as she brought her hand up with a silver flash.
The Heart was there before she finished, the black blade slamming down just above her fingers. A spirit screamed, and Adela looked down in horror.
Just above the guard that protected her fingers, Adela’s sword was now little more than a ripped metal edge. On the ground in front of her, the rest of the bright steel blade twisted like a trapped snake beneath the Heart of War. The metal screamed as it thrashed, but every scream was fainter than the one before it. Finally, the sword fell still, its light fading like a dying ember, leaving the blade motionless, dark, and dead in the rubble.
“No,” Adela whispered, her fingers trembling on the hilt of her broken sword. “No. It’s impossible.”
Josef looked away in disgust. “Nico?”
Nico was behind Adela before Josef finished speaking her name, her hand coming down on the back of the princess’s neck. The blow hit with a solid thwack, and Adela slumped forward, her eyes fluttering closed.
“That should keep her for a bit,” Josef said, leaning on the Heart.
Nico stepped over Adela’s body to stand beside him, her eyes locked on his blood-soaked shoulder.
Josef began to fidget under her scrutiny. “I’ve had worse,” he muttered.
Nico’s eyes widened, but she let it lie.
“Well,” Eli said, stepping onto the rubble as well. “Now that that’s over, what next?”
“Get to the queen,” Josef said. “Before Lenette hears her daughter failed.”
“What about…” Eli tapped Adela’s body with his boot.
“They can handle it,” Josef said, nodding over Eli’s shoulder.
Eli turned to see the admiral and several guards marching toward them across the now-empty square. When he turned back, Josef was already off, trotting into the palace through the sundered wall with Nico hot on his heels. Muttering the usual curses about bullheaded swordsmen, Eli ran after them. Tesset followed a step behind, swift and silent as a shadow.
The wall the Heart had collapsed at this level turned out to be the outer wall of the pantry. Josef ran through the stocks of grain and flour, bursting through the door to the kitchen with a swift kick. The kitchen staff screamed and scrambled to get out of the prince’s path. Eli called out apologies as he ran past, but he stayed right on Josef’s heels as they cleared the kitchens and started up the servant’s stair toward the queen’s chambers.
They’d reached the third floor and were rushing toward the royal wing when Josef skidded to a stop, causing Nico and then Eli to run into him.
Eli poked his head around Josef’s broad back. “What is it n—”
The question died in his throat. Queen Theresa was at the other end of the hall. She was in a dressing gown, her face sweat soaked and pale as death. Long white hair tumbled loose from her head, the wispy ends nearly brushing her bare feet. Lenette was at her side, and the queen clung to her with skeletal hands. A small knot of worried guards trailed behind them, following the queen and her lady as they made their way slowly down the hall.
It was Lenette who saw Josef first. Adela’s mother stopped in her tracks, her face suddenly stricken, as though she’d seen a ghost. Theresa stumbled at the sudden stop and raised her head, her eyes lighting up as she saw her son.
“Josef,” she said, her voice relieved. “They said you were fighting Adela.”
Josef didn’t seem to hear the queen. His eyes were locked on Lenette. “You,” he hissed, marching forward. “Get away from my mother.”
Nico started to follow, but Eli grabbed her shoulder. Lenette, on the other hand, stepped forward, putting herself between the queen and Josef.
“My queen!” she cried. “This man is a murderer. He killed his cousins and now he comes for you. Look at the blood on him.” She clutched her chest with a sob. “Where is my daughter, killer?”
“Step away, Lenette!” Josef shouted, walking faster. “It’s over. Adela confessed. We know everything. You’re an agent of the Empress left here to destabilize Osera after the war, and you trained your daughter to follow in your footsteps. You’ve been poisoning the queen for years, but your treachery ends now. Step away!”
Theresa looked at her lady-in-waiting. “Lenette?”
But Lenette’s face had changed. She glared at Josef with open hatred, and that was when Eli saw her hand flash.
“Josef!” he shouted.
He was too late. Lenette’s hand flew from her skirts, the knife flashing silver before it plunged into the
