“Speaking of cantrips,” I said, “you use the same supplier as the Houses, right?”
“We do,” said Miles. “Why?”
“I spoke to the cantrip manufacturer in Arcadia and they said they only sell to one supplier in Elysium,” I explained. “Which means either the cantrip someone used to kill the jailor came from there, or there’s another illegal cantrip supplier somewhere in the city.”
“Fair point,” said Miles. “Want to talk to Dawson? Not like I’ve got much else going on.”
Shelley cleared her throat. “Except for keeping the other Spirit Agents in line.”
He shot her a grin. “It’s a group responsibility. Anyway, it’s worth checking out. We need to know if the Family has their claws in the local cantrip supplier.”
“I bloody hope not,” said Shelley. “Did the Death King tell you to speak to him, Bria?”
“He hasn’t given me instructions,” I said. “Other than not disturbing the prisoner, which I had zero intention of doing anyway. Admittedly, he didn’t tell me to talk to the supplier…”
“He didn’t tell you not to, did he?” said Miles.
“I like the way you think,” I said. “No, he didn’t, and since I’m already here, I might as well go check it out.”
“Sure,” he said. “Shelley, I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Don’t get into trouble,” she responded.
The pair of us left the Spirit Agents’ house, walking along the path to the gate. A vampire chicken ambled past, its beak bloody. “Did it take a bite out of someone?”
“Nah, I think the kids have been feeding them dead rats.”
“Lovely.” They certainly seemed well-looked after, and I wondered if they had any intention of selling them after all. It might be useful to have an army of vampire chickens to attack intruders. “Any updates you don’t mind sharing now they can’t overhear us?”
“Hey, you can trust the others,” he said. “You know that, right? They’ll come around to trusting you eventually, too.”
“Even after what happened with Shawn?” I said. “Do they really not believe there’s going to be a war?”
His expression darkened. “They do. They just won’t admit it. Shawn wasn’t the only spirit mage traitor.”
“No?” I turned to him. “Who else? Do I know them?”
“No.” He drew in a breath. “Okay, the Death King doesn’t want me to tell you this, so don’t let it slip that you know, okay? But I know who the mastermind is.”
I stopped in my tracks. “The Family? You’ve seen them?”
“No, but the person who organised the coup against the Death King is a lich named Hawker,” he said. “Or should I say he was a lich. Before he came back to life.”
My mouth fell open. “What? That’s not possible.”
“I didn’t think it was possible either,” he said, “but the Death King told me otherwise. Hawker used some kind of spell to turn himself from a lich into a living spirit mage again.”
“The Family’s cantrips.” I dropped my voice. “You mean—there’s a cantrip which brought him back?”
Of course the Family had been responsible. But did that mean they planned to use the same cantrips against the Death King? Was that what Adair had been taunting me about, when he’d implied the Court of the Dead was doomed?
“Looks that way,” said Miles. “Spirit mages can’t bring people back from the dead. Liches can turn human again after a short time if their death wasn’t permanent, but that Hawker guy… he died years ago. Around the time of the war.”
“I think I need to tell Harper,” I said. “She isn’t dealing well with being a lich. If there’s a chance she might get to become human again, she’ll want to know about it.”
“Uh, not a good idea,” he said. “There’s usually a downside to powerful cantrips like those. There was one version a couple of months ago which brought liches back to life and then made them rot and fall to pieces.”
“Nice.” I pulled a face. “Okay, that’s one hell of a downside. Still, if this Hawker person is alive when he used to be a lich, he must have made it work, right?”
“Liv is looking into it,” said Miles. “That’s what the Death King told me.”
“Oh, he gave you an update and not me?”
“Don’t get too excited,” he said. “That’s only one piece of bad news. The other is that the Order of the Elements is now assumed to be under Hawker’s command.”
Once again, I halted mid-step. “The Order was taken over by a rogue? Seriously?”
“Yep,” he said. “They were infiltrated from the inside, as far as I can figure out. Personally, I think they were crooked anyway, with their policies against spirit mages, but the official line is that they’re under new management.”
“But… they’re the Houses’ liaison on Earth.”
Whenever the Order found illegal mages they didn’t want to deal with, they handed them straight to the Houses. Did the Houses know the Order was under the control of the enemy? Should I be the one to tell them?
“They know,” Miles said. “The Houses, I mean. The Death King told them.”
“He didn’t tell me.”
Maybe he didn’t trust me at all. But Miles did, which was no small thing. Spirit mages like him and the Death King faced potential betrayal at every corner, and while it came as no particular surprise that the King of the Dead had kept information from me, Miles had elected to tell me despite the risk. I hadn’t worked with another person since Tay’s betrayal, and it’d taken me long enough to trust her with my life. Now, I didn’t know if I’d be able to reach that level of trust with someone again, but Miles was a strong contender.
“The Houses haven’t put out an official statement on the Order yet,” he added. “I think they’re keeping it quiet.”
“Like the Family’s escape,” I said. “That’s their
