“Are you sure the same enemy hasn’t taken over the Houses, too?” I said. “Why not send someone to check?”
“That,” he said, “is supposed to be your job.”
Oh. “I thought you wanted to join forces. Before the enemy gets there first. Isn’t that the goal?”
“Something like that,” he said.
“Then what am I supposed to do if it turns out they already made up their minds?”
“That’s a decision you’ll have to make on your own.”
Annoyance flared inside me. As he turned away, I said, “Did you know the enemy has a way to bring the dead back to life using a cantrip?”
He rotated, his empty gaze piercing me. “Who told you that?”
I swear the entire hall got colder. “Miles did. He said… he said the enemy was a former lich who brought himself back to life and that he has a way of doing the same for the other liches, too. Have you told them?”
“They’re well aware,” he said. “However, we have yet to find out what the method is and if there are any potential downsides. In any case, it’s of no concern of yours.”
“My friend is a lich,” I pointed out, but he was already drifting away across the hall. “What am I supposed to do now? Go back to the House of Fire and tell them they have one chance left to give you an answer?”
“If you believe that’ll be productive, then by all means, try,” he said. “Tell them my offer is still open.”
That was a challenge if I ever heard one. “I will.”
On the way out of the castle, I walked through a lich, which was about as fun as you might think. An ice-cold sensation slid through my body, and I yelped. “Ack.”
“Ow,” said Harper. “I can feel your fire, and liches are pretty damn flammable, you know. What did the Death King want with you?”
“He wants me to go back to the House of Fire,” I said. “Or to be more accurate, he pretty much said it’s impossible for me to get a straight answer out of them, so now I have an incentive to prove him wrong.”
“Haven’t you been going there every day this week?” Harper asked me.
“Only to make sure they haven’t punished Tay,” I said. “But given what I just heard from the Death King, they won’t even tell him how the Family got out of prison.”
“They won’t tell the Death King?” she echoed. “Aren’t they afraid of him?”
“You’d think,” I said. “So I need to poke them a bit more. I know for a fact someone gave the killer that cantrip. It didn’t get there by accident.”
“Cantrip?”
“That’s how the jailor died,” I said. “Reusable cantrip, carved with a spell that killed him instantly. Even if the killer came from inside the House of Fire, they got the cantrip from outside. Someone gave it to them.”
“I’m hearing weird shit about cantrips lately,” she said. “Like those infernos.”
“Yeah, and the cantrips the enemy is allegedly making to bring people back to life,” I added. “Did you—”
“There’s a way to come back to life?” Her tone sounded shocked. “What? You’re joking.”
“Sorry, I thought you knew.” Now I wished I hadn’t mentioned it, so I didn’t get her hopes up if there turned out to be a massive downside like Miles had implied.
“I didn’t.” Hurt underlaid her tone. “Where do they come from, then?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Miles said the enemy used one to turn himself from a lich into a human again, but he won’t tell anyone how he did it. Usually there’s a massive downside to that kind of magic.”
“That figures,” she said. “I’ll see you later.”
As she left, I made for the node, regretting bringing up the subject. I hadn’t wanted to give her false hope, not after she’d lost so much already. Her brother had died, while her own life had been put on hold, and I didn’t blame her for looking for a way out.
I returned to the House of Fire to find Harris on duty, as usual. This time, I wedged my foot in the door to stop him from shutting me out.
“Another guard died outside the House,” he said. “Murdered using the same method which killed Zade.”
“Shit.” Adair was now in the Death King’s hands. He couldn’t have done it. And from the smirk on Harris’s face, he knew it, too. “Was Tay out of her cell again?”
“No.”
Huh. “Then she can’t be a suspect.”
“That’s for us to decide, not you,” he said. “Go away.”
“The Death King sent me to discuss Adair.” I had the suspicion they’d respond more readily to that than to another request for them to spare Tay’s life.
“What about him?” He stepped back from the door, allowing me to enter. It seemed bringing up my brother was the key to getting them to let me in.
“When did the murder happen?” I asked.
“Last night,” he replied. “I came down to relieve him of guard duty and tripped over the body outside.”
So he died outside. If he’d been killed by the same kind of cantrip as the one which had killed Zade, it hadn’t necessarily come from inside the building itself. Anyone might’ve been the culprit.
“What did you want to say about that brother of yours, then?” Harris glanced over his shoulder, an air of uneasiness about him. If I wanted to probe him for information, I couldn’t have picked a better time to take advantage of his distraction.
“He likes screaming and rattling the cage bars, doesn’t he?” I said. “He also strongly hinted that he hypnotised Tay before the jailor’s death.”
“If you’re looking for me to take pity on your little friend, you’re out of luck,” he said. “All evidence says she’s the killer.”
“Then tell me how Adair got out the first time,” I said pointedly. “You have nothing to gain from keeping that information from me. He’s still in jail, but I want to make
