“What were you even doing in there?” Dex wanted to know.
“I got some evidence from the jailor’s office pointing to his involvement with the Family,” I murmured. “Not sure the House will believe me, though. I’m going to talk to the Spirit Agents.”
“I’ll keep an eye out for rogue earth mages, then,” he said.
Thankfully, nobody ambushed me on the way to the Spirit Agents’ base, earth mage or otherwise. After turning off the invisibility cantrip, I knocked on the door, and Miles answered a minute later.
“Hey,” I said to Miles. “I just dropped by the House of Fire.”
“And you didn’t invite me?” He sounded insulted.
“The Death King sent me to ask them some questions to find out whether or not they’re compromised, but they locked the place up,” I explained. “So I did some snooping instead.”
“And?” he said. “Are they compromised?”
“Not all of them,” I said. “But the jailor was. He was the one in contact with the enemy, and I think that’s why he was killed.”
“Tay was trying to stop him?” he said, drawing the same conclusion I had. “That’s why she wouldn’t admit to committing murder?”
“I don’t know, but it fits,” I said. “Problem is, she doesn’t care about the House itself. I can’t really blame her for that, really, but as long as she refuses to admit the truth…”
“Do you think the rest of the House will believe her?”
“No.” And therein lay the problem. “The records in the jailor’s office also said the Family was moved to another facility, not that they escaped. Which might well be bullshit.”
“Yeah, that sounds dodgy to me,” he said. “Find any cantrips?”
“No, but someone cleaned up the jailor’s office after his death.” I pulled out the letter. “This is all I found, which is proof Zade was in on the illegal cantrip business. Is it too much to hope that the rest of the Family is in another facility, like Adair?”
“Probably.” Miles took the letter from me and read it. “Yeah… it definitely sounds like he was involved with those cantrips. What’s the WO?”
“Haven’t a clue.” I took the letter back from him and slipped it into my pocket. “Not the Withered Oak, surely?”
“It’s the only mage hideout I know with those initials,” said Miles. “Not exactly a reputable place, either.”
“And it’s in Arcadia,” I added. “Same place as those reusable cantrips…”
“Exactly,” said Miles. “Might be worth checking out. If I were trading illegal cantrips, I’d pick a place like that where nobody asks questions.”
“The Family was never based in Arcadia, though.” The question of their true location rose to the forefront of my thoughts, as much a mystery as ever. Adair hadn’t given anything away, and even the files had been filled with lies. “They’ve always been near Elysium.”
“I never even heard of the Family before now,” he commented. “Not when they last walked free, anyway.”
“They’re secretive,” I said. “It was mostly the Houses they were a threat to, and the Houses don’t like letting everyone know their weaknesses. Anyway, until they recruited Shawn and his friends, they never showed an interest in spirit mages.”
“Lucky us,” he said dryly. “Also, nobody has mentioned the Family at their meetings in the citadel.”
“Whose meetings?” I frowned. “You don’t mean Shawn?”
“Hawker’s,” said Miles. “I’ve been snooping around spying on the liches, like I told you. Hawker’s trying to recruit my people again, like he did with Shawn.”
“Shit, Miles. You never said.”
“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “I already had a pretty good idea who might be the next to defect, so I’ve taken precautions.”
“But—that means some of the other Spirit Agents are working against you right now.” I glanced up at the ceiling, wary that someone might be listening in.
“Relax, nobody in this house is working against us,” he said. “We also worked out a scheme to give the wrong information to the enemy so they can’t keep track of our plans.”
“That’d be hard if the Houses start nosing around here again.”
And to think I’d been more worried that the Houses would arrest Miles and his friends for hiding the Family in their house. This was far worse.
“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.”
“Hey, I’m the fire mage here,” I said, earning a grin. “Unless I can somehow get my brother to talk, I can’t make any definite assumptions about where the Family is hiding and how many cantrips they have floating around with their signature on them. All I know is that the House’s official stance on the Family is that they’re in another facility. They won’t openly admit to their escape.”
Which was nothing new, really, but it put a wrench in my plans to convince them of the danger within their own ranks. Let alone convince them to help the Death King.
“It doesn’t sound like Adair has any intention of being cooperative.”
“Nah, I’m the nicer of the pair of us,” I said. “I hope I am, anyway. Granted, I’ve met vampire chickens with more charm than he has.”
“You aren’t wrong.” He gave me a dimpled smile which made my heart forget how to behave normally. I sternly told it to calm down. I knew better than to get distracted. He might be charming—and keener on spending time with me than any of the other Spirit Agents were—but that didn’t mean now was the time to develop an inconvenient crush.
After all, we had bigger problems. If the Houses were in denial about the true nature of what lay on the horizon, it was only a matter of time before what was left of their authority came crashing down around them.
The next couple of days passed without any new instructions from the Death King, nor any opportunity for me to update him on my failed espionage mission. The House of Fire’s headquarters remained locked and quiet, leaving me at a loose end, and the only noteworthy improvement was that Ryan had finally stopped giving me the cold shoulder. I suspected the Death
