I left of the castle on Thursday morning and walked straight through a lich. The shock of cold drew a yelp from me. “Ow. Damn, Harper.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled, sounding more human than lich.
I rubbed my arms, where goosebumps had sprung up. “Harper, are you okay?”
“No,” she said. “I was spying on Hawker’s allies when two of them recognised me. They must have seen me back when I was working for… for Shawn and those rogues from the House of Fire.”
My heart gave a sickening swoop. “What? Where are they now?”
“They’re dead, don’t worry,” she added. “Liv killed them before they tailed us back here, but it freaked me out. I thought everyone who knew my brother and me was dead or in jail.”
So Liv was spying on Hawker, too. Interesting. “Glad you got out of there without being caught.”
“No more espionage for me,” she said. “Never again.”
“Did you learn anything useful?” I asked.
“Only that Hawker is working on seducing all the Death King’s liches onto his side,” she said. “Nothing new there, really. What about you? Learned anything from the House of Fire?”
“You might say that.” I drew in a breath. “Turns out there’s a strong possibility the jailor was the one who betrayed them.”
“Is that why he was killed?” said Harper.
“Possibly,” I said. “No idea if he was the only rogue or if there’s a whole bunch of them, but they locked the place up after the rogues from the House of Earth tried to blow the doors off. They also have no information on where the Family might be hiding. Did you hear anything when you spied on Hawker?”
“No,” she murmured. “I never saw the Family in person, even when I first got recruited by those rogues. Except…”
“Except for Adair.” I glanced in the direction of the jail and spotted Miles hovering nearby, having presumably astral projected in from the Spirit Agents’ base. When he saw me, he gave me a wave. “Miles might have an update for me. He’s been spying on Hawker, too.”
“I know,” said Harper. “I’m surprised he hasn’t been caught yet.”
“Better hope it stays that way.” I approached the spot where Miles floated above the ground. “What’s the occasion?”
“I came to update the Death King,” he said. “On our findings from Hawker’s meetings. Nothing too exciting.”
“Harper told me two people recognised her at the meeting,” I said. “She said Liv killed them.”
“I miss all the fun, apparently,” he said. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing whatsoever,” I said. “The Death King hasn’t asked me for an update. I think he likes you more than he likes me.”
“Nah, he’s just got enemies in a thousand places.”
“Speak for yourself.” I gave an eye-roll. “Have you been near the House of Fire in the last couple of days?”
“Not exactly,” he said, “but I may have dropped by the Withered Oak earlier.”
“Oh?” I raised a brow. “Did you see any illegal cantrips being passed around?”
“Not openly,” he said. “I tried asking a few questions, but I hit a dead end. They’re still not fans of spirit mages over there.”
“That place has always seemed dodgy to me.” They had zero restrictions on who could stay there, only that they had to be mages. And it was the only place in Arcadia with known links to the Houses. “Want to go back there and try again?”
“Exactly my thinking,” he said. “I did find out they’re expecting a group of new arrivals in town today, which might be a sign they’re stepping up their game. If we get there first, we might be able to intercept them.”
I doubted it’d be that simple, but part of me was crying out to do something before the enemy struck us first. We stood directly in the path of a storm, and it was only a matter of time before it broke.
11
I already wore my armoured clothing, but I grabbed a sword from the weapons room before leaving the castle with Miles, figuring that now was the time to put my newfound authority to good use. Not that the Death King had actually given permission for me to go to the Withered Oak. In fact, I still had yet to tell him that my plans to spy on the House of Fire had gone up in smoke, or that the jailor had been the traitor all along, but it was his own fault for leaving me to my own devices.
Miles, meanwhile, astral projected back to the Spirit Agents’ hideout to get a couple of his friends to come and back us up, before meeting me at the node near the Death King’s castle.
“I’d offer to let you ride a zombie horse to storm the place,” I said to Miles, “but Neddie almost bit my finger off yesterday.”
“Neddie?” he said. “Who names a zombie horse Neddie?”
“I never thought to ask,” I responded. “All right, let’s do this.”
We crossed via the node into the centre of Arcadia. As Miles had promised, two spirit mages waited on the other side, joining us as we walked down the winding street towards the Withered Oak. The mages’ hangout was an unassuming building whose brick walls bore faint scorch marks which suggested at least one fire mage had got into a fight outside at some point or other. I squinted through the dusty window, figuring I’d rather identify any potential threats before barging in.
“See anyone you recognise in there?” Miles said.
My gaze snagged on three mages standing near the window, including a stocky guy with a shaved head, idly playing with a flame he’d conjured in his hand. Bark.
“That guy was in the Death King’s contest,” I muttered to Miles. “Thought he was dead, but I guess not.”
“Want to lure him out?” he said.
“Nah, if he has the nerve to hang around in here, he clearly
