The fire sprite swooped ahead of me, peering over the nearest wall of earth. “Nobody’s on the other side, but unless you’ve learned to fly, you’re not getting in.’
“I’ll go via the rooftops, then.”
I did a running jump and leapt onto the windowsill of the nearest house, pulling myself up onto the roof with my fingertips.
“Whoa.” Miles gave me an admiring stare. “Watch out for those assassins, okay?”
“Way ahead of you.” I scanned the rooftops, picking out a likely route to the middle of the city. Then I broke into a sprint and leapt to the next roof.
As kids, Adair and I had held endless competitions where we raced one another over the rooftops of the Family’s estate. While I didn’t generally come out the victor—Adair had always hated to lose—I’d retained my excellent balance skills and knack for picking out the best climbing routes, both of which came in handy when dodging assassins and duelling mages while navigating my way to the middle of Elysium. The citadel’s glowing light guided me over the rooftops, until I dropped to the ground behind the House of Fire. Amazingly, the building was still standing, but someone had barricaded the doors once again and more golden cantrips littered the ground outside.
I flicked on an invisibility cantrip first, then strode towards the back door. While a spell opened it easily enough, the guards nearby zeroed in on Dex and me immediately. And of course one of them was Harris.
“Who’s there?” he demanded.
Ignoring him, I walked into the corridor, while he kept staring at the same spot. “Who’s there? Show yourself.”
“Up yours, motherfucker,” said Dex, and spat fiery sparks into his face.
Harris recoiled with a yelp, tripping over his own feet. While he shouted for backup, I ducked between the guards into the main corridor. Dex continued to throw sparks among them, causing enough of a distraction for me to remain undetected. Where would Tay have hidden a cure? I’d have to start with her cell, so I went downstairs, leaving Dex to keep the guards busy.
Once I reached the lowest level, I made my way to Tay’s cell and peered inside. The cell, however, was empty, the door ajar. Had someone already removed the cure, or had I guessed wrong?
Footsteps sounded behind me, and I rotated, still unseen. Harris stood there, blocking my path back to the stairs. “I know you’re there, Bria. I might not be able to see you, but I know it’s you.”
Dammit. I didn’t have time for this. “Get out the way.”
“Why did you come back? Did you think we had that friend of yours again?”
Anger clenched inside me at the memory of Tay’s body lying there on the ground. She’d died to give me a fighting chance to stop the Family’s deadly cantrip, and I wouldn’t let this dickhead get in my way.
“Where is it?” I asked. “Tay had the cure for those lethal cantrips. Did you take it off her?”
“What?” he said. “What are you talking about?”
“The cure,” I said. “You know those cantrips killing all your guards? There’s a cure, and Tay had it. What did you confiscate from her when you imprisoned her?”
He stumbled back a step. “What? There was no cure.”
“She wouldn’t have told you she had a cure in case you destroyed it out of spite,” I said. “Come on. Tell me.”
“We confiscated some cantrips off her when we first brought them in, but Zade put them in his office.”
Dex flew downstairs, and a blast of fire hit Harris in the back. “Need a hand?”
“Someone must have stolen the cure,” I said, as Harris spun and swiped at the sprite, unable to touch him. “I didn’t see it in Zade’s office, so I bet they took it straight back to the Family.”
“Dammit.” He threw another shower of sparks, forcing Harris to duck, and I ran for the stairs and sprinted back up to the surface. I hadn’t seen anything in Zade’s office that might have resembled a cure, but someone had cleared out the place. Not Tay, either.
The Family must have had it all along.
On the way out, the guards tried to grab me, but I dodged, kicked and when all else failed, threw fireballs into the air until they left the path free for me to run to the exit and out into the street.
The world flew by as I sprinted down the street and took the closest route onto the rooftops, where I climbed up and retraced my steps to the barrier cutting off the middle of the city. Over the barrier, I spotted Miles and ran towards him, leaping down to land at his side.
“No luck?” he said.
I shook my head. “Zade confiscated everything from Tay when he took her in, and someone cleared out his office ages ago. If the cure was in there, they’d have taken it straight back to the Family.”
“Damn,” said Miles. “I had a thought, though. The people spreading those cantrips throughout the city can’t use the nodes to get around, so they must be moving on foot.”
“They’re earth mages.” I indicated the earthen wall behind us. “What’re the odds that they’re under our feet right now?”
“Pretty high,” he said. “But only an earth mage can track them, right?”
“Not necessarily.” I pushed against the earthen wall with my palms, but it was totally solid. Elysium wasn’t like Arcadia, with a wide network of underground paths, but the earth mages could easily create one of their own.
“There are only two of us,” said Miles. “We can’t take on the entire House of Earth. I mean, I can give it a shot, but Shelley will be pissed off if I die and leave her to run the Spirit Agents alone.”
“I can bring backup,” said Dex. “The others are back at the citadel or on the Death King’s territory. I’m sure there are
