“Bastards,” I said. “They should be more worried about what happens if Hawker and his band of spirit mages try to start another war.”
“There is that,” Miles said. “For the record, I have zero intention of joining them. In case it wasn’t obvious already. I didn’t even know it was possible to do what that sick fucker Hawker did in the citadel. Trapping sprites in cages.”
“And unleashing a deadly virus on the city.” I grimaced. “Though that was more likely the Family’s idea. They got away, too.”
“We’ll get them next time, Bria.”
I’d expected such a response from him, but his confidence didn’t dispel my unease. Opening up to him would put more at risk than I’d been willing to admit. And then there was Adair to consider. He’d held Tay under his command, and I didn’t trust him not to try the same with Miles, too.
I drew in a breath. “I can’t guarantee they won’t target you to get at me, like they did with Tay.”
“They’re welcome to try,” he said. “We beat them before. You did it twice, even.”
“Barely.” I broke my gaze from his. “They’re worse than I ever knew. I’m pretty sure they helped wipe out the elves, then captured their children and created people like me to assist them in their scheme to take over the Parallel. That’s the legacy they’re trying to hand over to me. And if you get involved with me… that’s what you’ll get drawn into.”
He tilted his head on one side at the words if you get involved with me. Because while a large part of me wanted to warn him to run for the hills, he’d had ample time to do exactly that. Yet after everything, he was still here.
As though he’d sensed my thoughts, he said, “I’m already involved in this, Bria. Ever since Shawn started his bullshit scheme to have me killed, I’ve been in on this. And the best part of the whole fiasco is that it brought me face to face with you.”
My face burned. “You’ve met my family. Doesn’t it bother you at all, knowing I’m linked so closely to people like that?”
“You what?” he said. “They might have raised you, but you aren’t like them in the slightest.”
“By some miracle.” I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t had a screwed-up childhood, even if the true extent of the Family’s depravity hadn’t hit me until way into adulthood. “I can credit Tay with most of that. When we met in the House of Fire, she helped me see the impact of what the Family’s cantrips were doing to the people they were used on. Tay wasn’t the only one, but it was her story which taught me that not everyone grew up like I did.”
When I’d met her, part of me had still been Lex’s shadow. I’d been riven with guilt over what I’d done to her and Roth, and I’d been unable to see past the blinders they’d put on me even after I’d set their estate ablaze and left their corpses in the ruin. The impact of the lives they’d ruined hadn’t sunk in until the House of Fire had locked me up, and in the process, I’d met Tay. She’d been the one constant in my life since my escape from the Family, and now I was going to have to learn to live without her.
Miles’s eyes shone with sympathy. “I’m still impressed. You were a kid, yet you managed to break away from all that.”
“Not completely.” I looked away. “They still want to recruit me. I’m not sure they’ll ever give up on that. Now they’re walking free, and the Houses… they’re in no shape to stand up to another attack.”
The enemy might be in retreat, for now, but the infected cantrips wouldn’t be the end of their attempts to gain domination over the city of Elysium. I had little doubt about that.
“The Houses aren’t your problem,” Miles told me. “As for the Family…”
“Nobody can beat them,” I said. “Not permanently. They’re functionally immortal. I should have guessed they stole that ability from the elves along with everything else they took.”
His jaw tightened. “There’s always a way. Even liches can die. And spirit mages. You just need to find their weaknesses. Your elf friend might know.”
“Who, Trix?” I said. “I guess he did promise me lessons in elf magic.”
The elves weren’t as extinct as they’d appeared, even with their strongholds destroyed… and if I wanted to find a permanent way to be rid of the Family, I might have to look in unlikely places.
“It’s worth a try,” said Miles. “I have to get back to the others. See you soon, okay?”
“Sure.” I leaned in as he wrapped me in a firm hug and kissed me, temporarily dispelling my lingering grief and guilt over the horrors of the previous day.
While he left the castle grounds, I spotted Trix and Ryan near the gates. The former gave me a wave from the back of a zombie horse, while the Air Element looked altogether more relaxed than they usually did.
“Hey.” I walked over to them. “Made friends with Neddie?”
The zombie horse, upon seeing me, tipped Trix off its back, and he landed with a thump in the mud. “Ow.”
“Sorry,” I said. “He doesn’t like me.”
“Maybe it’s elves he has a problem with,” Ryan said. “You’re back, then?”
“I never left,” I said. “Besides, I thought His Deathly Highness wasn’t giving orders. He wasn’t injured in the battle, was he?”
“No,” said Ryan. “I haven’t spoken to him, either, but I’ve been running back and forth from Elysium since the battle. Checking up on the citadels, you know. Oh, there’s Liv.”
I turned to see her descending the steps at the front of the castle, talking to Devon, and walked over to meet them. “Devon’s nullifying cantrip saved us back there.”
“It did,” Liv said, “but it’s only a temporary measure. Those citadels are built to last and so are their
