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The great seventeen-string finished its final rotation. It floated flawlessly back into its original position. Landwin Brood waited for the instrument to settle fully before turning back to her.
“Sever your bond with my son.”
Pain coursed across their bond. She could feel Theo’s retreat. She wasn’t sure if it was the pain of his father’s betrayal—or a deeper fear that Ren might say yes. Landwin’s offer was clear. Abandon Theo. In doing so, Ren knew she’d also be abandoning her best chance of revenging her father. She was already inside. Like a whisper in the walls. The plan unfolding at this very moment—if it worked—would bring House Brood to its knees. More than that, Ren could sense a subtle ache in her own chest. To accept this would be to depart from Theo and she… she wasn’t ready to do that. That truth felt like a betrayal of sorts, but it was right there, needling into all her other thoughts. She might actually want to be with him. Especially if her plans worked.
But at her very core, Ren was a logical creature. She knew there were a hundred very difficult steps between here and there. Everything would have to go right for their plan to come to fruition. Dahvid Tin’Vori would have to perform a miracle. Nevelyn Tin’Vori would need to do the same. What Landwin Brood was offering her now was dreadfully real in comparison. An actual guarantee of the kind of life her mother wanted for her. Ren felt Theo’s absence. He was no longer there. Almost as if he was hiding from the answer she might give.
She decided to ask a question instead.
“If I am so talented, why would you not want to keep me as a match for your son?”
She already knew what he would say, but it bought her time to think. It was obvious that the easiest life for her waited down the road where she said yes. Abandon the Tin’Voris to their own plot. Take the position. Bid farewell to Theo and House Brood and go about living a normal life. Would her father’s ghost come back to haunt her if she chose that path? If he visited her on some lonely night decades from now and found her living out her wildest dreams, safe and happy? She thought that might actually be enough for him. But she knew it would never be enough for her.
“Regardless of talent,” Landwin answered, “you are not the right person for our son. There are politics involved in every decision. Theo has known this since he was a small boy. His life is not completely his own. We have alliances to consider. Previous promises to honor. Theo cannot marry someone simply because they dazzled him with a few spells while he was lost in the woods.”
How easily he reduced her accomplishments. Ren marveled at how outdated his words sounded, even if they were utterly unsurprising. This was more evidence that the old houses weren’t powerful because they possessed unique imagination or creativity. They were powerful because they’d been the first ones to arrive in Kathor. It was that simple.
“And if I do not accept your terms?”
Landwin set a hand on the instrument again. “I imagine life would be rather unpleasant for you. Theo would remain in Nostra. Permanently. And if you marry him, your life would be spent there as well. Away from Kathor. No spellwork. No magical research. From what I understand, there is not even a proper archive room there. Your life would be reduced to that of a steward. You would care for a lonely building, and a lonely man, for the rest of your days. And if I might be perfectly frank, that is the best-case scenario.”
He shrugged, as if these consequences required no more than a snap of his fingers.
“Because that charming, sad little life relies on several factors going right for you. It depends on Theo not growing bored with you, or bored with Nostra. If the day should come when he wants to be restored to his rightful position, I would gladly help him. But Theo would know the price. He’d have to be severed from you. And then? You’d go back to having nothing at all.
“That life also depends on what I find in the coming months. As I said, I am following my son’s footsteps. I’ve interviewed people about the party that night. Learned everything I could about what happened. My next stop is the portal room. Did you know that Balmerick’s top researchers are still at a loss about what happened? No one’s used the room since your incident, because they can’t figure out why the magic failed. I plan to make my own inquiries. I wonder what I’ll find.…”
Landwin Brood lifted both hands, mimicking a scale. He was weighing these imaginary options for her life in his upraised palms.
“Spellmaker. Head researcher. House Shiverian. The freedom to live however you want. Or…” He slid the opposite hand slowly downward. “Housewife. Exile. An unremarkable existence.” Landwin considered her with those narrow eyes. “Do you truly love him that much?”
No, she thought. This is not about love. It’s much more to do with hate.
That familiar fire roared back to life in her chest. His words would not douse it. The pretty baubles he was dangling before her would not distract her. Ren felt the surge of emotions pouring across her bond, reaching for Theo. He’d somehow cocooned himself. Like he was behind a door, and her rage was knocking again and again. He might not witness this directly, but she desperately wanted him to feel every pulse of what she felt now.
“I will not abandon Theo for you,” she said boldly. “I am not your plaything. Neither is he. We are bonded, and that is the way of it. I will not be severed from him, no matter what you offer.”
Landwin’s playful smile faded. “Ren Monroe,” he said. “A name that history will forget.”
And with that, Landwin Brood walked past her. Right through the spot where she imagined the ghostly version of Theo had been standing before. Ren’s fingers went numb. She wanted to reach for her wand. Begin casting the spells she knew that could unmake another person. She wanted to hit Landwin again and again until he was nothing but bones at her feet. Ren did not strike, because she knew now that time was on her side. Theo had witnessed some of their exchange. He would have questions. There was an equal fury building on his side of their bond for once. Landwin Brood had unwittingly given Ren an unbelievable gift. She would use it against him, because she needed a version of Landwin that wasn’t protected. She wanted him vulnerable and at her mercy. And that Landwin Brood?
He would die at her hands.
Ren had never been so certain of anything in her life.
18 REN MONROE
Ren thrived on pressure.
At Balmerick, she’d loved deadlines. Exams. Anything meant to push someone to the very edge of their limitations. Landwin Brood should have done his research. He’d made all the wrong moves, and now Ren hastened to punish him for it. The next evening, she descended from her minor kingdom in the clouds and into the Lower Quarter. Her mother was waiting. A scheduled dinner that would also serve as a rendezvous. Her mother just happened to be the primary informant on all things Nevelyn Tin’Vori. Ren was eager to hear everything, especially given her own shifting plans.
The exterior door of her mother’s building offered an absolutely ghastly groan as it opened. She was pleasantly surprised, though, to find her mother’s apartment locked for once. She knocked three times. The door opened. Her mother was in a breezy dress, dark hair curled down past her shoulders. The tempting scent of pan-fried fish dominated the small apartment.
“You look nice,” Ren noted. “And you cooked? I didn’t know you still cooked.…”
“Please. I cook all the time.”
Ren raised one eyebrow.
