“Daughters,” Toby corrected. “Plural.”
“One of them,” Zella replied, “does not need saving.” She did not specifywhichone. “And regardless, if you’re looking for a savior, Toby, it’s hardly likely to be me.”
Within moments, Zella was gone.
Mirrors on the ceiling. Mirrors on the floor. Mirrors on the walls—all but one.It took Rohan and Toby time to figure the puzzle in the chamber out: how to use the light, what to make of the web of blades. But eventually, they solved it.
Nothing happened.
“Why isn’t it working?” Toby’s tone that of a desperate man.
And desperate men rarely come out on top.Before Rohan could venture a guess as to the answer to Toby’s question, someone else beat him to it.
“They disabled the puzzles after you two solved the first one.” The far wall, on the other side of the blades, swung inward. “The challenges in these rooms were never meant for men. For you, I’m afraid, this chamber is nothing but a cage.”
A familiar figure stepped into the room.
“Hello to you, too, Nora.” Rohan smiled through the blades.
“Did my mother send you?” Toby demanded.
“I’m here of my own volition,” Nora replied, “as far as I know.” Even standing perfectly still, she had the air of a fighter about her. “But I did pick up Jameson’s trail in London to follow him here, and Alice very likely had a hand in my path crossing his to begin with, so it’s entirely possible that my old mentor anticipated all of this, engineered it in some way. Perhaps she knew what the lot of you would be wearing when you stormed the metaphorical castle like militaristic lambs to the slaughter.”
Wearing.Rohan was suddenly keenly aware of his own bare chest, of Toby’s, ofwhatthey’d been wearing in those vests.The explosives.
“In retrospect,” Nora continued with a sort of calm that Rohan could only describe asdetached, “I don’t think Alice ever believed either of the other Ascendants would choose me for the Crucible. I am quite convinced at this point that she dangled me out there solely as a reminderof another option, a much more enticing option for a monster like the Omega.”
Toby frowned. “Savannah?
And suddenly, irrevocably, Rohanknew.
“Gigi’s sister?” Nora took a single step forward. “No.”
Damn the duchess to hell and back, heknew—
“Nothersister,” Nora said. “Mine. My half-sister. Her name is Freya, and she is very much her mother’s daughter.”
All Rohan could think was that the duchess had said that without assistance, Savannahwould not come through the Crucible alive. She’d said that she could ensure that Savannahdid not lose. She’d promised that Savannah wouldlive, even though it was not in her power to save whichever of Toby’s daughters was in need of saving.
And all of those things could be true,wouldbe true… if Savannah was not in the Crucible at all.
“She played me,” Rohan said. “The duchess. She never once lied but…”
If Savannah wasn’t a Candidate, she would not,couldnotcome throughthe Crucible in any way, shape, or form. And it was a simple thing to guarantee that someone would not lose if they weren’t competing in the first place, to pledge that someone wouldliveif that person was not, in fact, in any danger of dying.
He’d given away the Mercy for nothing.
“Grayson called Savannah,” Toby said quietly. “He called and called her phone, but she never answered. Alisa couldn’t even track it.”
“Because she bloody well turned it off.” Rohan was tempted to laugh—oh so tempted, but he didn’t.
“So it’s Avery, Eve… and your half sister.” Toby paused. “The heir to the Kyrie line? Raised as a warrior. Beyond dangerous. And when Zella told me she couldn’t save my daughter, what she really meant was that she can’t affect the Crucible at all. She can’t save either of them.”
“No one can.” Nora’s voice was chillingly soft now—soft in volume, not tone. “And even if we could, the Crucible must be completed.”
“Why?” Toby demanded, but Rohan suspected he already knew the answer, just as Rohan did.
The explosives.The ones thattheyhad brought in.