Nightfire | The Whispering Wall #1

Seventy Two: Incentives

Grace and Laurel looked at each other, and something passed between them. Nova tried to ignore the clench in her stomach at being left out, at Laurel sharing something with Grace that Nova didn't.

She paused. She never got jealous; a decade of it getting her nowhere had taught her how to ignore it.

Only she was this time.

"Where's your cloak?" Laurel asked. Grace blinked as if she had only just noticed it was missing, and Nova frowned.

Jordan reddened further. "I...lost it. While I was escaping."

The lie showed up in his aura, and Nova had a suspicion it was to do with the Devils. She kept her mouth shut, and showed nothing on her face when Jordan's eyes met hers. He looked quickly back down at his lap.

Grace had started a quiet conversation with Laurel; all her initial hostility was gone. Ignoring the spike of envy she felt, Nova tuned out and went to squat at the other side of Yddris's bed. The Unspoken was out cold, aura flat aside from the characteristic crackle of every Unspoken. It unnerved her to see the man laid out like that; in all the time she had known him, he was always on the move. She had never seen him sleep. He was so efficient at his job that it was sometimes hard to believe that he ever did.

"It's my fault," Jordan croaked, without looking up. "That he's like this. I went out there to warn them about that...thing." His hand flitted to his bandaged shoulder. "He had to save me, because I couldn't defend myself. Built this huge wall out of just magic." Awe had crept into his voice.

"He's very skilled." Nova crossed her arms over her bent knees, studying him over his tutor's bed. She could tell he knew she was watching him, but he refused to look up at her and his stubbornness made her smirk. "He'll teach you well."

"Mm." Jordan's tone was hard to read. The cracks in his aura showed stark.

Sensing she wasn't going to get anything else from him, Nova straightened and looked around, and tried not to show her dismay as Lord Harkenn caught her eye from the steps and beckoned her over. She dragged her feet; Grace looked as though she might stop her, then spotted Faellian and quickly looked away.

"It's dead," Faellian said as soon as she was in earshot.

"My lord?" She couldn't get her mind to make the connection. There had been too much going on.

"The Angel." He sniffed. "Tomorrow you're going to look at the body."

Nova opened her mouth to point out that she didn't need to, since it was pretty apparent how the Angel had died, but decided against it at the look on his face. It was a rare thing for the lord to look dishevelled, but Faellian had an almost wild look to him, hair in disarray and hands unable to stay still. He was shaken, she realised; genuinely shaken by the demon attack, and probably not helped along by the fact that half the criminals in the Reach had broken in through the back door while he was distracted.

Lady Kerrin, the head of House Kiel, hurried down the steps towards them. A small group of yellow-robed acolytes hurried past her in little flock carrying armfuls of medical supplies.

"Faellian," she said. "What happened?"

"That I would love to know," Harkenn muttered. "Has there been any unusual activity in the city itself?"

"No." Kerrin surveyed the wounded in the hall with wide eyes. "All the demons came here. I don't think our nets were tested once."

If anything, Harkenn looked even more worried. "This was targeted, then."

Kerrin had her fingers over her mouth, and at this she looked sharply up at him. "You think someone can control them?"

"Control," Harkenn muttered, dropping his voice as several of his guards marched past, "Or they at least know how to influence their behaviour. Direct them or madden them as a distraction. I've been informed that my castle has been broken into by every other known criminal faction in my absence, and one of them must know something."