“Leave?” Lyria pokes her tongue against her cheek. She lets out a forceful exhale, glaring daggers at me. After watching her distress over Viola, I omitted that Paltro drafted me to Firstline. I was hoping Beau would fill her in.
“I’ve been drafted to Firstline,” I say quietly. “I leave soon.”
“Where did they station you?”
“Riverview Division,” I reply.
Her lips pull into half a smile. I wish the joy was from relief, but Gryff is also stationed there, and now that I’ll be joining him, Lyria has unlimited visitation hours.
“Good thing I have two brothers.” Lyria wraps her arms around Beau’s waist, resting her head against him. “I’m gladyou’restaying at Gorhail. This way, we can continue our lifedrain theory and find a way to give Viola her years back.”
First was humor, now it’s blind optimism. Perhaps I need to be like my sister. Her hope lies in her own achievements, and if anyone can pull Viola out of this mess, it has to be Lyria.
Beau’s face falls. “Yeah, I’ll be here for a while, too,” he laments. “But I deserve it. Paltro demoted me back to High Magus, so I won’t be able to help with lifedrain.”
“What?” Lyria exclaims. “He can’t do that. He—”
“I have to retest through the House of Poison in two years. At least this means he’ll let me retrieve Briar from my father’s vault.” His head hangs low.
“Have you seen Viola?” I ask mindlessly, glancing over the dining floor again.
Beau shakes his head, and my sister clears her throat. “No, but Paltro’s storming toward you like he’s going to throw you over a cliff.”
“Was I unclear when I told you to leave right away?” Paltro raises aneyebrow at my hands. I quickly tuck the honeyfig bread in the large inner pocket of my jacket.
“Follow me,” Paltro barks.
I glance at my siblings, then at Railesza, mouthing a quick goodbye.
This is the first time since my father’s death that I will be without my healing aspier. As if Beau can hear my concern, he says, “Take her. It doesn’t feel right that I’m allowed to be here, practicing magic, while Viola will die if she uses hers.”
“Your guilt won’t bring her lifeblood back.” I push his hand away. Selfishly, I don’t want to lose him again. And he knows that an Aspieri cannot be without an aspier.
“Sylas,” Paltro barks, and I fall into step with him as we climb down the stairs of Hollow Tree. He hands me a letter bearing the silver seal of Firstline. “This is your official draft letter, and your first case begins now. Another student was found dead on Gorhail grounds.”
Sylas, Riverview Division has located poacher cells in the nonmagi communities of Bale. I presume it’s to deter Firstline from looking for them among nonmagi. We’re inclined to believe they are preparing for a new Grimm, but we don’t have clearance to investigate further. Firstline is under a strict oath of silence— DOTS wants to conclude investigations before causing hysteria.
LETTER FROM GRYFFIN DARRO, FIELD LEADER, RIVERVIEW DIVISION, FIRSTLINE, TO HM SYLAS ARCHYR,PATROL LEADER, SECONDLINEJUNIOR OFFICER, FIRSTLINE, NOVEMBER 1939
twenty-seven | viola
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1939
Half the lifeblood and half again. If I die tonight, it means I would have lived until at least eighty-eight. It’s ironic, how the will to live rushes in when you’re told you no longer have time. It was momentary, though, because now as I follow Lorne across yet another courtyard, I am as numb as on the frosty morning I found my dead sister by the lake. The tears won’t come, the scream won’t leave my lungs, and my heart beats out of sheer obligation.
I know two things to be true.
First, a Mortemagi puppeteer is in fact behind the killings. It could be anyone, even the ones I cross in Hollow Tree.
Second, Sylas Archyr clouds my mind in ways that make me question myself, because even with death at my door, I cannot shake the way he looked at me at Priya’s house, nor the slight flex of his fingers when he pulled me closer in front of Delaney.
Soon after Delaney dragged all of us back into the House of Death, she ordered me to clean up and start lessons with Lorne before disappearing.To my dismay, Lorne insisted on following me “to keep me safe.” He hovered outside my door as I showered, and the moment I was done, he urged me to go with him to collect some magical plants for today’s lesson.
As we walk across a low bridge, I marvel at the beauty of Gorhail. The sky blends three hues of orange, with no cloud shrouding its magnificence. It’s a rare sight around here amid the constant rain. The sun makes me think of Nan, of how she used to have her morning tea alone in the middle of her garden, like she was savoring each ray of sunlight.
“Viola.” Lorne stops a few steps ahead of me. “You seem elsewhere. Is now not a good time to begin your lessons?”
Oh, Lorne. I buried my sister two days ago and found out that I was tricked by the ghost she told me to seek. Meanwhile, her killer is still at large, my stupid relic is still a target, a terrible conspiracy is afoot among poachers, and I am nowhere close to figuring out what happened to her and will likely die before I do. Now is the perfect time to begin lessons.