RUNE

Gluttony’s head fell back against the headrest of the passenger’s seat. “This isn’t how things were supposed to go, Rune,” he said, his voice climbing with irritation. “We’re supposed to get in, get the thing, and get out. Not walk out with a couple of useless rich brats. I don’t know what’s worse—the fact that we almost got caught, or the fact that I let you talk me into all this.”

“Shut up, Crow,” Rune mumbled, rubbing his forehead. “You’re giving me a headache.”

“Oh, I’m giving you a headache?” Crow scoffed. “I got blinded by that godsdamned Mage back there. I thought I was having a seizure. We should’ve just ditched them in the chaos to find what we were looking for rather than dragging them along.”

“That’s not your call. Noa calls the shots. That’s what we agreed to.”

“We didn’t agree to it. You did.”

“And what would you have done then? If you had a better idea before all this, you could have spoken up, you know.”

Crow huffed, bumping his head against the window, his gaze set on the elevator. “Maybe we should’ve stayed in King’s…”

Rune sat up straight again, biting back frustration. “You know if we’d stayed in King’s Republic that things could be far worse for us. Don’t even try to tell yourself otherwise.”

Crow chewed on his lip before he opened his mouth to speak. Rune shook his head, knowing that he’d throw down the same argument he used a couple months ago.

“They wouldn’t bargain with you then, Crow, and they sure as hell won’t do it now. Don’t be stupid. Even if you’d manage to cut any sort of deal, it’d be in their favor, not yours. You’d regret it.”

His mouth clamped shut again right as the elevator doors slid open, and Noa led the charge toward the car with their two new passengers on her heels. Rune got out, earning a dejected noise from his brother as he followed suit.

“Miss anything?” Rune asked.

“Nope. Room’s clear. Key?”

He dropped it into her open palm, and Crow rolled his eyes, thrusting his hands into his coat pockets.

“Nyx said she’ll have the IDs ready at a drop point,” Noa said. “But she won’t be joining us until later.”

“Why?” Rune asked with a frown.

“Something about backups and resources.” She waved a hand. “I don’t know exactly. Purposely vague for security or whatever.” She spun to point a finger at Glacier. “However, you need to have Cecilia drop whatever magic is on you. If your photo ID doesn’t match what you actually look like, you’re not getting into Miralta. They’ll be able to detect magic at any major checkpoint, unlike here, where you’ve somehow been able to get away with it.”

Cecilia started to object until Glacier cut her off. “It’s fine,” he said, not breaking eye contact with Noa. “You can drop it.”

She shifted, wearily stepping in front of him to brush a thumb over his right eyelid and quickly danced away. Pity washed over Rune at the sight of that eye. He’d heard rumors mingled with any sort of mention of Amarais’s war threats with Miralta over the years, which is why he’d thought if their hidden prince truly had mixed blood, it’d be anything but their Mage-praising enemies. But sure enough, that eye was that emerald green—Miraltan green, offsetting the other’s Amaraian blue.

“Better?” Glacier asked, tucking his hands into the pockets of Rune’s spare coat that was at least a couple sizes too big on his smaller frame.

“Better.” Noa turned on her heel, heading to the driver-side door with Crow climbing into the seat behind her.

Rune popped open the opposite door for them and peered through Glacier’s brave façade as he coaxed his Mage friend to follow.

GLACIER

“So where are the rest of the deadly sins?” Glacier asked, glancing between Gluttony and Greed. He thought he’d heard the latter twin murmur ‘Pride’ in reference to the woman on the way to the hotel, but he couldn’t be sure. “Are they waiting for you back in Miralta?”

She adjusted the rearview mirror with a smirk. “Unfortunately, there’s only four of us, so just one is waiting in Miralta. But since you mentioned it, I’m Noa. This is Rune, and that’s Crow.”

He wasn’t sure about the name ‘Noa,’ but the other two sounded a lot like aliases. “Funny,” he said flatly.

Rune adjusted his seatbelt. “We’ve never gone by our real names outside of our last profession.”

“And Nyx doesn’t use her real name either,” Noa said as she finished up typing something into her phone and dropping it into the cup holder. The car shifted into reverse and Crow tensed next to him in its slow roll backward. “But it’s what everyone goes by, so it’s better than nothing.”

“So Noa isn’t even your real name?”

“It is as far as you’re concerned.”

“Route is still clear,” Rune said, tilting the phone toward her. 

A devilish grin tugged on her lips, and the car shot forward. The force of it threw Glacier back into his seat, Cecilia yelped, and Crow cursed in his reach for the handhold. Glacier’s palms went for the roof of the car since he didn’t have many options crammed between his sole ally and one of his captors.

“We’re going to die,” Cecilia gasped, triggering a sadistic laugh from Crow.

“Make a left out of the garage,” Rune said, seemingly unfazed as she jerked the car onto the street, sending the rest of them sliding. “Follow this road until you hit the local station line intersection. It’ll run parallel to the national station hub from there.”

“Got it,” Noa said, flicking her gaze to the rearview mirror again. “So, the rumors are true. You’re half-Miraltan? Considering all the bad blood, that’s probably a bit of a problem for you, isn’t it?”

Crow scoffed. “That’s pretty obvious…”

“Watch it,” Noa said, her voice dropping to a near-growl. His attention turned to the window to sulk while she continued with, “Well?”

“Yes…” Glacier said cautiously. “To be fair, it is pretty obvious.”

“So did people just assume you’re half-Bellegardian or something with the black hair?” she asked with a motion to her own, though he didn’t miss her glance at Rune.

The twins fit the bill of what he’d assume a Bellegardian would look like between the dark hair and eyes with paler skin, not all that different from his own coloring.

“What do you plan to do with the information I give you? Use it to blackmail me?”

Noa barked out a laugh. “Oh, please. You caught me breaking into a high-security Amaraian building, which I’m pretty sure is an offense punishable by death or life in a snowy wasteland prison. I think you have enough over me already. Just consider it curiosity.”

“Left at the intersection,” Rune said, calling for another sharp turn. “Follow the tracks on the right.”

“Anyway,” she said. “I think someone’s avoiding the question.”

“Does it matter?” Crow grumbled, receiving a hard, warning glare from Rune this time.

“Well,” Glacier started, “people typically assume I’m something other than Miraltan because they couldn’t imagine Louis Caelius allowing anyone with Miraltan blood to be considered for the crown, let alone live. The council approved of my uncle as regent because of his stance against Miralta and anything to do with magic. That doesn’t mean I outright lie to them—I just don’t correct them because I don’t claim any nationality outside of Amaraian.”

“Considering what I’ve heard about your father and how he wanted to make peace with Miralta before he died, I’m surprised no one has declared you as an enemy of the country yet.”

“I probably have my cousin to thank for that.”

“And what about your friend there?” she asked. “Cecilia?”

Glacier looked down to where Cecilia was disappearing into her seat, death-gripping the door handle and his coat. She froze when she noticed, and shoved herself back up, smoothing out her dress. She was still self-conscious about appearances, despite entertaining thieves.

“She’s my former tutor’s daughter. Louis discovered she was a Mage, and we managed to use it to our advantage. It worked since he couldn’t get rid of either of us without some sort of repercussion.”

Noa shook her head with a chuckle. “So, rather than being caught by Amaraian authorities to face whatever’s left of the council, you two were willing to take a chance with the three of us? Even I have to admit that’s a bold move. But I can’t say I’d do any different.”

“If you didn’t even know who we were, why bother saving us, anyway?”

Noa paused. “I… tend to find that desperate people are often more than willing to do whatever it takes to repay me for pulling them out of the fire.”

“You make it sound like you’re not a criminal.”

Rune’s soft voice cut in like a knife, “I’d like to argue that the real criminal is the man who wanted to kill his own nephew and an innocent girl just for being different.”

Glacier’s hands pulled away from the roof of the car, falling into his lap.

“You’re right,” Cecilia said in a near-whisper, her face tilting down to her clasped hands. “He would’ve liked nothing more than to get rid of us both if it meant he could continue living in his perfect bubble, completely isolated from the rest of the world. But I still can’t believe he’s just… gone…”

“Good riddance,” Crow grumbled, transitioning the car into an uneasy silence.

Glacier sank into his seat as the minutes ticked by, watching the snowflakes dance past. Crow’s head dipped after an hour, pressing against the car door. A few minutes after that, there was a weight on his shoulder, accompanied by the sound of Cecilia’s light, rhythmic breathing. Noa and Rune whispered back and forth about directions or something else on occasion. Unable to make any sense of it out, he leaned back, listening to the blades against the windshield in their never-ending task of brushing away the snow.