33. Forge a wedding ring

They were charging through Wysthaven, boots pounding on the last of the sun-swept cobblestones, when the blast echoed down the alleyway. It rang so clearly through the city that Ada feared they would not be able to hear the chains that marked a Hound's approach. But as the sky above was swamped with navy clouds, Ada began to worry that a greater threat lurked to their south.

Indigo smoke billowed into the sky from the outskirts of the city. It came first in dusky pillars, before eclipsing into darker curls that edged across the roof slates. Ada was about to let out a cry as the evening became blotted and hazy, but when she turned to Solen, she found the woman's face crumpled in relief. They slowed at the end of a blind alleyway, huddling into a corner as they wheezed through tightened throats.

"What the hell is that?" choked Ada, hands flying above her head at the churning fog.

Solen huffed a laugh. "It's our saving grace. The Stone Circle must be testing their alchemy. Unlikely an attack, probably just a threat against the Lady."

The Stone Circle— the magical outlaws Raeph had cursed out as radicals. Whatever power lay beneath their skins, it seemed they were using it in ways Min could perhaps only dream of. Ada shuddered as their cloud drew a shroud across the setting sun.

"What is it?" Ada asked.

Solen gazed up into the fog, a smile curling the corners of her mouth. "Can't you see? It's the sky."

Ada frowned; if anything the clouds were smudging out the sky and replacing it with a roiling mass of serpentine smoke. But when she tilted her head up, staring into its thickness with blinking eyes, she found that flecks of silver were beginning to appear. One by one, they flickered into life, scattered through the smoke, some sinking in deep while others rose to a twinkling surface. A night sky was forming above the city, as if moulded by someone in love with the moon and lusting for starlight.

On the other side of the alley's wall, heavy boot soles slammed against the pavement, and the clattering of chains broke the city's hush. Even with the wall between them, Ada and Solen pressed into the shadows until the Hounds had passed.

Solen's breath was a whisper across Ada's cheek when she said, "They should be preoccupied with the Stones for now. Let's go, before the smoke fades."

The dark cloud already seemed to be curling in on itself, lost edges wisping, as if shying away from true night. The pseudo-stars winked off in its wake, fizzling out like answered wishes.

They retraced their steps from the alleyway, Solen peering around a protruding stone basin before sliding into a side-street. Ada flinched at the faraway rattle of chains, but Solen kept her eyes resolutely ahead, even as they hastened down a road much wider than any they had chanced before.

"Where are we?" Ada murmured, glancing at every shadow draped across the cobblestones, as though a figure might materialise from their depths.

"Home." Solen darted left and pattered down a set of steps before sounding a low knock on an oaken door.

Ada reeled back, her hood almost slipping across her hair as she stared at the building stacked up before them. With its wide windows and lacquered doorposts, the house could have been exchanged with any from the inner city. But what set it apart was the grand sign mounted above its entrance, painted a deep violet and peeling around its edges. Copper stars dappled the dark purple, each with five points that looked almost cartoonish compared to the Stone Circle's pearlescent perfections. They surrounded a single word, varnished onto the sign in golden lettering to match the sculpted stars: BONNEVILLE.

There was a clatter, a creak, and then the whining of wood against wood. The door lurched open, swirling out spells of dust as though the locks did not often meet the air. A shadow lurked within the doorframe, gathering the darkness from the street into a figure of obsidian fury.

Solen shouldered Raeph aside, pitching into the house and towards the bar. Ada shifted through the doorway after Solen, a flinch stifled under velvet as Raeph hurled the door shut behind her.

"You're late," he hissed.

Solen had already uncovered a half-empty bottle of liquor from beneath the bartop, and after tugging out its stopper with her teeth, she batted her eyelashes up at Raeph. "What fun has anyone ever had when arriving early?"

"Did you see the bloody sky? The Hounds are going to be swarming through the city tonight." Each of Raeph's words came out sharpened through his clenched teeth.

"Well, no dogs sniffed us out." Solen was avoiding Ada's eyes and her hands fiddled with the bottle. "And I have your damn coin."

In a flare of gold, Solen tugged the coin from her pocket and tossed it through the air. It arched across the room, spinning through the candlelight, before Raeph caught it between two fingers, killing its reeling instantly.

He brought it closer to the lit hearth, turning the coin over in his hand. "It's real?"

"It's from Diane," Solen replied, as if that was the only explanation necessary.

"Who is she? Diane?" Ada had drifted over to the bar and perched on one of the stools across from Solen.

"She's rich enough to spare a gold coin or two," said Solen, then cursed as she fumbled through the cupboards for a tumbler. "Diane's a member of a very wealthy family in Wysthaven, probably some of the only fae who get off well under their Lady's rule. Problem with rich families though is that they don't think it's suitable for any of them to get their hands dirty. Diane comes to my lessons secretly, as I suppose a lot of them do, but it would be mayhem if her husband found out about it."

"She's married?" asked Ada, surprised to find that the woman who had looked so youthful had been wed so early.

Solen waggled her fingers in the air, and Ada suddenly remembered the ring Diane had let Ada try on.

"You didn't tell me why you wanted me to wear her ring?"

Solen stilled her search for a glass, and even Raeph appeared to have frozen before the fireplace. Then Solen coughed, lowering the bottle while her face folded into a frown. "The chains that the Hounds wear around their neck, do you remember them?" Ada nodded. "Well, they're fashioned from lead and joined to look like links of iron. It's supposed to represent their fealty to the Lady of Wysthaven. They're willing to go through all that suffering, as she does in the iron tower."

Ada nodded again, unsure how this was supposed to explain Diane's ring.

"When the Lady took hold of the city, the richer families wanted to keep whatever power they could," Solen continued. "Many sent off their sons to her service, though she rarely chose women to be in her guard, even those skilled in combat. So families found other ways to use their daughters to their advantage. They married them off to Hounds, hoping that greater favour would lie in the highest ranks they could reach."

Ada was beginning to feel sick as she thought of Diane's flaxen hair caught in the meshed mask of one of the Hounds.

"Diane's family got lucky," Solen spat out. "They married her to a general twice her age. But he was a fanatic, too obsessed with his Lady to ever care for another living being. After serving for only a year as a Hound, he demanded his chains be forged from true iron, so that he could endure what his Lady did each day. When no one agreed to make them for him, fearing the pain such a task would bring them, he resolved to forge it for himself. Little remained of his hands when he had finished."

Solen's eyes darkened and she leaned back, her shadow dampening the candlelight. "On his wedding day to Diane, he presented her with a ring. It's common to gift trinkets at the ceremony, and nobody suspected a thing until her cries rang louder than their wedding bells. He'd banded the inside of the ring with iron, enough to brand the metal into her skin."

The tale was grotesque, but it slotted together the pieces sprawled across Ada's mind. "You wanted to see if the ring would hurt me. To see if I truly wasn't fae."

Solen twisted her fingers together. "Raeph didn't want us to try it. But Lark and I... we just needed proof. You've got to understand how impossible this whole situation is to us." Her eyes were lidded low when she added, "Forgive me."

But Ada shook her head, reaching out to touch the top of Solen's hand. "There's nothing to forgive."

Solen looked up, offering a smile as her darkness receded into fiery flickers of relief. She fumbled for the liquor, forgetting her search for glasses, and took a deep swig straight from the bottle. Holding it out to Ada, she proclaimed, "To our daring deal!"

"Cheers," Ada laughed, bringing the bottle to her mouth and letting its sweet liquor dance across her lips in burning bursts of fire and fortitude.