Page 71 of When Storms Ruin

We had done it…we had found Phineas Wolfe, and it had only taken us a few hours of searching through The Shadow. He watched Puck with a playful grin, propping himself up on his elbows against the cobblestone street. It appeared no one had heard the brief scuffle, and for that I was thankful.

The crow that had been watching us from above cawed out overhead, and I peered through the fabric to see it circling above. That most certainly had to be Kenna, sent by the council to watch over us. It had been tracking our every move since we entered The Shadow despite it being difficult to see our movements from above, with most of the view blocked off from that vantage point.

“What can I help you with?” Phineas asked, his grin still plastered across his face despite Nik snarling before him and snapping his jaw, Puck’s Katana still pointed at his chest.

He was at a major disadvantage here, but you could never tell from his countenance.

“We need your help with something,” Puck replied, his jaw set.

“I don’t help people for free.”

“You stole something that belongs to us,” Puck rephrased, his eyes darting towards me for a fraction of a second.

“You’re going to have to be far more specific, I’ve stolen a great many things in my lifetime,” Phineas replied with a wink.

I stepped forwards and joined Puck, my fists clenched. “You stole a spell from my grimoire, and I want it back.”

“Youwantit back, or youneedit back?” He laughed, and the sound bounced off the walls of the alley, echoing as it went.

“That’s not of your concern. You have the spell, and it belongs to me.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Again, you’ll need to be more specific. You see, one steals many spells when they are in the business of…stealing spells.”

“You steal spells…as a job?” My eyes flashed with anger as I peered down at him.

I wanted to wipe that grin right off his face.

“What do you think we do in The Shadow to make ends meet? We make do with the skills we have, and I happen to beveryskilled at stealing spells.” He shrugged, the movement making Puck’s Katana snag on the fabric of his tunic.

I shook my head, anger bubbling beneath the surface. “The key…we are searching for the key. It’s a spell from the Kotova grimoire.”

“The Kotova grimoire?” The man laughed, raising an eyebrow at me. “Now that would have fetched aheftyprice. You know our sovereign queen belongs to the name Kotova, though she won’t claim it for herself. Any spell from that grimoire would be equivalent to a lifetime’s worth of gold.”

“Do you have it?” I asked, my fingers twitching against the knife sheath at my thigh.

“Let’s discuss a price—” Phineas started, but was cut off as I whipped Stormslayer from its sheath and bent over, pressing the blade to his throat.

I could hear Nik’s human chuckle sounding behind me, he must have changed back into his human form. Hewouldfind me pressing a knife to someone’s neck humorous.

So twisted.

“Let’s not. How about you give me the spell, and you get to leave with your life. Sounds like a good deal to me.” My voice was cold as I pressed the dagger hard enough for a trickle of blood to trail down his neck to pool in his clavicle.

“You’re her, aren’t you?” he asked, laughing. The movement made the blood come faster, and I was almost certain this man was completely out of his mind. “You’re the Stormshade witch they’re all talking about.Sisterto the queen. The rightful heir, and all that nonsense.”

“Shut up,” I ground out, pressing a knee into his chest.

This was all too amusing to him. I wanted to scream in frustration.

“I would listen to her if I were you,” Puck said, sheathing his Katana. “She’s got a temper, that one.”

“Even if I had the spell, which I don’t, I couldn’t give it to you,” Phineas replied.

I released some of the pressure on the blade.

“And why not?” I asked through my teeth, my patience wearing thin.

“It was the queen herself who contracted me to steal it. That would betreason.”

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