Page 24 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
Tulith of Nilheim
Lilith of Nilheim
…
The list continued with over fifty names jotted down. The first one, Madame Potts, was the only one in all capital letters. Julian frowned when he saw his mother and sister on the list, and his eyes lingered on Gerda’s name before he handed it over to Julia.
“What is this?” he asked.
“In the last few altercations,” Calisto explained, “the leaders of the spies carried a list of targets. Different operatives carried different names, and these are all of the names that have been collected so far.”
“Targets?” Julia demanded, slamming the list onto the table. “For what purpose?”
Calisto tapped her fingers on the table again. “We’ve only begun to piece it together. The leaders were told only as much as they needed to know, but people talk. Some of them had lists ordering permadeath, with my name included. So was Rowen’s and Havork’s, and everyone from Nilheim—” Julia sucked in a breath, but Calisto added, “exceptChloe.”
His sister frowned. “What about the other names?”
“They were to besecured,” Calisto said. “Preferably unalive.”
At least that was reversible with a Revive or Resurrect potion. Permanent death was just that,permanent.
“What else did we learn?” Julian did his best to memorize the list of names.
“That the group has been around fordecades, if not longer, but they’ve only started getting seriously involved in international affairs now. The Spring Ball was the turning point, and the lists were distributed right after.” His mother looked each of them in the eye. “A lot of Blackfog members were simple information brokers before that, and the rest are recent hires.”
“What changed?”
“Duke Lector made a contract with the leader of the Blackfog spies. He seemed to think he was in control of them, and they would come to his rescue when we took him into custody.” Calisto leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in front of her on the table. “No such help ever came.”
“Why?” Julian asked, knowing there might not be an answer.
“If I could guess …” His mother frowned. “Any contract he had with them might have ended upon his death. Or they decided he was too much of a liability and didn’t have a use for him any longer.”
“Who are ‘they’?” And why did it feel like he wouldn’t be getting any of this information if he didn’t ask for it?
Calisto shrugged. “So far, there are two lead suspects. A woman with blonde hair and pink teleportation magic—”
“The one who keeps messing with Madame Potts?” Julia cut in.
“The same,” Calisto affirmed. “And the other suspect is currently unalive in our dungeon.”
“Ah, I suppose that narrows the list, then,” Julia said brightly.
There was a moment’s pause, then Julian spoke quietly. “If the Blackfog think they can get away with harming either of you … then they’re in for a surprise.”
Calisto nodded, approving his anger. His mother looked ready to burn something down herself.
“And if they think they can mess upmywedding”—Julia crossed her arms as her eyes shone with a silver light—“then they’d better have made peace with their patrons. How is security?”
Their mother smiled. “Excellent.”
Between his mother’s inventions, their trained guards, and Julian’s own team, they should have enough on their side to overcome anything thrown at them.
Julian asked, “Who else knows?”
“Rowen handed over the list to the ruler or representative of each nation last night. They didn’t want to wait for the official Continental Council meeting, as you can imagine,” Calisto said. The meeting wasn’t scheduled until the end of the festival, and by then, it would be too late. “So I need you to keep your eyes open at the tourney today. Which, need I remind you, starts in less than an hour?”
Julian sighed but rose to go and perform his duty.
