Page 70 of Blood Currents
“And you’ve been his perfect tool,” Keane added, his voice carrying months of pain and anger.“Torturing innocent people, corrupting natural magic, all while thinking you were saving the world.”
Alstone lurched toward another device, but Cyrus was faster.Blue flames wrapped around the council member’s wrists, not burning but holding him immobile.
“It’s over, Uncle,” Keane said quietly.“No more torture.No more corruption.No more lies.”
Alarms began blaring.
“The remaining guard must have triggered them,” Elio said, his illusions already shifting to mask our presence from magical detection.
“We need to go,” Aurora urged.“Before the entire Shroud Guard arrives.”
“Wait,” Parker said, her hand closing around my wrist with surprising strength.“The evidence.It’s here.”
“Here?”I looked around the laboratory, seeing only instruments of torture and magical corruption.
“Hidden in the walls,” she said urgently.“Your father placed it here years ago when he first discovered this place.Everything he collected, everything we’ve been gathering for years.It’s all here, protected by blood magic that only responds to Grimley blood.The council has no idea it even exists.”
“My father hid evidence in their own torture chamber?”I asked incredulously.
“The perfect hiding place,” Parker replied.“They’d never think to look for it here, and even if they did, they couldn’t access it without a Grimley.Your father knew what might happen to him, Mari.He made sure the truth would find its way to you.”
Parker led me to what looked like a solid stone wall, but when I pressed my hand against it, I felt the magic respond.A section of the wall shimmered and became transparent, revealing a hidden compartment filled with documents, artifacts, and crystallized magical recordings.
“All of it,” Parker said as I began pulling items from the hiding place.“Take all of it.This is everything we need to expose the conspiracy.”
The alarms were getting louder, and I could hear shouts echoing through the complex.We had minutes at most.
“Mari, we have to go,” Cyrus said urgently.
I stuffed everything I could carry into my bag—my father’s real journal, magical recordings of council meetings, evidence of vampire collaborations, proof of the systematic corruption of wellsprings across the magical world.
Everything we needed to bring down the conspiracy.
“What about him?”Aurora asked, gesturing to Alstone, still held by Cyrus’s flames.
“Leave him,” Keane said coldly.“Let him explain to the arriving guards why his secret torture chamber was discovered.Let him try to justify years of systematic abuse.”
“Tell the council,” I said, looking directly at Alstone, “that Marigold Grimley sends her regards.And that her father’s work isn’t finished.”
Keane opened a portal large enough for all of us, his recovered magic easily handling the complex working.“This leads to the tunnels near the main academy levels.”
One by one, we stepped through the silver light.Parker went first, supported by Aurora, followed by Elio maintaining his illusions until the last possible moment, and then Cyrus after releasing his hold on Alstone.
I paused at the portal’s edge, looking back at the laboratory where so much suffering had taken place, at the man who’d caused it standing among his instruments of torture.
“Actually,” I said, a new plan crystallizing in my mind.“We’re not running.”
“Mari?”Cyrus asked, concern in his voice.
“We can’t just disappear with this evidence,” I said, turning to face the others.“Alstone will regroup, claim we attacked him, spin this into something that makes us the villains.”
“So what do you suggest?”Parker asked, still leaning on Aurora for support.
“We force a confrontation.With witnesses.With evidence they can’t dismiss.”I looked at Cyrus.“Your father believes the truth now.Right?About your mother’s death, about the conspiracy?”
Cyrus’s flames flickered blue with understanding.“He does.But he can’t act alone—”
“He can call an emergency council session,” I interrupted.“Demand that all members respond immediately to address new evidence of corruption within their ranks.”
