“Creator!” Rhea cried.

She pushed her materials away from her. Nothing was working any longer. She’d spent months in this house where Master Caro Barca and her love, Eren, had left her. They’d told her to work with the Network, and they’d be back for her. Except…neither of them had returned. She hadn’t even heard word from them, and her work wasn’t progressing.

Fenix didn’t say anything when he stood in the doorway. He didn’t say much, generally speaking. His silences were weighted and his words even more so. She still didn’t know what to make of him despite living with him for almost four months.

“I’m not having any luck,” she told him before he could ask.

“You’ll get it.” He shot her that swoony, crooked smile.

She hastily turned away from him. She’d been doing that an awful lot lately, too. Eren’s absence after his declaration of love felt purposeful. Had he decided otherwise? She didn’t know, but it was making her act strangely. Like look sideways at Fenix’s bulky muscles in his shirt. Or have her stomach flutter at that smile. Or wait for those first words from him.

Fenix had a confidence that was only rivaled by Cyrene. Her frown returned at that comparison. She missed Cyrene. She’d disappeared again, and no one had seen or heard from her in so long. Rhea didn’t even know if her friend was dead.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Rhea had known Cyrene her entire life, she would have thought that possible. But she had a feeling that she would know if Cyrene were gone. They were connected.

“You have that faraway look again,” Fenix noted.

Rhea nodded and glanced down at her work. “Are you about to head out for the night?”

Fenix disappeared every night. She had no idea where he went or what he did. It was part of his mystery. He wasn’t even around the house all the time. She knew that he had a room on the top floor, but the bed was never used, and it was mostly a library. It left her a lot of time to think…and wonder.

“Just about.”

“Well…have fun.”

He smirked, shifting his massive shoulders and crossing his arms over his chest. She tried not to gawk at his biceps.

“Want to come with me tonight?”

“Uh…”

“You’re not having luck with re-creating the bombs. I know you’re working on something else instead, and that’s at a standstill, too. Come with me. There’s someone I want you to see.”

“You’re serious? You want me in on Network business?”

“Aren’t you already in on Network business?”

“I suppose,” she said.

Though she didn’t feel like it. She still didn’t have a great grasp on what the Network was or what it did. Except that she knew that Fenix and Lady Cauthorn were in on it and that a lot of people thought it was pretty important.

“You suppose or yes?”

“Yes.”

That was what she should have said to Cyrene. She should have told her yes. That she wanted to go with her. That her magic didn’t matter. She wanted to have her best friend’s courage to take on the world. Even if she was normally someone who sat on the sidelines.

“Good. Let’s go.”

“Wait, right now?” she asked.

He smiled down at her again. “When else?”

“Okay, okay. Are you going to fill me in on what we’re doing?”

“On the way.”

Rhea hastily grabbed a cloak off of a peg in her lab and hurried after Fenix. She hid her dark red hair and brushed off the remnants of the black powder she’d been working with from her dress. She hoped that she looked presentable for wherever they were headed. She hadn’t left the house for more than a couple of minutes at a time since she got here. She was excited and nervous for her first outing.

Fenix directed them out of the house and down a dark alley in utter silence before they came out on a well-lit street off of the Laelish Market. A horse-drawn carriage, the likes that Rhea hadn’t seen in so long, waited for them. A man jumped down from the reins and opened the door for Rhea and Fenix. She glanced at Fenix in surprise, but took the footman’s hand and stepped up into the carriage. Fenix followed behind. The quarters were close. She’d never been so aware of his hip pressing into hers.

“So…what’s going on?” she whispered.

“The purpose of the Network is to protect people who have magic. It’s a group of people all over Emporia who are aware that magic fell so long ago and want it to come back. That the prejudice and persecution of those with abilities need to come to an end.”

Rhea nodded in agreement. Before Cyrene, she would have found this entire thing ludicrous. She hadn’t even believed in magic. She told him as much.

“We’d love to be in education, but that would jeopardize what we’re doing behind the scenes. As strange as it sounds, the Dremylon demonstration of magic along with Cyrene’s in the castle have done more for education than anything we could have done in several lifetimes. Magic is out again.”

Rhea nodded. “Yeah, and look where that has gotten us.”

Fenix shrugged and thoughtfully looked at her. “Where are we?”

“I just mean that, once it came out, I was imprisoned and tortured.”

“Because of magic or Cyrene?”

She sighed. “I don’t like to blame her for things. That’s counterproductive. I’d never trade anything for her friendship.”

“Good. That’s why you’re here.”

“Here as in the Network or this carriage?”

“Both.”

Rhea’s pale, freckled cheeks heated, blooming red. Something about Fenix’s look made her blush constantly. Every look meant something. She just rarely knew what it was. And, with Eren in her life…she didn’t want to guess.

“The Network needs someone on the inside,” Fenix finally said. “We have spies placed in key places but no one close enough to the king to get us the information we need.”

Rhea raised her eyebrows, a question on her lips.

“We have someone we think will work. I’ve met with her, but I’m not sure if she’s the one. I want you to find out if she is.”

“How will I do that?”

He smiled deviously. “Because you’ve known Elea your whole life.”

“Elea?” she gasped. “Are you out of your mind? I love her to death, but there is no way that she is on our side. She didn’t leave with Cyrene when she should have. She gave up information about her without even having to be tortured. She’s a favorite at court as far as I can tell. How could you think she’d do that? If she sees me, she’ll turn me in.”

“I think that things have changed at court since Edric was murdered. I’m a good judge of character. She might do it.”

Rhea shook her head in shock. “I’ll talk to her if you think it’ll help, but I think we’re going to ruin my cover.”

Rhea was shaking with fear as the carriage pulled up in front of a mansion house that she actually recognized. It wasn’t that far from where she had lived with her parents. More people that she didn’t want to think about. She hadn’t heard from her parents once since she made Second Class. To them…she had ceased to exist. A mark on their record. Not everyone could be as lucky as the Strohms.

“Come on. I’m going to talk to her first, and then I’ll send her in,” Fenix said, helping her out.

He left Rhea in a sitting room. She tried to shake her nerves out. This was Elea. Rhea and Cyrene had always called her a shadow because they couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without her trying to tag along. She’d become a good friend as they got older, but right now, Rhea was worried that Elea was the enemy.

Thankfully, Fenix made it brief.

And then, suddenly, Elea was standing in the open doorway. Her mouth dropped open. Tears came to her dark blue eyes, so like Cyrene’s. Creator, she looked so much like Cyrene, it was uncanny.

“Rhea?” Elea gasped.

“Hello, Elea.”

Heedless of what lay between them, Elea rushed across the room and pulled Rhea into her arms. “Oh Creator! I thought you were dead. I never saw you after I left the dungeon. I thought, after what happened publicly with Eren, that they’d found and killed you in the market.”

Rhea pulled back and tilted her head. “What happened with Eren?”

Elea opened and closed her mouth a few times, like a fish out of water. “You didn’t hear?”

“Hear what?”

“He’s dead,” she whispered.

Rhea heard ringing in her ears. Whatever Elea said after that was gone. In one ear and out the other. Just white noise.

Dead.

Eren is dead.

The only man she had ever loved…who she’d ever had the courage to love…was gone. He was just gone.

Her knees buckled. Her brain went fuzzy. Everything turned black.

And then Elea was kneeling over her, saying her name again and again.

“What…what happened?” Rhea asked.

“You fainted. Do you need some water?”

She shook her head. “No. Just…help me up.”

“I’m so sorry, Rhea. I thought you already knew. I hate that I had to be the one to tell you. I cannot believe that Kael even did it. That Edric had issued the command and called Eren a traitor.”

“Eren…a traitor?” She shook her head. “Impossible.”

“I know. It was…wrong,” Elea said, as if voicing that was a weight off her shoulders. “I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t have anyone else in my life. I had to survive.”

“It’s okay,” Rhea reassured her. “You’re not alone.”

Elea collapsed into her arms. “Thank Creator. Everything is wrong, and I can’t get out. I’m working for Kael. I don’t know what else to do.”

Rhea took a deep breath and pulled herself together. This was what Fenix wanted. He wanted her to recruit Elea as their spy in the castle. She could do this. Even though it would put Elea in more danger and not take her out of it. They needed this. And she knew Elea would agree.

“I might have a way,” Rhea finally said even though all she wanted to do was get Elea out of there and into safety.

But they had killed Eren.

Edric and Kael had murdered Eren for being a traitor when he had been the noblest man alive.

She’d do what she could to take the Dremylons down. Take Kael down for that murder…and the countless lives on Rhea’s conscience for using her bombs to destroy Eleysia. If the Network needed a spy, then she’d convince Elea. There was no other way.