Before Bradford, the ugly words coming out of her brother’s mouth would have made Mei flinch.

  Before the Harvest Ball, she would have claimed those words weren’t him.

  Before four nights ago, she would have reached out and tried to assuage the hurt she heard in those words.

  Now, she took aim at her brother, knowing that force was the only way to keep him safe.

  “Huan,” her voice trembled, “come with me. After you tell us who Granite is, I will-”

  Huan shook his head. “I told you who he is. He’s Baron Thadden.”

  Even without Sioned’s twitch or the spy and Dwayne’s complete failure to connect anything in Thadden’s office to what Mei had found at Sen Jerome’s, the lie was apparent.

  “Tell us who Granite is,” Mei said again, “and I’ll ask Dwayne and Charlie to go easy on you.”

  “You really think they will?” Huan laughed. “Do you I’m a fool?”

  “No, I-”

  “No, you have to. It makes sense. After all, only a fool would break into Han Luo Fortress, steal her weapon, kill someone, all so that she could aim that weapon at the only family she had left.”

  “You killed someone?” Mei’s aim shook. “Who?”

  Huan’s face twisted. “No one.”

  Mei’s aim steadied. “Who?”

  “That rat was in my way. I had to.”

  Rat. One of the ShengXiao Guard. Huan had killed a ShengXiao Guard. That was why the Empire had chased them so doggedly, why Black Tiger was here in the Souran Capitol.

  “You have to come with me,” said Mei. “The Empire-”

  “No, I don’t.” Huan’s hands dropped, his expression bleak. “My little sister thinks she can control me.”

  “I’m trying to keep you safe.”

  “How does dragging us into Souran politics keep me safe? How is the ‘protection’ of the likes of Dwayne and that witch, who can’t even protect themselves, worth all this trouble.”

  That didn’t matter. “You have to come with me. Black Tiger is-”

  “There is. No. Black. Tiger.” Huan’s eyes glinted gold.

  “Uh,” Sioned raised her hand, “didn’t you and Ash fight someone wearing-”

  “That was an impostor,” Huan snapped. “There is no Black Tiger.”

  “Yes, there is,” Mei said through gritted teeth.

  “No, there-”

  “Yes, there is.” Mei stepped closer. “Black Tiger is real and she is here and she is hunting you.”

  “Then let her and that little archer of hers come.” Huan crossed his arms. “I’ll take them down just like that armor in Yumma. Then I’ll be free.”

  Mei was tired of that word. “What does ‘free’ mean to you?”

  Huan’s head jerked. “What?”

  “What does it mean?” Mei nodded south. “Why would we be free in Vanuria?”

  “I can finally do whatever I want.”

  “You did that back home,” said Mei. “That is why we’re here, right?”

  “But that wasn’t freedom.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…” Her brother scowled. “Because…”

  “You had to care what people think,” answered Sioned.

  “Exactly!” Huan grinned. “See, Clay gets it. People like those Imperial bastards chasing us.”

  “Or people like Dwayne and Odette who fought that armor with you?” asked Mei. “Or people like Maggie and Lady Pol who got you out of Yumma? Or people like me, you family? You don’t seem to care what I think.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Huan’s expression darkened. “Because you keep getting in my way. I want-”

  “What you want took Juanelo from his family, left Orlaith bleeding in the street.” Mei adjusted her aim. “You are free right now. Do what you want.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can.” Mei put her finger on the trigger. “Then I’ll do what I want.”

  Huan snarled, “You ungrateful-”

  Mei’s shot echoed sharply in the crisp air, draining the color from Huan’s face went pale.

  He staggered backward. “You… You…”

  “Missed.” Mei let her rifle tip drop. “Because what I want is you safe.”

  “Wretch.” Huan unsheathed the red handled knife, flung it into the dark, and disappeared.

  Sioned stared at where he’d been then looked up at Mei. “Um…”

  “Go.” Mei sank to her knees.

  “Umm… I-”

  “Go.”

  The roofrunner went.

  Mei let her rifle drop to the rooftop. That was the second time she’d shot at her brother, the second time she’d could have ended Granite’s plans, but that wasn’t why she’d come up here. When she’d spotted the shapes on the rooftop, she’d hoped to find Kay or the wind dancer, people she could fight without hesitation, but instead she’d found her idiot brother and the roofrunner.

  It was so hard to keep him safe.

  “Sorry about that.”

  Inge, wearing Rodion’s shirt open to the collarbone, joined her on the rooftop.

  Mei stared as they sat. “Why are you here?”

  “Dwayne said you’d be late to dinner.” The spy knelt next to Mei. “There’s only one reason why you’d ever do that.”

  “You think I should have shot him.”

  “No.”

  Mei frowned. “Even though it’s the right thing to do?”

  “Because it’s not the right thing for you to do.” Inge sighed. “You, Mei Li, are a hunter. You kill to provide and protect, not for law or justice. Beside, no one wants to live in a world Mei Li kills her brother.”

  Mei winced. “Hui Yeh said that too.”

  The spy stiffened. “You’ve met him? Where? When?”

  “On the riverbank. Two days ago.” Mei drew herself in. “He said he and Black Tiger would take care of it for me. That,” she switched to her native language, “Huan isn’t ‘worthy of my devotion.’”

  “He’s not,” answered Inge in that same language.

  Mei shook her head. “But he’s my brother.”

  “He’s a bad brother. Would Dwayne or Magdala, if they were your siblings, ever put you through what you’re experiencing right now?”

  “No, but… He’s family.” Mei winced. “He says wants to be free.”

  “Free.” Inge put a hand on Mei’s shoulder. “What does that word mean to you?”

  “Huan says-”

  “I’m asking you, not him.”

  Mei went silent. When he was alive, her father had told her a story about a hunter who loved hunting. Every day, she went into the forest to find the biggest, strongest, toughest creatures to kill them and prove her strength. She brought down an oil-backed panther, slaughtered a pack of star wolves, and hounded the woolly hogs till all had fled the land. Then she returned to her village and found it overrun with shaggy deer.

  Annoyed, she hunted them again and again until her village was buried under deer fur and gore, but more came and ate and rutted and left leaving no matter what she did. It turned out that she’d ran off the hogs who ate the roots of the deer’s favorite plants. She’d slaughtered the wolves who ate the prancing stags. She’d killed the panther who fed on the old and the weak.

  Now, she was the only hunter left, the strongest one, and she’d lose everything.

  “It means…” Mei looked away. “I don’t know.”

  “That’s okay.” Inge patted Mei on the back. “You’ll figure it out sooner or later.”

  “Okay.” Mei wiped her face. “I still want to keep him safe.”

  “Capturing Granite is probably the only way.” Inge got to their feet, then asked in Souran, “What do we know about them?”

  “They are not Thadden.”

  Inge sighed. “Unfortunately. It would have been very satisfying to prove that that man was a traitor to the Throne. Anything else?”

  Mei picked up her rifle and stood up. “Granite doesn’t trust Huan.”

  Inge raised an eyebrow. “How do you know that?”

  “He wasn’t alone,” Mei gestured to where Sioned had stood, “and he left her behind.”

  “Considering the fact he came here even though we’ve update Sanford’s defenses that means that Granite has sense. Anything else?”

  “Granite is probably in the Magisterium.” Mei began to wipe down her rifle. “Huan lied to make us look elsewhere.”

  Inge winced. “There are the seven thousand, four hundred and ninety-two students, six hundred and seventeen staff, two hundred and thirteen professors, thirty-seven deans of college, and three Sages. We need to narrow it down.”

  No reason to ask why a spy knew those numbers. “Granite isn’t a student. They don’t have access to the boat.”

  “Neither does staff. So that’s about eight thousand people eliminated. ”

  “Sages don’t need to be sneaky.”

  “Eliminating the worst possibility. So Granite is a professor or dean. What else do we know?”

  “They want magic. Rare magic. Like Dwayne’s License Key.” Mei frowned. “Which he only has because Lord Kalan was Royal Sorcerer.”

  Inge snapped their fingers. “Could it be Dean Bruce?”

  That was a leap. “She fits and she wanted to become Royal Sorcerer, but we don’t have anything connecting her to Granite.”

  “She did steal Dwayne’s notes.”

  Mei shook her head. “Thadden stole Dwayne’s letters, and we just eliminated him.”

  “Then let’s eliminate her. We’ll break into the College of Martial Magic and try to find anything that connects her to Granite.”

  Mei raised an eyebrow. “If she’s Granite, why would Dean Bruce keep anything there?”

  “Because if she’s Granite, then the college is hers, a place she can control every variable, unlike at Sen Jerome’s where she had to defer to the monks.” Inge’s eyes glittered. “If it’s her, it’ll be obvious.”

  That level of certainty was strange, but Mei, said, “Okay. Let’s go.” She turned north.

  Inge caught her arm. “Not tonight.”

  “Why not?”

  “Three reasons. One, you still need to process what just happened with your brother. Two, we’ve already broken into the office of a high official today, and we should space out our criminal acts. And three…”

  When Inge said nothing, Mei asked, “Three?’

  Inge held up a finger. “Wait for it.”

  “For- ”Mei’s stomach grumbled. “Oh.”

  “Let’s feed you first. We’ll go tomorrow, right after sunset.”

  Mei raised an eyebrow. “Wasn’t today was your last job?”

  “I thought about it.” Inge shrugged. “I think this is best.”

  Mei snorted. “You don’t want Dwayne to decide to do this.”

  Inge winced. “No, I don’t. He should stick to magic.”