Nocturna (A Forgery of Magic #1)(70)

Luka held his gaze for a long moment before relenting with a glare. “Fine. But this is not the end of this maldito conversation.”

“Why don’t we get into the prison the way you did last time, then?” Finn asked, and Alfie was thankful for her interruption. “If it worked for you last time, should work now.”

Alfie shook his head and looked anywhere but Luka’s face. “Last time I went to the prison I did it via tether.” Tethers were a form of transportation magic that most bruxos used, but Alfie seldom did, thanks to his propio. Tethering spellwork bonded two objects, so that if you touched one and spoke the right word of magic, it transported you to the other. Alfie had tethered two objects and paid a prison guard to take one of the tethers to the prison. But that tether had since been confiscated, by Paloma.

Her face flashed in his mind once more, disappointed and, even worse, afraid for him. Shame roiled his stomach, but there was no time to stew in it now.

Since he’d used a tether before, Alfie hadn’t connected his doorknob to the prison, he hadn’t assigned the prison a color of magic to travel by with his propio magic, so there was no way to use it to travel to the prison now. Using the bit of Sombra’s magic he’d caught in the dragon to spirit him and Finn there was out of the question as well. Transporting him and Finn from the Brim to the palace had left him barely able to stand. To use it for such a great distance might kill him. Alfie looked down at the dragon hanging on his neck. “We can’t use this either. The distance . . . I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it.”

“Good,” Finn said with a grimace. “I wouldn’t do that again if you paid me.” She tilted her head then. “Well, depends on how much.”

“Good to know your priorities are in order,” Luka sniped at her, but he was still staring at Alfie, his face pinched tight and tense. “Then you’ll have to get there the old-fashioned way. Horseback.”

Alfie nodded at that. The prison was about thirty miles beyond the city, an hour and a half’s ride at top speed.

“We’ve still got the issue of getting in and out of the maldito prison unnoticed,” Finn said, her voice flat with disinterest, as if planning a heist were part of her everyday schedule. “Along with sneaking out with a third person.”

“You and I will use the vanishing cloak to sneak in. But when we get the prisoner, all three of us can’t fit beneath it.” Alfie looked at Finn. “I’ll need you to use your propio to disguise me so that I can walk out of the prison while you and the prisoner follow under the vanishing cloak.”

Finn chewed on the inside of her cheek. “As what? A guard?”

Alfie shook his head. From what he remembered, the guards at the prison had very specific schedules and duties to attend to. He’d stick out.

“Who else could you disguise yourself as?” Luka asked. “Certainly not a prisoner.”

As Alfie thought, Paloma’s voice echoed in his mind. Magic is a gift and as due?os we all must do our penance to thank the gods for such a gift.

“You’ll disguise me as a due?o,” Alfie said to Finn. It was the only option. “Due?os perform penance at the Clock Tower all the time. Paloma herself did.” Alfie’s voice quieted around her name and Luka turned at the sound. For once, Alfie wished Luka didn’t know him so well. “If you disguise me as a due?o then it’ll be easy for me to move around the prison and to leave when I please. No one will pay attention to me.”

Finn nodded slowly at that. “Bien, so now we have a way in and out, but how do we distract the guards so that we can sneak out of the prisoner’s cell unnoticed?”

Alfie stared down at the map of concentric circles, his mind falling silent as he grasped for options. “We need a distraction. A big one. Something to pull the guards away from their posts at her door so we can get in, get her under the vanishing cloak, and get out.”

Luka tilted his head at that, his dark eyes sparking. It was the same face he made whenever he was about to beat Alfie at cambió. “I’ve got an idea. Leave it to me.” He gave a sigh then. “I come up with the best parts of this maldito plan and I don’t even get to participate.” He turned on his heel and made for the door. “Wait here.”





23


The Prince of Strutting


Just like that, the plan had been set.

Bathtub Boy had retrieved the perfect distraction to use in the prison while they broke Xiomara out. Then he’d headed off to his quarters, still grousing about not being able to come with them. Now it was only Finn and the prince standing in his rooms.

“We’ll leave tomorrow morning. It’s too late to try to infiltrate the prison now,” he said, his fingers worrying the sleeves of his shirt.

He was right, she knew. They’d lost the day to their hunt for Sombra’s magic and their fight with Ignacio. Now the moon was rising. If they were going to break someone out of a prison, it ought to be during the thick of the day when things were busy, when things that would otherwise look suspicious would simply be overlooked. Not at night when the guards were on high alert.

The prince looked frustrated as he chewed the inside of his cheek, and the same impatience coiled tight inside of her. He’d seen Ignacio’s power, just as she had, and the idea of waiting even a moment before starting off on this plan was maddening. How much more powerful would Ignacio be come morning? What terrible things would he do with these hours that they would spend waiting for dawn? But if they were going to pull this off, they needed to wait. It wasn’t as if due?os just waltzed into this prison in the middle of the maldito night.