Nocturna (A Forgery of Magic #1)(86)

Alfie shook his head and told himself it was the fact that she was carrying the dragon that made him so desperate to stay by her side. “The plan was for me to stay close while you lay the distraction in the center ring so that after we could head to Xiomara’s corridor together.”

Finn shot him a look. “Prince, you can barely stand. If we want to make it out of here alive, you need to stay sharp. Go to wherever the guard takes you and wait for me there. Try to catch your maldito breath before we go any further,” she said, her eyes darting to his shadow once more. “At this rate, you’ll be too exhausted to do anything when the time comes to trap Ignacio.” She met his eyes then. “If we make it that far.”

Alfie breathed a long sigh through his nose. She was right again, annoyingly so. “Fine. I’ll wait for you.”

Finn held out her hands expectantly. “Fireworks.”

Alfie carefully handed her the shrunken bundles of fireworks from his bag—this was the distraction that Luka had come up with. Once the fireworks went off at the center ring of the tower, the guards would be drawn from their posts, leaving Xiomara’s cell unguarded. They fit in her palm like marbles. In their miniature state, no one would be able to see them when they were placed. On the night of the Equinox Festival a grand fireworks show took place over the palace, so the storeroom was full of so many that the ones Luka had stolen would hardly be missed.

“These aren’t regular fireworks you can buy in the Brim. These ones were meant to be launched from the palace roof. Be careful.” He eyed her warily. “Just lay them throughout the center ring of the tower; do not set them off until you and I are together again, near Xiomara’s cell, entiendes?”

If she set them off and he was down here on the lower floor of the prison, waiting for her, then he wouldn’t have time to get all the way to Xiomara’s cell at the top of the tower to break her out while the guards were distracted by the light show. If the fireworks were triggered early, this whole plan would be for nothing. He worried his lip between his teeth.

She rolled her eyes. “From here on out I’d like five gold pesos every time you tell me to be careful. I’m not an idiot, Prince. I won’t set them off until we’re in position. Now, are you ready to go?”

Alfie nodded shakily as he rose from the ground and leaned against the wall.

Finn pulled the hood of the cloak over her head, disappearing before Alfie’s eyes.

After taking a deep breath, Alfie pushed off the wall, and opened the door. The guard straightened, grumbling about how long Alfie had taken in the bathroom before leading him down the hall. After walking down more twisting corridors, they walked into the center of the tower, where there stood a sweeping circular chamber as big as the palace’s grand ballroom. This was where the prisoners were kept. Guards made their rotations, walking in circles on each floor of cells, stone banisters closing off the higher floors from the drop to the ground floor. And, of course, the prison’s namesake was also here.

This chamber was full of an incessant ticking. Above this endless pillar of cells was the enormous clock. It took up the entire ceiling, glaring down at the prisoners like a ticking moon.

The groans and cries of prisoners swaddled Alfie in agony. At the sight of him in his due?o disguise, prisoners clawed at their bars, begging for forgiveness, for salvation, until a guard barked at them to keep quiet. Alfie looked away from their dirty, desperate faces. He felt Finn shudder beside him. The guard led them across the ground floor of cells, through yet another nest of twisting corridors and down a staircase. They were now on the lowest floor of the prison, just below the first floor of cells beneath the ticking clock.

The air suddenly grew sweltering. Heat clung to Alfie’s face like a mask. He heard the clanging of pots and pans.

The guard led them to the kitchens of the prison, where due?os stood stirring vats of food for the prisoners. Alfie’s eyebrows rose. Paloma had told him that to rise in the ranks, one had to do years of penance, but he had imagined them doing something with a bit more gravitas.

“I’ll leave you to it,” the guard said before turning on his heel and walking away.

Alfie watched the due?os silently cooking and ladling unappetizing, thick stews into bowls for the guards to deliver to cells.

“I’ll be back,” Finn whispered beside him, her breath tickling his cheek.

“Be careful,” he murmured. “And hurry.” It shouldn’t take her long to lay the fireworks, but worry still tightened his stomach. They’d already wasted too much time with the funeral and Alfie’s rest in the lavatory. The longer they spent here, the more time the magic had to harm his people. He and Finn would need to move quicker than ever to make up the time.

He waited for her to demand five gold pesos for him telling her to be careful, but he heard nothing. She was already gone.

Only in her absence did he realize how part of him yearned for the sound of her voice curving with the punch of a joke—a sound that made her face bright in his mind’s eye even when she was hidden by the cloak.





28


The Reunion


As the darkness purred within him, hungry for the hearty meal ahead, Ignacio stepped before the bridge that stretched over the Clock Tower’s boiling moat, his gray cloak flicking in the steaming breeze.

The two guards posted at the bridge’s entrance startled at the sight of him, pulling their blades from their scabbards.