“Come on,” Ryn muttered, her breath fogging in the freezing air.
The door didn’t budge.
She tugged again at the low metal hatch set into the ground, half-buried beneath a crust of snow. The map lay open beside her, its edges curling in the wind. The handle bit into her palms as she pulled with everything she had. Her muscles burned. But the lock held.
Scheiße. She kicked the edge of it in frustration.
The sound echoed too far.
She held her breath.
The wind howled around her, stinging her exposed skin. Above, the tower’s dark spire stabbed into the starlit sky, impossibly high. Moonlight streaked through shifting clouds, glinting off the frost-encrusted stone.
Then—crunch. Boots punched through the crusted snow.
Her pulse slammed as she spun, already knowing. A figure emerged from the darkness, broad shoulders first, then the gleam of a sword hilt catching the moonlight: Garrick.
“What do we have here?” he said over the wind with unmistakable amusement. “Ryn.” He tsked. “Out for a stroll? Trespassing on Crown property?”
Ryn forced her stance to stay casual. “Didn’t realize the snow answered to the Crown.”
The steady fall of Garrick’s boots was calm against the storm forming inside her.
“You’ve got a smart mouth.” His smirk was slow. “Let’s see how long it lasts when Lady Elena hears about this.”
She edged back, boots skidding on ice-crusted dirt. Garrick moved faster. His hand shot out; fingers clamped around her arm like iron cuffs.
“What exactly are you doing here?” His breath steamed in the night air.
Ryn jerked against his grip. “Get off me.”
Suddenly a loud crack. A violent shudder ran through the ground. The lock on the hatch hung crooked, split clean in two. The faint hum of a blade slicing through air followed.
Garrick flinched as his head snapped toward the sound.
Stepping out of the shadows, Ward’s sword glinted in the starlight. He left the smirk behind, along with the swagger.
“Let her go.” He spoke evenly, but edged.
Garrick’s grip tightened. “Ward? What the hell are you doing here?”
“Giving you a chance to walk away.”
A gust of wind tore through them, rattling the tower’s iron braces.
Garrick scoffed. “No. No, you fool.” His gaze moved between them, calculating. “Why get involved?”
Ward didn’t blink.
“You’d throw it all away for this?” Garrick’s grin widened. “For her?”
Still, Ward didn’t move.
“She’s a whore, Ward. Been with half the men in town.”
Ward’s grip on his sword twitched. But he didn’t lower it.
“You’re wrong.”
Garrick’s smirk faded. He moved in, speaking lower. “You think stealing from Edric’s corpse will save us?” His tone was knife-edged. “We need order, not whatever this is.”
Ryn saw the tension coil in Ward’s frame, his breath shallow. This wasn’t going to end clean, and she knew it. She moved before she could think.
“I’ll go with him,” she said, her voice quieter than she meant. “He’s right—this isn’t the way. We’ve been fools.”
Ward turned to her, his expression unreadable. “It’s not your choice.”
Garrick scoffed. “See? Even she knows.”
Then his hand moved to his sword.
Ward struck first. The clash was brief and brutal. Sparks scattered against the ice as their blades met, steel carving through the night. Garrick drove forward, forcing Ward back step by step, boots scraping against packed snow.
Then—just as suddenly—Garrick stopped. He exhaled, lowering his sword with a growl. “You’ll regret this,” he muttered. “Both of you.”
He disappeared into the dark. Ryn let out a breath.
Ward didn’t speak. He knelt by the hatch, pushing it open. Stale air rushed up, thick with dust.
“You coming?” he asked, looking up.
Ryn lingered just a moment before she stepped inside. Their boots crunched in the snow as they crossed the threshold and disappeared into the dark.
The fire in Garrick’s hearth had burned low, embers casting faint reddish light across the rough-hewn walls.
“You’re hurt,” Merina said, crossly.
She set the cloak she’d been mending aside, the fabric pooling in her lap as she rose. Bare feet padded softly across the floorboards, the skin toughened from years of tending their home. She reached for him, her touch barely catching the edge of his cloak.
“It’s nothing,” Garrick muttered, tone harder than he intended.
He shrugged away from her touch, dropping heavily onto the bench near the table. Snow clung to his boots, melting into shallow puddles on the worn floor. His broad shoulders were hunched as if still bracing against the wind.
Merina’s hand hovered between them before falling to her side. “It doesn’t look like nothing.”
Garrick ran a hand over his face, fingers digging into the silver at his temples. Weighing whether to say anything. Deciding against it.
“You’ve come home like this too many nights.” She measured her cadence, though the firelight danced in her eyes. “Carrying something you won’t share with me.”
He said nothing.
She breathed deeply, almost a sigh. “Look around you, Garrick. The fields are buried under snow, the people are starving, and the Crown’s answer is to hang a candlemaker and call it justice. We can’t trust them.”
“That’s Elena’s answer, Merina. Not the Crown.” He said, already exhausted. He lifted his head, dark eyes flashing. “And you think I don’t see what’s happening out there? You think I don’t know what’s been asked of me—of us?”
Merina’s lips pressed together. “Then why do you keep doing it?”
The cracks in her voice let out more emotion than she wanted to be seen. “Why keep following their orders when you know it’s breaking you?”
“Because if I don’t, someone worse will.” Garrick rose suddenly, towering over her. His broad frame cast a shadow across hers. “If I step aside, they’ll send someone who won’t think twice about cutting down every last villager who so much as breathes wrong.”
“And what will be left of you when they’re done?”
Only the fire crackled.
Garrick dropped an octave. “We don’t have a choice,” he said. “I’ve seen what happens when people like us—people who look like us—step out of line. They don’t just punish us, Merina. They punish everything we’ve ever cared about.”
Merina took a small step closer. This time, he didn’t pull away.
“Tell me what happened tonight,” she murmured.
Garrick exhaled. “Ward’s in trouble. He did something he shouldn’t have. Problem is, I wasn’t the only one watching. I saw a light in the tower.”
His pitch sank, even deeper, thick with warning. “I walked away, but if he gets caught stealing from the Castle supplies…” He looked directly at her. “They’ll come for us, too.”
A quick breath. Merina swallowed. “Ward… did something? Is that how you got hurt?”
She took another step forward. “What are you going to do?”
Garrick didn’t answer at first. His head lowered.
“The town is at the end of its rope,” he muttered.
Merina shivered. The look in his eyes.
“Garrick,” she whispered. “What are you going to do?”