Her heartbeat was close to normal now, her muscles languid and warm. The remaining fizz of magic was only an ache in her hands. She was pleased with the spell, pleased with the night as a whole. Fortune’s Wheel was turning, and she would make certain that the Unseen World changed with it. Tonight had been a good beginning.
Home. Sydney walked across her building’s empty lobby to the elevator. She kept her killer heels on until she was inside her door. No weakness, even here. Once inside, she slipped out of the shoes and dress and into black leggings and an oversize T-shirt. Paused for a moment to ground herself: There were blankets piled at the foot of the bed, topped with a quilt embroidered in stars. There were glasses in every richness of blue in the cupboard, because even glasses could be beautiful, and so why shouldn’t they be? There was a sofa, dark red velvet, and a sculpture of leaves—brass and bronze and copper—on the wall above it. Her own tiny jewel box of beauty, a longing made real.
Settled, she made herself coffee. She had no desire to have nightmares, and there was work still to do.
? ? ?
The results came to Laurent the following morning, just before they went to the rest of the Unseen World. Winner’s privilege. Sydney thought it might more realistically be called the last moments of calm before she became a walking target, but that took a bit longer to say. Not that she was complaining—it was exactly what she wanted.
The email appeared on his screen, using the same technomagic protocols the notification of the Turning had done. The spell was a masterwork of collective magic. Fully anonymous voting by the magicians in attendance, scores tabulated by the spell itself, a spell also designed to flag anomalies in magic use. It was the same magic that regulated all aspects of the Turning, impossible for any one House to override. The screen shimmered, almost iridescent.
“We won!” Laurent said, turning around in his chair to smile at her, his delight so obvious Sydney grinned back.
“Good,” she said. “I would have been astounded if you hadn’t.”
“I wish I had been able to see it in person. I heard you did gorgeous work.”
He hadn’t even been invited to House Dee’s party, where his challenge was fought, House Dee being somewhat particular about those it considered suitable members of the Unseen World. They had been careful to make sure it got back to Laurent that outsiders who hadn’t even been born in the Unseen World and who had the arrogance to think they deserved to found a House were not on their list.
“They’re snobs.” Sydney shrugged, dismissing the entirety of the Unseen World with the movement of her shoulders. “But they’re snobs who recognize power. You’ll be invited to everything from now on, I’m guessing.”
“You’ve strengthened your wards, taken whatever precautions you should?” Laurent asked. “I’ve heard that accidents can happen on purpose during these things—I don’t want you to be one.”
She smiled. “Even you don’t know where I live. I’ll be fine.”
“I’m serious. I don’t mean to sound like a dick, but I have money. A lot of it. If the choice is between paying your rent or making sure you’re safe, know that I consider your safety a business expense. Buy whatever you need and I’ll reimburse you, or let me know what it is, and I’ll make sure you have it.”
“I know what you’re paying me to represent you, Laurent. And we’re sitting in your five-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side. The fact that you have money is not a secret.”
“Sydney.”
Laurent looked concerned enough that Sydney decided he actually meant what he said. “If cost becomes an object to my personal safety, I will let you know. But trust me—I want to get through to the end of this. I have no intention of dying—either in an accident or during a duel. The goal is to make sure that you’re the founder of a House when this is over, and for that to happen, I need to stay alive. I’ve taken precautions, and I’m good at what I do.”
He kept his eyes on hers, then nodded. “All right.”
“So, what’s the next move?” she asked.
“I’ve been thinking about that. And my first thought was there’s something to be said for going after the powerful Houses now,” Laurent said. “Get them out of the way before things shift and all the duels are mortal.”
“And your second thought?” Sydney asked.
“That there’s a more subtle strategy to play—just because a House is powerful doesn’t mean their champion is. A lot of the old Houses are too insular to hire a champion, and their magic suffers for it. So I want to work my way through this differently.”
“I think that’s a smart call,” Sydney said. “House Dee is one of the oldest and most established Houses, but Bryce’s spell was nothing. If you want my advice?”
Laurent nodded. “Of course.”
“You have some time. Watch what happens this round before you decide who to challenge in the next. Watch the results, the type of spells cast, who falls out of contention. Alliances among the Houses will shift, too. All those pings on your phone while we’ve been talking? I’m guessing that a good percentage of them are Heads of Houses, or other candidates, inviting you to drinks, to dinners, to events where they can learn more about who you are and whether your way of thinking about magic lines up with theirs.”
Laurent glanced at the screen of his phone, scrolled, nodded. “And there’s the expected subtlety, sure, but isn’t it a little early for any of them to care what I think about magic?”
“It’s really not. After last night, they aren’t just wondering whether you’ll be made a House. They’re wondering what might happen to magic if you win.”
“Like, what, I’m going to make people pay dues in order to use it or something?” He laughed the idea off.
“The thing is, you could. The winner of the Turning leads the Unseen World. If that’s you, you’ll have a lot of say in how magic is used and who gets to use it. You came from outside—maybe you’d be interested in opening things up. Some Houses will think that’s great. Others will hate that idea so much they’ll wish you were representing yourself so they could kill you when this turns mortal.”
He winced.
“But if people discover that you think the same way they do, and that you can do the hard work for them during the challenges—removing the people who don’t think the same from contention—then maybe they decide it’s better to support you than to challenge you.” Not every House met in challenges. The Turning wasn’t ever meant to scorch the earth of the Unseen World, only to shake it up a bit. Some alliances needed to remain alliances. From what she’d seen of him so far, Laurent had a head for strategy. And if he was focused on that, that would give her some time to think about what to do with Ian Merlin being at House Prospero and how much of all of that Shara needed to know. She now had plans of her own she needed to rethink.
Laurent leaned against the counter. “Miles Merlin’s been in control for as long as I’ve been here. The way he runs things is all I know about the Unseen World, and magic, any of it. Which, I guess might make some people think I’d be happy to go along with the status quo and, honestly, right now I’m happy to have them think that.”