Rowan couldn’t get it out of his mind as he left the parlor behind. If the Fulminancer behind that parlor explosion was alive, then what had really happened that night? Were parlors truly as unsafe as his own experiments, or had that one been caused by human error, rather than Fulminancy? If Fulminancy was only unsafe because of how people wielded it, then Rowan could work with that. He could convince the public to accept something that wasn’t inherently dangerous.

  And there was the other aspect of that blast—one he couldn’t help but associate with his own workshop troubles. Someone had blocked Fulminancy with something akin to his own odd power.

  Whatever it was, Rowan would find it. If only he could get that Bloodcrawler to work with him. His initial meeting with her hadn’t gone according to plan, but Rowan was ever the optimist. If he could get Kess on board, then not only would he have a credible way to return Uphill, but he’d also have a Fulminancer to work with. The very idea made him giddy.

  Days and weeks of tedious research, reduced to hours, he thought as he walked with Eamon towards Riverside. I could finally make some actual progress. A Fulminancer would mean he could set up experiments without time spent digging through libraries or convincing Uphill minders of his worth.

  It was convincing Kess that was the hard part. She’d laughed at him the moment he’d brought it up. It didn’t seem a bad trade to Rowan—a simple matter of her attendance at balls and galas in exchange for professional instruction in Fulminancy. Admittedly, Rowan didn’t seem like a great candidate on the surface, but he’d taught his brothers with few issues. Kess would be no different.

  Regardless, he’d have to track her down to try again. It was the easiest path forward, and Rowan needed to make progress fast. He didn’t know what he’d do if his prototypes were less safe than his initial calculations. He’d been careful, but what if he was wrong? What if someone was injured or worse because of what he was hiding?

  He pushed the thought out of his mind as they approached the two block wide swath of destruction where the Bloodcrawler had last been seen. Best not to think of that, he reminded himself. There would be time to rectify his mistakes—provided he didn’t make any further ones.

  Rowan couldn’t help but stare as they passed through a blackened square filled with what used to be buildings. Cracked rocks and splintered shards of wood littered the square. At the center, two buildings collapsed in on themselves in what had been an alleyway. Nearby buildings stood solemnly, a silent and empty final witness to their brethren’s destruction. Rowan’s steps slowed, Eamon’s alongside his.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “Mariel’s mercy,” Eamon said quietly. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  The Blueblades hadn’t bothered roping this section of the city off. Riverside was near abandoned, but several smudges on the ground gave Rowan pause. Eamon caught him by the arm as he moved towards the collapsed buildings.

  “Lad, not again.”

  “I’m not going inside this time,” Rowan promised. Eamon sighed, then nodded, and let him go. Rowan crossed the plaza, expecting debris, evidence of an explosion, or something else. What he got was more than he bargained for. Rowan’s breath caught.

  The smudge was human. Or rather, it had been at one point. The outline was in the clear shape of a man, and several more were nearby—nearly the full count of a Fulminant patrol. Trailing from each was the distinct mark of Fulminancy—a jagged series of lines that crept away towards the darkened center of the alleyway, now shrouded in the collapsed corpses of the nearby buildings.

  Eamon approached and let out a low whistle. “Never seen Fulminancy mark the ground like that,” he said. “People, yes, but never the ground. How much power do you think…?”

  “Too much,” Rowan replied. He stood, feeling sick, and stared into that darkness of the alleyway. He thought he could see a small figure huddled there, crackling with power, though when he blinked, the image was gone. “She came from this direction that night, Eamon,” he said quietly. “The Bloodcrawler. Do you think she…?”

  “Who else has business in Riverside?” Eamon asked, his voice solemn. “I can’t figure out why she was here at all, though everyone on duty said she came from this way that night, so it can’t just be coincidence.”

  Rowan had a hard time believing it was coincidence, either. There just weren’t enough powerful Fulminancers running around to justify this sort of destruction, and Kess herself had practically admitted to the incident.

  “I can’t believe it,” he whispered. “All those men, gone.”

  “We don’t know the full story,” Eamon said, though his voice had little conviction. “She could have been attacked, or maybe it was just an accident, lad.” Eamon’s words fell dead in the Drystorm winds. Rowan fought with his stomach and his heart for a moment longer before turning away from the charred remains of the men.

  Kess had seemed fragile and practically innocent—for a Bloodcrawler—when she’d collapsed in front of him that night. What Rowan saw now made him suddenly doubt all of that. Had it been an act, designed to make him lower his guard? What had she really come looking for?

  Regardless, it left Rowan with few options. His best way forward was to work with a cowardly murderer—one who, rather than learn to control her powers, had used them indiscriminately to kill an entire squadron of Fulminant men. Gifted with incredible power that could change a society for good, this Kess had instead chosen to wield her own power with the delicacy of a sledgehammer. It was typical for a Bloodcrawler, but even Rowan found himself shocked at the barbarity of it all.

  He’d come to Riverside looking for answers. He just wasn’t sure he liked the ones he’d gotten.

  NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s and publisher’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.