Chapter 10 #2
I shrugged. “Then I get the rest of my payment from the last bodies I sent, and we track down Bria. If Driftend is where Maurice’s next contact is, then we find him and work our way closer to the buyer.”
I turned away but only made it a few steps before he spoke again.
“And after the buyer? Where will you go if you find your mother?”
He was standing at the bow of the ship now, facing me with his back to the water. What did he care about my plans? I was nothing but a means to an end for him. “If you must know, I’m taking us both to Sanctuary.”
A laugh rumbled from his chest, spilling more smoke from his lips. “Sanctuary? That old fable about a free country?”
“You don’t think it exists?” I asked.
He snorted. “I’m sure a version of it does.”
“But you don’t think it’s a good idea to try to find it.”
He waved my question away like a cloud of smoke. “I don’t care what you do. I have people back in the Districts who have given me a real sanctuary, and that’s all I need.”
I scoffed, crossing my arms. “That makes sense. I suppose someone like you wouldn’t need Sanctuary.”
“Someone like me?” His brows jumped, and he took a step closer. “You mean a monster?”
Guilt pinched my chest. I hadn’t meant that, not exactly.
Yes, he was terrifying—staggering in height so that he was forced to look down at me, a face of sharp edges and even lines.
He wasn’t handsome in the polished way Matthieu was, nor warm and charming like Bernard always claimed my father to be.
Max was something else entirely. Appealing in the way I found a devastating storm to be beautiful or a fire to be a simultaneous source of warmth and destruction. Both had the power to ruin my life, and yet I felt drawn to them—to him—despite the warnings.
“You flatter me,” he muttered, frowning again.
“Are you in my head?” I gasped, realizing he was still palming his dice in the opposite hand. “Stop doing that!”
“Not until I figure you out.” He crushed a half-burned cigarillo beneath his boot and closed the distance between us in a stride. I held my ground, ready for him.
He lifted the artifact he still manipulated.
“There is not a single bloodline in this realm that can use my dice, and yet you do so like they were made for you. Like you’ve been doing it your whole life.
Now, I have no love for surgeons, Nina, and I haven’t decided if you’re truly as innocent as you appear or if you’re just as guilty as this buyer we’re seeking, but I will figure out your secrets. ”
I banished all thoughts of my Siphon, my mother, my past, until there was nothing left in my mind for him to scrape. “It’s simpler than you think. If you want to know me, you’ll have to earn my trust. I have nothing to hide, Maxence.”
His gaze dropped, lingering on my mouth when I spoke his full name. It was the first time I’d ever said it, and it seemed to snag something in him, to hold him. His lips parted, as though to speak. Instead, he exhaled slowly, breathing the rest of the smoke from his cigarillo across my cheeks.
“If you have nothing to hide”—his voice fell low, almost challenging—“then why is your heartbeat dancing for me again?”
I held my breath, willing the stupid lump of flesh to relax. “You can hear my heartbeat?”
“Since the first time I heard it, I haven’t been able to stop.” He glared at me, like it was my fault.
“Nina!”
We both turned at the call. Maurice stood on the galley deck, concern pinching his brows. “Tell your friend to get to the engine room. We need someone to shovel more coal into the boiler if we’re to make it by morning. You seem well enough to work, and the Loralynn gives no free rides!”
Max cursed under a breath.
“Go on,” Maurice growled, clearly displeased with his guest’s temperament.
Max glared at me for a long moment before brushing past me toward the hatch leading into the engine room.
I was shocked he even complied. Maurice must have suspected Max was armed and dangerous, but he still wouldn’t let the Cursed man lounge about all day.
“Come on, Nina,” he said. “You must be hungry.”
The hatch door slammed shut, and I winced as it echoed down the quiet river. Someone was clearly upset about being put to work.
I smiled at the captain. “I’m starving.”
We had dinner at the helm of the ship, and I ate while he made sure the steamboat remained on the right heading.
An orange sun was setting over the landscape, which began to shift into rolling farmlands the farther north we traveled.
Shadows drew out toward us from the riverbank, darkening the world beyond the hull.
Maurice pulled together a meager meal. A loaf of cold bread, salted meat he cut into thin strips and roasted in a slab of butter, and a can of something green and slightly bitter.
I ate it all, practically licking the plate when I finished.
The old fisherman smiled, but it was disconnected from the rest of his face.
“I was always concerned about you, what with dragging bodies across the city. But that man following you around?” He shook his head, grin disappearing. “I’m worried, Nina. There’s no doubt in my mind he has dangerous intentions.”
I collected our silverware to bring down to the galley. “He’s only dangerous if I lose value to him. As long as I have something he wants, I’ll be fine.”
He grunted, not even a bit convinced. “And what if he wants something you don’t want to give him? Hmm?” Something clicked on the dashboard, and I turned to find a gun sitting where our plates once rested.
“Maurice…”
“It doesn’t matter if you have magic or strength or anything a capable woman your age can have.
He’s twice your size. If he wanted…” He shook his head, like he couldn’t even say the words out loud, holding the grip of the pistol toward me.
“Just take it to defend yourself. If not from him, then from all the other dark hearts in the world.”
I considered his weapon, but Maurice lived in a dangerous world, too, and he needed it as much as I did. At least I had my Siphon, and that was enough to keep the outsider at a distance. Whatever he used against me, I could wield right back.
“What do you know about your next contact?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Not much. They come late at night when the docks close. Every drop, they take the coffers on a small supply vessel and bring them somewhere down the canal.”
“Another boat?”
He shrugged. “I told you, I’ve never followed to find out.”
“What about the import inspector? How do you get by him? Someone must be surveying the docks.”
But he denied both my questions with the shake of his head. “You’re asking the wrong questions. Why would the import inspector let anyone deliver late at night? Why would the surveillance break at midnight for an hour exactly?”
I understood then. “The import instructor knows.”
“Most likely gets a small kickback, as well. Whoever our buyer is, they’ve covered their tracks and paid off everyone involved to keep them quiet and to make them his accomplices.”
The buyer had sectioned us off so neatly, if one of his dominos fell, it wouldn’t touch the others. The only thing connecting any of us was the money trail. When that dried up, the buyer would essentially cease to exist.
“Do you mind if I take down the rest of the food to Max? He’s been working for hours.”
Maurice raised his brows. “You care?”
The thought surprised me as well, but my irritation with the Cursed had calmed in the hours apart. “Without him, I’d be sweating in a mine in the mountains or in a lab at the Academy. The least I can do in return is offer him our leftovers.”
He rubbed his wrinkled face and nodded wearily.
“Do what you want, but remember my warning, Nina. If you need to get rid of another body, I’ll take care of it.
For old times’ sake.” He winked before turning back toward the river, a mug of coffee in his hand.
“There is something that’s been plaguing me. ”
“What’s that?” I asked from the captain’s door.
“If you didn’t kill the Governor—and of course I believe you’re innocent—well, then…” He cocked his head. “Who did kill him?”
My gaze fell to the empty plates in my hand.
The weight of the dice in my pocket suddenly felt more profound.
I’d never asked Max why he’d ventured to my side of the city, nor where he came from, or how his dice were stolen in the first place.
Had he been involved in the Governor’s death? The timeline didn’t work.
I’d been too panicked to study Therell’s remains closely when he’d rolled out of the cart, but his body wasn’t fresh.
And yet his corpse had only been delivered that night.
Whoever was behind this, they knew our business.
It would have been almost impossible for Max to be involved.
No, he had been just as surprised as I was to find out about Therell.
“It wasn’t him, Maurice. I’m sure of it.”
The fisherman didn’t look at me, clearly unconvinced. “I’m going to put my nets out just to see if we can catch something on our way. Don’t stay down there long, darling. If you’re still down there when I’m done, I’ll be coming down to find you.”
Carrying a plate of food while descending a ladder was an awkward task. The hatch had a spring to close it automatically, keeping all the heat and smoke inside the engine room. The metal bars were warm to the touch, but I managed to make my way.
The entrance to the engine room was near the front of the ship, but the actual engine was in the center. The space was loud with mechanical noises—clanking gears and hissing vents. Steam and smoke filled the space with an orange haze, and I could make out the shapes of pipes and crudely bent metal.