Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
Before Max locked me into an icebox, he’d made sure there were some openings for air so I could breathe. After all, we didn’t know how long I’d be stuck inside. But that meant the box was neither sealed nor watertight, and as soon as I was tossed into the canal, water began to fill the inside.
I floated for a moment before the weight of the icebox slowly sank it beneath the surface.
Once submerged, water quickly filled the small box, replacing what little air had filled the space between my face and the lid.
Darkness thickened as I fell deeper into the pit of the canal until the light from the houseboat was snuffed out completely.
I nudged the top, but the locks on the side didn’t budge.
The more I bent the metal, the more water leaked inside, and the more I panicked.
I tried to reach for the Forge die still in my pocket, but there was no room to move my arms. My fingertips skimmed the pocket, but I couldn’t dig deep enough to reach the small artifact.
The water had already reached about halfway up my sides, soaking into my hair and my ears. I forced myself to take long, deep breaths despite the icy temperature. The box settled as it hit the bottom of the canal.
I screamed inside the enclosure, “Max! I can’t open it.
I can’t… I can’t…” I beat the lid with my fists, using the little space I had to do some damage.
But it was no use. If Max heard me, he wasn’t replying.
He’d milked all the information he needed out of me.
Now I was nothing to him, useless and unnecessary.
I was alone under the weight of crushing water.
Alone in my head. I would die slowly, already locked in my own coffin.
“Max…”
The waterline rose to my face, leaving one final gasp of air as water filled the icebox completely.
Holding that last breath in my chest, I fought against the locked lid until the strength waned in my bones, until my chest was filled with fire and the flames licked my throat.
Just as death wrapped its thieving hands around my heart, the dented metal against my hands disappeared.
There was a muffled snap and a thrash of movement. The darkness of the night sky and the murk of the canal left me in pitch darkness. But a strong arm snagged around my waist and violently pulled me from my watery grave.
My chest ached. A fist was clamped around my windpipe. I couldn’t control my limbs as everything disconnected in the world. Everything except a hard body holding me close and a frigid, rushing tide passing around us.
“Hang on,” a voice in my head begged me. “Stay with me, Nina.”
I wanted to, but the flames in my lungs were overwhelming. The pressure around my neck loosened, and I gasped in a mouthful of filthy water.
A curse screamed in my head.
The next moment, my head broke the surface, and I inhaled a deep breath. My lungs filled with sweet, fresh air in a noisy wheeze. I blinked the water from my eyes, discovering Max immediately in front of my face.
My arms wrapped around his shoulders instinctively, finding strength in him when I had none left.
One of his arms was still tight around my waist and pulling me into him.
We floated there for a moment, staring at each other while trying to catch our mingling breaths that fogged in the cool mist hovering over the canal.
The houseboat floated not far away, but we were outside the halo of light that surrounded it.
Max’s thin lips were pale from the cold as he said, “I tried to get us farther out, but—”
“I thought you left me,” I whispered.
Moonlight filled his amber eyes, cooling them into warm embers. Droplets fell from his silver hair as he shook his head, and I thought the grip on my hip tightened a little. “Ruined my clever plan, I suppose.”
An awkward laugh spilled out of me between the chattering of my teeth.
I don’t know what compelled me to do what I did next.
This man was going to be my demise. He’d been the finger that had knocked the dominos of this disaster into motion.
But in the moment, he was just a man who’d saved my life when I was seconds from drowning.
His eyes held the last bit of warmth left in the world, and I couldn’t think of any other way to convey the complicated emotions fighting for dominance in my heart.
So I pressed a kiss to the cold slope of his cheek.
Max stilled.
“Nina…”
I lingered too long, letting my lips trace the angles of his face that I’d memorized from afar.
It was just a kiss, a way to say thank you.
But as I dragged my cheek across his chin to look at him again, everything felt different at once.
The touch on my waist, his breath in my ear, the way he stared at me with eyes as wide as the moon itself.
He was shocked.
So was I, though I was trembling too much from the freezing canal to show it.
“We should get out of the—”
“Right.” He nodded quickly.
“I—”
“Don’t need to talk about it.”
“Max, I can’t swim!”
His jaw clenched, but he nodded, as if frustrated he’d forgotten such an important detail. Obviously, that was why I was clinging to him like a cat. He guided me to his back, and I used his chest as a buoy. He swam and I… well, I held on like hell.
We made it to the side of the canal without any further conversation, not that Max had a breath to spare for that. He shoved me out of the water, and I crawled up on the grass, weak with relief, but as I lay there, a pair of familiar boots filled my vision.
“Look who crawled out of the channel.”
I followed the laces of her boots up to her face. Clad in black leather now, Bria stood over me. I recognized the copper curls she always pulled high on top of her head, with a few wild ones framing her face. She crossed her arms as she assessed me with a scowl over her once-friendly features.
“I had a feeling something was off about this delivery.” She looked at Dante. “I’m surprised you fell for such a foolish trick.”
The men who’d delivered me stood behind her, ready with ropes and chains. One held pistols in both hands—aiming one toward me, the other at Max.
“Thought we’d bait them both out when we got close.
Didn’t want to be near the port and alert anyone.
” Dante, I assumed from remembering his voice, spoke with his guns trained on us.
He wore a suit, with a stark white shirt and a chain clipped from his tie to his vest pocket.
His hair was styled slicked back, a glossy black in the moonlight.
I wondered if he was bluffing. He’d spoken too openly on the journey to have been aware of my presence—but I stayed quiet for now.
“What are you doing here, Nina?” she asked me then. “And with him, of all people? Did Bernard refuse to help you?”
“Bernard is dead, thanks to you,” I hissed. She didn’t spare a flinch of concern. “Where is my mother?”
“Gone. You’re a day late.”
I pushed to my feet but was stopped by the sound of a gun cocking. A warning.
Max was a dark presence behind me, attached at my heel like a giant shadow. “Pull that trigger, and you’ll join the rest of the bodies you’ve dumped in this canal.”
A warning for a warning.
“Bria,” I started again, “I don’t know who you’re working for or why you took her, but she’s a crippled old woman who’s out of her mind. She’s of no use to anyone. Just tell me where you sent her, and I’ll get out of your way. I don’t want to be involved with any of this.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t understand what’s happening here, Nina.
Out of her mind? Of course. But I think we both know why.
” She knelt to stare into my eyes, to keep our words between the two of us.
The necklace around her neck glowed. “You’ve been smuggling artifacts and Archetypes for years.
Why does it matter now that it’s your family? ”
“Because she is alive,” I hissed.
“Not for much longer.” Bria smiled.
“You’re related?” Dante asked, looking between us. “You and the old woman, I mean. She’s your mother by blood?”
An odd question. “Yes, and Bria kidnapped her while I was taking care of… someone else.”
“You didn’t say she had family, Bria.”
Bria shot him an odd look. “Everyone has family. What does it matter?”
“Because you lied to them.” Max spoke while I struggled not to throttle the woman in front of me.
Bria’s glare slid to him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I never lied.”
I glanced at him, found his stare hard on Dante, bypassing her completely. “You said there was supposed to be one last drop. One more body. You honestly thought the buyer wanted a head-sick woman?”
Bria went still, the confidence in her face cracking while the men remained behind her.
Though I understood exactly what was happening now.
Bria had told them about one last, important drop, and they had assumed it was my mother.
Out here on the river, they had no idea yet what had happened in the city, and we could use that to our advantage.
Cal twisted the rope in his hands. “Bria. What is he talking about?”
“How could you even question me?” Bria spoke quickly. Panic thinned her lips, slitted her eyes, fisted her hands at her sides. “After all the work I’ve done, after all I sent you! The money I’ve made you should prove my devotion.”
I scoffed just as my body thrashed with shivers. “I think you panicked. Stole my mother because you didn’t dare to wait for the real body you were supposed to bring to them.”
She glared at me. “You have no idea what you’re talking about, Nina.”
Dante’s stare was fastened on me. His weapons lowered an inch. “Explain. Quickly.”
“My mother wasn’t the one the buyer requested. Your boss wanted another, more notable public figure. And Bria here failed to deliver him.”
“Who?” Dante asked. When she ignored him, he demanded once more. “Who, Bria?”
I answered for her. “The Governor, Ignace Therell.” I delighted in the way his eyes went wide. “I tried to get his body to you, but Bria took off with my mother instead.”