Chapter 19 #2
I explained. “When Cassien arrested me, some of the poison from the handcuffs got into my system, which probably affected your ability to find me.” I fought down the urge to comb the disheveled length of his hair with my fingers.
“I’m glad I punished his men, then.”
A strange smile strained my cheeks. “I think I am, too.”
His nose drew a line straight up my chest to the base of my throat, looking up at me. “Where did you get this dress?”
“I ran into some friends of yours.”
He laughed lightly. “Always lucky. Out of all the heathens in Valveron, you find some of mine. Fate’s favor, like I said.”
“Thanks to you,” I whispered. “I’m glad you’re okay, Max.”
“Nina.”
“Hmm?”
Another long breath drew from parted lips, like he could taste me. Close enough to let our breaths mingle like fragile threads.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
He licked his lips, swallowing hard. “Like you see me. Really see me.”
I bit my lip, trying to hold back the impulse to drag my mouth an inch higher and find his. My teeth caught my bottom lip, holding back a raw confession. “You’re all I see, Maxence.”
A hand trembled as it slid beneath my waist and followed the shape of the bodice, truly feeling me for the first time. He sighed again as his fingers spanned my ribs, applying a whisper of pressure.
“Do you know what my name means? Why I was given it?”
I shook my head.
“It means greatest. Because I was meant to be the final trial, the greatest creation and most valued subject.”
“The ace?” I asked, smile stretching.
“Exactly.” His eyes darted to my lips as his grin flashed. “Nina, when you call me by my name, my whole name, it feels like you believe it. I feel—” He winced, struggling with the words that wouldn’t follow.
I reached for him, wrapping my hands around his neck, pulling him closer. I whispered it again, every syllable deliberate and intentional.
“Maxence.”
Greatest.
His forehead fell against mine, body tense and hovering enough that there was only a breath of space between our bodies. I only needed to tilt my head to catch his lips. And perhaps more would follow.
“Say it again,” he murmured, voice shaking.
“Maxence.”
He groaned like a beast, still seated at the edge of his rage. From his neck, my fingers slipped lower, trying to anchor myself to him. Instead, I grazed a thick, jagged scar.
Max jolted back, as if a cord between us had snapped. In a blink, he was on the other side of the container, leaving me lying there alone and flushed from the sudden loss of him. “I’m sorry,” I said quickly, realizing my error. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to touch you. I mean, I did, but—”
“You should go now, Nina.” He backed himself into a corner, drawn to the shadows.
“What?” I sat up.
“Do I need to be clearer? Get out!”
“Maxence—”
“Stop.” He squeezed his eyes shut, forbidding himself to look at me. “That’s enough. I can’t do this.”
“Fine.” I stood, dusting off my coat and skirt, wiping blood from my hair. “I don’t know why I keep trying with you. As soon as you get what you need, you shove me away.”
“I don’t know why you came here at all,” he murmured so low, I almost didn’t hear him.
He knew. We both knew. There was a bond between us, one that balanced between two extremes: resentment and reverence.
Two sides of a coin we were constantly flipping, never knowing which side it would land on.
I sighed. I’d had enough of this gambling.
“Because you needed me, Max. I thought I could help you. I wanted to help you. I still do, even when you give me every reason not to.”
He flinched back, like my words were weapons. When he finally looked at me, his stare focused on the bloody spot at my hairline. “Then you’re a fool, and you deserve to get hurt.”
I pressed my eyes shut, willing my tears to dry. I would not allow his apathy to get to me. He was nothing but a glorified guide, helping me find the buyer. He needed me just as much—perhaps more—than I did him, and it was time he started to acknowledge that.
“I might be a fool, but at least I’m not a coward.” I knocked three times on the door, and it opened just enough for me to squeeze through. “I’ll see you at Ronny’s.”
By the time we pulled back into the stable of the brothel, every stall was taken. It seemed this evening would be more active than the first.
I’d told Elli that Max was safe and asked her to bring me back here. She hadn’t asked any questions about what had happened in the container, and I was grateful for that.
“Is it like this every night?” I asked Elli as we entered the busy lobby.
I got my head down and my hood folded in front of my eyes as we ascended to the second floor.
The same floor we’d gone to last night to find Ronnette.
It seemed the courtesans lived and worked in their private rooms upstairs, and so did Elli.
I didn’t mind, however. The rooms were extravagant and comfortable, and this place was as safe as anywhere in the city.
“Pretty much. The only thing more popular in Valveron is Max’s hall or the opium dens that just opened.”
“The opium dens… Someone called Damien runs them, doesn’t he?” I asked.
Elli snorted. “Not just the dens. He’s building an empire, tainting every corner of the city with the stuff. Since Max left, there has been no one to check him. His influence is all over now.”
“I’d like to meet him,” I said. “Where can I find him?”
She scrunched her face. “Why would you willingly seek out Damien?”
I took a small breath, deciding whether to trust her with full disclosure. “It’s part of the reason I’m with Max. Because we found out Damien is sending some of his profits from the opium business to the people who took my mother. I need to find out who ordered him to send that money.”
We ascended several steps before she spoke again. “Damien comes to the brothel often. He was here just last night, I’m told, while I was looking for Max. Ronny might be able to let you know when he comes in again.”
It wasn’t exactly an appointment, but I’d take it.
“Or do you want to go to him?” she asked when we made it to the steps.
“To an opium den?” I asked. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
She shrugged. “There’s nothing sinister about it. You don’t have to smoke, but it certainly passes the time.”
I wasn’t here to pass the time. I had no time to waste, but no one seemed to understand that. Max included. “I don’t know, Ell. I’m not really in the mood—”
“Hold that thought.” She lifted a single finger before beckoning me toward a door. Light spilled from underneath it. “There’s someone you need to meet.”
She knocked once, hardly a courtesy, before swinging the door wide.
We were met with a wave of heat and smoke and the faint gurgle of something boiling.
The room seemed more like a laboratory than a bedroom.
Lining every wall were collapsed shelves full of yellowing tomes and several maps of the city, each one showing the concentration of different industries.
String lights draped in tight loops from the ceiling, casting a warm glow across the chaos.
In the center of the room, a man stood over his desk, with no chair in sight. A strange setup of burners and clear beakers was arranged in a precarious tower in front of him. Lining the mantel were jars of various sizes, each filled with green sand.
He didn’t pause his work to look up at us. “Oh good, you brought a snack,” he said, using a dropper to drip a strange, metallic liquid across a dagger’s blade.
“She’s not for you,” Elli murmured. “Can you put your chemistry set down for a moment and meet Max’s new…” She glanced at me. “…friend.”
“Max doesn’t have friends,” he scoffed. The man behind the beakers straightened, staring at me through a monocle strapped around his head.
He let it fall from his eye and caught it, squinting at me.
His eyes were different colors: one a hazel brown, the other bright orange.
His chestnut hair was wavy and banded by silver at the sides, where it was cut short.
Another sibling? Elli had referred to Max as her brother.
“Oh. That kind of friend. I don’t suppose he has many of those, either.” His smile was wide and unguarded. “You think he’d mind if I just got a little sample?”
“Sample?” I asked.
He made a pinch with his fingers. “A little drop of blood is all I need from you, Friend of Max. You won’t even notice it’s gone.”
Elli cleared her throat. “This is Andre. Sorry about the first impression, and don’t expect anything better when you get to know him,” Elli said as she sat in a tufted red armchair near the fireplace.
“Yes, because you’re always a beaker of sunshine,” Andre murmured. He looked at me again, bicolor eyes moving up and down. “You look familiar.”
“Crown Killer,” Elli coughed behind a fist.
Andre’s brows rose. “Ah. I saw your poster this morning. Well, that’s certainly something that stands out on a resume.” He rounded his desk, wiping his hand on his leather smock before offering it to me. “Andre Antonin.”
Antonin. The same as Maxence’s. The three of them were siblings. How many children had been abducted for the Trials Max had told me about?
Andre was the fourth person I’d heard of with the Antonin name, after Damien, Max, and Elli.
A family not of blood, but bound by something just as strong.
At one point, they must have been together, like an actual family, and yet Max claimed he wasn’t on good terms with Damien.
So much so that he couldn’t ask him to help us directly. Something had split them apart.
“Nina Veyr,” I replied.
“Veyr?” he repeated, like it sounded familiar. A tense silence followed.
I dropped his hand to gesture to his desk. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m glad someone has finally asked,” he said, smiling. Elli sighed. He nodded toward the blade on his desk, now glowing the kind of green that matched the color of my eyes. “I’m coding.”
“Max mentioned the Cursed can code. How is that even possible? The engineers at the Academy go through years of training to learn.”