Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
The guards dragged me to a carriage with the back doors wide open—inside were three constables, waiting to escort me.
This was my window. If those doors shut, they wouldn’t open until we returned to the Gatehouse.
My thumb grazed the dice. So many options at my disposal.
So much darkness around me, a willing and wanting medium.
I let the shadows run free.
The grip on me slackened as I smothered the constable behind me, and I stepped back to place my foot between his stance, twisting until my arm was free, the other still locked around his elbow.
As Max had shown me in the ring, I used the advantage of his unsteady footing to pull his body weight forward, twisting simultaneously to flip our positions.
I shoved him against the floor of the carriage, bending him over until his face ate the carpet.
The coppers in the carriage moved for their guns, but I lashed out a hand, throwing the focus of the shadows over their heads, veiling their faces. They couldn’t breathe, writhing in the carriage, begging silently with the worm of their forms and the plea of outstretched hands.
“Nina!”
My name snapped me from my focus, pulling back the darkness and letting it settle into the corners and the cracks.
I was shaking all over when someone touched my shoulder. Hands like Max, but the weight of them was wrong. No, the scent of his cologne, the pinch of his hands—I recalled those things well. I turned to find the man I suspected from our brief interaction.
Damien.
“Are you alright?” he asked, eyes wide on me before glancing at the gasping coppers. He slammed the door to the carriage shut and locked it tight with the manipulation of the metal covering the carriage, using just Cursed strength alone.
My mouth barely worked, opening and shutting, unable to speak. Where had he come from? I could only nod to him in response.
“Good,” he whispered, grabbing me by the wrist. “Come on, before they come this way.”
“Who?” I asked as I followed him through the yard.
“Coppers, of course. You’ve made a scene here! We need to leave before they know you got out.”
“Thank you.” I could only manage simple words, using the rest of my attention to follow Damien through a war-torn shipyard. Before we made it to the wall, we ran into someone else.
“Nina!” Elli called as she approached us, eyes wide. “Thank the Architect,” she murmured. “Where’s Max?”
“Cassien tricked us.” I spun around, searching the smoke and haze of fog for the man, but he hadn’t come this way. From my view over the yard, I tried to remember where I’d left him. “He was headed to the docks the last I saw him.”
“I’ll go fetch him,” Damien offered. “Between the two of us, I’m sure we can shake a few coppers.”
“That would be very helpful.” Elli sounded relieved. Her face was soiled with soot and streaks of blood, exhausted from the fight. “Tell him I have Nina.”
I glanced around once more, watching as several Cursed ran past us, but Max wasn’t one of them. If he was injured, if someone got to him, I was wasting time and resources to help him. And if Cassien caught me again, this would have been for nothing.
“I’ll wait at the last gate,” I told Damien, before following Elli from the yard.