10. Infiltrating the Court #2
Heavily cloaked in shadow, I rush forward as the entire room goes pitch-black. The hobgoblins squeak with surprise, and I grab the bag of soul stones while Nose is diverted. He growls and swings, but I’m already moving back toward the door.
“Thief! You’ll pay for this!” Eyebrows screams in a shrill voice as his papers go flying. Oops.
I shrug, sending shadows out to knock over Nose’s test tubes while I’m at it.
They clink as they hit the table. A giant blast of fey fire shoots up from where the liquids mix, and I scrunch my nose at the gods-awful smell.
Okay, that actually was an oops. Shitty bog-smelling fey fire was not on my bingo card.
Oh well. I quickly send the pouch to where my pocket would be with magic and slip out under the door, leaving some shadow behind in Saskia’s office to slow down the alarms being raised.
If you want to speak to her, do it now. I’ve got the stones.
She’ll know soon. Pushing my voice through the connection with her necklace, I feel as it comes out as a whisper against her flesh.
She shudders, nodding quickly and making a beeline for Saskia.
I hurry through the shadows as I watch her close in on her sister in my mind.
“Saskia!” Ryn’s voice sounds breathless.
“Tarynn. What are you doing here?” Surprise, then suspicion drips heavily from Saskia’s raspy voice. She pushes her curly silver hair behind a thin shoulder as her lip pulls into a sneer.
“I wanted to speak with you. Ab-bout my project.”
“Hmph. Still out to save the orphans and fix the ungrateful so you can feel some warm fuzzy bullshit in your disgusting Unseelie soul and pretend you were destined for better, bigger things?"
“What?” Ryn’s voice sounds hurt, and I growl without thinking. It echoes through the necklace. Saskia’s eyes drop to the jewel, and she turns her head slowly.
“Did your jewelry just growl at me?” She stares at it with the first sign of genuine interest since speaking with Ryn.
“Listen, Kier wanted me to—”
Saskia’s eyes shutter and grow dull. “Oh, now you’re on a first-name basis with an Unseelie prince? How fascinating. Are you fucking him?”
“Gods, no. Look, I know about the soul stones…and so does he.”
She shrugs nonchalantly, “It’s not as if I’m keeping it a secret from my prince, who I am sleeping with, by the way,” she winks conspiratorially.
“If Kier wants to share this information with the likes of you, that’s his prerogative.
I fail to see what the point of this little meeting is, though.
If you have one, kindly make it so I can leave. ”
“The point, dear sister, is that he wants your project to stop.” Ryn’s voice drops to a whisper as she continues, “He’s dangerous, Saskia. I’m worr—”
A piercing laugh rings out and settles in the thickness of the foggy air.
“Oh gods, please. Shut up. You’ll make me sick, really, you will.
” Saskia moves in close, her face angling toward Ryn’s ear.
“He’s not the only powerful male in this court, sister.
Worry about yourself.” She pulls back slowly, a cruel smile on her severe but beautiful face.
I reach the courtyard just as an alarm sounds.
Saskia’s eyes dart toward the general direction of her office, where the noise is coming from.
Her face turns crimson as she advances on Ryn, “What did you do?” Her tone is shrill with accusation, and there’s an edge to her eyes that makes my gut sink.
I'm only a few feet away, but it's still too far, and I'll be fucking damned if I let that bitch lay so much as a finger on my witch. Shadows burst out through the gem around Ryn’s neck and shroud her protectively.
Saskia freezes in place, her jaw dropping with disbelieving rage.
I reach Ryn and meld myself with the surrounding shadows, grabbing her up in my arms and speeding us back toward the access point to get the fuck out of here as quickly as possible.
She tightens her arms around my neck and leans into me, pressing a kiss to my chin. “Thank you.”
“You betcha.” I suck my teeth before deciding to just plow ahead, “It's definitely a royal family member.”
“What?” Ryn leans back and looks at me as if I have two heads.
“Your psycho sister is in bed with Kier. Metaphorically. I think. Possibly literally. Whoever is helping her make the stones, is royal.” I let the words hang in the air between us, not quite believing it myself. Saskia either has zero sense of self-preservation, or she’s really just that unhinged.
“She admitted to fucking Darro—but I doubt she'd let that slip if she thought it was something she needed to hide. So maybe there's someone else, too? How the fuck are we supposed to figure this out?" I groan against the rush of adrenaline making my head spin and whine, "Oh my gods, Seth!”
I sigh, “You know, I had hoped to hear you say those words today. Pity it’s in this context.”
She pauses mid-panic and blinks at me. Then she throws her head back and laughs, and I smile, but I’m really just trying to distract us from the fact that the puddle we thought we were jumping in turned out to be a lake.
We burst out through the access point with a bang, breaking the fucking sign.
I knew it! Proper protocol would be to report the damage, but I continue toward Ryn’s place without stopping.
We both have targets on our backs now. Big flashy ones. Fuck.
I wonder if the Guild still has that medieval torture museum on the fifth floor. I gulp down my nerves and take a steadying breath. This is fine. It’s gonna be fine.
Something is tickling my consciousness, which is pretty annoying, seeing as I’m comfortably wrapped around the sleeping form of my girl, and I’d prefer to stay that way.
I will myself to slip back into oblivion, but that weird tickle is getting stronger, and an anticipatory sense of unease is growing in my chest.
SETH!
My orbs pulse as the disembodied voice of my friend rattles violently through my head.
This time, a chill runs down my spine, and I carefully extricate myself, trying not to wake Ryn.
It took me hours to get her to calm down enough to finally sleep and I refuse to ruin her rest. Cian’s voice echoes through my mind again, with an urgency that makes my skin prickle. Something is definitely very wrong.
I glance around quickly, looking for a pen and something to scribble out a quick note to Ryn on, but when Trissa’s weak voice joins Cian’s, I can’t ignore the overwhelming dread permeating my mind.
I fucking hate the thought of Ryn waking up alone with no explanation, but I gave my friends the ability to call on me for a reason, and right now, the terror in Cian's voice is too visceral to ignore.
With a little whine of regret, I spin on the spot and shadow jump to their location.