Chapter 19
NINETEEN
We took a carriage since it was daylight and Elli wanted to keep me hidden.
She informed me they’d found Max earlier on a rampage, tearing through the constables who’d followed him from the docks.
Elli believed he intentionally ran to an abandoned portion of the city, an old section of empty warehouses and textile factories.
“If he was slipping, he at least got himself away from everyone, thank the Architect. But he’s going to start a fucking war with the Commissioner,” she seethed in her seat.
“Hell, it’ll be impossible to clean this up.
Just when the Cursed were starting to make ourselves reputable in the city, he’s proved exactly why they want to send us all off to the mines. ”
“It’s not his fault!”
“The hell it isn’t!” she hissed. “He should be able to control this. I’ve never seen him go into a bloodrage like this before, even after he stopped drinking essence blood. It took five of us to lock him down.”
I swallowed hard, wondering what had set him off this time. “Why do you think I can help, then?”
“Because my idiot brother obviously cares about you. Enough that he’d risk himself to help you escape. I’d bet—and I don’t gamble—that his bloodrage has something to do with trying to find you.”
He couldn’t hurt the one his bloodrage was for. He’d told me as much on the houseboat. Elli was dragging me downtown as bait, hoping I could charm him out of his monstrous form.
“Wait, go back. He’s your brother?”
“I’ll explain our fucked-up family tree later. For now, just focus.”
A sharp screech echoed over the city, prompting most of the people passing by to cover their ears. Elli cursed. “They need to fix those damn speakers!”
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of Valveron. This is your Governor, Pierre Dupont, with an important announcement concerning the safety and well-being of all citizens. I do not wish to incite a panic, but I feel it is important to keep the public informed of any threat, so heed my warning.
A murderer walks among us. The Crown Killer, as our city authorities have titled her, though her true name is Nina Veyr. She is charged with the death of my noble predecessor, Ignace Therell, a loyal servant to the city and our country.
We have reason to believe she is hiding with Cursed citizens in the Lower District. But if you see Veyr, do not approach her. Do not offer her shelter, crown, or comfort. To aid her is treason. To withhold information is also treason. Report anything suspicious to your local officer at once.
We will not rest until this criminal is brought to justice and your streets are safe again. Return to work, return to your families, and trust in the Council and the Academy to keep our city strong. Fear cannot win if loyalty prevails.
Stay safe. Long reign the City of Progress.
“Of course he tries to turn the city against us,” Elli hissed as she slammed a fist against the carriage wall, urging the driver to hurry.
I slipped lower on the bench, wondering if everyone we passed on the sidewalks could see me behind the etched glass of the carriage. Elli noticed, sitting across from me. “Don’t worry, Killer. We’ll keep you hidden until we can figure this out.”
“Unless you know who really killed Therell, I don’t think that’s possible.” I scrubbed my tired eyes before the tears gathering in them could become obvious. If I was going to help Max, I needed to focus, not fret about my own situation.
We made it to the warehouses in twenty minutes, weaving through the traffic congesting the path through the Districts. Our driver parked near a shipping container, with a group of Cursed gathered around its doors.
As we stepped down from the carriage, there was a howl from inside the container, like the cry of a wild beast. Metal screeched, a roar shook the metal box, and I noticed dents in the shape of fists punched out from its walls.
Bile stung my throat as I realized what I’d have to do. Elli pushed us close to the end of the container, where two doors forming the opening were locked by four steel bars. She snapped at the men guarding the doors, ordering them to move away. I kept my head low, saying nothing as I approached.
“You’re going to throw her in there?” the man holding the door asked.
“It’s the only thing that might work,” she said, looking then at me. “Can you do this?”
There wasn’t much of a choice. “I’ll take care of him.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Elli said. “Open it!”
One man twisted the top and bottom locks on the silver bars, pulling one side open just wide enough to let me through. A long hiss echoed from the dark beyond it. “Good luck,” he murmured.
Elli practically shoved me inside, and the door slammed shut.
She was either sure I could fix him or didn’t care if I died from his rage.
All this time, I was worried if she trusted me, and yet I had to consider if this stranger, though she looked and acted like Max and claimed to care for him, might not have my best interests at heart.
My life was of little value to her if she was throwing me in here with a monstrous Max.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust. Only streams of light from the morning sun sliced through the darkness in thin lines from the cracks of the doors.
I took a few steps to search the end of the container, looking for him in the darkened corners.
Dust stirred in the sunbeams as it fell strangely quiet. Had he already come back to his senses?
No… A low sound growled from behind me.
“Max—”
A blur of him, as fast as a blink, preceded the force of a freight train as he knocked me forward.
Stars dotted my vision as I fell on my face, hands catching my fall.
He’d never thrown me like that. This wasn’t working.
Clearly, my presence alone wasn’t going to be enough to snap him free this time.
I sucked a sharp breath and started to crawl back to the door, warm blood dripping from my temple and down onto my fingers.
But Max wasn’t done with me. A hand grasped the back of my neck, nails digging into my skin. He tossed me again with an unnatural strength, flipping me with one hand until I was flat on my back, knocking the wind from my chest.
He crawled over me, bare-chested, orange eyes glowing like embers in the dark. With teeth bared, he took a long breath, inhaling my scent. His chest heaved.
Hell, he was a sight. Terrifying enough to send my heartbeat flying into an unsteady, racing rhythm.
Yet beautiful, too, stealing my breath, holding it hostage with his stare alone.
Every cord of muscle in his neck was tense, his skin gleaming in the light from a thin sheen of sweat.
Silver hair tumbled over his forehead as he stared at me so intently, I could barely breathe, too afraid the softest sound would shatter the fragility in his eyes.
If his threat was a storm, I wanted to linger in the lightning, no matter the risk of the damage it might cause.
“Max.” I whispered his name as it shook on my lips. “It’s me. It’s Nina.”
“You shouldn’t… be here… right now,” he managed to say, through a jaw he was clamping tight.
“Why?”
“Because I’m lost. I can’t see you.” He took a deep breath. “You smell divine.”
“I’m not leaving you like this,” I told him, taking a chance to reach out and touch him. My hand pressed against his chest. A shudder rolled through his arms as he loomed over me still, and I felt his heart thrumming even faster than my own.
“I could kill you in a second,” he hissed.
“You could do lots of things to me, Maxence, but you won’t.” I ran my hand over the smooth contours of his chest, trying to pacify him somehow. Before, on the houseboat, he’d only heard my heartbeat, and that alone had been enough to settle his rage.
I pulled him by the neck into my chest. He resisted at first, unsure of what I was doing. Every muscle in his body was solid stone, like he was still fighting a primal urge to rip me apart. “Relax,” I told him. “Trust me.”
He struggled only a moment longer before giving in and lowering his head to my chest, his body following until the weight of him pressed me into the floor. A familiar heat melted against me.
“You hear that?” I asked him.
He adjusted his head to press his ear against my sternum, breaths panting down the valley of my breasts. “Always.”
“Is my heartbeat the only one you hear?” I asked him, curious.
“It’s the only one I listen to.”
I sighed in relief, hearing his tone soften, feeling his body loosen.
He was coming out of whatever had locked him into such a violent fury.
My hands stroked the nape of his neck, enjoying the feel of him against my fingertips.
The way his breath steadied with my strokes.
I had a kind of power that didn’t come from dice or bloodlines or an Architect.
“Nina, I… I can’t do this.”
“Do what?”
Enjoy this. Want this. Pursue this. I was imagining his answers to my own question, unaware of what he intended. But they all seemed to fit as his hands slid across the dusty floor to tuck behind my waist.
I could have lain like that for hours, holding him until his heart settled.
I’d never felt so at peace with someone else.
The parts of him that had once terrified me were now the very reason I felt drawn to him.
Perhaps it was some kind of survival instinct, a way of processing the other threats to my life.
Whatever it was, I found myself leaning into it.
“How did this happen?” I asked him.
“I couldn’t find you. One moment, I had your scent.
The next, it was gone. I didn’t know what could have blocked you from me like that.
I looked everywhere. There were guards all over the yard when I returned.
Your heartbeat was silent, your markers disappeared.
Untraceable. Missing…” He sighed. “I thought you were gone. And I slipped into a rage.”
The cuffs… The poison lacing the metal had prevented him from tracking me, and he’d assumed the worst.