Chapter Twenty-Six
The limo stopped in the line of cars before the towering Amberdash building.
It was glittering glass from ground level to where it disappeared into the dark, stormy clouds above.
The rain had not ceased since the night before, and it was a drizzly, depressing evening perfectly poised for a party with her enemies.
You couldn’t even see the city going to hell from the world of the glittering elite.
“You remember the plan?”
“We’ve gone over it a million times,” she said. “Step one: break into Amberdash’s office. Step two: steal Amberdash’s ledger. Step three: deliver the goods to Graves at our designated meeting spot before anyone knows I’m gone.”
“I’ll meet you inside,” he promised. “Don’t show an ounce of fear,” Graves said from her side as they crept toward the entrance.
“I know. I have to be both beneath notice and noticeable enough that they fear me. I need to make them know not to fuck with me. I need to exude warlock tonight.” She shot him a look over her shoulder. “What would Graves do?”
“I wouldn’t ask yourself that,” he said with a dry lilt to his voice.
“If it keeps me safe…”
“Focus on the mission. You’re a thief. I’ll be inside as soon as I can. Don’t get caught.” He tucked a loose hair behind her perfectly rounded ears, lingering on the points that were no longer visible. “There aren’t enough exits for you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
They were the next in line when Graves drew her away from the window. “I have one more thing for you before you go.” He withdrew a long, narrow, red box from inside his suit coat.
“What’s in the box?”
“A gift,” he said, offering it to her.
She took it hesitantly. She could put the value on priceless jewelry but for herself? She was still uncertain about that.
Her hand stilled when she opened the box to find a little wren nestled inside. She was a delicate gold charm with a little diamond for an eye on a thin gold chain.
“Oh,” she whispered as tears came to her lashes. She looked up, fanning her eyes. “I can’t cry. My mascara.”
Graves laughed. “I know how much you miss yours. I know that it cannot possibly replace the one that your mother gave to you, but I thought it would feel like armor to walk into that room.”
Her hand went to the little bird. It wasn’t the wren her mother had given her all those years ago, but she was much better than the emptiness Kierse felt every time she touched her throat.
“Thank you,” she choked out. “Thank you so much.”
Graves removed the chain from the box. She lifted her hair off her shoulders to allow him to place the golden wren at her throat. He latched it and let it fall where it rested delicately against her chest.
“It’s perfect,” she whispered.
“Be safe, my wren,” Graves said ominously before she stepped into her high heels.
The car stopped before the entrance, and George came around, holding an umbrella overhead as he pulled the door open. She held George’s hand as she stepped out of the limo.
“You look like a queen, if I do say so,” George said with his ever-present smile.
“Why, thank you, George.” She tapped her chest twice. “Anne today?”
He shook his head. “Team Holly, of course, on mission days.”
She grinned. “Perfect. Well, wish me luck.”
“You won’t need it. We’ll be waiting for you right here when you’re done.”
“That’s reassuring.”
She adjusted the magnificent, beaded gown that hugged her hips and chest with a cinched waist and a long, flowy skirt.
The beads arrayed across the champagne fabric in a shimmering silver and pearl and rhinestone that caught the eye even in the gloom but left much of her back exposed.
Her hair was up in a high ponytail that fell in long Hollywood waves, and she’d replaced her bright-red lip with a dark maroon.
“I’ll take that,” a voice said out of the din. He extended his hand to clasp the umbrella out of George’s hand.
George looked as if he were going to run him through. “I don’t think so.”
“Lorcan,” she growled.
“Hello, my little songbird. Miss me?”
Lorcan had an invitation, of course. She’d felt his presence from blocks away. She hadn’t considered that he would be waiting for her after everything.
Graves stepped into the rain, his tall frame almost stretching with his irritation. “That’s quite enough.”
Lorcan smirked back at him. “Hello, brother.”
“I would reconsider the next thing that is going to come out of your mouth,” he snarled.
“Sure,” Lorcan said, a glint of malice in his eyes. “Don’t wait up. I’ll take real good care of her for you.”
Graves lunged forward, grasping Lorcan by his lapel. They were eye to eye, and Kierse was certain violence was about to go down. And on some level, she was fine with it. Fuck around and find out. On the other hand, they had too much at stake today for them to get in a fight.
“Enough,” Kierse said, putting her hand between them. “Lorcan is just trying to provoke you.”
“I’m saying the things he already knows to be true,” Lorcan said. “Kierse and I have an invitation to the party. You do not. Which means I’m going to be the one watching her back tonight. And he and I both know that it’s better to have someone at her back than to walk in there alone.”
“I’d rather she go in alone,” Graves said. Which he could say because the plan rested on him finding his own way inside.
Lorcan tipped his head at him. “You don’t want her with a full boost at her side?”
Kierse gasped as her powers fully opened once more.
A feeling she hadn’t had since Edinburgh.
It had been over too quick, and she hadn’t appreciated it like she should have when she killed Archie.
She doubled over slightly as the full weight of her powers came back, and she adjusted to them all over again.
“We’re more powerful together,” Lorcan countered.
“Graves,” she said, straightening. “He’s right.”
Graves’s head shifted to her. His gaze slid down her dress and must have felt the energy radiating off her. He pushed Lorcan away from him, who just laughed. Then Graves pressed a kiss to her lips. Still, her absorption wouldn’t drop. She wanted to strangle Lorcan.
“Be safe,” Graves repeated.
She didn’t know what it cost him to let her pull away from him. To see her at Lorcan’s side. To trust that Lorcan would take care of her until he arrived. But his expression remained the same, and she had to guess at his distress.
When she stood next to Lorcan, it felt bad. Like she was drawing a line in the sand. Even though she was only walking in with him because she and Graves had a different plan for tonight.
George narrowed his eyes at Lorcan as he reached for the umbrella. “If you mess up one hair on her head, you won’t just answer to him.”
Lorcan’s grin wavered for a moment at the threat. “Understood.” Then he hefted the umbrella over their heads and said, “Shall we?”
Kierse met Graves’s eyes one more time before turning toward the entrance to the building.
“I like the dress,” he said.
She ignored him. “Just watch my back.”
A white-gloved attendant opened the door for them, taking the umbrella before they entered. They handed over their invitations and were escorted past a row of paparazzi-style cameras.
Kierse had been here hundreds of times over the years.
A wave of nostalgia that she wasn’t anticipating hit her.
For so long, Amberdash had been one of the few people in this world that she—if not trusted—respected.
He’d always looked out for her even after she’d thought that she killed Jason.
Amberdash had been there. There were few people in her life more influential than the wraith they headed to meet.
“Security check, first,” a grizzly looking pair of guards ordered.
The invitation had warned that no electronics or weapons would be allowed inside. They’d figured with so many enemies all in one place, it was rampant for violence. If Amberdash wanted them to get through the evening, he was going to need to be vigilant.
A metal wand ran over each of them, coming up empty. Still, they patted them both down to check for any kind of electronic devices.
“We’re clean,” Lorcan growled.
“As a reminder: No weapons. No electronics. No monster transformations, and no magic.”
“We know the drill,” Kierse said.
“If there is any fighting, you’ll be kicked out,” he added.
“Understood,” Lorcan said, pulling Kierse away from the guards to the elevator bank.
The door slid open, and another white-gloved attendant pressed the button to the penthouse for them.
The doors opened again to a dimly lit penthouse apartment.
Gregory Amberdash had always had a flair for the dramatic, and his dark aesthetic was shown in the massive party room on the top floor of his headquarters.
Everything was draped in black and white and silver.
The curtains hung low and dark across the side windows while the doors onto the massive balcony veranda looked out across Manhattan.
As the elevator closed behind them, Kierse felt a pressure on her chest as if suddenly her magic was somewhere very far away. Her gaze snapped to Lorcan’s. “What did you just do?”
“It wasn’t me,” he said with cold-laced fury in his voice. “It’s a dampener.”
“That shouldn’t affect me, should it? My absorption was up.”
“It’s not magic expressly. I would guess a magical artifact. Like how you can handle the spear and take tonics,” he said evenly. “No one is performing magic for you to absorb. It’s the nature of the object.”
“Great. So when they said no magic, they really meant it.”
“Unfortunately, it looks like yes. We can probably speak mind to mind, but much more than that would not be recommended.”
Kierse felt wobbly without any magic at her fingertips. She’d gone to all that trouble to get her powers back from Lorcan, and then she couldn’t even use them at the party. Just the bond there beating in her chest like a lifeline to her powers. And for the first time, she grasped onto it in panic.
Lorcan took her shoulders in his hands. “Hey, breathe.”