Chapter One Zephyra #2
I grin at him, and now he winks at me. It’s oddly disconcerting as he continues stroking his precious powder. At least he’s on my side. Vesper shakes her head, however, still unconvinced. “This is the fourth time you’ve screwed up. If we’re caught—”
“We won’t be caught.”
“You’re a liability,” Vesper snaps under her breath.
Panic begins to seize my lungs. Reckless.
A liability. It’s a familiar narrative. It’s damned me more times than I can count.
I shove my coarse blonde locks behind my shoulder and lift my chin, my own skin flushing with bitter resentment.
“You have such interesting hair, Vesper,” I whisper.
“I don’t believe I’ve seen that kind of blonde before.
Almost as if it’s… silver in the light.”
A muscle feathers in her jaw. Her inhumanly silver brows pinch. “Maybe because it’s natural, and you wouldn’t know anything about that. Would you, Zephyra?” She reaches for my own hair, and I smack her hand away.
Luckily, Eos interjects before I can hurl myself at her sister and potentially expose our entire operation. “Both of you, knock it off.”
I glance at her, deciding on my next insult, when my gaze drops to our feet.
Aha. That’s it.
Tilting my head, I force a serene smile and flutter my lashes at Vesper. “What’s the point of your minnow of a sister coming if not this?” I gesture with delicate fingers to my new discovery.
An air vent an inch or two less wide than Eos’s shoulders rests between us, right beside the keyhole that would typically open the secret stairwell.
“Eos goes down,” I say, “and she opens the stairwell herself. So long as she does it soon, we’ll be able to finish the job behind the guards’ backs.” I lick my teeth when Vesper stares at me, unable to think of a mean retort. “See? Helpful.”
“I don’t know whether you are a genius or just really fucking lucky,” Stavros says, his unibrow pinched in concentration.
I shrug. “A bit of both.”
Vesper sighs. Apparently deciding I’m no longer worth the fight, she turns to Eos and asks, “Can you fit?”
Eos studies the vent. Prying up the metal frame with my dagger, she traces her fingers along its smooth edges. “Hypothetically, yeah. Looks easy enough.”
Vesper’s gaze flashes with an anger typically reserved for reckless daughters rather than careful sisters. “If you dislocate your shoulder again—”
Eos huffs. “I’ll be fine, Ves.”
Vesper frowns, clearly incredulous. “No amount of coin is worth your safety.”
“Ves, I’ve got it. I’m a professional, remember?
No one smaller and skinnier in all of Mortia.
” Eos scrunches her nose, beginning to dangle her legs over the opening.
She concentrates the same way she always does—with her tongue poking through her lips.
Her feet slide through first. Her thighs don’t even touch the sides. “Easy,” she mutters. “No problem.”
Vesper holds her breath, knuckles paling as she grabs Mortem’s wing for strength.
The stone splinters, however, and she glances at her hand.
The sudden realization that she is both touching the God of Death’s statue and breaking it makes her rip her grasp away.
She exhales a ragged breath, seeking her sister once more.
Eos grips the marble with confident hands and forearms, biceps flexing as she lowers herself farther and farther into the hole.
Her torso disappears next. Then her chest. She smiles triumphantly for a moment before her mouth screws up tight.
A pained whimper passes her lips. She doesn’t move past her shoulders. She can’t.
“Shit,” she whines, twisting to try to release the pressure from her bad shoulder.
“Guards in eleven,” Stavros says, keeping track of the time in a way that feels almost magical. He shifts the gunpowder in his arms and stands. “We go now, or we don’t go at all.”
Vesper looks warily between us as Eos exhales another whine. I can’t tell if she’s making progress or if she’s hurt. She should have fallen into the antechamber seconds ago. If she gets stuck… if those guards find us here…
Glancing at their silver hair, I swallow hard.
“Eos,” Vesper says suddenly, “let me pull you out.”
“No.” Eos wiggles, biting down on more curses as her body twists unnaturally. “Fucking broad shoulders.”
I stare at Eos. In so many ways, she really is a child. Small, bright-eyed, hopeful. If the guards catch her, she’ll die. “We’ll try another day,” I say, leaning over to help Vesper drag Eos out.
Eos glares up at us. “No. I can do it.” She seeks her sister’s gaze. “We’re getting that coin, and we’re leaving this shithole. Okay? I can do this.”
She shuts her eyes, and her tongue slithers out again. With an indelicate ergh, she yanks one hand inside the vent and forces it behind her back. It buys her the inch of room she needs, and her eyes pop open on another triumphant grin. “See you below,” she whispers, and then she drops. Falls.
A light thud follows, and Vesper exhales palpable relief.
So do I. Both breathing heavily, Vesper and I step away from the statue in anticipation of the staircase unveiling itself.
She glares at me from the corner of her navy eye, and I understand well enough that this time, her frustration isn’t my fault. At least, not all of it.
“If anything happens to my sister,” Vesper murmurs, “I will kill you, Zephyra. Do you understand?”
“We will make boom,” Stavros agrees.
Vesper nods, never once taking her gaze off my face. “Yes. We will make boom.”