Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
With a deep inhale, Jade nodded and tried to let the matter go. Part of her mind hadn’t caught up with the reality that Theo sat in one piece before her, as if she still expected to find that something horrible had happened to him.
“Someone was up here, though.” Jade didn’t allow her voice to rise above the barest semblance of a whisper. “Just before I found you, I saw the edge of a cloak.”
Theo released his grasp on her hand, eyes wide. “You did? Was it the assassin?”
“I’m almost positive it was. But now I’m wondering if it’s not Grannam’s associate.”
“Why not?”
“When I left to trail Grannam, I followed him to a room where I heard him talking with the same man who had been in the war room with him the night of the dinner party. I caught a glimpse of that man, and he wasn’t wearing a cloak.
And they were still talking when I left.
I’m not sure he could have made it over here that quickly. ”
A silent beat passed between them. “The assassin could still be someone hired by Grannam. Maybe he has a few people to do his dirty work.”
Jade nodded, pensive. She tried to think back to everything she knew about the assassin. There was nothing solid to indicate he was this other man except for Jade’s own suspicion.
Theo reached for a bar above his head and pulled himself to his feet, and Jade rose with him. “Did he kill someone? I heard the screams, but I couldn’t tell anything about what was going on.”
“A man fell. I’m not sure who or from where, but he landed in the audience.” Jade swallowed, recalling the image of the body on the floor in her mind’s eye, and with it returned her fear for Theo’s safety. “He’s dead.”
“Another death and the assassin was here?” Theo frowned. “That’s not just bad luck.”
“No, it’s not. But I’m sure that’s what the death will be attributed to.
Some constables were pulled from the street and sent everyone in the audience away.
” Jade led the way across the rigging, coming to the spot where she’d last seen a glimpse of the assassin.
“I saw the assassin over here, but I imagine his trail has gone cold by now.”
Theo passed her on the platform and then lowered his body to peer at the boards more closely. “No indication of the path he took. He could be anywhere by now.”
“I guess that’s it, then,” Jade admitted with a sigh. “He most likely did what he came to do and won’t be making any other appearances here.”
The sting of defeat struck Jade to her core.
How many times would she fail? She couldn’t catch this assassin, she couldn’t stop his kills .
. . Hell, she couldn’t even watch Theo’s back.
Her only recent successes had been the result of Nicolas’s leads.
Was she truly only as good as the information he gave her?
Perhaps the talented Captain Jade Ni’ihm wasn’t that impressive on her own after all.
“That doesn’t mean there’s nothing more to gain,” Theo said with a tilt of his head in the direction of the curtain. “It sounds like there’re still people down there—probably those constables. We should go listen to what they’re saying.”
A nod from Jade spurred Theo onward, and he descended the ladder to the level of the stage.
He took slow, quiet steps toward the curtain, taking advantage of the shroud of shadow behind it as he and Jade scanned the wings for any signs of someone lingering.
Finding no one, they crouched behind the curtain, careful to keep from pushing it either with physical contact or with the close movement of their bodies.
Through the thick fabric, Jade could barely make out the low murmur of the constables’ speech, but she managed to pick up enough to be helpful.
“ . . . horrible accident . . . ”
“ . . . fell from his box . . . third level . . . ”
“Lord Martin of Waterstone.”
“His wife says . . . into a daze . . . toppled over . . . ”
“ . . . no known conditions . . . ”
Jade caught Theo’s gaze in the dim light of the wings. “Lord Martin is one of the lesser contenders for the throne.”
Theo nodded, clearly already thinking the same thing. “And with the assassin here, it’s definitely not an accident.”
“But there was no food or drink, nothing for the poison to go into.”
Theo shrugged. “Maybe the killer got it to him another way.”
It didn’t make sense. Rienevoir had to be combined in proper ratios and administered in a strong enough dose to affect a person. Without anything for Lord Martin to consume, Jade had no reason to believe rienevoir had done him in.
But the assassin hadn’t strayed from the use of the poison before. What would prompt the use of alternative tactics?
And what were they?
The constables spoke again. “Nothing happened . . . just leaned forward . . . ”
Alarm bells went off in Jade’s mind. He just leaned forward. He went into a daze and toppled over. That was essentially how the king murdered by a sorcerer had died over fifty years before. He had fallen off a castle balcony, supposedly of his own accord.
“Theo,” she began, choosing her words carefully, “remember my theory that the assassin is a sorcerer?”
He nodded, a crease between his drawn eyebrows.
“Nothing up here, sir!” a constable called from above, likely from Lord Martin’s box. Jade closed her mouth and waited, her ears perked.
“No sign of anything to indicate the reason for the fall?”
“No, sir,” the constable in the box yelled back. “Just the chairs and a program for the opera.”
“All right, come back down.”
“This place is currently closed to civilians!” another constable called, his voice projecting in the opposite direction of the curtain.
“It’s all right, constables,” came a raspy male voice. “We’re from the mortuary. We’ve come to retrieve the body.”
“Oh, right. Well, come on then.”
Shuffling footsteps and the rustle of fabrics filtered through the curtain, along with murmured instructions for taking hold of Lord Martin’s body.
“We should go. They’re leaving. We can talk more freely outside.”
Jade nodded, and she followed Theo back up the ladder to the top, then through the open ceiling to the access door on the roof where they’d entered the opera house.
Once on the roof, they both scanned the area for threats.
Theo turned to Jade, leaning against the statue of an otherworldly being twice as tall as him.
“You think the assassin is a sorcerer?”
“It makes sense,” Jade began, absently massaging her injured right shoulder after so much wear on it.
“I already wondered if he could be using magic to get around unnoticed, but this confirms it to me. Lord Martin had no reason to fall, no poison. The constables said he went into a daze, leaned forward, and fell. You can’t tell me that’s not the result of an external magical influence. ”
Theo rubbed his chin. “He could have even led me toward the rope. If he is a sorcerer, we have to alter our approach to these investigations. We could just as easily fall under his influence if we’re not on our guard.”
Unease soured Jade’s stomach. She had likely already been a victim of the sorcerer assassin’s magical influence, a power so great it scared kings of the past into calling for the execution of all magic-wielders.
But it raised the question—why hadn’t he used it on her since?
Or had he, but she had been blissfully unaware?
She would have noticed. Surely she would have noticed. She’d been trained. But if he were older, more experienced in making his magic undetectable . . .
“Come on,” Theo said, shaking her from her thoughts. “We’ll report back to Matherson and see where to go from here.”
Jade gave a weak nod, but Theo came to her, grabbing her hand and kissing her quickly on the forehead. “Thanks for helping me back there.”
A huff of disbelief left Jade’s lips as she furrowed her brow.
“What are you talking about? I will always come for you. I was—” She dropped her eyes, unable to hold his gaze as the heat of tears pricked the backs of her eyes.
“I was terrified it was you that had fallen. That I’d look out from the rafters and see your body on the floor. ”
“Hey,” he murmured in a low breath, pulling her into a hug.
Jade closed her eyes as her face pressed into his jacket, inhaling his rich, earthy scent. He smelled of pine and cedar and home. The wetness that pooled around her lashes absorbed into the fabric as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
“I’m sorry. But I’m here. You’ve still got me.”
She pulled back and looked up at him through the blur of tears, then lifted up onto her toes to press a kiss to his lips.
“And you know what? I just thought of something good that can come out of this.”
Jade narrowed her eyes, skeptical. “What?”
Even in the darkness, she saw the smirk that tipped Theo’s lips. “You have a cover for your injured shoulder now. You can tell Matherson that you dove through the flies to save me and barely managed to catch yourself.”
Jade made a show of rolling her eyes, but she smiled despite it all.
He’d given her an excuse and a victory, even if it was a lie.
It wouldn’t be the first time he’d covered for her.
He’d been there for her as cadets, coming in to help her out of sticky situations and keeping things quiet as long as no one was in danger.
Without a doubt, Jade could always trust that Theo would have her back.
In all her life, she would never deserve this man.