The bedroom looked more like someone’s actual home. Two cats were curled in the middle of the large bed. One raised its head to look at me dispassionately. The other didn’t even stir. Opposite the bed hung a life-sized portrait of the Adept, looking entirely too pleased with himself. Did he ever have any lady friends here? And if so, what did they think of having that supercilious face smirking down at them all night?
The room was neat: a set of brushes on the dressing table, a book on the table by the bed with a pair of glasses folded neatly on top. There was also a small shrine to Apollo, heavy with gold, with a much smaller painting of the god above it. Apollo might not be too impressed that his painting was barely a quarter the size of the one of his worshipper, but I was relieved. That was the one that hid the safe. It would be a hell of a lot easier to get off the wall than the other monstrosity.
Some people had the bright idea of attaching their paintings to the wall in such a way that they could swing easily to reveal the safe behind them. I didn’t approve of such arrangements; hinges made it all too obvious that a painting was meant to be moved, and therefore that it hid something of value. The Ruby Adept was obviously of my school of thought, because Apollo’s painting hung from a simple hook. After checking for traps, I lifted it free and leaned it against the wall. The more alert of the cats wandered over to see what I was doing, while its fellow snoozed on.
Now came the interesting part. I wasn’t much of a safe-cracker. Most of the time I didn’t need to be. People had a terrible tendency to leave combinations written in obvious places, because they were afraid of forgetting them, or using sequences of numbers, like birthdates, that were relatively simple to predict. That was if they even bothered with safes at all. Far more often I would find whatever valuable I sought hidden in a sock drawer, or underneath the mattress.
Steele had assured me, however, that the Ruby Adept did use his safe. And no, Steele didn’t know the combination. That would have been too easy. What he had given me instead was a little gizmo of his own invention. All I had to do, apparently, was attach it to the safe, flick the switch and stand well clear.
Oh, and hope like hell that the noise didn’t bring the guards running. Steele had been a little evasive on that point.
I weighed the little thing in my hand, letting my mind wander out into the building. Further into the palace, a mouse climbed inside the walls. Several cockroaches lurked in the dark places behind the furniture and a large spider clung to the wall high up around a bend in the corridor, waiting for an unwary insect. Apart from the cats in the room with me, nothing else stirred on this floor …
Wait. The spider’s vision showed me a figure hurrying past. Was it the Ruby Adept? It was hard to tell, but it seemed likely. Who else would be awake at this time of night?
Shit shit shit. I lifted the painting of Apollo, flinching as it bumped against the wall, and tried to rehang it. In my haste I missed the hook the first time. I swallowed hard, forcing myself to slow down enough to do it properly. As I got it hung, I heard voices in the hallway outside the apartment. Hell. Where would I hide?
I scurried into the walk-in wardrobe and pushed in among the scarlet robes as the latch clicked. Not the greatest hiding spot, and if the Ruby Adept was in the mood to examine his wardrobe with any great care, I’d be discovered. His cat looked enquiringly at me from the bedroom door, and I gave it a quick mental shove. Obligingly it leapt back onto the bed and settled down, resting its chin on the other cat. I tried to slow my breathing, wishing I could join my mouse friend inside the safety of the walls.
From here I could see into the bedroom, and the doorway of the bathroom. The damn Apollo painting hung a little crooked. That was bad, but it was too late to do anything about it. Soft footfalls crossed the carpet, and a red-clothed back disappeared into the bedroom.
I held my breath. Would he notice the painting hanging askew?
I heard a yawn, and then two soft thunks—probably shoes hitting the floor. He murmured endearments to the cats, and then the bedsprings creaked. Oh, no. Please don’t go to bed yet. I’d have to wait for him to fall asleep before I dared attempt the safe again. And surely he wouldn’t sleep through Steele’s little explosion? Would I have to knock out the Ruby Adept himself? He was the most powerful fireshaper in the country. And there was that guard out on the balcony. How long before he woke up? This was all going to shit.
I forced a deep breath, and then another. Panic wasn’t going to help. I’d been in tight situations before—I could find a way out of this one.
The Ruby Adept sauntered back into my view, now stark naked. He was a large man with a hairy chest. Thankfully, he didn’t head my way. He paused in the doorway to the bathroom to scratch absently under one armpit, allowing me a view of a back every bit as hairy as his front, then disappeared into the bathroom. A moment later, I heard the shower start.
I drew a shuddery breath of relief and stepped out of my hiding place. Now I had just one problem. In addition to his sagging, hairy nakedness, the Adept’s pause in the doorway had shown me one other thing:
The ring on his little finger in the shape of a stylised sun.
14
Okay, so there was good news and bad news. The good news was that I didn’t have to blow the safe. The bad news was that somehow I had to get the ring off the Ruby Adept’s finger without him seeing me. He was the most powerful fireshaper in the country; giving him a chance at a shot at me would be fatal. Even if I did somehow manage to survive and escape, no way did I want my face appearing on Wanted posters, and him with a personal vendetta against me.
Likewise, I suspected Steele would be really peeved with me if I managed to kill the head of his Council, accidently or otherwise. What was a girl to do in a tight situation?
The more alert cat regarded me from the bedroom doorway, probably wondering if I was going to banish it again. I called it to me, and it wound itself affectionately around my legs. I bent down to stroke its sleek head, the glimmerings of a plan forming in my head.
The clock was against me here. Any time now, that guard on the balcony could wake up. Probably the first thing he would do was start kicking the wall—or some other noisy, attention-grabbing thing. I had to be gone before then.
The noise of running water shut off. The Adept was a quick showerer. Score one for me. I stepped to the side of the bathroom door and flattened myself against the wall, drawing a knife from its sheath. Not that I was planning on sticking the Adept with it—I was a burglar, not a murderer. Unlike the shapers.
I called the sleepy cat from the bedroom and it came to join us, though I earned a filthy look for disturbing it. I held them both there, ready to implement my flimsy plan.
The Ruby Adept was towelling himself dry, singing in an off-key drone. I heard the squeak of a towel rail as he hung the towel back up, then his heavy tread approaching the door. The cats sprang into action.
“Hello, my beauties. Yes, yes, I love you too.”
I set the cats to winding around his legs as he walked. One caught at his heel with her claws, while the other planted herself in the perfect spot to catch his other foot as he stepped away.
He landed heavily on his hands and knees on the carpet at my feet. He barely had time to register my boots standing so close to his face before I belted him on the back of the head with the hilt of my knife. He collapsed the rest of the way to the floor and lay still in all his naked, hairy glory.
Crouching at his side, I tugged the ring off his damp, fleshy finger. It was a golden sun, with twelve rays swirling out from the sun’s face, and felt warm to the touch. Probably from the shower. I turned it over, but there was nothing engraved inside the band.
Something about it tugged at my memory. Had I seen it before somewhere? The sun was Apollo’s symbol, of course, and it wasn’t unusual to find it here in this shaper city. And there were only so many ways you could depict a sun. Nevertheless, the feeling that I’d seen this particular ring before persisted.
; Sized for the Ruby Adept’s large hands, it would be way too big for mine, yet I found myself sliding it onto the ring finger of my left hand. And it fit.
Something whispered on the edges of my hearing, and I whipped my head around. The cats and I were alone with the Adept’s unconscious body. I strained my hearing to the limits. The whisper came again, as indistinguishable as a conversation overhead in a distant room, and I realised the sound was within my head. It was coming from the ring.
I might have knelt there, staring at the ring glittering on my finger until the Adept awoke and incinerated me, except that his cat, tired of being ignored, butted me impatiently with her head.
“You did well, little one.” I rubbed her sleek ears, strangely unperturbed by the magic that had shrunk the ring to fit, or even the odd, faint whispering. Shaper magic? I didn’t care. It felt right, to have this ring on my finger. Familiar. Like coming home.
Home. That was a joke. I’d been chased out of my home, driven away for my “uncanny abilities”. My brother murdered, my mother suspected of being a witch. I had no home any more.
I glanced at the ring. Its colour reminded me of my brother’s golden hair, the way it had shone in the sun.
I flinched, tried to turn away from that memory, because it always led me to that final image of the blood matted in that shining hair as they carried his body away. I leapt up, startling the cat, and strode toward the balcony door, as if by moving I could leave the memory behind. That was all in the past anyway. Why continue to torture myself with memories of what I’d lost?
I eased open the door to the balcony. The guard was starting to stir, so I leapt lightly onto the balcony rail and pulled myself up onto the roof. The ring glinted in the moonlight.
Well, that would never do. I pulled it off my finger, though it almost pained me to hide its light, and shoved it deep into the front pocket of my pants, where I could feel it lodged against my hip bone.
I hurried across the roof to the point where I’d climbed up, my steps sure on the tiles. All I had to do was repeat the procedure in reverse. But faster. Any minute now that guard would raise the alarm and the gardens would be flooded with light and people. No amount of cockroaches could hide me then.
I inched my way back down the side of the building, my movements sure, though my mind was elsewhere. Why did Anders want this ring? What wasn’t Steele telling me about it? It was clearly a ring of some power, and more power in the hands of a snake like Anders could never be a good thing. Steele meant to foil Anders’ attempts to get his hands on it, but plans could go awry.
And if it all did go to plan, and the ring was returned to the Ruby Adept’s fat finger? I was sure, as sure as I knew my own name, that the ring didn’t belong there. The strength of that conviction was driving me nuts, because I didn’t have a single damn fact to back it up. I just knew. Its presence in my mind, gone now that I no longer wore it, had felt eerily similar to my link to Syl, as if the ring were an old friend.
I reached the ground and stood there a moment, my face pressed against the rough sandstone, racking my brain. Where had I seen this ring before?
My hand resting lightly on the lump in my pocket, I summoned the cockroaches to mask the camera lenses before I made my run across the garden to the outer wall. I owed the shapers nothing, and trusting them to use this kind of power wisely was madness. My gut told me this ring was important.
Despite all Steele’s care, the ring might disappear just as mysteriously as it had arrived.
***
Steele was waiting for me, parked around the first corner. Behind me, a shrill alarm began to sound. The guards would be scurrying in a panic. The Ruby Adept was down, bashed and robbed. This was no place to linger, yet I felt a great reluctance to get into that sleek red car.
*What’s the hold-up?* Syl sounded impatient. Her green eyes glinted in the light from the streetlamps as she looked out the window at me. *Let’s get out of here before someone arrests you.*
All I had to do was get into the car, and Steele would whisk me away to safety. The ring burned in my pocket like a live coal, its existence clouding my thoughts. I could keep walking. I knew how to disappear in the city. And Steele was a shaper. Since when had I trusted one of them? Why was Syl even sitting in his car, so relaxed? She hated shapers as much as I did.
My hand crept to my pocket, as if to assure myself it was really still there. Could I truly let him take it? The shapers had no right to it.
The car door swung open. Steele leaned across from the driver’s seat. “Get in. We don’t have much time.”
Still I hesitated, the urge to run making my legs twitch. I’d go home. My mother would know. She’d always refused to discuss my ability to link to animals, but I was certain she knew where it had come from. She could tell me why this ring felt to my mind like a sleeping animal, one that I could link with if only I knew how to wake it.
*What are you waiting for? A bloody gilt-edged invitation? Get your butt in here before this place is crawling with provosts.*
I got in and shut the door.
Steele immediately pulled out and did a U-turn. “How did it go? Did you get it?”
“Yes.”
His expression changed, alerted perhaps by the tone of my voice. “Any problems?”
I looked out the window at the dark streets sliding past. He was driving fast, but not so fast as to draw unwanted attention. “Not unless you call bashing the Ruby Adept over the head a problem.”
He winced. “That’s … unfortunate. Did he see your face?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s something, at least. What happened? Did he walk in on you cracking the safe?”
I leaned back in the seat and stroked the soft fur of Syl’s ears. Sometimes it was hard to remember she’d ever been human. “I didn’t have to crack anything.” Except the Adept’s head. “He was wearing it.”
Steele gave me a sharp glance. “He was wearing it?”
“Is that a problem?”
“Yes. No.” His teeth worried at his bottom lip. The effect was surprisingly erotic. I had to look away. “Maybe. We agreed to keep it locked up. It’s not just any old ring.”
“What kind of ring is it, then?”
I held my breath, waiting for the answer, but he just shook his head. “No issues with the cameras?”
Fine. He wanted to keep his super-secret shaper business to himself? I had other ways of finding out. “Nope.”
“No wonder Erik wanted you. I would never have believed what you’ve just done was possible. Still not giving your professional secrets away?”
“Seems like we both have professional secrets.”
My tone was a little sharp, maybe. Syl’s voice sounded in my head. *You expect him to tell you all the secrets of the shapers? He’s a councillor, you know. This shit is probably classified.*
*Since when have you been an apologist for the shapers?*
*Since he started working against that bastard Anders.*
*Oh? The enemy of my enemy is my friend?*
*Not a friend, exactly, though he does give very nice belly rubs. You should ask him to give you one sometime. It might make you less grouchy.*
Right. That would be the day.
Holly’s phone, sitting in the console between us, began to ring. I snatched it up.
“Yes?” I put it on loudspeaker so Steele could hear.
“You have the ring?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Meet me at the docks in fifteen minutes. There’s a warehouse—”
“Stop right there,” I said. Steele raised an eyebrow, but I ignored him. “I’m not bringing it anywhere at”—I checked my watch—“two-fifteen in the morning.”
The voice on the other end of the line grew chilly. It wasn’t Anders; it might have been Mason the lion guy, but I wasn’t sure. “You’re not in any position to be making demands. Do as you’re told, if you want your werewolf friend back.”
“See, that’s the problem,�
� I said, settling back more comfortably in my seat.
*What the hell are you doing?* Syl hissed, her claws digging into my leg through my jeans.
“I want Holly back safely; of course I do. But I’m not prepared to commit suicide for her. If I turn up at your nice abandoned warehouse in the middle of the night, you’re just going to take the ring and kill us both. You’ve got to throw me a bone here.”
“I don’t have to throw you anything,” he said, though he sounded less certain than before. “This is not a negotiation. You now have fourteen minutes.”
“If I don’t come, your boss doesn’t get his ring.”
“If you don’t come, your friend and her baby never make it home.”
“And then neither of us would be happy, right? So why don’t you make it easy on yourself. Tell your boss I’ll meet him somewhere public, in daylight. His choice.”
And then I hung up.
Syl stared up at me, her eyes round. *You’ve got some big balls.*
*Thanks. Now could you get your claws out of my leg?*
*Oh, sorry. That was a little nervewracking.*
Yeah, for me too. I was sweating all over.
“Well done,” Steele said. “That gives me some time to organise back-up.”
“You have to be careful,” I said. “You can’t let Anders know what you’re doing. If he finds out I’ve told someone …”
Holly would pay the price. God, poor Holly. What must she be going through? That bastard Anders had better be treating her well.
“Relax. I know what I’m doing.”
“I hope so.” I hated having to trust a shaper to save my arse, which was basically what I was doing. Anders would never have accepted my dictating the meeting place—he’d just assume I was setting a trap for him. So I’d had to leave the choice of location to him. Most likely he’d only give me a few minutes’ notice of where the handover would take place.
Stolen Magic (Shadows of the Immortals Book 1) Page 14