She stared up at him, eyes wide, mouth agape. Her face glistened with sweat, and a pink hue shone through her umber skin tone. Her gaze dropped to his mouth, lingering there for two eternally long heartbeats, before her eyes met his again.
Ben’s pulse hammered in his head. What was she thinking? Better yet, what am I thinking?
Raine closed her mouth, visibly swallowing. “Why do you care so much about this?”
Her words may as well have been a bucket of ice water over his head. He disengaged and sat back, this time being the one to gingerly pull his legs to his chest. Sara flashed into his mind, the bruises hiding under her long sleeves when he’d come to her shelter home to pick her up, once he was finally old enough to claim custody over her. The nightmares that had woken her at night for weeks afterward. Her fear and determination when he’d announced she was going to learn self-defense.
“It’s important.” Ben hesitated, then shrugged, resigned. They would never meet anyway, so he could share Sara’s secret. “No one should have to experience what my sister did, and I don’t want to tempt fate.” He fixed his gaze on a vivid tapestry on the far wall. “I wasn’t able to protect her when we were kids.” He didn’t look directly at Raine, but kept her in his peripheral, judging her softening expression. “You’re a fighter and will likely never need to actually know any of this, and I know I already said it, but it’s important.”
“Ben, thank you.” Raine reached out, her fingers feather-light over his arm. “I assume I’ll need to practice, for this to be of use to me if needed?”
He nodded.
“Then we’ll practice a bit more now.” She brushed a sweaty strand of hair from her face. “And once Papa is back and we’ve dealt with everything here, we’ll practice again.” She shot Ben a bittersweet smile. “Because you’re right. It is important, and we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Christopher
Thunder crashed outside the Antius inn, and Christopher took a sip of his drink. The smooth taste of spiced cream swirled around his senses, warming him to his toes. It didn’t matter how much Lucio complained about Advisor Kaius’s busy schedule and how it left them to fend for themselves for a late dinner—finding a beverage like this after the last several weeks was well worth it.
Rain splatted against the window, and Christopher eyed it with a frown. If the Elph they’d talked to were to be believed, the worst of the storm would be over in several hours, tapering off in the early morning. How they knew that, Christopher could only guess. Maybe they were just that accustomed to weather like this. Maybe they thought they’d tease the lone full-blooded human. So long as they were right, he didn’t care.
Lucio slurped his soup next to Christopher and Christopher turned his head, gritting his teeth. Less than a day. The storm would be over, they’d cross to the island, they’d take down the barrier, and the Christopher could return to Victor without Lucio, the unwanted baggage.
A commoner, with a ragged hood pulled up over their head, scooted the chair out by Christopher, then sat in it, facing him. Christopher whipped his head around, glaring. Apparently Antius allowed mannerless homeless in their city. His mounting protest died in his mouth when the man pushed the hood back just enough to reveal dark eyes.
“Sir.” Christopher straightened in his seat and set down his mug. He took in Kaius’s rough cloak, scuffed boots, and lack of uniform, and glanced around the room, pleased that no one noticed or cared about their new table occupant. He lowered his voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you.” Kaius leaned an arm on the table. “I need you to steal something for me.”
Christopher huffed a tiny laugh. “I’m not for hire.” He shot Kaius a meaningful look. Just because the Elph was pulling the strings to make their mission easier didn’t mean Christopher was his dog for tricks. “And we have other things to be doing right now.”
Kaius’s eyes narrowed. “You need to listen to me.”
As Kaius spoke, Christopher froze where he was. His head tilted, his gaze focusing solely on the man next to him. The tingle in his arm faded and disappeared, releasing him of the bond. He glanced sideways at the advisor. “I am listening.” His lips twisted. “Intently.”
“Good. Let me rephrase this now that I have your attention.” Kaius leaned forward, his eyes burning. “You want to steal something for me.”
“What do you want?” Curiosity stirred in Christopher and he tamped it down. “Why me, and why would I do it?”
“Because.” Kaius’s voice lowered even more. “I know where the lodestone—the one thing that gives the humans a fighting chance against us Elph—is being kept.”
Christopher’s eyes widened. A clank, splash, and curse from Lucio drew their scrutiny. Lucio swiped a napkin across the spilled soup and askew spoon, his attention on Kaius. “How did you find it?”
Kaius offered a smug grin. “Your faithful shadows had it. Now it’s ours.”
“So why do you need me to get it?” Christopher took a quick swig from his mug before it could cool any more. “Why can’t you go get it yourself?”
“Because it’s protected by wards that I can’t get past,” Kaius replied with a bitter tone. “Unlike the sympathizer, Adonis, I’m an advisor, not military. There’s no need for me to have access to confiscated weapons or magic objects, or things of the like.” He shook off the droplets of water beading on his cloak. “And the lodestone is behind a very special ward that neither I nor anyone here can pass.”
“Because you’re Elph?” Christopher clarified.
Kaius shook his head, his eyes gleaming. “Because we’re not Void Born.”
***
The shield around the door shimmered with a greenish-blue hue, reminding Christopher of the pond scum that he’d played in one summer, back during his brief childhood. He waved a hand over the iridescent color. It didn’t change or ripple, so he tried resting his hand on the wooden slats. No alarms sounded. Kaius must’ve been right.
Kaius had also said there was a three-minute gap of time for Christopher to work within, and he’d told Christopher the layout and what everything should look like, but he’d refused to give Christopher a key. He wanted this to look like a real theft, not an inside job. Christopher sized up the lock. He pulled his gloves out of his back pocket and silently tugged his leather-bound lock pick kit from a pouch on his hip. He gently slid one pick into the lock, then another.
He was about to get the third in place when footsteps echoed around the corner. Heart beating frantically, he tested the picks. It hadn’t been a full three minutes! He couldn’t finish this before the guard was back—and early from his patrol on the other wing, too.
Christopher smiled grimly to himself. Since Kaius wanted it to look like a robbery, the least Christopher could do for the advisor would be to really aid in that impression. He left the picks in the lock and moved to the side of the hall, cautious to stay silent despite his toes sliding around in his too-big boots. A slight shadow of the adjacent doorway provided a fraction of coverage for him. He waited for the guard to draw near to the corner of the hall, then Christopher tossed a pebble to the other side of the intersection. The raven-haired sentry turned toward the sound. Fool.
Christopher sprang forward, jabbing his dagger into the small of the man’s back. A faint gasp escaped the guard as he stiffened, but no other sound came out. His wide eyes screamed of torment too intense for noise.
Christopher paused, listening for signs of other guards or a sounded alarm. Satisfied to hear none, he grabbed the soon-to-be-corpse and dragged him by the shielded door. He dumped him next to it and the man’s hand flopped against the pond-scum shield, skin sizzling. Christopher nodded to himself. Probably was a good thing that Kaius hadn’t attempted this himself, after all. It really was a shield that only Void Born could walk through.
He made short work of the lock, aware that time was ticking in a different way for him now. He didn’t have to
worry about the guard finding him now, but Kaius hadn’t mentioned if this one reported to others, and when. Christopher pushed the door open with his foot, quickly slipped his tools back into their pockets, then returned the small roll of picks to his pouch. He kicked the man over and retrieved his knife from the back, wiping the blade clean on his uniform sleeve. Christopher backed into the shielded room, closing the door behind him with a final glance at the otherwise empty hallway. There was blood and a body out there, so he’d have to find the lodestone, fast.
He fumbled for a match from his pocket, striking it and quickly locating the hurricane lamp in the center of the room. He lifted it by the thin handle and browsed over the shelves, looking between the sketch that Lucio had sent and the items before him now.
Several important looking rings of different types of stone caught Christopher’s eye, and he shone the light on them. An amber ring gleamed on a tray alongside a pale pink pendant and a woven black ring. Christopher set the sketch down on the shelf, picking up the ring to compare the two. This was it. His hands trembled in excitement as he tucked the ring into his pocket and shoved Lucio’s drawing into his pouch.
He blew out the lantern and returned it to its resting place, then cracked open the door, confirming that no one was out there before slipping out and closing it as quietly as possible behind him. He tromped through the blood puddle and tracked red prints the way he’d come in, on the opposite side of where he had to be. Once outside, he’d dump the too-big boots just outside the barracks, then disappear to the inlet where Lucio waited with the bloodstone and the boat that Kaius had procured for them.
No one would be able to trace this theft to Christopher, and soon, no one would care. Because that keystone was going down. Today.
Chapter Fifty
Weston
Concern sank its claws into Weston’s heart despite all the precautions he’d taken. No matter what he did, his father managed to stay ahead of him, cutting him off, knocking his feet out from under him, doing all he could to jab at Jade and bring her lower.
When Jade and Krista approached him about going to his workshop, meeting his master, he’d hoped that the trip would help Jade clear her mind. See that it wasn’t so bad here. That maybe, just maybe, she could consider marrying him. He had more than just safety to offer her. Freedom to work on any projects she wanted, endless supplies, the best tech that money could afford. He could be her friend. But it was clear that something had happened between her and Zak, as she alternated between stiffness with Weston, and a calm confidence that spoke of a comfortable depth that hadn’t been witnessed before by him. As if she no longer felt threatened by the impending farce of a wedding.
She’d lit up, her glorious smile etching itself into his memory, her laugh light and easy. She’d talked about Briar’s prosthetic and included Weston in her conversation. It was the best outcome to the morning that he could have hoped for.
Then his father had swept into Francene’s villa, declaring that if Jade had time to spend on a project that anyone else could do, she had enough time to pick out the rest of the wedding details. Everett rattled off all that he expected Jade to accomplish in the next week: finalize the menu, choose which nobles would be her handmaidens, start preparations for moving into the castle that Everett had prepared for them—decide on the baby nursery.
What peace Weston had seen return to her face drained away during Everett’s litany, leaving her stark white. She’d then looked over at Zak’s sister with an expression that Weston had no chance of interpreting.
Jade retreated. And now he found her, wandering through Francene’s garden, walking through the greenery, fingers ghosting over flower petals, her bottom lip swollen from where she constantly bit it. Whatever she was thinking about today, it consumed her fully, as she had yet to notice him.
He approached Zak where he stood watching over Jade, his arms crossed over his gray shirt, a slight frown etched on his face.
“She’s so distant,” Weston observed.
Zak nodded, concern tightening his eyes. “She has a lot on her mind.” His gaze shifted to a corner of the garden, and Weston noticed Zaborah leaning against a pillar, her attention dedicated to Jade. Zak’s jaw clenched and he lifted a brow, giving Weston a pointed look. “Your father’s newest list of things for her to work on hasn’t been the most welcome of distractions.”
Weston fiddled with his ring. “Is there anything that will help her through all this? What if I take on most those decisions for her? It’s all false anyway, so it’s not like it matters.”
Something shifted in Zak’s demeanor. Just what was going on here at Francene’s? It felt like some tense undercurrent had sucked something from everyone, leaving each person utterly unreadable. Jade seemed relaxed around him, and yet she walked on eggshells like never before. Zak didn’t tense like he used to in Weston’s presence, but new circles of stress hung bags around his eyes. Even Krista seemed to tiptoe in conversation, where she used to interject every other breath.
“You already have your hands full. And even if she didn’t have to work on those, there’s nothing that will ease this for her.” Zak slipped his hands into his pockets as he dipped his chin at Jade, his voice softening. “There’s far too much going on for her to process, and she can’t relax like she prefers to.” Zak’s shoulders sagged. “She misses the sky.”
“And she’s chained to the land here.” Weston closed his eyes and turned away from the sight of her, struggling to rein in his guilt. He’d brought her here, thinking it’d keep her safe, and they’d be able to easily free her uncle Andre. How wrong he’d been. How optimistically, naïvely wrong.
He’d torn her from her proper place in Doldra, torn her away from her beloved airship. He glanced at Zak from the corner of his eye. He’d even torn her away from the man she loved.
Until the leaders’ summit was over, she wouldn’t be traveling back to Doldra, let alone anywhere else. And, as much as he wanted to give Jade all she wanted, he didn’t want her to be with Zak. She still fascinated him, and he wanted to actually get to know her, be her friend, convince her to consider him for marriage. But not an arranged marriage. And not with these walls caging her in. They dimmed her, dulling her like a slow poison. Then again, if the last day or two was an indicator, maybe she’d decided to fight back. Or was at least thinking of it.
But fighting back against his father was too dangerous. Everett wouldn’t take no for an answer to anything. Weston would have to warn her, while not letting her slide into the depression he’d witnessed when she first came to Aerugo.
“What if…” Weston paused, mulling over the idea for another moment. He looked up from the grass to observe Jade as she meandered from one rose bush to the other, never bending over to smell the petals, merely touching them and moving on. Sometimes she’d pause and tap one, eyes narrowed, as if she was considering it like a weapon for a battle or something. “What if she were able to visit the Sapphire? Would that help, or make things worse?”
Zak blinked at Weston, considering him for an uncomfortable moment before he turned back to watching Jade. Silence stretched between them, interrupted only by the rustle of the bushes from a breeze. “That would do her some good,” Zak said finally. “She’s been cooped up here, and the freedom to be home for a bit would help immensely. She’s determined to do what she hates to consider, stubborn woman.” An exasperated, grim smile pulled at his lips. He tilted his head, considering, before giving a single, firm nod. “Good idea, Your Highness.”
It was Weston’s turn to be caught off guard and left blinking dumbly. Zak Monomi, the man whom he had personally whipped, had just given him a compliment. Had agreed with Weston’s idea. Granted, it was for Jade, but still. Maybe, just maybe, they could find a neutral ground and be allies, working together to protect the woman that they both cared for.
“Ri-right.” Weston resisted the urge to clap his hands together, unwilling to draw attention to their conversation. If Jade hadn’t noticed hi
m yet, that was probably for the best right now. He didn’t want to ruin the surprise, nor did he want to mention the Arid Plains project to her. They’d run out of most other light topics, and he didn’t think Krista would take kindly to him pushing Jade to open up. “I’ll let you and Niles discuss the safety arrangements, then. There’s no point in me being the middle man for that. Should I have one of my chefs make dinner there?”
Zak snorted and shook his head. “If we’re going to the Sapphire to cheer up Jade and we’re having a meal there, there’s only one person who’s in charge of that kitchen, and it’s up to him who else is in there.”
Of course. Weston snapped his fingers. “Briar?”
“Briar.”
Weston nodded. “If he’s up for it, then it’s a plan. I’ll get a list from him and make sure everything is onboard and ready for whenever he wants to get there and get started.” He hesitated, thinking of all he’d witnessed between Briar and Krista. “This may be a good idea for the whole crew, isn’t it?”
Zak’s eyes didn’t leave Jade as she meandered past a hedge. “What are you thinking of?”
“If you weren’t already planning on it, invite the whole crew. Everyone Jade cares about and has been working with. Every familiar face. If Francene is right, her—” Weston hesitated, then shrugged to himself. His father wasn’t here to correct them. “—her mother will be here in the morning. Let everyone get a chance to relax where they call home.”
“You really have changed, haven’t you?” Zak shot him a speculative glance, his eyes flicking over Weston. He humphed and focused on Jade again. “Give me till tomorrow night to get everything arranged with Niles.” A genuine smile softened Zak’s face, and his entire body seemed to relax with the gesture. “She’ll appreciate this more than you know.”
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