“Where is he?” Kildare shoved his hands through his hair as he paced.
It had been twenty-four hours since Fir had been taken. Realistically, he knew that neither Fir nor Mock could risk giving them a sign. That hadn’t stopped him from shifting last night and spending most of the night on patrol over the house where his friends were being held, hoping he’d see something.
Anything.
But the house had remained dark and silent, and he’d flown back to the Broken Chair just before dawn. He hadn’t been able to sleep.
Serene sat on the couch, cradling a mug of hot kafe from the carafe that Snitch had brought up. At some point she’d somehow found a book that described the felsic stone that Fir had mentioned, and she was studying the pages she’d found on it, jotting notes about materials.
Kildare walked over to the table where Snitch sat, making up another packet of rockets, and picked up his mug.
Snitch grabbed his wrist. “You don’t need any more.”
Kildare glared at him. “Let go.”
“Kil.” Serene looked up from her book. “You’re working yourself up for no reason. You don’t need any more kafe.”
“No reason?” Kil snapped. “Sure, no, I won’t worry about my best friend in the clutches of our enemy at all! That makes sense!”
Serene’s eyes flashed.
Snitch rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Glad you showed as much worry over me when I got thrown in prison, thanks.”
“Forgive me for not feeling kindly toward you, since you were cussing me out at that moment,” Kildare growled.
Snitch released his wrist so quickly that Kildare staggered backward. “It shouldn’t have mattered. But ever she came on the scene—” He nodded at Serene— ”all you’ve cared about is saving up money so you can buy her contract from Basalt. Never mind the lot of us, no, you go and trust that shifter whore who has done nothing to earn anything from you except—"
The sound of a slamming door cut off Snitch’s words. Kildare spun. Serene wasn’t in the room, and their bedroom door was still shaking in its frame.
He swore and pushed into the room.
Serene was sitting at the foot of the bed, yanking off her boots. As he closed the door behind him, she stood and walked to the dresser, unwrapping the silk scarf from around her neck.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Snitch is just like that, he gets acerbic under pressure.”
“Yeah, apparently he calls women whores all the time too,” Serene snapped, unbuttoning her overshirt and throwing it on the ground. She already wore the slim, cropped dragonsbane-fiber shirt and leggings, he noticed. Like she’d just been waiting for an excuse to get out of the tense, stuffy room.
Kildare leaned against the door and rubbed his hands over his face. “I—”
“It’s not your fault, Kil. It’s just that he never shuts his poxxed mouth and one of these times, I’m not going to be able to keep myself from sticking a dagger into him.” Serene walked up and gave him a kiss—quick, perfunctory. No passion behind it at all. She pushed open the window and climbed out onto the side of the building.
Kildare leaned out after her. “It’s too late in the day to shift. Someone will see you.”
She glanced at him and smiled weakly. “I’ll be careful. Promise.”
Then she pushed off, shifting into wyvern form and swooping high into the air. Kildare swore and stuck his head out the window, scanning the street below. It was empty. Hopefully, no one had seen her leave in such a spectacular fashion.
Kildare drew his head back into the room, feeling sick, heat burning in his chest. If Snitch had just kept his mouth shut... He stomped back into the living area.
Snitch snorted. “She run off in a temper? Rot, Kil, you sure know…”
Before Snitch could look up, Kildare punched him hard in the face, half-throwing Snitch off his chair.
Snitch scrambled away from him, getting the table between them. Kildare glared at him, fists clenched. He wasn’t interested in chasing after Snitch. His knuckles smarted. It felt like his world was crumbling around him.
“Let me know when Fir is back,” he snarled, going back into the bedroom and slamming the door shut behind him.
Kildare dropped onto the bed and folded his arms over his face to block out the daylight. He wished he’d never been tempted to take this job. Almost wished he’d never—no. That wasn’t true. Serene was the light of his life.
No matter what happened, he would never regret bonding with her.
# # #
The sound of a slamming door awakened Kildare. He bolted upright on the bed, rubbing at his eyes, and was to the door before his vision had cleared enough to keep him from stubbing his toe on the uneven threshold. He cursed and looked up.
Fir slumped against the front door, looking haggard. He looked up as Kildare stepped into the room, and a small grin broke over Fir’s face.
“You did it?”
“I did it. It took me twenty-three hours and forty-one minutes, but I did it.”
Kildare crossed the room and slapped his arm over Fir’s shoulders, squeezing him tightly. “Well done!”
Fir nodded, and the smile dropped from his face. “But we were right,” he said in a low voice. “I was right. It was an amulet made from felsic. I think it holds a lot of ley—judging by the gleam in Oak’s eyes when I showed him, anyway. That’s got to be what Basalt was after as well.”
Kildare frowned. “Could Basalt even use it? He was turning brittle—that only happens when Alfaren are given fosseric to cut them off from ley, right?”
Fir shrugged. “A felsic amulet like that, it wouldn’t matter.”
Kildare shivered. “All right, well, when Serene gets back—” He started to turn and froze.
Snitch leaned in the doorway to his room, arms crossed over his chest, one eyebrow raised. “Felsic stone?” he said. “That’s rare.”
How much had he heard? Had he guessed that they were trying to keep the knowledge of the felsic amulet from him? Kildare straightened, staring at Snitch.
Snitch raised his chin and glared back.
Kildare set his jaw and let the silence string out. Five heartbeats, ten, fifteen. “I guess we know why two crime lords were so desperate to get hold of the thing, then,” he finally said, slowly.
Snitch nodded. “Makes sense.” He glanced at Fir. “Mock and her baby off, then?”
Fir nodded. “Walked them to the city gates myself. Wasn’t about to trust Oak’s word on their freedom, so I insisted. Didn’t catch anyone tailing us, either.” He dug into his pocket and tossed a necklace across the room to Snitch. “She sent this for you.”
Snitch caught it and bent his head over the charm. For a split second, Kildare almost thought he heard Snitch’s breath hitch a little. The thief turned away, turning the charm over and over in his hands, an almost-tender expression on his face.
Fir held out a small leather pouch to Kildare. “For Serene’s contract, if we still have to buy it from Basalt.”
“What—”
“Oak paid me for unlocking the puzzle box, but it doesn’t feel right to accept it.” Fir pushed the pouch into his hands.
Kildare opened it and poured several gold coins out into his palm. He looked into the pouch, guessing there were at least a dozen more coins in it. He shook his head, putting the coins back into the pouch, and pushed it back at Fir. “I can’t take this from you.”
Fir let the pouch drop to the floor and stepped back. “Okay, then let it stay there. I’m not going to take it.”
“I’ll take it if no one else wants it,” Snitch said, straightening from the doorframe, eyes gleaming.
Kildare sighed and bent down, grabbing the pouch. He met Fir’s eyes as he straightened. The Alfaren smiled and crossed his arms over his chest. He blinked, looking half asleep.
“You should go rest,” Kildare said.
“Where’s Serene? I wanted to describe the stone to her before I forget the details.”
“She took off,” Snitch said.
Fir shot a worried glance at Kildare.
Kildare shrugged. “We had an argument, and she went to cool off. She’ll be back.”
“You hope,” Snitch muttered.
Kildare balled his fists. “Shut your mouth, Snitch.”
Snitch shrugged.
Fir glanced back and forth between them. “Okay, now I know why Snitch has that black eye. Look, Kil, I’ll sketch out the stone as best as I can before I sleep. Whenever Serene comes back, she can wake me up if she has questions. I’ll write down what I can remember about the texture and anything else I noticed.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
Fir nodded and pushed past Snitch.
Kildare started for his own bedroom. Maybe if he could snatch a few more minutes of sleep himself...
“You really think she’s coming back?” Snitch asked. “You trust her enough that you don’t think she’s out there, off on her own again? Or worse, that she’s telling Basalt everything?”
Kildare stiffened his shoulders but refused to turn around, to grace Snitch’s questions with his full attention. “I trust Serene with my whole heart.” More than I can say for you.
“Felsic’s said to have strange powers.”
Something in Snitch’s tone made Kildare stop and turn. The thief stood, staring out the window into the distance, rubbing his thumb along his lower lip.
“Yeah?” Kildare said. Snitch didn’t have ley, but who knew what he’d picked up?
“Gives you ley,” Snitch murmured softly. “Makes you stronger. Even if you don’t have ley, it’s said that you can steal ley from others, like the sappers. Sapstone, I think, is another name for it.”
“Yeah?”
“Felsic is rare stuff, Kil. That sort of stuff… teams betray each other over it.”
Kildare’s stomach churned. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll keep it in mind.” He stepped into his room and ran his fingers through his hair.
Sapstone. Fir hadn’t mentioned earlier that felsic had another name. A chill ran through him, leaving the hairs on his arms and neck raised. Sappers were terrifying. Sappers stole ley, ripped it from your soul. They killed other ley manipulators just by touching them. He’d never seen it in person, but they were the stuff of nightmares.
Why hadn’t Fir mentioned this earlier?
No. No, he couldn’t start doing this. This was how teams got ripped apart. This was how teams—and their members—died. If he started mistrusting everyone, who would hold Fir, Serene, and Snitch together? Even if he wanted out from under the thumb of the crime lords, he didn’t want the team to just break apart.
Kildare shoved the thought from his head. Fir was loyal. He had to be loyal. He just hadn’t known about the felsic. He couldn’t have.
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