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She almost felt sorry for him, until he looked up at her and winked slowly, with vanity. “Every good love story starts with a bullet to the heart.”
After all, fear became hate when it festered long enough. The world always teemed with darkness, Ettenia had just given it a new name.
One of these days she was going to get him killed, and he’d be too dead to whine about it.
He wasn’t usually so glum. If he rubbed at his soul hard enough to get past the grime of the streets, he might even find optimism. Not now.
She didn’t know how arrests worked. It wasn’t something anyone had taught her in between lessons about needlework and penmanship and how to keep house. Goodness, she was being arrested.
“Almost done giving us the tour then, Ivor?” Jin called as they turned down yet another hall. “Can’t wait to see the kitchen pantry.”
Matteo gave him and his kitten a proper look. “Laith Sayaad,” he said before Matteo could ask. “Of the Horned Guard,” Arthie added. “And that’s his unnamed kitten, because he’s one of those monsters who doesn’t name his pets.”
“You are going to ascertain it never comes to that.” “Ascertain?” Matteo repeated. “Where did you say he’s from again, the dictionary?”
Flick clutched her beret. “You can’t possibly mean that. They’ll stake us through the heart.” “Death by the stake does sound like a fancy way to go,” Jin agreed. “Stake is a type of Ettenian meat, no?” said Laith. “No, the letters would be arranged a little differently,” Flick said.
He peered at the teacup on a passing waiter’s tray and sighed. “Imagine falling in love with someone and learning they make tea the color of bone.”
And yet, there was something to be said about a girl who knew everything about everyone and a boy more mysterious than the moon.
A groan rose behind her. “He’s waking up,” Arthie called. “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought I had time for tea,” Laith snarked.
He shrugged and stirred in five sugar cubes. At that point, he was having coffee with his sugar.
Tell me, do you remember what it’s like to live?
Laith, you are not bringing that kitten with you.” “Oh, I am,” he replied. “After me, she’s the stealthiest in our crew.”
More and more, it seemed that every person she met had something terrible in their past. Whether they’d seen it or inflicted it, everyone walked with a burden.
“You think I can just let go,” she scoffed. “No. A wound must be tended to before it can heal, but oh my sweet, what you will unleash when you’re freed from that tether.”
She would have had a father. A family. “Family isn’t who we live with but those we would die for.”
