Silver light slashed across his face, casting his smile in crooked mischief. His voice dropped an octave, suddenly as rough as the tide under the full moon. “You’re welcome.”
My mouth thinned as I pushed the door open. Wind crashed against my face, sending my hair in a stormy cyclone behind my shoulders. I whipped it out of my eyes with a toss, pulling myself close to the sky bridge railing so Pheolix could shuffle past me.
The eastern bridge connected to the main towers in the south and north. Built in layers, nobles and royalty usually kept to the center passage, which boasted long glass panels to offer views of sky and sea. Servants were sequestered to the lower level, hunched and narrow. Here at the top, in thebirth of a new spring, the wind was ravenous, feasting wherever our flesh was bare.
Guards patrolled the bridges less than they did the outer curtain wall, the parapet hanging over the sea at the halfway point. We halted there, with no one to witness the Naiad’s descent except Theia and the sea itself. Pheolix heaved the man between two stone crenellations, and I leaned forward to help him roll the lifeless body off the edge.
We watched it drop. All the way to the water raging across the red cliffs far below. The tide ate him as though he were nothing, stealing the man’s existence in a single gulp.
14
Selena
Iwatched the body drop in silence, but internally, a rough whirr spun in my head. Had Thaan trailed us before? “We killed one of our own.”
The words tumbled out of me before I had the chance to decide whether they mattered.
Pheolix sighed. “I killed one of Thaan’s. We protected your cover. Even if you hadn’t accidentally seen him, he was never going to make it back to Thaan’s office alive.”
I tossed the bloodied handkerchief down, brushing a wild lock of hair behind an ear. “What’s your stake in this?”
Calm eyes stared back at me, shining with a flinty edge, and I was suddenly reminded of the night ten years ago when he’d pulled me under the waves and breathed Naiad air into my lungs. “I have my reasons to want Thaan dead as much as you.”
Vouri’s caution against drones echoed in my head.
“Come on,” Pheolix said, indicating with his chin at the door. “You were on your way to return something to the offices.”
I stepped ahead and briefly faltered. “You listened to the entire meeting?”
“No. I was watching him, and he watched the three of you through the glass walls. I only heard the end when I followed him inside.”
“But you heard what Vouri said.”
Pheolix chuckled. “About trusting me? Yes. Don’t worry about it. I’ve heard more unflattering things about myself than a well-founded warning based in unsound faith.”
I sent him a sideways glance.
He smiled. “You’re allowed to be suspicious of me.”
“I knew what you meant,” I snipped, though the cut of my voice only made his humored slash of white grow. He leaned in close to grasp the doorknob, pulling against the heavy wind. Leaves rustled and stalks swayed at the sudden gust, though the humid warmth of the solarium kissed my cheeks almost as soon as the door closed tightly behind us.
“Well.” I adjusted my dress. “Thank you. Both for stepping in and insulting me.”
Pheolix tilted his head. “When did I insult you?”
“You said I didn’t know where beef came from.”
“Oh yes,” he said, fighting a smile and lifting his eyes to the glass ceiling as though enjoying his little joke all over again.
I suffocated aharrumphin my throat, stalking ahead to locate the parchments Madam Freisa would surely find missing. But Pheolix grasped my elbow, pulling me back.
“Wait. Try to stop my heart.”
“Honestly.” I tossed a hand in the air to shake him off, but he held on.
“Honestly,” he echoed. “Stop my heart, heiress.”
My tongue clicked, loud in the otherwise quiet room. Water calling had always frustrated me. Small handfuls of liquid were easy to summon, of course. I could tease enough water from the air to fill a jar. Could swish the thin mist that gathered along the floor as easily as a pair of legs walking through it. But large bodies of water? That had always been beyond my grasp.
