He’d seen the whole thing.
Safire suddenly remembered herself. Remembered who she was with and what they were capable of. She’d just kissed the Death Dancer—the girl who’d stolen a jewel out of Dax’s treasury, one meant to assuage those hit worst by the scrubland blight.
The girl planning to hunt down Asha and deliver her to Jemsin.
Safire turned quickly back, reaching for Eris—to stop her from leaving. To make this right.
But Eris was already gone.
Twenty-Two
This time when Eris stepped through the gray, she focused hard on her destination. As the mists swirled, she no longer walked Axis’s festive streets, full of color and laughter and dancing. She strode beneath that star-studded sky, the silence sparkling around her as she took the path across.
When that dark blue door painted with a moon and stars appeared before her, Eris relaxed. She’d successfully escaped. Reaching for its silver knob, she opened it and stepped through, straight into the labyrinth, its stained-glass walls flickering in the eerie floating white lights above.
Shutting the door behind her, Eris let go of her focus. Looking down, she uncurled her fingers to reveal a pale blue ribbon lying across her palm.
Unlike the last few items she’d stolen from Safire—taken only to provoke—she had a purpose in mind for this one.
As Eris strode into the maze, she thought of Safire. Remembering the warmth of her mouth, the softness of her lips...and that look of horror on her face as she abruptly pulled away. While Eris smiled like an idiot.
What an utter fool I am.
She closed her hand around the ribbon, squeezing it tight.
“Good evening, Eris.”
The rasping voice behind her made her spine straighten. Eris whirled, stumbling away from the thing stepping out of the shadows she’d just come through. He had blue-black feathers, hooklike talons, and eyes as red as blood.
Kadenze.
Jemsin’s summoner.
Half man, half monster, Kadenze was the one thing that could follow her through the mists and across: to this in-between place. It was the reason she had never successfully escaped Jemsin—because it could track her anywhere.
The summoner’s hellish gaze burned into her. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Eris shoved the ribbon behind her back, swallowing hard. “What does he want?”
“Jemsin is very concerned.”
Eris narrowed her eyes at the monster before her. “Yeah? Well you can tell Jemsin that his good mate Kor delayed me considerably.”
“Jemsin will deal with Kor,” said Kadenze, its bloody gaze moving over her. “You do your job.”
“I’m on it,” Eris growled. “Just give me some time.Tides.”
“He wants to remind you,” said Kadenze, moving closer, “of the cost of failure.”
But Eris had never failed a job, and she wasn’t about to start now. Certainly not with so much at stake. If she handed him the Namsara, Jemsin would let her walk free. If she failed, he would deliver her to her enemies.
Of course she wouldn’t fail.
A sudden, sweeping cold rushed in, making her shiver. Feeling it, the summoner looked up over Eris’s shoulder to the stained-glass panels behind her. Eris didn’t look. She knew what it was: the ghost moving in the labyrinth, probably drawn to the sound of their voices.
“Why does Jemsin want her?” It was a question Eris hadn’t cared to ask before. She asked it now only because, being forced into Safire’s company these past few days, she couldn’t help but notice how the girl worried over her cousin. How protective she was of her.
“It’s the empress who wants her.”
