“What are you doing?” she said, and her voice shook.
Was this what he planned to reveal to me that day?Obviously it was not a pen, but it would certainly have relayed a message.It was so much worse than a baton, its own sort of death.
The Urchin captain paused, taking the time to scan her face. She could see his eyes beneath the hood, and they werenarrowed. “Taking care of William, once and for all. What? Did you think I would use this on you?”
“I…”
Bash’s expression fell to darkness before he turned from her.
William hadn’t spoken since he’d been on the verge of suffocation. But now, seeing his brother step over him, he attempted again. His voice was rough as gravel dirt, grating up his throat. Alora winced in hearing it, certain the activity must hurt even worse than it sounded.He heals quicker than all of us,she reminded herself, lest she get too upset.
“You can’t do this,” pleaded William. “I’m as much his son as you are.”
“As in you are as useful to him as I am? Don’t tell me you believe he harbors some affection for you? If he does, it’s kept well hidden. The only thing he’ll miss is the draw you brought to Door Eighteen. Nothing more.”
They were such harsh parting words. Alora covered her mouth, though it wasn’t enough to hide her sharp intake of air. The Urchin’s hood shifted toward her a fraction before turning back.
“I’m not afool.I know what we were traded for.”
Bash knelt beside him. “Then be thankful I’m releasing you from this prison at last. And who knows, Brother. Perhaps I’ll follow you out afterward.”
Alora only managed one step forward before the dart met William’s neck. He didn’t release even a grunt of pain before his eyes closed. For all appearances, he might have been sleeping. The silence stretched on. From a street away, she could make out the sound of carriage wheels. From beyond that, she heard a nightingale. It all sounded soordinary.Still, Bash knelt unmoving beside William.
Alora sniffed, and it was loud in the quiet. “Are you well?”
“Well enough,” he replied. With a groan, he pushed to his feet, then bent. His arms made to lift beneath William’s.
“No, don’t do that.” She hurried forward and pressed against Bash’s shoulder. “I’ll help.” A stretcher materialized beneath the performer. She reached to grab hold at his feet. “Where do we go?”
“Down the steps, to start.”
Alora nodded as Bash gripped the handles near William’s head. Together, they lifted, and William was light as a feather between them. She’d gone above what she would have normally done; the imagined stretcher gave lightness to whatever was inside it. Bash huffed an incredulous breath.
At the bottom of the stairs, in a shadowed alleyway, they found Necros waiting. He stared at them with a calculating expression, so much so that Alora wondered if perhaps he wasn’t like other horses. She lifted as high as she could and observed Bash ease his brother onto the horse’s back so that William draped sideways across the animal. The stretcher clattered to the ground when it was done, Alora dropping it without care.
“You’re taking him to Opulence? Won’t everyone have questions?”
“You forget what I am.” With a moan grinding behind his teeth, Bash lifted into the saddle. When his breathing steadied after some moments, she felt the shift of his attention to her. “You told me once that this project brings you hope. Is your dream worth seeing it through?”
Alora frowned up at him. “Are you asking me to abandon it?”
“No,” he said. “But it’s still a question I would like the answer to. I know you well enough now to realize your choices aren’t unwise.”
She snorted. “Truly? All of them?”
His tone turned grave. “Perhaps not. You did choose to associate with me, after all.”
“Thatwas hardly a choice,” Alora said, wanting to diffuse the darkness rising between them. But it didn’t seem to work. She wished she could see his expression behind the silence, but as it was the shadows were deep in the alley, where the moon couldn’t reach, and his hood eclipsed even those. “No, the project isn’t worth the money for my shop. Not at all. But I’ll see it through anyway, as my reasons have changed.”
Necros shifted beneath the stagnant weight. She could tell the creature yearned to move on. Bash took up the reins. “I won’t tell you to run and abandon it then, even if I’d feel infinitely better if you decided to do so. I will say, at least, don’t allow him to sign you to another contract.”
“I won’t,” said Alora, shaking her head vehemently. If she got her way in the end, Merridon would never be allowed to offer another contract to anyone ever again.
Necros was granted several steps forward before he was halted a second time. At the toss of his head, she shuffled backward, wondering if Bash had ever been bitten. “I would never hurt you, Alora. I want you to realize.”
Her mind immediately went to the weapon concealed somewhere on his person.I know,she nearly said. What she did say was, “Even if you thought I would be helped in the end?”
“Even then.”
