“Say it, then,” he said. “Tell me that you want me to leave.”
“It’s better this way,” she said. “For everyone.”
“Better for Colson,” he nodded knowingly. “Easier to lead you along without me in the way.”
“He isn’tleading me along, Theo!”
“No,” came another voice, its tenor unmistakable. “Let him get it out.”
Theo turned to see Patrick at the windowsill, his back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. Mostly shrouded in the darkness of the evening, just now deciding to fall. He pushed off the ledge—the one with the perfect view down to the ramparts where Nina and Theo had stood not moments before.
Theo’s face heated. Some instinct snarled to the surface.
Patrick stopped two paces away and waited, tilting his head at Theo. He gestured for Theo to speak. “Now’s your chance, Teddy. Tell her how much better off she’d be with you instead.”
“Patrick,” Nina said warily. “We were speakingprivately.”
“And now you ain’t.”
He’d always spoken this way. Like a lord, in a sense. Unswervingly. The words already cocked on his tongue, every response measured ahead of time, shrinking men where they stood. Tying them up in their own words.
Theodore felt his hands shaking. He looked at Patrick but spoke to Nina. “He brought you to Kenton Hill with a sack over your head and your hands tied,” he said slowly, wanting her to hear every syllable. “He tried to lock you up in a room.”
Patrick didn’t interrupt, nor did he lift his eyes from Theo. Instead, they seemed to bore further in, waiting for something.
“It’s the same now,” Theo continued. “He has you exactly as he wants you, Nina. Blinded, tied up in his mess—”
“Ah,” Patrick said now, nodding slowly. “Yes. A dirty Craftsman, running off with his little Artisan hostage.” He tsked. “And I suppose, she’d have to be stupid, wouldn’t she? To fall for a trick like that? Defenseless, too. Or how would I overpower her?”
Patrick stalked closer, and Theo felt his fists clench. “That isn’t what I said.”
“But that’s what you’re implyin’, Teddy. That’s what she hears when you tell her I’ve got her eyes covered. That I’m the one pullin’ her strings.”
“I’m scared forher!” Theo shouted. “She was almost shot, not days ago! Have you yet considered her well-being on thisfuckingconquest? Or will you lead her into any snake pit if it means winning your bloody terranium?”
Patrick’s expression blackened instantly. “I wasn’t aware she’d made you her guardian, Teddy, or did you assume the position all on your own?”
Theo didn’t balk, didn’t turn from him. “Someone ought to look out for her.”
“That’s rich,” Patrick nodded ominously, stepping forward into Theodore’s space so it was obvious just how imposing Patrick’s stature was in comparison. “That’s bloody rich, since you would have left her bleedin’ against the whippin’ post, had your chivalry not awoken at just the right moment.”
“Stop,” Nina said, putting a hand on Patrick’s chest.
“Let’s hopeyoursawakens soon, Colson, before you’ve siphoned everything you can take from her,” Theo spat.
“That’s your problem, Teddy. You still think she’s the sort of woman who can be managed. Have you met her? She ain’t manageable.”
Theo stood as tall as he could. “Yet she’ll walk where you point. And you’re not pointing her anywhere safe.”
“I’ll point you into a fuckin’ grave, if you’d like.” He looked as though he wished for nothing more than to obliterate Theo where he stood.
“Enough!” Nina called, a hand on each of their chests now.
Theo and Patrick had come almost nose to nose, breathing steam into each other’s faces. Patrick’s breath was laced with intention, like it would mean nothing to him at all to throw Theo over the cliffs.
“Theo,” Nina said, straining to get his attention, her face red with anger. “When we leave this parish, you won’t follow. I’ve made my choice.”
Theo shook his head. “You’ll never mean as much to him as idium does,” he said to her, and he knew he was cruel to say it. He saw the flinch of pain cut across her face. “He’d forfeit your life to win this war.”
