She felt the pressure of his gaze on her. And when she dared to look up, the streetlight revealed once more that look of unmasked longing which she was beginning to realize had been there all along, only she’d been too blind to see it.
She couldn’t bear to see it now.
Turning sharply on heel, Luna strode swiftly back up the sidewalk the way she’d just come. Only once did she allow herself to look back, but Mr. Grimm had already vanished. Whether hidden in Yorik Balthazar’s old dressing gown or simply slipped down Jolly Pidgeon Way, she couldn’t guess. He was gone, regardless, leaving Luna with a little shudder down her spine.
She faced forward again. The wind was at her back, pushing her away from the harbor. It carried icy droplets on its fingers, and they stung the backs of her legs. She was just coming to the intersection of Addle and Mirthmeadow, when a raucous chorusof laughter erupted in her ears. Luna turned, dangling earrings swinging, and peered down the sidewalk. A dim thaumatic sign flickered over a squat little doorway, declaring RUM FOR YOUR LIFE, a favorite bar of dock workers and warehouse staff, making their weary way home from work. An assorted collection of shady-looking fellows spilled out into the street, staggering a little, some making a vague attempt to raise their voices in tuneless song.
Not liking to meet with these ruffians in the dark, this late at night, Luna tucked her chin a little deeper behind her coat collar and took a single stride. She’d not taken a second, however, before a familiar voice called out in slurred greeting, “Oi! Ain’t that you, Luna Talbot?”
Luna paused, turned again, surprise exhaling from her lips in a short gust. Of all people! Tobias Goddard, the man of the hour, surrounded by his disreputable fellows. Her mission was, unexpectedly and all too easily accomplished!
It was the sight of those other fellows who gave her pause. There were seven of them total, including Tobias himself. All various ages, from gangly teens to grizzled grandfathers, and yet somehow sharing the same vicious aura from which her tea witch perceptions could not help recoiling. These were hard-knock bruisers, who had learned from experience to treat the world with deep suspicion. And it was a series of suspicious gazes indeed that fixed upon Luna now.
She should go. Hurry home. If she didn’t stop now, didn’t acknowledge Tobias in any way, they would likely leave her alone. But then all this would be for nothing. Her bold declarations and virtuous intentions rendered mere foolishness, and all while Mr. Grimm ventured down into the cold warehouse district for nothing.
She had to see this through.
“Tobias Goddard.” Luna turned to face the boy as he stumbled her way, her hands deep in her pockets.
“The one and only!” he replied, a big grin flashing. The other fellows trailed a few paces behind him, keeping to the shadows beyond the light cast by the streetlamp under which Luna stood. Luna found herself under the leering scrutiny of seven different pairs of eyes, each more unsavory than the last. Were these the titular Brute Boys?
She fixed her gaze firmly on Tobias, refusing to acknowledge the others. “Your mother is worried about you tonight,” she said.
“Yeah, Tobe! Yer mammy ain’t happy!” One of the young lads smacked the back of Tobias’s ginger head, knocking his hat forward so that it fell down over his nose.
Tobias cursed and pushed his hat back into place before shooting Luna a resentful look. “Me ‘n the boys is just havin’ a laugh. Ma’s just up in her feels is all.”
“Pretty little thing like you looks like she could use a laugh herself,” one scrawny, long-necked fellow spoke with a shockingly bass voice, limned with not-so-subtle threat.
Luna shuddered, but maintained her focus on Tobias. “So, you’re not . . . you’re not going down to the warehouse district tonight?”
“Who said anything about the warehouse district?” an older man with a grizzled gray beard snapped.
“Cool it, guys!” Tobias said, making soothing gestures with his hands. Then he looked at Luna, eyes narrowing. “Look here, I don’t know what Ma’s been blabbin’ on about—”
“She just wants you to come home,” Luna said. “Now. That’s all. She just wants you to be safe.”
“I ain’t not safe,” he answered, the words stumbling a little as they traveled across his tongue.
A blast of rum filled Luna’s nostrils. She turned to find the older man leaning close, looking her over with red-rimmed eyes.“And what’s it to you what anyone’s doing in the warehouse district tonight?”
Channeling all Auntie Apolonia’s imperial disdain, Luna eyed the man coldly. That look used to work wonders on the cheeky butcher’s boy back home in Greater Snoring. It worked here as well, to a degree; several of the young fellows took backwards steps. The older man, however, did not.
Luna turned from him to Tobias again. “There’s a rumor,” she said quickly. “They say there’s going to be trouble down there tonight. I don’t know anything. About any of your doings. But Officer Ward said it would be best to avoid the warehouse district tonight, so—”
“Officer?” the tall, scrawny fellow boomed. “You been talking to the wardsmen, sweetheart?”
“No!” Luna shuddered, looking sharply sideways. “I’m only letting you know what I heard. Wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt—”
“That sounds like a threat,” growled the older man.
Luna blinked. Did he really thinkshelookedthreatening?Out of her depth, she addressed Tobias again, determined to keep her voice calm. “Come on,” she said. “Why don’t you walk me home like a gentleman?”
“Yeah, Tobe,” a gap-toothed fellow gnawing on the end of a cigarette leered. “Be a genteelman!”
“Aww, guys,” Tobias began.
Luna didn’t hear more. For suddenly the older man lashed out, caught her by the wrist. Her heart surged, adrenaline spiking. She twisted against his grasp, but his fingers only tightened, and her bone threatened to snap.
