Page 27 of Heart of Thieves

Soren frowns. “Which part?”

“She knows I set this up . . . She just doesn’t know the details.” I pause, meeting their eyes in turn. “And I’d appreciate if you kept what I just told you to yourselves until I figure out how best to share the information with her. I don’t want to lose her.”

“Lose her?” Arden asks. “It’s not like she can take her heart back, can she?”

I shake my head. “No, but . . .” How do I explain to them the way Lola and I are? My Tentacles have been like family, but they always saw me for my value as the Thief. I provide them with magic, with purpose. I’m their boss.

With Lola, I’m just Enzo. Someone she loves simply because she genuinely enjoys being around me. How do I put into words the fact that it isn’t just her heart I need to survive, but also her friendship?

“It’s complicated with the heart bond,” I finally say. “It gets weaker the farther away she goes, so I need to keep her close.”

“Hmmm . . . ,” Soren says, twisting his fingers through his locs, pondering.

“Look, I agree. I should have shot those men.” I take another slow drag from my coffee. “But at least now you understand where I’m coming from.”

“I think we should send a couple of us into town to see if there are stirrings of a St. James retaliation,” Arden says, and a warm relief trickles behind the caffeine in my veins. It seems they’re not going to press the issue, which, between the mishap with the St. James men and the run-in with Nocturne, eases my turmoil a bit. And though they don’t seem keen on keeping secrets from Lola for me, I know I can trust them.

I nod. “Good idea.”

“I’ll do it,” Soren offers. “But I’ll need you to empty the tattoo first. I’m about out of room.” He rolls up his sleeve, extending the inked arm my way.

I pull a ring from my pocket and press it to his tattoo, drawing the glowing light from the inked suckers into the metal until it shimmers an otherworldly blue.

“Me too,” Arden pipes up, setting aside his coffee.

As I repeat the process for him, Jade shuffles into the room, heading straight for the percolator.

“You’ll have to start a new batch,” Soren says. “I got the last cup.”

She sighs and sets about dumping the grinds and cleaning out the chambers. “Rude.”

“You two made it back okay last night?” Arden asks Jade, watching me pull the soullight out of his tattoo with his eyes wide like he hasn’t seen me do this a hundred times. “Lola all right? She seemed pretty shaken.”

“She’ll sleep it off,” Jade says, grinding some beans in a bowl. “Be right as rain in an hour or two.”

“Oh, she’s not sleeping,” Arden says. “I was worried”—I feign a gasp, and he throws an obscene hand gesture my way—“so I checked on her an hour ago. She’s not in her room. I assumed she was with you?”

“She . . . uh . . . did mention something,” Jade says, eyes flicking to the door as though hoping Lola might walk through it, “about checking our voratium supply? She wanted to make sure we have enough before the Opalton job.”

“She’s not in the treasury,” Isla says, padding into the room shouldering a pile of tools and mechanical parts. “I was there just now.”

“Oh.” Jade’s cheeks go faintly pink.

“She’s not here?” Soren turns to me, brows raised. “Did you know?”

I shake my head. I didn’t know. But now that some of my earlier panic has cooled and I can focus on our heart bond, it’s pretty clear she’s gone ashore. “Maybe she went to get us pastries.” It probably should bother me that Lola didn’t tell me where she was going, but somehow, I’m not worried. I trust you, her voice echoes in my head, and all at once I see her in my mind’s eye again, radiant in the shadow of the Liar’s Den after the tournament, her words breaking me open, giving me hope.

Wherever she is, whatever she’s doing, it’s going to be all right. She’s loyal. She’s one of us.

“She’s not supposed to go out alone,” Soren says. “None of us are.”

“I made the rule,” I retort. “I’m aware.”

“What, so last week when I went out for a little swim without Arden, I was put on washroom duty, but if Lola does it, it’s fine?” he asks, voice hardening.

“I never said I wouldn’t put her on washroom duty.”

“But you sent out the whole crew to find me.”