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“You have an in with Lennox. I have an idea to help you preserve that while also getting you away.”
“What is it?”
“Could you employ your acting skills as well as you did in the jail cells?”
“That wasn’t all acting.”
Sai studied me for a moment. His back was to the windows. Clouds had moved across the moon, darkening the hall, and I couldn’t make out his expression, just the drop in the slant of his shoulders and shifting of his feet. “I’ll steal you.”
“Excuse me?”
“As an act. I’ll use my magic and create a scene to make it clear I’m taking you against your will.”
“They’ll hate you if you do that. They’ll call you a villain.”
“They already do.”
“Maybe they’re not wrong.”
He ducked his face so that the shadows swallowed him, and a pinch of regret niggled in the back of my mind. My words hit harder than I’d intended. Sai’s voice came hoarse when he spoke. “I owe you money. Come with me to the Prasanna lands, get away from your mother, and you can decide what you do from there.”
I considered that. I wanted to get as far from Mother as I could. Plus, Sai did owe me money. I’d more than pulled my weight with the heist. A beat of guilt rippled through me over Lennox’s zevar. It would shame him as badly as he’d done to Shaan. Earlier, I’d thought I could make it to Prasanna soil and figure out my life from there. I wouldn’t be alone with Sai. I’d have Luz there, Neia and Elisa, and the others. However, I couldn’t let Sai take Lennox’s zevar. It would be as bad as him taking Shaan’s. “Fine. I want you to give me Lennox’s zevar back.”
“What will you do with it?”
“I… I’ll…” I waved vaguely about.
He stepped in closer to me so that his rich sweet and burnt smell filled my senses. “Do you know how valuable zevars are? Specifically royals’ stones? We have minutes before we must leave if we wish to get out. If you leave his zevar somewhere hoping Lennox will find it, someone else could steal it.”
“You’re stealing it right now.”
“We’ll return it, with some negotiations.”
I didn’t feel good about that. Lennox had been exceptionally kind to me. I wanted to know his story, because I was certain there was more beyondthe bastard prince who screwed over Sai’s brother.I didn’t have time though. If I stayed here, Sai was right, they’d know I’d been a part of the group. Despite my brazenness with Mother earlier, I had no desire to die. Plus, to his other point, how was I supposed to return the damn stone? Stride up, hand it over, and say,Sorry, about that, must have caught on my fingers while I had you under my magical spell so I could steal from you?No. That wouldn’t work.
Sai was right.
I hated him being right.
“Fine. Let’s do this.”
“Lira, I’d like if you’d give me a chance to explain and—”
“You get no chances.” I glared at him, and that erupting feeling bubbled in me again, augmented by the glittering sparkle of the new magic. “You owe me money and frankly you owe getting me out of this situation. I’m the reason this mission was successful.”
“You are.”
I stepped against him, close enough that my nose nearly brushed his cheek as he leaned closer. His sweet, burnt smell filled the air. For a heartbeat of a moment, I remembered looking at him warmed by the flames and thinking this man was my future. What a ridiculous idea that had been. He swallowed as my skin touched his, and I lifted my face so that I whispered against his lips. “Steal me, then.”
Sai shuddered, yanked a necklace off so that his appearance shifted back to normal, the sharp line of his jaw backlit by the moon that reemerged, and swept me into his arms. “Hold on to me. This is going to be pushing it for me, even.”
Before I could protest his zevar lit up and his eyes glowed black. The first time I’d seen that I thought his eyes had turned depthless, but here in the dark it was more like the heavens, magic sparkling over them like stars speckled against a night sky. Dark fog swept around us, cutting off the limited light of the moon until it was just Sai’s body warm against mine, his intoxicating scent filling the air, the scrape of his uniform against my cheek. “You’re prepared to sell this?”
I released my hands which had involuntarily curled around his neck like he was a prince come to rescue me and not the man who’d betrayed me. “I am.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX
SAI
