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As if dealing cards in the Wastes and smoking loch weren’t enough for her. Well, they hadn’t said it, but they all wanted to. She’d taken to having smoke breaks where they couldn’t see her. She didn’t want them to know about her illness. Better for them to think she was an addict than to know there was no hope for her condition.
“We shouldn’t even be here.” Hadrian ran an anxious hand back through his blue hair. It flopped forward, back into his eyes, and he adjusted the white cravat at his throat. He went from that to fiddling with his top hat. The sequence of movements he’d been doing on repeat since she’d gotten a coded message that said to meet at the old underground rooms. Which suggested that … Isa knew about the new rooms.
Clover had decided against telling Thea. Not that Hadrian and Darby agreed. But what would be the point of moving again? Isa would keep finding them. There were only so many places to run before they would have to flee the city, and she wasn’t quite ready for that.
“You don’t have to stay here, sweetheart,” Clover said, reverting to the antagonistic pet name she’d used for him for years before they fell in love.
“Don’t be like that.” He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. “I’m only looking after your safety.”
Darby chewed on her bottom lip as she watched them. Clover shifted the amulet to her other hand and held her free one out to Darby. She sighed with relief as Clover pulled her against her chest. Darby was so soft and delicate, fitting comfortably under her chin.
“We both want you safe,” Darby said softly.
“I want to be safe too. I want to keep you both safe.” She ran her fingers back through Darby’s inky hair and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. Hadrian’s lips found Clover’s neck. She shuddered in their embrace. “I don’t trust Isa, but I want to see what her play is.”
“What if it’s a trap?” Hadrian asked.
“That’s why you two shouldn’t be here.”
“We’re not leaving,” Darby told her. “We’re in this together.”
“Any luck with the amulet?” Hadrian asked.
She tossed the thing onto the empty table. “No.”
“Then, maybe we should just go to bed.” Darby took her hand and tried to draw her to the bedroom the three of them had shared in the depths of this facility. An empty mattress still took up the majority of the room.
“Oh, I see what this is. You’re worried about safety, but we can screw first,” she teased.
Darby ducked her chin, as if embarrassed by Clover’s crudeness.
Clover put a finger under her chin and lifted it to meet her eyes. “No shame here, love.”
“We can always retire elsewhere,” Hadrian offered.
“You go ahead,” Clover said. “I’ll be there soon.”
Hadrian huffed. Clover wasn’t leaving this room tonight unless Isa showed, and he knew it. She was heavily armed. Knives all over her body. She’d even considered a sword. Though what would she do with it as a human against a trained Fae assassin?
A thunk sounded above them. Clover’s eyes widened, and she saw the mirror of her face on Hadrian’s and Darby’s faces.
“What was that?” Hadrian asked.
Clover jerked away from them, snatching the amulet off of the table and reaching for a particularly wicked-looking knife. She climbed the stairs at the forefront. Hadrian and then Darby at her back.
She pushed open the door to the surface hesitantly, wondering who exactly would be upstairs this time of night. Was it another raid? They’d been happening all over the city. Their storefront cover had been searched head to toe only days after they vacated the premises. The trap door hadn’t been found, but it had been a close call, and the guards had smashed up valuable merchandise and tossed the place before leaving.
But all Clover found was Isa kneeling at the center of the room with a man at her side.
She gasped. “Kivrin!”
Clover rushed across the room toward Kerrigan’s father. The smell hit her first, and she wasn’t fast enough to cover her gag. “What happened?”
“He was in the dungeons, and his legs don’t work,” Isa said. “What did you expect him to look like?”
She hadn’t considered it. She hadn’t let herself consider it. For most of the time after the insurrection, she had assumed he was dead. This was nearly as bad.
Kivrin groaned, pulling away from Isa. “Where have you taken me?”
“It’s me. It’s Clover,” she said. “You’re safe.”
Kivrin’s eyes were wide and wild. They kept flickering to Isa in disbelief. “You actually got me out.”
“That’s what I said,” Isa said, stepping back.
“Let me through,” Darby said frantically. “I’m a healer.”
She wasn’t the best healer by any stretch of the imagination. But the only Fae who could have possibly healed whatever was wrong with his legs had been murdered. Helly had been the most talented healer in generations. With her absence, all of Alandria was suffering. No one could take her place, and her apprentices were scattered to the wind since they had all sided with her in the rebellion. People were dying in the streets from perfectly normal illnesses and injuries. Not that anyone in the mountain cared about what happened to anyone who wasn’t one of them. Wasn’t a Red Mask.
