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He only showed weakness in her presence. Dropping the mask and sinking into a seat. His eyes were distant.
“You have to find her.”
She didn’t have to ask who.
“I will if that is your request.”
Bastian met her gaze, hardened as steel. “Find her and kill her.”
“As you wish.”
She would find Kerrigan Argon and finish what she had started so long ago. And then she would return with her father’s favor … and she would end it all.
19
The Amulet
CLOVER
“Tell me again how it worked,” Hadrian said.
He stared down at the amulet as if it were simply a chunk of metal. A circle the size of her palm, etched with the language of the ancient Fae. It was so much more than just a necklace Clover had been wearing since her parents’ demise.
Clover sighed heavily through her nose for the hundredth time. “We’ve been over this.”
She looked up at Darby, seated at the end of the table. Her focus never wavered on the necklace.
“Yes, but the mechanics still elude me,” Hadrian said.
“It’s not mechanics,” Darby said. “It’s heart. Right?”
Clover nodded. It was heart. It had always been heart with the three of them. Clover had fallen in love with Darby at first sight. Her majestic dark skin and long, shiny black hair. The dimples in her rounded cheeks. The light in her eyes. The sharpness of her Fae ears had never meant a thing to Clover.
Everything Clover had wanted and known she could never have. How could a Fae this stunning ever look at a street-rat human and see beauty? Clover’s parents had been killed in the Red Masks raids so long ago. She’d been raised in the Laments church before its demise and then taken in by Dozan Rook, the ruthless king of the Wastes. She’d worked in his halls as a card dealer until Kerrigan stumbled into her life and upended it wholly.
She didn’t deserve someone like Darby. Let alone Darby and Hadrian.
At least Hadrian had been gutter-born in the same way she had. Fully Fae and taken off the streets at a young age with his unusual blue hair, too-quick mind, and sharply pointed ears. Hadrian and Darby had been Kerrigan’s closest friends until Clover joined their little group. She and Hadrian were at each other’s throats until Darby was yanked away from her. Then, everything made sense. They hated each other only because they loved each other. They were so similar. And when it had been clear that she wanted them both, Hadrian hadn’t balked. He only wanted what was best for her. He wanted everything for her.
So, she had them both.
Unfathomable.
Almost as unfathomable as the amulet before her now.
Clover reached in her pockets, patting herself down to find the loch cigarettes that sustained her. It was an illegal substance on the streets of Kinkadia and becoming increasingly more difficult to find now that the Red Masks were in charge. While most lochheads were depraved addicts, Clover had a chronic illness. The loch kept her from debilitating pain at all times of the day.
Hadrian brushed a hand back through her cropped black hair and pulled a cigarette from behind her ear. “Here.”
She took it with a wicked grin, bringing it to her lips and leaning forward. He had just enough fire magic to light it.
She inhaled deeply, letting her eyes flutter closed. “That’s the stuff.”
Hadrian’s pupils dilated at the sight of her. He snatched up the cigarette and brought his mouth to hers. She exhaled into him at the first touch of their lips fitting together.
“No fair,” Darby whispered.
Clover took another hit on the cigarette before sinking back into her seat next to Darby. She blew the smoke above them and then claimed Darby’s mouth next. Darbs had never liked the smoke, but she hardly complained as their tongues touched in the space.
A throat cleared at the door. “Not to interrupt.”
Darby jerked backward. Propriety was something that had been too far ingrained in her. Clover put a finger under Darby’s chin and kissed her once more. Just a peck. Just enough to remind her who she belonged to.
If her cheeks could have flamed red, they would have in that moment. Clover loved it.
“Hey, Thea,” Clover said, turning away from her girlfriend and to the head of the RFA.
Rights for All was the main arm of the rebellion against the Red Masks. Their focus was exactly as their name suggested—helping humans and half-Fae have equal rights with Fae. That had started with a say in the government, courtesy of Kerrigan. But that had all gone up in flames, just like all their other plans. Just like Kerrigan.
“Hello, you three,” Thea said. “Any luck on the amulet?”
She came farther into the room and gestured to the necklace still sitting motionless before Hadrian. Her bald head was fully on display, and she had changed into the robes of the Laments church, where she had worked before starting RFA. Thea had known Clover’s parents before they died. She’d been the one to push Clover to finish what her father had started.
