Page 74 of Claiming Sarah

Ialmost felt it and had to keep myself from fidgeting.

But Omen was unmoved. “They’re a fairy story parents use to get their children to brush their hair, Sarah. It’s not real. Stopmessing with her like that, Augur—she doesn’t know what’s real here.”

“If you’re not careful, it’ll swim into your ear.”

“Stop cheating, Augur—”

“I don’t cheat.”

I frowned as I looked between them. “How would she cheat? She’s not touching you.”

“She is telekinetic,” Omen said. “She can make it feel like the air is blowing on you or something is touching you. Among other things.”

Her opponent pouted. “I wouldn’t dare cheat and I am hurt you would accuse me of such things, Omen.”

“What game are you two playing at, anyway?” I asked curiously.

“We’re seeing who can stand to be stared at the longest, without blinking,” Omen said.

“Which is why she’s going to lose,” Augur insisted.

I thought about that for a moment. “I wouldn’t have thought ghosts needed to blink.”

“We don’t,” Augur explained, her eyes staring straight ahead at Omen. “It’s just a habit. Older ghosts don’t bother with it. For that matter, we don’t need to eat or use a bathroom…most bodily functions are optional for us. Except for sleep. And sex.”

“That’s optional,” Omen said.

“Like hell it is,” Auger teased.

I grinned at their competitive bickering. “And what is the prize for winning this game?”

“Pride.” Augur’s single-word answer hung between them, like something neither was going to give up.

“Where is Rex?” I asked, wondering where he’d disappeared to.

“In the cargo hold with his men,” Omen said.

I watched them play their silly game. The way people who knew each other for a long time could just make up a game or a contest, all of it had put me in mind of my sisters. There was a sudden ache in my chest for them as I remembered the childhood we shared. The soft feel of braiding Jenny’s blue streaked hair—she had begun dying it blue the moment she had any spare money. The way Elizabeth was blunt to the point of hurting my feelings, but always made sure everyone was clean and as fed as any of us ever were.

Strangely, I missed Elizabeth’s cold honesty as much as I missed Jenny’s silly sweetness, and the thought made me sigh.

“Why the sigh?” Augur asked.

The details of our complicated life were too personal to share with a stranger, so I kept it simple. “I miss my sisters.”

“I know the feeling,” Augur said, then amended, “I know it’s not the same thing, but the conduits—we’re a sisterhood, too. Being opposed to them feels strange. Like I’m doing something wrong.”

That caught my interest. “Why oppose them, then?”

“There’s no real reason for us to be hunting Rex,” she said, still holding Omen’s gaze. “Is he a bastard? Of course. He’s a Terian. But he’s also kept Faithless from falling apart a few times, and—”

“Why would it fall apart?” I cut in.

Augur gave a patient smile. “Faithless is a city of ghosts. Ghosts don’t have much to lose. They’ve already lost everything. So, they get rowdy.”

I considered that for a moment. “And that’s why you’ve sided with him? He keeps the ghosts from being rowdy?”

“And his cock.”

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