Page 65 of Above
“You know, it should be a crime to copy the sigils of the core houses,” Altair cut in again. “I mean, what are you doing with this cheap knock-off, anyway?”
I looked over my shoulder, seeing Altair point at the ring I had stolen from him where it sat in a velvet display.
“Actually, I think that’s yours. Tershetta brought it in here the other day.” I gasped, facing Artie and glaring up at him. “You bring a core in my shop, I tell him that you steal. Now we’re both utterly fucked.” My head fell forward, landing in my palms. He had that right. “I don’t help shaytan, Nova. You’re my only exception.”
“She’s hardly a shaytan,” Altair commented, the sound of glass clanking together from whatever he was touching making me snap.
“I said close your mouth you stupid, spoiled prat!” I shouted, making even Altair stop in his tracks. His grey eyes widened, full pink lips parting ever so slightly. He looked like a child caught with their hand in a cookie jar. Sneering at him, I rotated, facing the man who had helped me save my family on more than one occasion. “Listen, I have no options. I don’t like him and I don’t want him here. But if he tells on me, they’ll kill me. I made it sound simple before, but it’s not. They hate me and want me dead. In fact, they’re so determined to make sure that I don’t live through academy, that they’ve even tried to throw me out a window. I cannot give them any formal reasons to get rid of me when they have enough personal ones already. If I can just get him to my house, get some tonic into his system, and then get him out, maybe I can shame him into silence. It’s my only hope. Otherwise, I have none.”
Artie reared back, all of the information startling him into an open-mouthed statue. I let him stew in it, allowing all my words a chance to settle deep in his chest—in the heart that I hopedcared enough for me to help. At one point he blinked rapidly, shaking his head.
“That’s a stupid plan.”
“It’s the only one I have. I don’t have options right now. Please, I just need clothes so that Celeste doesn’t recognize him. If she’s even awake, that is. They could all be sleeping. If they are, then I can get down to my lab, make the tonic, pour it down his lousy throat, and be on my way.”
“You’re putting your entire family at risk.”
“I’ve done nothing but take care of my family my whole fucking life, but I can’t do that anymore if I’m dead! I wouldn’t even be an elite if I didn’t need to be for them. I don’t want to risk my life every day. I don’t want to sit there and listen as they say disgusting things about me and my family. But that’s the only path I have to walk. So either help me or don’t, but I’m running low on time, so make a choice.”
“Dramatic much?” Altair whispered as more items were shuffled at our backs, making me growl in displeasure. Maybe I was the beast.
Slumping his shoulders, Artie sighed, clear defeat on his sagging face. “Fine, don’t let him touch anything else. I’ll be right back.”
When he disappeared through the open doorway to the back of his shop, I let out a deep breath, feeling both relieved and guilty. He was right. If Altair wanted, he could have Artie’s shop destroyed on some fake charge. Whatever the cores wanted, they got. Or, if Altair left him alone, other eadi could see that Artie was helping shaytan and choose to not do business with him. Artie’s life and livelihood were on the line, all because of me. Because he took a chance on an of eadi years ago.
It seemed I brought death everywhere I went, but I couldn’t regret it now. Not when I was so desperate. I turned around, stomping toward Altair and snatching the silver snow globefrom his hand. “You know this is eadi stuff you’re touching, right? Aren’t you scared to get contaminated by touching it all?”
“Please, I was raised by eadi servants. If I actually believed just touching something nonmagical would taint me, then I’d already be defiled beyond belief.” Shock had me blinking to clear the confusion. Eadi servants raised him? “I’m quite certain one of the servants held me ten times more than either of my parents. So relax with all the high and mighty shit. Plus, I actually like this.”
Altair snatched the glass ball back, my eyes moving from his sneer to the small globe. It was of the large mountain range just east of our shops, snowflakes falling upon the dark grey rocks that towered up above a small tree line with two tiny figures at the base.
“No you don’t,” I argued, reaching for it again. Altair lifted it, making sure I couldn’t get my fingers on it.
“Yes I do, and you stole my fucking ring.” Lips pinched and brows furrowed, he stared me down, hand still high in the air. “I thought I lost that.”
“You’re the idiot who left it in plain sight.” Defensively, I crossed my arms and lifted my chin.
“I want it back.”
“Then buy it.”
“I’m not paying for my own fucking ring.” His fingers lifted, revealing the ring already in his grasp.
“Then don’t get it back.” I dared to snatch it, my fingertips grazing his skin and making my jaw clench.
Altair didn’t let me win, his drunken grasp still tight as his hand locked onto my wrist. “You know, no one else talks to me like this.”
“You need to be talked to like this more often.” Our faces were inches apart, both of us daring the other to back away. Iwatched as his eyes flitted up and down, side to side. Always thinking like a strategist.
“I should kill you for the disrespect,” he finally mumbled, voice low.
“You won’t.” Not now, when the timing only worked against him.
“I could.” The words were barely a whisper, as if he were talking to himself rather than me. Convincing himself.
“I think you and I both know that you’re not supposed to kill me yet, because if you really wanted me dead, I’d be dead.” Snatching my wrist away, I tossed him the ring, uninterested in holding something he would put his hands on me to get back. His fingers plucked it out of the air, the action so nonchalant that I could only purse my lips and hide the surprise.
“Then why are you so worried about me telling?”
