Page 112 of A Steeping of Blood
“Oh, we tried. You were a tiny, slimy little thing, and I decided to let you have it. It was one of many artifacts we’ve picked up over the years, and I am known to bide my time.”
“Until?”
“Until I learned what it’s truly capable of.”
The Ram was suddenly interested in Calibore because she had seen Penn die. She’d been there when Laith fired the pistol at Penn and unknowingly killed him.
“Killing vampires?” Arthie asked. Her neck still stung with the remnants of the green dart she’d taken to protect Jin’s parents.Before they’d died. “I’ve since learned you’ve found alternative ways of eradicating vampires.”
“None as quick as this,” the Ram replied as the door to the room opened again. “But it’s more than that, isn’t it? I didn’t know it was magical, or that something as far-fetched asmagiceven existed. That’s not to say I care, but it is fascinating.”
Arthie schooled her features.Magic. Only one person knew of the pistol’s origins. He had tricked her for it. He had died for it.
And he knew that Arthie was a vampire.
But he was loyal to his kingdom, even if his anger for his king blurred those lines some. He had spoken of the crown prince with fondness, his training the same. She could not imagine him giving up information like that to the Ram so freely.
The two men returned, one holding a stack of wrinkled, bloody papers in a language that did not look remotely Ettenian, the other dragging a third person between them. He was bloody and beat, the silvery white of his robes drenched in varying shades of red. His hair was matted to his brow, white strands as brilliant as the moon. Even from her distance, she could see the twin flecks of black above the curve of his left eyebrow, the strained rise and fall of his chest.
Laith.
39FLICK
Flick had never wished for anything as much as she did now. She wished Arthie wasn’t seated with a monster in a carriage. She wished Jin’s parents weren’t bleeding on the cobblestones of the home they’d left ten years ago. She wished the Ram hadn’t ambushed them at the docks, and that Flick had been able to properly warn the others.
She didn’t know why Arthie had given herself up as the Ceylani vampires were turning the tides. Arthie would say she had her reasons, but she hadn’t been imprisoned for days that echoed like a lifetime. There was no telling what the Ram might do to her.
Meanwhile, Flick and the others were in the comfort of the Athereum. They were safe, but that didn’t fill Flick with the relief she thought it would.
“Arthie said not to come for her,” Matteo said, pacing back and forth in the hall outside their rooms.
“Well, we are,” Jin replied. He didn’t look sad, really. He looked numb, empty—emotions Flick didn’t know how to contend with herself. He flipped the coin Arthie had given him. “And thanks to you, we’re in sparkling-new outfits.”
Matteo scowled.
When Arthie and the Ram rumbled away, her black-clad forces had climbed into their carriages and done the same. The slaughter was over, but the vampires were not sated, unwilling to board Sidharth’s carriagesthat arrived a moment later. It wasn’t until Matteo warned them that the Horned Guard cordoning off the area would paint them as the culprits that everyone moved.
Jin had wanted to head directly to the Council, but Matteo had gestured to their bloodstained clothes and grimy skin, and not even Jin could argue against a shower. So here they were, in the Athereum.
Flick stifled a scream now as something wet and rough ran along her arm. “Opal!”
The kitten meowed indignantly in response. Her eyes were wide, affronted at having been left alone, but her tail was high, swishing in contentment at their return.
“I know, I know,” Flick replied, pulling her into her lap. Opal immediately began to purr. “I didn’t mean to be away so long.”
In hindsight, two days was nothing. No one would understand if she told them just how long those days had felt.
“What happened on Ceylan?” she asked, determined to forget.
One side of Jin’s lips quirked into a wry smile. “I had my head shoved in a sack, found my parents, watched Arthie burn down thousands of duvins’ worth of resources in the fort, and rushed back to find you.”
Matteo snorted. “That’s the gist of it. He also commandeered a moving carriage in the middle of traffic.”
Flick gasped. Before she could berate him, a shriek echoed and Chester came tearing through the hall, Reni and Felix on his heels.
“Flick!” Chester shouted, wrapping his arms around her. He smelled like sugar and sunlight. “We were so worried, we was! We tried looking for you, but none of our runners had a clue!”
“I was underground,” Flick said quietly. “Not an easy place to find.”
