Page 76 of Their Mate
Logan nodded. “We find Zara,” he said. “Then we decide.”
I fell in line again because it was easier than thinking about the way they looked at me when I saidI need to go.
I told myself I’d bought time, at least. I told myself they’d sleep sometime, or turn their heads to listen to the wind, and I’d be what I’ve always been.
A member of the Watch.
CHAPTER 24
Jamie
We found a flat on the second floor of a brick building that still had most of its windows and a secure iron door. There was a rusted fire escape out the back if we had to get out of there fast. I liked it the second I stepped inside. There were good sightlines through the windows around the building, which meant we could see if anything was coming for us.
It was as good as it would get as a shelter for the night.
“Aye,” I said, shouldering the door closed until the latch slid home. “This’ll do.”
We moved around just as we’d done it a hundred times. Logan checked the street from the balcony and through the windows on one side. As Aidan and Declan kept eyes on the main living areas and watched through the windows opposite the balcony, Edward cleared all the other rooms. Sera hung back, staying very quiet. I knew what it was though. It wasn’t fear. It was the weight of responsibility.
I knew that kind of weight when I saw it. It was familiar because I had carried some of my own.
I set an alarm at the stairs using fishing line, two tins, and a broken shard of mirror, just enough to make noise if someone decided to sneak up on us. Then I told the rest of the group that I’d scrounge kindling and slipped back to the street. We had a small camp stove and a candle, but I’d never trusted nights without light or a flame. The dark came alive sometimes, and I liked to see what was stalking me in the night.
Down on the quay the wind came in sideways, bringing the scent of the sea with it. I pried loose a few chair legs from a dead café, grabbed some broken boards lying in the street, and found a crate sturdy enough to carry everything. Then I saw her, tucked under a fraying tarp three moorings down. A boat. Fiberglass, not very big, nothing fancy. Pretty in the way a tool is when it wants to be used.
“Well then,” I muttered, glancing up and down the promenade to ensuring I was completely alone. I slipped the tarp off and stepped aboard.
The cabin was clean enough. The instruments were sun-faded. I popped the tank lid, sniffed, and grinned. Full of fresh diesel. I don’t know how it was possible, but I thanked my lucky stars for such good fortune. Then I found a set of keys on the dash.
“Bless the lazy,” I whispered, and turned the engine just long enough to hear the cough of life. Killed it quick.
Then I got an idea.
I pulled the tarp back tight, patted the boat like I was telling it just to wait there, picked up the crate of wood, and made myway back to the flat. I carried the crate upstairs with my heart thumping in my chest.
My pack had made the flat something of a home while I was gone. A candle burned on the counter. Declan’s laugh echoed from one of the back rooms. Aidan’s voice came in hushed undertones, asking Logan a question I couldn’t quite hear. Edward had a map open on the floor, already drawing potential routes for our journey tomorrow.
Sera sat near one of the windows, in that black thermal and the charcoal cargos we’d nicked for her, one knee up, elbow loose across it. She had a knife in her lap and a far-off look in her blue eyes that I wanted to take away from her and carry myself.
My chest did a daft thing. I let it.
I set the kindling by the little camp stove and took a breath.
“Find anything?” Declan asked, eyes flicking to my empty hands and then to the crate full of wood by my boots.
“Aye,” I said, keeping my voice easy.
Sera looked up then, that faraway look breaking. The candle worked gold into her irises, and for a moment, I was spellbound. I watched her shoulders shift by a few degrees. She didn’t smile.
She would though. Soon. I would make sure of it.
I dropped a chair leg into the stove, set a flame, and checked the window one more time. The boat sat there sweetly, and I grinned, my secret plan coming together bit by bit.
“Sleep in shifts,” Edward said. “We move at first light.”
“Right,” I said. “I’m nicking Sera for a minute. Going to take her off and deal with her properly for just deciding that she was going to leave us and not come back.”
Four heads came up like I’d just announced that I was going to juggle knives.
