17. LONNIE

17

LONNIE

CHEAPSIDE, EVERLAST CITY

I awoke the following morning to the feeling of cold fingers pressing into my cheek.

As if my body already knew what was happening before my mind had a chance to catch up, my eyes flew open. I sat bolt upright, already fully awake. "What?—"

The same cold fingers clamped hard over my mouth, and my eyes widened to find Ciara peering back at me in the darkness. She pressed a long bony finger to her own lips, and jerked her head toward the door, indicating she wanted me to follow her.

If I could have, I would have let out a resigned sigh. Instead, I nodded, and waited for her to slowly pull her hand away from my mouth. She tiptoed toward the door to the hall, and stopped waiting for me to follow.

Once again, I'd slept plastered between Bael and Scion, and both were still sleeping soundly—clearly exhausted from the night before. Ambrose hadn't stayed in our makeshift bed with us last night, instead opting to sleep on the floor near the door. I looked down at him as I passed, and caught him looking up at me with one dark eye. Apparently Ciera hadn't fully succeeded in her attempts not to wake everyone.

I had the strangest urge to assure him that I'd be safe with Ciara. But then, that seemed overly familiar. He might be a friend of sorts—at least an ally—but I needed to stop treating him like one of my mates simply because he was always present. It wasn't fair to anyone—myself included.

Instead I gave Ambrose a brief nod of acknowledgement as I followed Ciara out the door into the hallway. The tiny woman scowled at me as I closed the door behind me. "Not so loud."

I rolled my eyes. "What's so important that you had to yank me out of bed?"

"I wanted to talk to you without all of them hovering around."

"Why, because they're fae?" I said a bit defensively.

She looked at me oddly. "No, because they're men. By the Source girl, one would think you were dropped on your head as a child."

I pressed my lips together into a thin line. In fact, I had been dropped as a child—into a fucking volcano—but that probably wasn't what Ciara meant.

Ciara led me down the thin rickety staircase, and into her kitchen. I noticed that while it was still dark out, she already had a roaring fire going and a pot of yet more tea boiling away on the stove.

"Sit," she said briskly, pointing to the round wooden table. "I'm sure we only have a few minutes before you're missed."

"You should know that Ambrose is awake," I told her. "I'm sure he can hear us perfectly even from upstairs."

Ciara cocked her head at me, then glanced at the stairs. "Which one is Ambrose?"

I tried not to roll my eyes. I was quite sure that Ciara could tell all the Everlasts apart perfectly well, and her feigned confusion was more about putting distance between herself and the Fae royalty than anything else. Nevertheless, I humored her. "The seer. With the white hair."

Ciara humphed. "Awe well, it can't be helped."

"What's this about?" I asked her, finally sitting down at the table.

"I've made you a tea."

"More tea?" I gave her a dubious look. "I feel fine now. I wasn't injured, just tired, and a few hours of sleep has taken care of that."

"A few hours of sleep and my tea," she said stubbornly. "But this isn't like that. I've been steeping stoneseed root all morning for you."

"Oh," I said abruptly, glancing at the stove. "That's not?—"

I broke off. I'd meant to say that wasn't necessary, but stopped short of scalding my throat.

The Stoneseed plant was well known to prevent pregnancy, and I'd drunk it religiously since my adolescence. Now though, I realized with horror that I hadn't even thought of it in quite some time. My eyes widened, and panic consumed me as my hand flew unconsciously to my stomach.

"Don't look so petrified." Ciara rolled her beady eyes. "I daresay you're fine…for now."

"How can you be sure?" I asked hastily, not even bothering to deny the possibility.

Ciara looked me up and down and shrugged. "Just a hunch. You don't have the aura of a woman with child, but unless you want to make things even more complicated for yourself I suggest you make a habit of drinking your tea."

"Of course." I looked down to hide the flush heating my cheeks. "Thank you."

Ciara tisked disapprovingly, and turned to take the kettle off the stove. She immediately poured a large mug, and set it in front of me. "Let that sit for a few minutes before you drink it."

"Will it work better if it steeps?"

"No," she snapped, exasperated. "It's hot. You'll burn your tongue."

"Oh, right. Of course." I flushed again, and let my long curtain of hair fall in front of my face.

Ciara didn't bother me as I waited in embarrassed silence for the tea to cool. I couldn't believe this was the first I'd thought about mundane things like preventing pregnancy in weeks. Now, unbidden, the image of myself holding some nameless daughter popped into my mind. She looked like a version of Scion's nine-year-old half sister Elfwyn, and I couldn't decide if the image interested or horrified me.

Hastily, I reached for the mug on the table and drank the entire thing in one gulp. Ciara was right—the last thing I needed right now was to complicate things further.

Several hours later, we thanked Ciara for her help and went out behind her house to shadow walk to Inbetwixt. Ciara didn't want to be seen by her neighbors assisting fae of any sort, so it was just the four of us standing together in the dingy alley between houses.

The morning had brought a light rain, and the sky was completely gray. In the distance, the sky was lighter, and I hoped that meant the weather would be better when we reached Inbetwixt.

"How shall we go about this?" I asked, glancing around the group at large.

"What do you mean, little monster?" Bael placed a hand on the small of my back and grinned down at me. He looked healthier and more awake than he had in days, and I was relieved to see that his usual smile was firmly back in place.

"I mean, where are we meant to arrive in Inbetwixt?"

"I assumed we'd walk directly into the den," Scion replied. "Under normal circumstances I'd consider that rude, but I think Cross will forgive us given the circumstances."

"Do you know how to reach the thieves den?" I asked Ambrose.

He shook his head. "I'm sure I could work it out eventually, but if you are aiming for efficiency…"

Scion rolled his eyes and made a disgruntled sound in the back of his throat. "I suppose I can guide you."

"Excellent," I said loudly, before Ambrose could say anything that might make Scion change his mind. "See you all in a moment, then."

Without waiting for any of them to speak, I took a small step forward, falling into darkness.

It was only very recently that I'd been able to shadow walk at all, but as with all my other abilities I'd been practicing. Scion had once described it to me as if you folded a map, and walked in between the creases. I still wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that, but more often than not I found I was able to move from place to place without difficulty.

Indeed, when I opened my eyes again I immediately knew I was in the right place. The headquarters of the thieves guild was located in the very heart of Inbetwixt. The majority of the enormous compound was underground, with only a townhouse and a neighboring tavern representing the front-facing exterior. Unless you were invited inside, you would never know that some forty thieves lived and worked underground, moving all over the city by way of an enormous tunnel system.

I arrived in the middle of the den. It was a long room with a bar on one end and a large training ring on the other. Whenever I'd been here before, Cross and his crew used this room as both workplace and recreation. I'd never seen it entirely empty before.

I turned in a small circle, blinking to clear my eyes. Within seconds, Bael appeared beside me, followed closely by Scion and Ambrose.

"Cross?" Scion called, his tone wary.

His voice echoed all around the empty room, and no one replied.

"Where is everyone?" I asked nervously.

Silence answered me, as we all looked anxiously around. The entire guild was gone, and that either meant they'd fled…or someone had come here and taken them.