Chapter 23

The next day, I wore my cute new green top for my workout in the guildhall exercise room. It matched my eyes and made me feel beautiful. Even though I knew it was silly, I couldn't help being in a good mood. The evening with Remy had been amazing, far beyond anything I could have imagined. He'd made me feel sexy and womanly, not like someone's kid sister.

I danced around the room with abandon: kicking, spinning, twisting, and cartwheeling. If my voice hadn't sounded like a chorus of frogs, I'd have been singing.

I bounced on my toes before running a few steps and launching into a front layout with a full twist connected to a round-off, a back handspring, and a back double layout. Waving my hands in the air, I strutted around the mat on tiptoe, ready to acknowledge the accolades of my imaginary audience.

The clatter of boots and slow clapping drew my attention to the stairs. Jareth, followed closely by Polix and Gordon, strolled into the basement. Not caring if he mocked me, I turned and gave an elaborate bow perfected during countless circus performances.

"That was quite a show." Jareth commented.

I smirked. "Jealous you can't move like that?"

Jareth chuckled, his smug smile in place. "I move in ways you can't even imagine, Ziola."

"You keep telling yourself that," I retorted, picking up a towel to wipe my face.

Polix and Gordon exchanged amused glances, plainly enjoying the tension between Jareth and me.

"I didn't come here for childish banter, sweetheart," Jareth said, looking me up and down with a curled lip as he stripped off his shirt and strode to the dumbbell rack. "Besides, we all know Remy's got his hands in your cookie jar."

Placing one hand on my hip, I tapped my lips with a finger. "I heard you couldn't get it up the other night. Maybe Remy doesn't have that problem."

Jareth's face flushed bright red as he glanced at his followers. "That's a lie."

I knew it was foolish to bait him, but I couldn't stop myself. "You think only men talk? News flash. Girls do too."

Jareth's dark eyes narrowed, his handsome face hardening. "You're playing with fire, bitch."

"Only if you consider the truth to be fiery," I retorted, raising an eyebrow. By the gods, this was stupid, but I didn't care. I was sick of him.

Without a warning, Jareth dropped the dumbbell he'd been holding and lunged. Fury propelled his muscular form toward me, and I'd have been helpless against his larger body mass if he'd knocked me down. But his anger was his downfall. I sidestepped, grabbed his extended arm, and twisted it behind his back, effortlessly sending him crashing face-first into the mats.

Polix and Gordon let out surprised laughs while Jareth groaned, pushing himself onto his elbows. If possible, his face was a shade redder than before. He glared at his friends, who instantly sobered and directed their attention to their shoes.

Into the tense silence, a cool voice drawled, "Do we have a problem here?"

All eyes snapped to the doorway where Remy lounged casually against the wall, his face a mask of complete indifference. In one hand he held a small throwing dagger, his slender, agile fingers sending it dancing over his knuckles and across his palm. For a long moment, we all stared mesmerized at the glinting blade.

My knees felt weak, but I calmly walked across the room and poured a cup of water. "I was just telling Jareth about how a smaller person can defeat a larger one. He didn't believe me, so I offered to demonstrate." I turned and stared straight into Remy's eyes, willing him to drop it. The last thing any of us needed was for this to escalate. Never mind that I wasn't entirely innocent in the confrontation.

Remy held my gaze for several heartbeats before nodding. The blade vanished, and he glided up the stairs, calling back over his shoulder, "Come up when you're done, so I can tell you what I learned last night."

Blowing out a relieved breath, I gulped the water and retrieved my tunic from the corner where I'd left it. Without another word, I pulled it over my head and skimmed up the steps, leaving Jareth and his cronies muttering behind me.

When I emerged into the main hall, Remy was seated at the large planning table with a glass in his hand. I strolled over and sniffed at the glass.

"Whiskey? Seriously?"

He swirled the contents of his glass, took a mouthful, and shrugged. "You seem to drive me to it."

I sat next to him. "But it makes you cranky."

Remy laughed and said, "Just one. I promise." He put the glass on the table. "Do you want to talk about what was going on downstairs?"

"Nope. I handled it. Everything is fine." I wasn't some delicate flower that needed him to fight my battles. Especially not when we both knew he'd soon tire of me.

He regarded me steadily, but eventually said, "OK." He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. "As you know, I went back to Scepter Seraphim last night and they do indeed have the Eye of Oris. In a nutshell, I can get in without detection, but I'm not sure I can get the Eye out."

I hadn't expected that. Maybe I had started assigning superhuman strengths to Remy, but he had always seemed able to handle anything. Hearing that he couldn't was discouraging.

"What are the complications?"

"In my shifted form, I can evade the guards and magical traps, but I can't carry anything bigger than a sunflower seed," he said with a crooked smile.

I grinned. "And I assume the Eye is a bit bigger?"

"Unfortunately."

"How can you tell where the magical traps are?" I asked. My enchanted magic detector was small, but it was definitely bigger than a sunflower seed.

"I can sense magical wards. I don't know why, but I've always been able to."

"Can other rat shifters do that?"

"Dunno. I've never met another."

My mouth dropped open. "None?"

He shook his head. "I have no idea if we are uncommon or if the others are like me and don't talk about it."

I chewed on my lower lip. "Maybe I should go in. I can carry the Eye."

He rolled his eyes. "Do you seriously think you are better at breaking and entering than I am in human form? Confidence is good, but there's a reason no one's been successful."

When he put it that way, I did sound arrogant. I sighed.

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He looked like he'd been carrying the circus strongman across town, and I wondered when he had last slept.

"So far, I've only thought of one possibility, but I don't like it," he said heavily.

"What?"

"It's too dangerous."

"For who?"

"For you."

I poked him in the chest. "You're supposed to be helping me get better, not hide behind your skirts."

"I'm supposed to be not getting you killed," he shot back.

I wasn't sure if that frightened or annoyed me.

"Just tell me and we can decide together if it's too dangerous."

"After you knock out the gargoyles, instead of just running, you climb down the building to a window. I open the window, hand you the Eye, and you go back up and escape across the roofs."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Are you kidding? The timing will have to be perfect, or you could be clinging to the wall by your fingernails for a long time. And if the gargoyles wake up, you're dead."

Now it sounded a lot less appealing.

"Can we find some kind of enchanted timers we could synchronize?"

He rubbed his chin. "Maybe. But how am I going to carry it?"

I thought about it for a few moments. "I could rig a rope harness and lower myself to the window. That way, I wouldn't be trying to balance on a ledge for a long time."

"If you wore black and put soot on your face and rope, you wouldn't be easily seen, but that still only gives us a fifteen-minute window. You have to be off that roof and on your way before the gargoyles stir."

I shrugged. "That doesn't sound so bad. I can have the harness rigged ahead of time and as soon as they collapse, I can repel down the wall."

"The timing is still tight. I don't really know how long it will take me to bring the Eye to an upper floor window." He dragged a hand down his face. "I don't like it. Normally we'd take a lot longer to plan something like this, but with the auction date so close, we can't wait."

"Got any better ideas?"

Remy slumped in his chair and frowned. "No."

After further discussion, Remy decided it would be best to use a safe house after we stole the Eye of Oris rather than come directly to the guildhall or hide in the Veiled Vaults. I'd seen firsthand that the Vault residents could be untrustworthy, so it made sense not to bring the Eye there. Then he showed me a list of guild safe houses and the process for booking one.

"This one is the closest to City Center," Remy said, pointing to an address on the list. "Memorize it. We'll meet there when all is done." He handed me a key. "You take this."

"What if you get there first?"

"I can easily hide and wait for you. But we don't want you standing in a hallway with the Eye, waiting for me."

"When do we go?"

"It was starting to rain when I arrived. Can you keep your bow string dry enough to shoot?"

"Yes."

"Then we go tonight."