Chapter 44

Icheck around the waterfall, weaving through the writhing chaos of people slathered in sweat and sweet-smelling fruit juice, prying myself free from the claustrophobic press of it all when I can’t find her anywhere.

What if something bad happened to her?

Panic flogs my heart, filling it with fiery fear.

Figuring the man guarding the door might have some ideas, I dart up to the mezzanine, snatch my knapsack, and redo my hair, covering the low bun with my cap. I sprint down the tunnel and up the stairs to find him leaning against the door.

“Thought you’d turn up eventually,” he says, reaching for the handle. “She needed some fresh air. Requested that I ask you to meet her at the top of the stairs if you came this way.”

Frowning, I dart past the moment he opens the door wide enough, and charge up the cobbled stairs, whipping off my mask and shoving it in my bag.

My heart skips a beat when I make it to the top and she’s not there.

Sprinting, feet slapping through puddles that splash up my legs, I exit the alley. “Dammit,” I mutter, scanning the busy crowd.

My frantic gaze settles on a figure leaning against a wall a few doors down. Though their face is hidden by the fall of their hood, I’d recognize the swathe of that expensive velvet cloak anywhere—stark against the surrounding squalor.

Relief bubbles up so fast I almost vomit.

I run, snaking between people and swirling clouds of sweet smoke blown from long pipes.

She flinches when I grab her arm, head whipping in my direction.

“Oh,” Gael gasps, hand shielding her heaving chest. “It’s you.”

My heart flips at the sight of her pale cheeks and wide eyes that scan the busy street, gaze darting behind me nervously. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

She sniffs, wiping at a smudge of kohl beneath her eye as she tucks her mask into my bag. “I’m so sorry I left. I know that’s such a shit thing to do. I just had to get out of there …”

“Gael, what happened?”

She draws a shaky breath, nibbling at her lower lip. “I was having a really good time dancing, and I wandered off to pick some more fruit when a man ran into me and knocked off my mask. He was with two others, and one of them recognized me. They backed me against a wall; said something about their kid brother who was earning a wage working at the docks in Mother’s hanger last year. That he started acting strange, then never came home one day.”

I frown. “What does that have to do with you?”

“That’s the thing, I have no idea.” Another sniff. “None of it made any sense.”

“Did you see their faces?”

“No. But they got a very clear look at mine. Meaning they now know I frequent the lair. A secret they can use against me or my family.”

“Shit …”

“Yeah, shit.” She wipes at her nose again. “It completely destroyed my buzz. I threw fruit at them and ran.”

My eyes widen. “You threw fruit at them?”

She nods, spilling a laugh that crinkles her eyes and makes a tear fall down her cheek, letting the sound taper as she wipes at her snuffly nose. “I’m sorry. I know I promised you fun …”

Fun …

Today’s small dose of it might cost me my life. But I’d rather die by the sword of my own decisions than be stripped of the ability to make them.

“I think fun is overrated,” I admit, planting my hip against the wall.

“Maybe I’m growing out of fun, too.”

I tuck a fallen lock of hair behind her ear. “How about we find somewhere that’s quiet and peaceful and just …” I shrug, giving her a soft, lopsided smile, “nothing.”

Her eyes focus on me. “Nothing sounds really, really good.”

“Yeah?”

She nods, eyes twinkling as she looks at my bag. “Do you have a lantern in there?”

“I have a few candles?”

“Then I know just the place.”

* * *

The tall building wedged almost flush against the wall leaves only a frail pathway—so tight there’s no room for us to walk side by side. Having left her shoes at the lair in her rush to leave, Gael’s feet are bare like mine, the hem of her cloak so filthy and wet it looks more black than blue.

The path leads to a curved, cobbled bridge that arches over a deep drainway cradling a stream of gently moving water that spears through the city’s guts and burrows beneath the wall. A bridge I expect Gael to lead me over, leaving me stunned when, instead, she sits on the edge of the drainway and leaps off, landing knee-deep in a splash of water.

She turns, flashing me a big smile. “Coming?”

I slip my bag off my shoulder and toss it to her before crouching on the edge, heart racing as I leap.

My feet skate across the slick of algae, whipping out from under me, and I squeal, falling on my ass with a sloppy splash to the tune of Gael’s laughter.

Brow raised, water dripping off my face, I look up at her laughing so hard she’s folded forward, hands stamped on her knees for support.

“Am I sitting in pee?”

“Best not think about it,” she giggles, wiping the tears from her cheeks before reaching her hand down to help me up. “Sorry, I should’ve warned you.”

“It’s fine,” I say, glad to see her happy again, even if it is at my expense.

I brush off some green muck while she digs through my knapsack and pulls out two candles—handing one to me.

“We don’t really need these, but I’m not a huge fan of the dark. Do you have matchsticks in here?”

I take the bag off her and fish around, emptying one into my hand from a small jar, then striking its head on the stone and lighting both candles. She waggles her brows and leads me beneath the bridge, toward the mouth of the drain that flows under the wall, a collection of blazing lanterns hanging at its entrance.

“We’re going through there?” I ask, slime surging between my toes as I trace her steps, remembering Rhordyn’s pinched warning.

Don’t climb the wall that borders the city. It’s dangerous.

To be fair, he said nothing about not going under it …

“Sure are. We’re going somewhere I used to go when I was young and needed space.” The words echo as we move past the entrance, stooped over, feet sludging through the thickening muck.

The air is dense and stagnant, the curved stone edges pressing in on us from all angles as we creep through the drain, our blazing candles highlighting a myriad of cobwebs woven across the top. Something slithers against my foot, and I shiver, tamping the urge to scream, certain that things are crawling across my arms and head.

The hairs on the back of my neck lift.

Looking over my shoulder, I see nothing but the drain’s hollow throat that lengthens with every sludgy step we take.

The air begins to thin until I no longer feel like I’m packing my lungs full of mold spores.

Gael slows to a stop, blowing out her candle. “Shit,” she mutters, and I peer past her to the metal grate that blocks the exit. To the padlock hanging off it, glazed in firelight from the various lanterns bolted to the curved wall.

“Shit,” I parrot, and Gael sighs, jiggles the lock, tugs it. She even gives it a little kick.

“This is stupid. It wasn’t locked the last time I came here …”

“Let me have a go.”

She steps back, pressing herself flat against the edge of the drain so I can shuffle past.

I blow out my candle and stuff it in my bag, then pull out my hairpin, freeing my heavy tumble of hair. Digging the long, tapered tip into the lock’s pinched mouth, I twist … flick … flick—

The padlock clunks open, and I flash Gael a victorious grin.

She laughs, shaking her head as I swing the grate wide and gesture for her to lead the way. “You’re full of surprises. If your coupling falls through, I’m snatching you up and keeping you for myself.”

Cheeks blazing, I redo my hair, then pluck a tentative trail over big, smoothed stones clothed in a layer of algae, squinting into blinding daylight as I peer at our surroundings.

We’re on the edge of a small rise that fringes a large glen, cobbles spewing out the drain and down the shallow slope with the spill of water that feeds into the unruly jungle below. There’s a river roaring somewhere in the distance, the hilly stretch of untailored grass sparsely dotted with trees beneath a powder blue sky that makes my heart soar.

I can’t see the wall past the thick jungle clothing the hill behind us. “So we’re—”

“Outside the city, yeah. Pretty cool, huh?”

I nod, bagging her candle before I trail her down the hill—toes digging into the soil, legs lost amongst the grass …

My eyes sweep shut and I pause, listening to the wind weave between the foliage as I tip my head to let the sunlight sink into my pores like a warm cloth set upon my face.

The hearty, organic smell of nature infuses me, dissolving the heaviness in my chest. The echo of ache between my legs.

Out here, everything feels easier. Less serious. Like everything in there melts away.

“Come on.”

I open my eyes, seeing Gael’s big, bright smile.

She leads me over a rise, down into a gully poked with a sparse collection of trees drooping with big, vibrant bulbs of fruit, thick tufts of grass pillowing the ground.

Gael unbuckles her cloak and looks up into the foliage of a gnarly peach tree laden with fruit. “I’m not sure anyone else knows about this place.” Grabbing hold of a low-hanging branch, she swings herself up then pushes to her feet, looking like something out of a fairytale in her gold-brushed dress that blows in tendrils around her body. “Don’t look up my skirt,” she jests.

I laugh, whipping my hand up, snatching the peach she drops.

“Quick hands,” she says as I sit cross-legged in the grass and set it on the ground, waiting for the next. Once we have a mound bigger than my head, Gael leaps down, landing in a flutter of sparkly gold fabric, sitting down on the other side of the pile.

“Now what?”

“Now,” she grabs a peach, inspects its fuzzy skin from every angle, and bites into it, sending a squirt of pink juice dribbling down her chin. “We eat until our bellies ache. That’s what papa and I used to do …”

A heaviness settles between us as she chews, looking at the raw, exposed flesh—brow pinched, her golden curls dancing in the breeze like a restless aura.

It’s on the tip of my tongue, to ask her how he died.

The thought grows wings in my chest that flutter about …

She shoves a peach into my hand. “Nothing, yeah?”

I take a deep bite of the sweet, juicy flesh, swallowing the question down, and garnish her with a gentle smile …

“Nothing.”