“I’m fine,” Evie said. They didn’t buy it. “Really! I’m good on my own. I’m used to it. Prefer it, actually.”
Until she’d met Amanda, that had been the truth. Evie had bounced around the foster system since she was a child, never staying anywhere for long. She’d had the odd relationship, none of them healthy, until she went to New Orleans and found Amanda. Now Evie was back to being alone.
She was fine with that. She had to be. She was better now, anyway, and she couldn’t drag Blake and Lily into her messed-up life. It wouldn’t be fair to them.
“How’s Court?” Evie asked, changing the topic. Blake and Lily exchanged glances.
“Everyone’s antsy,” Lily said. Blake scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“Antsy. Right. Those are the words of a Court-bound Regent-ness. If things are antsy in the high-rise, they are seething in the field. There’s a bunch of feral vamps near the south border. Don’t know what’s gotten into them. Most of the day teams are being turned to night shifts just to keep everything under control. We’ll be thin in the city for a while as it’s sorted out.”
Blake worked with the patrol teams investigating problems and apprehending Court criminals within Chains territory. It was a dangerous job. She’d gotten new scars since Evie first met her.
“I’ve barely talked to Aleksander all week,” Lily said sadly. “I only see him when he comes up to rest.”
“He’s got the patrols fidgeting.” Blake sneered and her posture went stiff. “Don’t get me wrong, I respect him going out with us, but having the King breathing down your neck makes you tense. And he’s missed in the high-rise. Natalya’s holding down the fort, and she’s on a mean streak from what I’ve heard.”
Evie leaned forward slightly when she heard Natalya’s name. Blake was busy cleaning her nails with a knife, but Lily noticed.
“How is Natalya?” Evie asked, trying to sound indifferent. It came out a bit too forced.
“Pissed as hell,” Blake said.
“She’s been acting strange lately.” Lily narrowed her eyes at Evie. “And she’s not pissed. I’ve seen her angry, and this isn’t that. She’s just… off. Has been for months now.”
“I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with me showing up.” Evie shrugged, trying to make her tone sound light. “You know. With Varro and all.”
“Natalya just occasionally remembers she hates people,” Blake said. Lily cocked her head, regarding Evie curiously until Blake pulled her into a conversation about the upcoming Iron’s Eve.
Evie didn’t listen, turning to look out of the window. She brushed a finger over her mouth, as she’d developed a habit of doing. If she thought of Natalya for long enough, her lips started tingling. It was a pleasant feeling. But strange. Just like Natalya.
Natalya was frightening, commanding, and powerful. And she’d saved Evie. She’d found herself thinking about the dark-haired woman more than she liked after she got set up in the apartment. At first, it was with unease. Then with gratefulness. Now it was with a strange feeling she couldn’t identify. Like a pull or a longing. Almost as if Evie missed her.
Evie could still recall the cadence of her voice. How warm she was. Her soothing touch. It made Evie feel… weird.
She sometimes wondered what Natalya was doing or how she was. She hadn’t seen her since that day in the office months ago where Natalya promised to protect her, and there were nights where the knowledge of that was the only thing that allowed Evie to fall asleep. Something as powerful as Natalya watching over her made her feel safer. Even if they were miles apart and they’d had no contact for months.
Natalya probably had no idea how much she’d affected Evie with her words. She’d just made the promise of protection because she needed to calm Evie down.
Despite her best efforts, the cynical thought refused to stick. Evie didn’t know why, but it felt like a promise made by Natalya was a promise made to last.
Blake and Lily left an hour before nightfall. When they were gone, Evie did what she always did during the evening and pulled up a chair to the balcony window, so she could watch the sunset.Practice, Georgina called it. Evie hated doing it, even if she didn’t hate it as much as she once had.
A looming dread always came over her seeing the dark come in, but it wasn’t as intense as when she’d first gotten to Chicago. She’d even found herself enjoying aspects of the night. When New Year’s had passed over a month ago, she’d loved the fireworks. Now it was mostly the quiet she liked, and as the light vanished entirely, she tried to relax in it.
There was a scraping sound at the door, and Evie turned. Then she heard whining and pattering paws disappearing down the hallway. Her neighbor was taking his dog down for its bedtime walk. She breathed out the anxiousness and was proud that the sound had only been startling. A few months ago, it would have terrified her.
Maybe she really was making progress. Maybe things would actually start to feel normal soon.
Evie turned back to face the balcony window and froze in place. Her heart sank into her stomach. She forgot how to breathe.
Outside, crouched down on the balcony so they were closer to her eye level, were two figures. One had white hair and a tense posture, but it was the other her eyes sought. A dark-haired man with pale olive skin and cruel, black eyes. He smiled as his gaze claimed her, stealing her agency in only a blink.
“Hello, Evelyn,” Stefano said. “Would you please invite us inside?”
Chapter 7
The Court was closed, which Natalya was grateful for. It meant only the initiated were allowed to walk their halls. The club floor—the public face of the Court of Chains—wasn’t as packed as usual, and it was only the otherworldly and their companions who wandered it. It meant they didn’t need to hide.
