I closed my eyes, letting my feet drag. “I haven’t been home in almost three months. I have no idea what’s happening here. Get me to the kid and I’ll take it from there.”
“And if Thorne’s there?”
“Stick him with the pointy end.”
He huffed a laugh as he pulled me through the alley, not his usual cheerful sound, but it was something. “He’s a god. And not just any god, the Keeper. Sticking him with anything is likely only going to end in his wrath.”
“Like it or not, he and his brother are hunting me, Archie,” I said, keeping my eyes down as we passed the opium den myfather had lost himself to all those years ago. It should have hurt less. I shouldn’t have cared. But when the door creaked open, my heart jumped into my throat, just as it’d done when I was ten fucking years old, sleeping alone in an old apartment the Maestro had given me when I agreed to do his dirty work.
When a woman appeared with a fur coat and high heels, stumbling away from the place, I felt a pang of envy, knowing she’d likely seen him more recently than I had. But I’d made a vow to myself long ago that closed off my heart. And every time I’d opened it since then, I’d been burned. By two brothers, it seemed. Two lying, manipulative, murderous brothers.
“Paesha?” Archer asked, yanking me from my thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“You’ve got to move your feet, or I’m going to have to carry you.”
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped walking. “Sorry.”
“I can see my reflection in the gold roads and it’s weird. I kind of want to find some way to chip away that gold in case we need it.”
I knew what he was doing, keeping me talking but deflecting. It wouldn’t work though. I knew the second I was alone, my world would crash down around me. Not here. Not now. Not yet. But when I could be vulnerable, I’d likely break as thoroughly as the veil had. For so many reasons I couldn’t actually think about that right now. And I knew it was the same for him. His pain was written across his face, settled within the moments he’d turned and didn’t see his sister standing there. Still, he tried. If not for himself, then for me. Untilhecould be alone, I was sure. Truly, we were the same damn pitiful mess.
I managed a brokenhearted smile. “Archer?”
“Yeah?”
“If you’re worried about pissing off the gods, I’d refrain from stealing from them.”
“I said Iwantto, not that I’mgoingto. Pretty sure there’s a difference between foolish and suicidal.”
“A difference,” I repeated, losing track of what we were talking about as we slipped past the tree line.
“What in the… Who… Paesha? Oh, gods. What’ve you done to her?”
I knew that voice, it wrapped around me like a hug, soothing something so broken, so shattered in my heart, I wanted to cry.
“I’m okay, Althea. Just drained.” I managed to lift my head, taking in the wide green eyes of my beautiful friend. My sister by choice and not blood, but it was all the same to me. I drew myself to my full height. The world tilted again as if I’d stumbled, but I knew I hadn’t. Archer would never let me. “This is Archer. I broke the world. I need a nap. And maybe a sandwich. Where’s Quilly?”
“Paesha?” That motherly voice sounded so far away but before I could respond, warm arms wrapped around me. Elowen. Not truly my mother, but the only one I’d ever really known. Orin had shared her with all of us. And now, with him gone, she truly was ours now. “Is my boy with you?”
“He’s not,” I managed, as Thea stepped to the side and both women welcomed us into the Syndicate house, Archer’s hand remaining firmly wrapped around mine. The sound of the door locking behind me did something for my soul. It reminded me that I was here, for at least a little bit. I was home and safe and the rest of the world didn’t matter. Only the peace of these four walls.
Thea took my other side, and together her and Archer practically dragged me up the stairs. I was home. Truly home. With my chosen family. But it didn’t settle me the way I’d hoped it would. Maybe later. Maybe I simply needed time.
For now, I had one goal. One face I needed to see. “Quill,” I said again, fighting off every wave of exhaustion threatening toconsume me. There was no part of me that could rest until I laid eyes on that girl, blurry vision or not.
Thea mumbled something that sounded like a warning, but I could only hear the deafening sound of the world fading away and threatening to take me under. My tongue was too heavy to string together sentences as the void within me, where the power I’d stolen had sat, echoed like an empty chasm.
But then she was there. Standing at the top of the stairs, the vague outline of her figure was clear enough I could see her cross her arms over her chest. “Paesha?” she whispered.
Had I not been fully supported on both sides, I would have fallen.
The sight of her sent a wave of relief so intense through my body that I physically ached. Every bruise, every cut, every magical drain, all of it washed away in the moment our eyes met. This child, this fierce little warrior I'd fought through hell to return to, was finally within reach.
“Quill,” I breathed, trying to free myself from Archer and Thea’s grip. My arms felt impossibly heavy but reached for her anyway. “I made it back.”
She didn't move. Her small frame remained rigid, her silhouette blurred by my exhaustion but unmistakably tense. “And Deyanira and Orin?”
