“Do we know who’s responsible for the disappearances?” Matteo asked.
“According to everyone out there, we are. There have been ‘clear indications’ a vampire stole them. Since when did vampires do that? I greatly doubt he put up a sign sayingI STOLE A HUMAN, TA-RA! Oh, we’re also drinking their blood and killing them, I’ve been told. My vampires are barely leaving the premises because of the mayhem out there. Mind you, I don’t know who’s taking advantage of the chaos and kidnapping humans—”
“The Ram is,” Arthie said.
“Whatever for?” Sidharth asked almost hysterically.
Arthie picked up Calibore and gathered her sari. “You said the streets are full of Horned Guard. She’s on the lookout for us and her ledger, but is this no different than the aftermath of the Wolf of White Roaring?”
Sidharth’s silence was answer enough. She didn’t look at Matteo. She didn’t want to give anything away.
“That was twenty years ago. Ettenia’s fear of vampires hasn’t been as pressing as it was then. This is the perfect moment to ramp it up again and garner support. The more the masses fear, the more they turn to her.”
Fear was a weapon the powerful wielded time and time again with excellent results.
“And on the other side of it, she’s using the uproar to distract everyone, more importantly,us.”
Sidharth blinked at her. “I’m too tired to know what you mean there.”
“From the vampires she’s weaponizing.”
He didn’t look convinced. “Of everything we have going on, how can we be sure?”
The Ram might have killed scores of people that night and burned down Spindrift, but she did both in retaliation. She was hurting because she’d lost her ledger, that one book Arthie had risked their lives to retrieve from within these very walls.
The one book full of her secrets.
“Because that was the ledger’s biggest secret. And when I kept it instead of handing it back, she knew we’d joined Penn’s cause. We lost Spindrift because of it,” Arthie said. “Along with Penn himself, Jin, and the press who gathered that night.”
Outside, shouts rose like a rushing wave. A window shattered somewhere; people cheered.
Sidharth sighed. “If they’re blaming that night on vampires, Iwouldn’t be surprised if you and your crew were named responsible too. Nevertheless, I know you were just dead, but have you a plan?”
“When have I not been a criminal?” Arthie asked. It was true, she was no stranger to being on the run and avoiding the Ram’s guard, but the danger was greater now, infinitely more acute. She hadn’t just snatched Calibore from White Roaring Square or decided to run a secret and illegal bloodhouse; she’d stolen something the Ram desperately needed. “But yes, I do.”
Because Jin had weighed heavily on her mind even through the torment of her recovery, and with this plan, not only would she throw sand in the gears of the Ram’s weaponization of vampires and expansion of Ettenia’s colonies, but she’d earn Jin’s forgiveness too.
“Penn said Jin’s parents created the silver inoculation the Ram’s using to weaponize vampires, right? We don’t know if they’re alive, but we—”
“They are,” Sidharth said.
Arthie paused, surprised he even knew anything about them. “Penn said it was uncertain.”
Sidharth nodded. “He and I were to have a discussion about them, but now we never will, eh? I’ll never know what he wanted to speak of, but my understanding was that he didn’t want the boy—Jin, is it?—going after them.”
Arthie furrowed her brow. That was an odd wish. What sort of reason did he have to keep Jin from seeking out his own parents?
Matteo wasn’t paying attention. “Find his parents, and we’ll get answers that’ll lead to the vampires. Find the vampires, and we’ll stop the operation entirely.”
“That’s the idea,” Arthie said.
But first, she needed the Ram’s ledger. For that, she needed Flick. And Jin too, if she was being honest.
“Whatever I can provide, let me know,” Sidharth said. “I won’t tell you to trust everyone here, but those of us you can trust will do what we can.”
Arthie’s circle had tightened even more now that Penn and Laith were gone. She didn’t plan on trusting Jin’s parents either. She might not know under what circumstances the Siwangs worked for the Ram, but Arthie wasn’t one to operate by giving anyone the benefit of the doubt.
“All right,” she said, and swung her feet to the floor, standing for the first time in days. Outside, the riots echoed like a heartbeat. “Can you take us out of here? Let’s please get our crew back together.”
