Jin had never been to the Ettenian palace. He’d walked the street outside the palace on errands at times, but rarely and only when it couldn’t be avoided, for it reminded him of his father. Shaw Siwang would often recount tales of the times he and Jin’s mother had visited the halls, experiencing the extravagance as they’d sipped tea with the Eagle.
Never again, because of a choice the Ram made.
One she would pay for—not for Jin’s own sake, really, but because it was what his parents were owed after what she’d done to them. He didn’t realize his hands had begun to shake until Flick reached over and gripped them in hers, tightening her fingers through his. He squeezed back, forcing himself to remain present.
As they neared the palace, the dim, gaslit streets turned brighter, packed with throngs of people walking to the gardens before the still-closed doors. Carriages trotted away after dropping off their hires. Laughter echoed with hushed voices. The mood wasn’t as somber as Jin would have expected.
“So much for arriving early,” Matteo murmured.
“This is good,” Jin said. “Plenty more cover for us.”
The palace sat on a slight hill, sprawling with poise, its turreted spires matched by the intricate corbels, accents as dark as the night sky, lending an eerie, sinister air to the place. Still, opulence oozed fromevery inch, and Horned Guards were everywhere. Set beneath an arch carved with thick florals, the double doors were closed, but they looked familiar somehow.
“Do those not remind you of the one from the sanitorium?” Matteo remarked.
That was it. Odd.
The carriage rumbled to a stop beside a long line of others, and Jin leaped out, umbrella clutched in one hand, the other checking on the two knives he had tucked away. There would be no guns tonight, for stealth was of utmost importance. He helped Flick down, careful not to put pressure on her hands and arms. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
Flick nodded, her sunflower eyes intent. It was less of a decision for her, and more of a need, Jin realized. She would not allow her mother to think she had won in any regard.
“This is it,” Laith said, his hair damp from a quick shower—so quick, he had missed an entire streak of blood. Two of the Athereum vampires joined him, burly men in fitted tweed frock coats. The six of them made their way up the gravel pathway that wound around the palace until they reached a short wall with a hatch-like door set into a square of concrete in the winter-stiff grass.
“There it is,” Flick said.
“That tiny thing?” Matteo asked.
Flick nodded. “It will take us to the bunker.”
“—And she had the gall to wear such a thing tomydinner function,” a woman said as she passed with another, and the six of them straightened as though they were having a frivolous conversation of their own.
Goodness. The snobbery of high society was a level not even vampires possessed.
The moment they passed, Jin dropped to his knees as the others covered him. He pulled out his lockpick. There was no turning back now.
50FLICK
Flick wanted to be strong. Shewasstrong, but fear ricocheted through her like an errant bullet the moment she stepped through the bunker door ahead of the others. The air was different from when she’d first arrived. Outside, it thrummed with excitement at the festivities. In here, it was frantic and anxious. Even the Ram’s men were afraid.
Understandably, Flick supposed, seeing how swiftly the Ram disposed of them. She wished she could sit them down and ask what the Ram had in store, but something told her not even they were fully aware.
Flick paused at the corner with Jin. Laith and Sidharth’s vampires followed close, Matteo taking up the rear and still unhappy to have the high captain along. Flick peered around the corner, half expecting to see the Ram on the other side, blue eyes waiting. She wasn’t there. Her men, by contrast, were everywhere, clothed in black, armed to the teeth. Many wielded machetes. Others marched with knives strapped across their chests.
“This way,” she said.
“The Ram might still be in the room with Arthie and the others,” Laith murmured. He was dressed in dusky dark-blue robes that she didn’t know where he’d found.
“Let’s hope not,” Jin replied as they crept along the shadows. He tilted his chin. “Two men ahead.”
Laith nodded and sprinted forward, dropping one with a blade through his throat and another with an arm around his neck. Flickheld her breath tight and opened the door to a storeroom beside her. Sidharth’s vampires dragged the two men inside, but not before Laith dug through their pockets, rising with a smug smile and a ring of keys.
“Oi!”
Footsteps pounded toward them, and a knife arced toward one of Sidharth’s men, tearing through his coat, the blade sinking down to its hilt.
Flick covered her mouth against a scream, but the vampire only stared at the torn fabric and growled, grabbing his assailant with both hands and throwing him into the storeroom too, where he hit his head against the wall and fell without another twitch.
That was one way to do it.
