“To the Athereum, of course. Ivor said that’s where Arthie andMatteo are. You didn’t think we were trading Spindrift for an old fisherman’s storeroom, did you?”
Flick scrunched her nose and opened her mouth, looking as though she was about to agree.
“We’re doing no such thing,” Jin said. “They’re my parents, and we don’t need Arthie to find them. We’re going to do it ourselves.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a knock sounded on the wooden door of the storeroom.
Chester looked at the floor, drawing a line in the dust with the toe of his shoe.
Jin sighed.
5ARTHIE
Arthie had always known that her brother was resourceful, but she hadn’t anticipated that he would find Flick before she did, although she supposed it was a matter of who Chester had gotten to first, the little bugger.
Her chest rose as she steeled herself.
“He’s your brother,” Matteo said. “There’s love at the heart of his anger and pain, or he wouldn’t feel either.”
The care in his eyes unsettled her. A question bubbled to her lips:What do you want in return for your kindness?But something held her back. That same something sent a rush of warmth through her instead.
“All right?” Matteo asked.
Arthie nodded.
And in true, never-one-to-shy-away fashion, Jin opened the door, the look on his face telling her that he had known she was on the other side of it.
He was alive. Whole. She could still picture the smoke wisping from the bullet hole in his chest. A knot loosened in hers. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t seen him open his eyes after the Ram had shot him and Arthie had turned him, but so much had happened that night that Arthie hadn’t realized how terribly she wanted to see him until now.
“Never thought I’d find you in a place this stinky,” she said before she could stop herself. She pinched her lips together.
This was new, having to consider her words before speaking tohim. Jin was the one constant in her life; he’d been a part of her world longer than even her parents had been. How had they reached this point?
Because of me.That tiny inner voice had gotten a lot louder lately.
He gave her a mock laugh, more than one emotion playing behind his dark eyes. He looked her over, and she wondered if he was assessing her or searching for her fatal wound. “Back in a suit, I see.”
Her armor, each layer protecting her heart—even from herself. She’d been left bare a week ago, as exposed as the thin sari she’d wrapped around herself. No more. In the holster at her side, Calibore’s presence reassured her as Jin once did.
“As much as I’m not looking forward to being surrounded by so much fish, can we come in now?” Matteo asked beside her. “My arm grows tired.”
He was holding an umbrella over both his and Arthie’s heads, shielding them from the Ettenian sun. There wasn’t much to shield from, but shield he did.
“Come in, come in!” Chester said grandly, and Arthie had the sense he was pretending to be Matteo’s butler.
Arthie stepped inside, Matteo closing the umbrella and the crumbling wooden door behind them, gagging throughout.
“Why are you here?” Jin demanded, as if they were intruding upon his fishy kingdom. He looked straight at Arthie. She wasn’t sure if he was ignoring Matteo, or if he was angry enough with her not to have even noticed him.
Arthie swallowed. What was wrong with her? She was usually quick with her responses, rarely letting anyone sway her. She prided herself in being resilient, unwavering. She was made out of stone, but wasn’t he the one who had fashioned it around her? Who was she without the one she’d built herself up with?
“The same reason you are,” she finally replied. “For the ledger.”
“Arthie!”
Flick rounded the half wall and threw her arms around her. Arthie stiffened, before some part of her relaxed. Flick was an entirely different girl than when Arthie had first given her Matteo’s address back in Spindrift. Her wide-eyed innocence was gone, as were her pastel gowns and unblemished skin.
In the dim light, Flick pulled away and met Arthie’s eyes with a shy smile. “I—I thought you were dead.”
