The tiniest whimper escaped her, and she could have sworn she heard his lips curve into a grin. How dare he! She made another fist, but simply knowing he was behind her made it impossible.
She whirled around to face him. “I—I can’t do this right now.”
Was it the light or were his eyes darker? Did his grin look sharper and a lot more wicked?
“Oh?” he asked, a slow drawl stretching his words. “And why’s that, Felicity?”
How was he suddenlythis? He was just as hesitant as she was a little bit ago, but that disappeared when… when she’d become flustered.
Perhaps Flick just needed to be like him.
“Because,” she said, straightening her shoulders, and she saw him swallow again.Delightful. “I’m not in the mood.”
He shrugged and slipped his hands into his pockets. “Fair enough. I’ve trained a few of the others, if you prefer learning from someone who isn’t as distracting.”
Flick harrumphed. Jin’s grin widened. How she ever thought she could possibly distract Jin more than he distracted her was beyond her.
“But just remember. When you land that blow, wherever it is, pull back,” he said. “Do you understand? Don’t pity the man; don’t freeze. Pull back and ready yourself for the next move. Imagine you’re coiled like a spring.”
That was when Flick realized it: Hewantedto be distracted. He was worried. He was afraid to leave her behind. And as alive as his teasing made her feel, as much as she enjoyed the warmth that pooled low in her belly at his dark words, this warmth was different. It was cozy, promising to keep her warm and secure for far longer.
Did it make her weak to want someone who worried for her and wanted to protect her even though she was capable of fending for herself?
She didn’t feel weak. She felt special.
He fluffed the pillows back on the bed. Seeing him doing something that mundane and domestic made her heart flutter. “I know you need to keep going through the ledger, but I don’t like that you’ll have it with you. It makes you a target, and I’d rather not have that.”
Flick tamped down her smile. “And why’s that?”
Jin paused, mid fluff. His answer was stilted. “Because you’re the best forger Ettenia has. After me, of course, because I’m good at everything, but I’m technically dead.”
“Of course,” Flick said, entertaining him. She knew for a fact he’d never forged in his life. He was Arthie’s inventor. He didn’t replicate. “But it really is safest with me. And I’m her daughter; I’m a target regardless.”
He didn’t press, and that was how she knew the difference between being made to feel weak and special. He trusted her, hebelievedin her, and that was plenty.
“It can’t be easy for you, I’m sure,” he finally said. “Talking about taking her down, and seeing her pay.”
Flick shrugged, and not in dismissal. She didn’t yet know how she felt. Her emotions were a tangled mess, and a shrug truly encapsulated it best.
“She brought this upon herself.”
That, at least, Flick knew for certain.
10ARTHIE
Afortress. Arthie could think of nothing else since Jin and Flick told her of their findings the night before. There was no such monstrosity here in Ettenia, in a place the Ram truly had dominion over.
“Are you sure you don’t want several more?” Sidharth asked, dragging her back to the situation at hand. They were nearing the docks. He’d lent them a carriage, making their long trek from the Athereum to the port easier without the fear of eyes tracking them. “Athereum members are snobs, but they can hold their own in a fight.”
“The less people to account for, the better,” Matteo said with a shake of his head. “We’re trying to save enough vampires as it is. Just make sure your men are here to take the rescued vampires in when we arrive.”
A gloom drifted across the skies. Seagulls called in the distance, dockworkers shouted over the breeze, and the waves crashed against the shore with a zeal Arthie felt in her bones as she and the others neared. She’d brought Chester and the boys too, in case they needed a distraction from the Horned Guard squadrons stationed at every bend, yawning and looking as though they wanted to be anywhere but near the chill of the sea.
“Once we’re through here, I want you back in the carriage with Sidharth, understood?” Arthie asked Chester, Reni, and Felix.
“I might—”
Arthie cut Chester off. “Yesis the only appropriate answer when the Ram’s kidnapping humans off the streets and doing who knows what.”
