“Told you I’d remember,” I taunted him, stuffing the key back into my breast band.
“We wouldn’t be here if I doubted you.” He glanced down the hall. “We should wait for Maz before we open the door, in case someone walks by.”
I nodded. We stared at each other in silence.
“Where’s the guard?” I asked.
“Closet.”
I nodded again.
Lovers.Maz couldn’t be more wrong. Aiden was angry with me. Again. Because I’d meddled with his plans. Again. He might feel sorry for me. He might see me as his responsibility. But we weren’tanykind of lovers.
Were we?
Aiden’s eyes flared, as if he’d read every thought that crossed my mind. I swallowed hard. “You watched me dance.”
He nodded.
I traced a finger along the edge of my mask. “How did you know which one was me?”
He slowly stepped closer to me. I didn’t move a muscle. Even with a vault door temptingly ajar beside us, I wanted to see inside his mind more.
“This.” His fingers captured the ends of my hair, stroking them like he had when he’d washed my hair. “And your smile,” he murmured.
“My smile?”
He edged even closer, placing his thumb at the corner of my mouth. “You were the brightest light up there, my little thief. So bright, you stole the very shadows from my heart.”
My stomach swooped hard and low. Lightning sizzled through my veins and curled around my spine.
His lips were so close. Had I pulled him forward? Gods, I wanted a taste. I wanted to trap those beautiful words between our lips and never let them go.
“Hey now, lovers! It’s not the time for that either!”
I jumped away from Aiden as Maz pushed a servant’s dining cart down the short hall, a smug grin curling through his golden beard.
“We—we were just?—”
“No need to explain, lovely,” Maz said. “Did you get it open?”
“Of course she did,” Aiden answered, but I didn’t dare look at him. His words were still busy crumbling the walls around my heart.
Maz did a little jig. “What are we waiting for?” He grabbed the handle and heaved back on the door.
“Fucking Four, how much does this thing weigh?” he grunted.
“More than the gold, I imagine. Asher’s guard seemed to have no trouble with it the last time I was here,” I teased.
He bared his teeth and pushed harder. Aiden wrapped his hands around the edge and helped him drag it the rest of the way open.
I seized the lamp from its wall holder and slipped inside. Just for a quick peek.
It was . . . emptier than I remembered.
Dozens of chests lined the walls, but many of them were only half-full of coins or less. Only one small barrel of fireseeds. The glass cases that had been stuffed with jewels and expensive trinkets now looked picked over. Was this Asher’s fault or my father’s?
I winced when my bare foot landed on something sharp. I picked up a heavy gold ring, pointed wings extending from it like a bird. Squinting, I could see two tiny sunstone fragments for eyes and a beak.
