“Like they didn’t truly exist but in your mind. Or a memory,” Aiden said softly.
My heart tripped. “Yes. Yes, exactly.” It was one of the reasons I’d started sneaking out when I was eighteen. That and I was tired of sitting around grieving for Julian—the real Julian. I wanted to feel something again.
I’d wanted to feel the city I stared at so often from my windows. To see how it’d changed since the rebellion. I’d wanted to rub shoulders with the people I watched like ants. In my wildest dreams, I wanted to discover what was beyond the city walls. But not by sea.
My churning stomach had more than its fill of the sea last night.
“Why are you smiling?”
I glanced up to see Aiden watching me. I whistled and jerked my chin. “Eyes forward, Aiden.”
His eyes widened, then he tilted his head back and laughed. Warmth fluttered under my skin. His laugh was rich and deep and too short. He cut it off as if surprised he’d done it at all.
“As you say, little thief,” he said. “If you tell me why you were smiling.”
Holy Four, was heflirting? Or he just couldn’t stand to give something without getting something.
But talking to him made me forget the growing burn in my legs and ribs. I normally had reasonable endurance from Renwell’s training, but I would gladly sink this road to the depths of the Abyss.
“I was smiling because I was thinking of how I got much too close of an experience with the sea last night,” I said. “Enough to last me a long, long time.”
“Ah, the true reason you wish to remain here. Your fear of the waves.”
I scowled at him. “Being rich would go a long way to calming that fear.”
“It had better.”
We lapsed into silence once more. It seemed we couldn’t get into any sort of conversation without our words becoming knives we used to chip away at the truth. Until he trusted me,wantedme to stay, we would continue to circle and stab at each other.
At long last, we crested the top of the cliff and passed through the gate into the Market Quarter.
The quarter was much busier this time. Vendors selling off the last of their food or haggling down final deals for their wares. Wagons loading or unloading supplies. Women beating the day’s dust from rugs. Children chasing each other through the chaos.
I kept close to Aiden’s boot heels as he wove his way toward the Noble Quarter gate. I hesitated as it came into sight. He must have a very well-connected source if he was going to verify my information in there.
I used to have connections as well. When I started sneaking out of the palace, I had made friends with some of the bridge and Noble Quarter gate guards who would look the other way. A few of them I became quite a bit more intimate with. When Father found out, he commanded Renwell to “take care” of the guards. I hadn’t seen them since.
Soon after, on one of the rare occasions I’d beaten Renwell at Death and Four, my prize was the answer to what happened to those guards. He refused to say anything other than that they’d been demoted to border patrol. For simply looking the other way or for the crime of touching me without Father’s permission.
I didn’t speak to Father for weeks after that.
But perhaps Aiden had struck up a few friendships of his own among the guards.
The gate was ablaze with light from a dozen torches, giving the guards a clear view of who was coming and going. They stopped each person, demanding their name and business in the quarter.
“Gods damn it,” Aiden hissed, coming to an abrupt halt.
I caught up to him and peered to where he was staring at the guards. I didn’t recognize any of them, but he seemed to.
“We can’t go through the gate,” Aiden muttered, shuffling me off to the side. Away from the small knot of people the guards were preventing from entering. “They must have already done the guard change. And if those men have descriptions of two escaped prisoners on the loose...”
I swallowed hard. “Right. What can we do then?”
“We’ll have to go the other way,” Aiden growled and shoved me down a dark, narrow alley.
“What other way?” Holy Four, there was another way in and out of the Noble Quarter? Did Renwell know about this? Possibilities rampaged through my mind.
Aiden glared down at me, his glittering green eyes vivid even in the shadows. “We can’t wait for another guard change. The Wolves will be out soon. My guard won’t be back on shift for days. I need the truth tonight, little thief.”
