Elysia’s still-frozen ears turned hot with embarrassment. She had managed to hide her feet from everyone, including Topp, until now.
“They’re fine,” she muttered, barging into the house with her motley crew trailing nervously behind her like a bunch of weird ducklings.
Elysia snatched the tube with the roulette plans from her sister. Beatriz tried to dive for them, only for Jessa to grab hold of the neck of her shirt and yank her to a full stop. Marching over to where Syliva Reyez watched imperiously, Elysia held out the tube with a glare and spat at her feet.
The room took a collective inhale, silence falling heavier than the snow.
Sylvia grasped the tube, but Elysia ripped it backward, pullingher in close. There was shifter matter in her hair, and she was careening dangerously close to not giving a shit if she walked out of this house alive. She held the Reyez queen’s eyes. “You’re going to pay her.”
She released the tube, and it was likely only years of training that kept Sylvia from stumbling back. “You’re going to pay my sister for the plans. You want me to steal? You want me to remove a mark? Fine. But what you don’t do is send me in unprepared to keep people I love alive.” Heart thundering, the fear she’d kept a grip on was slipping. She gestured sharply at Topp and Jessa. “The only reason we walked out of that forest is because oftheir magic. Your son trained me to be a thief. To sneak in, sneak out, and fightmundanelyif needed. You want to test me? Fine. But donotbring my people into this without warning. Do you understand?”
Nose to nose, Elysia didn’t dare blink or back away. An eternity slipped past as she waited to be cut down, but neither Sylvia nor any other member of the family moved.
A slow smile crept across Sylvia’s face, but her eyes remained two chips of hazel ice. The effect was terrifying. “Your test was not of strength or skill.”
A buzzing noise filled Elysia’s ears.This fucking b?—
“You grew up alone. From my son’s messages, you are guarded, difficult, and trust no one.”
Her hackles rose.
“He also was willing to stake his life on the fact that in spite of how everyone failed you, you would die fighting for your family.” She nodded at the extremely tense group of Kavians behind them and then gestured at her own people. “To be inthisfamily, you must be capable of beingloyalto something beyond yourself. And your strange collection of friends…is a start.”
Elysia’s anger pitched low, still a dark hum in her veins. “You wanted to see if I would take the plans and leave them to die.”
Sylvia gave a perfunctory nod. “Consider that I also gave you a chance to save them. If you hadn’t been there to steal the plans, Maspan would have handled them quite easily.”
Her fingers flexed and released by her side as Jessa grunted her dissent.
Beatriz slapped away Jessa’s hand that still clung to her collar, strolling over with far too much confidence. She looked down at her sister. “You’re trying to tell me you joinedthe family?”
Exhausted, Elysia was well past explaining her actions, but Sylvia intercepted the question.
“Many think of us as criminals, and we are—but we are also the foot soldiers of death’s many faces. Who do you think pays for all the temples? Who do you think pays for all the impoverished and orphaned women who find shelter and now walk in their halls? People are taxed heavily enough. We can’t expect them to drop their coins at the feet of their gods. We fill in what is needed and take care of our own.”
Elysia glanced at the enormous home she stood in and made a face. Theymorethan took care of their own. Beatriz slid Slyvia an oily grin in response to the woman’s rather polite description of the family business. “You misunderstand. I have no qualms with yourbusiness.” Her eyes narrowed as they went back to Elysia. “My issue is with this one.”
Sylvia’s lips turned up at the sibling dispute. Facing the entire room of Reyez family members and scraggly Kavians, she raised her voice. “Clean up. Take the night to rest. Because when you wake—we celebrate our new initiate and explore fascinating foreign business opportunities.”
Beatriz muttered a quiet, “Fuck yeah,”garnering a few chuckles from around the room.
The crowd dispersed, and Emmellin corralled the tired and quickly fading crew up the stairs and down a hall filled with guest rooms.
Taking the first available room, Elysia shut the door before anyone could say a word, threw the damnable roulette plans to the side and sank onto the bed, staring off at nothing. Limbs heavy and brain numb, it was several minutes before she finally glanced at the bathing room. She had to bathe. Sheneededto bathe. But her body wasn’t moving, and her feet hurt so badly she wanted to throw up.
She dug the heels of her palms into her eyes. She could’ve lost her sister tonight. She was likely going to in the next few months anyway. Elysia pressed harder as if that would shut up the thoughts inside her head.
The door banged open, and Elysia’s head shot up. Beatriz led the unwanted invasion with everyone else trailing in behind her. Door shut, Topp leaned heavily against it with his arms folded.
Plopping down beside her, Beatriz slung an arm around her shoulders. Suspicious, Elysia stiffened before finally relaxing into her sister’s side. She couldn’t remember the last time they’d hugged. Head dropping against her shoulder, the tension in her chest loosened.
Beatriz allowed the awkward side hug to go on for a record-breaking ten seconds before turning to Elysia with her sharp gray eyes entirely too focused for three in the morning.
“Elysia Penelope Parker, you have some serious fucking explaining to do.”
Was nice while it lasted.Elysia grunted, wriggling out of Beatriz’s hold as Jessa hopped up onto the small writing desk and crossed her legs. “Your sister’s right.”
Elysia was too tired to draw up the required scorn or disbelief. “What about yourinternationalblack market? You forgot to mention that the other day, didn’t you?”
