Her answer puts me a bit more at ease. “Perfect, then I’ll stay wherever you are, and if we need to ditch, we’ll do it together.”
Rosie squeals, jumping from the chair to hug me. “Oh, I’m so excited! As soon as Morgana gets here, we’ll ask her. She’ll say yes – but just to be polite.”
She lets me go, spinning in a happy dance. “This means you aren’t under house arrest anymore! You can come out with us today!”
I frown. “I was the reason you guys were under lockdown?”
Rosie gives me a sheepish grin. “Sin didn’t want to risk certain things getting back to the Council. Please don’t be mad. Some secrets aren’t ours to share.”
I shake my head slowly, trying not to let myself expect the worst. Rosie wouldn’t look so happy about everything if she was hiding atrocities, would she?
“So, you’ll come, right?” she asks, nodding as if to further convince me to answer that way.
“Sure, why not?” I answer. I have no other plans. Maybe now I won’t need to interact with Sin today.
“Perfect! Wear your fighting clothes from yesterday,” she orders, heading back for my door.
“Uhm – why?”
She turns to give me a conspiratorial look as she pulls open the door. “Because we’re going into enemy territory.”
She closes it before I have a chance to press her for more details.
After dressing as quickly as possible, I find Rosie in the sitting room, just off the dining area. She’s wearing green leather armor embroidered with gold threads that wind into delicate leaves and vines. There’s a bow slung over her shoulder and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back.
My brow raises, impressed. “I didn’t know you fought.”
“I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t. It’s Sin’s first rule. If you live here, you need to be able to defend yourself and the others. It makes us stronger,” she adds, smiling.
I’m about to ask who trained her when a brooding mountain of a man enters the room. Sin crosses his arms and narrows his eyes at me. He’s dressed in his own fighting leathers, only there’s a large sword sheathed on his back and daggers strapped to his thighs.
“You’ve decided to stay?” he asks in lieu of greeting.
Even with the innocent nature of his question, there’s a bite to it that has me reminding myself that he helped me last night. I can stay civil, if only for that.
“Yes. I refuse to work for the people who tried to take my free will,” I answer, crossing my arms and craning my neck to look at him.
He stares at me for a moment, and it’s like he’s trying to peer into my soul, which he very well might be doing. That’s enough to extinguish any of my prior goals for civility. “Were you going to stare at me all morning? Or did you want something? Because Rosie and I have somewhere to be.”
Rosie’s jaw drops, and Sin’s mouth quirks up on one side, just a fraction. But he cuts his stare and tosses something at me.
It’s a muffin.
“We leave in five minutes. Eat,” he orders before turning to leave the room.
“Wait, what? No, you’re not coming,” I respond, unsettled.
Rosie did say she was going with someone else, but she and Sin don’t seem to interact much, so I assumed she meant she was going with either Magnus or Damien.
The pleasant company.
Sin arches a brow, not deigning to reply to my absurd statement. “Eat. You’re already a violent little thing. You’re not getting hangry on the mission.”
“I am not –” I start to argue, but he’s already gone.
I huff but take a bite out of the muffin anyway. But only because it’s chocolate chip.
Rosie still looks like she’s in shock. “I cannot believe you spoke to him like that.”
