“Where are we going, anyway?” Kit huffed. “The longer we stick here, the more likely I’m going to have to kill someone.” He sounded put off by the idea.
So it’s only okay to kill if it’s a defenseless, magic-less girl, huh?But she focused on the question at hand. “I need to figure out what hole my father is hiding in. For that, we need a home base, and a bit of a makeover.”
“How do you figure we find a ‘home base’,” the assassin groaned. “I live around here, you know. Someone from my coven is bound to recognize me.”
She eyed Kit up and down, from his impressive physique to the rip in his jeans and the callouses on his hands. She smiled sweetly at him. “I know exactly where you won’t be recognized.”
twelve
Kit
For the first time in years, Kit didn’t recognize a building in Skadra. Although, calling the ritziest, flimsiest skyscraper in the city abuildingfelt like a disservice to whichever overpaid snobby architect designed it. Its curved glass glinted black under the city lights and the Sky Road veered rather than soared over it. Absolute overkill.
Kit strained his neck to ogle it. It wasn’t that he never went to the nicer sections of the city. He did. In fact, he was sure he’d flown along the flow of traffic more than once around that monstrosity structure of glass. But he’d never bothered to look at the businesses with the eye of a consumer because he couldn’t afford a damn thing.
“How’re you gonna afford this, missy?” he hissed at Gentry, annoyed that she’d been typing away onhisburner and hadn’t spared the hotel a glance. He wasn’t sure when she’d swiped the damn thing, and all attempts of him snatching it back had been met with an absent-minded shoo’ing gesture, and a tightening in his throat.
Apparently, the Favor considered even a small scuffle a violation of his contract.
She was still fixated on his cell phone, her fingers flying. “I sold my location out, remember? I’m probably the richest person you know… Starting now.” She tapped on the screen one last time and Kit peeked over to see a banking app transferring funds to another account.
He rubbed his eyes, shocked when the absurd number of commas remained the same. But he bit his tongue. The girl was full of it enough already.
Gentry then led him into the lobby, the long auburn wig she was wearing so seamless that he’d almost not recognized her. He resisted the urge to readjust the awkward beanie she’d shoved on his head.
More foolproof than illusion magic, if a little less impressive,she’d muttered at the time, her eyes faraway.
It made him wonder how much research she’d poured into learning magic despite having no magic herself, but that was beside the point as he watched her charm the hotel receptionist with all the aplomb of a spoiled aristocrat. She even gave a tinkling laugh after demanding room service, as if the world weren’t after her head.
Within two minutes of Gentry of pressing his phone against the payment terminal, they were given an apartment on the second-from-top floor. The ride in the elevator was a smooth one but long, and Kit, stunned, followed his former target into the nicest apartment suite he’d ever been in. A fully stocked kitchen leading to a large bed with a huge flatscreen.
“I asked for their smallest suite,” Gentry said as she sat at the kitchenette’s bar and immediately pulled out her laptop, “so that no witches can sneak in and murder me. Go ahead and take the bed. I’ll be up for a while.”
Feeling very much like a disregarded pet, Kit sat on the edge of the bed. He sank a few inches into the incredibly soft mattress. He eyed the TV remote but decided that, symbolically, he’d be resigning himself as her pet witch if he turned a game on. If Samar or any of the other Jumpers saw him like this, they’d never let him live it down.
Besides, he couldn’t sit on his hands while the Jumpers dealt with the Weavers. Somehow, he had to help them, but he couldn’t do that while Gentry held two Favors against him. If he tried to leave, then the demonic girl would tear the Favor and he’d be her puppet once more.
So? Get her to use the Favors quickly and then you can take her out. Problem solved,his practical side whispered.
That was one way to handle things, but Kit’s stomach twisted at the thought. God, but he wished he’d snapped her neck when he’d had a chance, before she’d become a person in his eyes. Things would’ve been so much easier. He remembered how he’d comforted her in the street. Gentry had been thrown off her game in Skadra; Kit had recognized the tightness in her skinny shoulders, the slight tremor in her hands. Gentry was a smart girl, but no one was infallible. There had to be a way to trick her.
Stealing the Favors would at least take away her power over him, give him some room to check in on Visha and the Jumpers. The city could then take care of Gentry for him. She wouldn’t last long on her own.
As the Favors would steal his very breath away if he harmed her, Kit needed a way to retrieve them peacefully. And for that, he’d have to understand his target better.
Mind made up, he stood up and sat at the barstool next to her. “What’s the plan?” He tried not to sound too curious as he watched the laptop screen change every few seconds.
Damn, but she worked fast. He was considered a fast draw when it came to spells, but he didn’t think he could compete with that.
“I’m trying to find my father.”
He hadn’t expected that answer. “Your dad is in Skadra? How does finding him help? Is he rich?” Her being part of the wealthy class made sense with how she handled the lobby receptionist.
Gentry stopped typing and laughed. It fell flat. “My father never met a dime he didn’t want to gamble. No, he’s a piece of shit witch who sold me out to the Nethertons. He’s why I’m cursed.”
Kit felt as though someone had punched him in the gut. He’d never known his birth parents, but Nona, for all her flaws, had been a loving mother figure. He couldn’t imagine her betraying him. Ever. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Gentry continued talking, “— I need his location because I remember him selling me out to a coven. The Nethertons must’ve paid a coven to curse me, to tie me to Drayer. Soul magic isn’t the type of stuff any witch off the street can do. I need names. Whoever did thismusthave a way to undo it.”
