“You betrayed him.” The words fell out, quietly, furiously. My brother wouldn’t look right at me. Confirmation. “He paid for my bond and you just…set him up? People have been trying to get to him all year. To use him as bait for the duke. You saw an opportunity.”
Bennett’s arms fell loose at his sides as he stared at me with a hard line between his brows. “So what if I did? These people, Ari, they reward loyalty.”
“Oh, they do, do they?” I shouted. “That’s why you looked so comfortable in there? Well, what about loyalty to family?”
“He’s the enemy, Ar.”
My arms flew up. “Why? Why is he the enemy? Just because he’s always had more than we do? Because he’s the son of a powerful man? Because he got chosen by a dragon and you did not? I used to believe you. I really did. I thought the godspawn were all the same. All privileged fools who hate those who walkbeneath them. But what’s really foolish is to hate an entire group of people, no matter if you’re looking up or down to do so.”
Vanya was trying to hide a smile, but my brother’s stare was growing harder and less recognizable.
Nearly growling, he said, “Asking after Rushland Covington will get you in trouble here.” He tried to usher me toward the door.
“I’m not leaving without him.”
Bennett laughed. “You can’t just take him. We’ve been trying to capture him for months.”
I stepped away from my brother, examining his dark brown eyes, the same as mine, his messy hair, the way the skin on his face looked like it belonged on a man much older than him. A memory flashed through my mind, of Ben bringing me a wrapped mint on Rending Night’s Eve. It was the only gift I’d received that year, and Rending always tasted like mint in my mind because of it. “What happened to you? What did they do to you?”
He looked away. “They made me rich, Ari.” He turned my shoulder toward the door. “Tell your pretty friend it’s time to go.”
“They paid you to give him up? How could you?” The fancy taxi suddenly made more sense. My stomach turned.
Vanya stood up, holding out a fisted hand. “Can we buy him back?” she asked, voice calm and melodic.
Bennett sputtered. “Buythe Covington boy?”
“If it’s money you want, I have plenty of that. Take this. And when you take us to him, there will be more. When you release him, safely, I’ll give you the final installment.”
Bennett strolled to her and took her wrist in his hand. She spun her hand over and opened her fingers, revealing five stacked gold coins. Bennett whistled.
He tugged her closer. “I could find the rest right now, sweetheart, but I won’t since you’re my sister’s friend.” He released her wrist, and she jerked away. “The Serpents will get much more than you can offer from the duke. But I will help you, just this once.” He turned to me. “And only because he helped you.”
Bennett walked to the door, but before pulling it open, he pressed one hand to the wood and said over his shoulder, “Do you know what you’re doing, Ar? That boy isn’t just a pretty face. Whole city knows he’s being primed to take over his father’s Empire.”
“The duke hates him,” I sputtered.
“He’s hardening him. It’s what he needs. The older son gets the title, the spot in parliament, all that. The younger son gets the dirty work, and he’s got to be hard as steel when the time comes for the duke to hand it over. Ask him. When you see him, ask him if his father hasn’t promised him the Empire.”
My jaw clenched. “Take me to him.”
CHAPTER 38
Bennett led us back into the alley, but instead of into the gambling hall, we marched down the narrow, puddled space that reeked like urine and through another door, this one stained with years of grime. The dark hallway was unlit, and Bennett cursed as a rat scurried by somewhere near our feet.
He lifted a torch from the wall and stepped back through the still-open door to hold it against the gaslamp flickering on the outside wall. The torch leaped to life, and we pressed into the darkness.
This hall was filthy. Muddy boots had walked here for centuries, it seemed. Rusty brown smears ran in little wavy horizontal lines down the floor, like dead bodies had been dragged through this hall. A foul smell wafted from the other end of the hall, and I held my finger under my nose.
We turned a corner and another hallway opened before us, lined with wooden doors. A man sat at the end of the hall, a bottle hanging from his large fingers. He set the bottle down and sat up straighter when he spotted Bennett.
“Evening, Borris,” my brother said.
Borris wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and slowly stood. He towered over my brother, his thick neck covered with stubble that met the chest hair peeking out of his shirt. “What’s this? This ain’t the hen house.”
Bennett sniffed and turned away, as if slapped. Then, more composed, he said, “This is my sister, you wretched idiot. Now open up.”
Borris stared at my brother a minute, then his eyes slid to me and Vanya. “You have a sister?” His mouth curled up sickeningly.
