“Marietta, why do you have a gun?” Lucian asked. “Why do you both have guns? What is happening?”
“Nothing to worry over.” I clutched the journal, stepping back another foot. I couldn’t afford to divide my attention against a butler who had mastered household spells.
“You are not leaving with that book, Lady Winters.” Crane shifted the magic just enough to raise a shield and level his arm.
“I am.”
“Which book?”
Crane hesitated. “A journal that is not hers.”
Lucian stiffened. “Octavia Winstead’s, then.”
I wanted to scream from the frustration and absurdity, the secrets and lies. “I will send it back after my brother is released.” I clutched the book to my chest but held my pistol steady. “I won’t tell anyone,” I whispered. “I just want Kennen released.”
Two piercing stares pinned me.
“You won’t tell anyone what?”
I shook my head. Crane’s eyes narrowed and he lowered his pistol. “You have the advantage, Lady Winters. What do you mean?”
“I won’t implicate Gabriel. As long as Kennen is released, we will disappear.” Spirits, Ferris. I hadn’t spared a thought for my older brother. Gabriel would be angry when he discovered me gone. He could reach Ferris before I could.
My brooch. I could trade it for a cab cart. We could flee to the countryside, or Silvan. Make a fresh start. Give up everything.
“Implicatewhom?” Crane asked.
Lucian’s face was pale. His lips tight.
I inched toward the door and Crane’s gun rose slightly. “I can’t let you go until you tell me what you think you know, Lady Winters.”
“No. I said I wouldn’t implicate him, and I won’t.”
“Tell me.”
I kept shaking my head, as if the repetition would make him understand.
“Yes, tell him, Marietta.”
I swung toward the kitchen door and the pistol was ripped from my grasp. Gabriel stood there, leaning against the edge, arms crossed, my weapon hanging loosely from his fingertips. “Tell him what you suspect.”
Chapter 17
MARIETTA
“Gabriel!” Lucian’s voice cracked, but I couldn’t turn. I could only stare at the man in front of me. He had come through the kitchen door after all.
He didn’t move, but his gaze shifted behind me, much as Crane’s had when I’d peered from the window. “Sir,” he said to Orion Crane. “I can’t say I’m surprised to see you.”
I backed into the corner that kept all of them in view. All exits blocked. No weapon.
“You shouldn’t be,” Crane said. “You should have notified me immediately.”
Gabriel raised a brow. “It has been a long time since I’ve been under your control. I daresay I had no inclination to notify you at all.”
