He grabbed his coat from the chair and shrugged it on.
“Maxen,” Dagger warned again. “Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
He scowled. “I’m not following her.”
“Since when do we lie to each other?”
He cast his brother a dark look. “I’m not bloody lying.”
Dagger arched a brow, shoving to his feet. “Where are you going, then?”
“Rooftop.”
“So youarefollowing her.”
Maxen gave his brother a grim smile. “No. I’m watching for her. There’s a damn difference.”
“I’ll join you,” Knight spoke up.
Saint and Dagger nodded their agreement.
Fine. He had barnacles.
Maxen didn’t wait. He stalked toward the back, shouldered through the door, and cut left into the narrow corridor. Past the storeroom, through another door, and up the iron stairs. He took them two at a time, impatient. He’d climbed them a thousand times, usually with a clear head and a single purpose. Tonight, his thoughts were scattered, circling one name that refused to let him go.
The space widened as he emerged onto Fury’s rooftop. The night lay unnaturally quiet, broken only by the distant wash of the waves along the shoreline. He strode over to the ledge, the Lanes unfurling beneath him like a sleeping beast.
Beast . . .
Much like him, no?
Maxen crouched on the edge, watching for movement, the cold slowly creeping into his bones. He could make out the rooflines along her street, but the street itself lay hidden from view.
He shouldn’t have let her go. Had made an error shrugging off her question as irrelevant the first time. She clearly believed otherwise. If only he could read her mind to know what answer she wanted from him. He grunted. If only life were sweet dreams and clear blue skies.
Bloody fanciful.
Dagger crouched beside him. “I’m worried about Serpent,” his brother admitted. “And you, for that matter, but Serpent takes precedence since his whole person is missing. You’re just missing your head.”
Knight and Saint echoed their agreement.
Maxen’s face darkened. “We’ll find him.”
Dagger gave a curt nod. “I know. I’m just worried he won’t be alive when we do.”
Maxen didn’t say anything to that. Whoever was behind these littleschemes was toying with them, not killing them. At least not yet. However, they had resorted to using Calliope.
That was unacceptable.
Everything was going to hell at once. That was the main reason he’d decided to lock things down and tighten the ship. Another was that his mind always kept circling back toher, a growing weakness, and he wanted to,needed to, keep her close.
“She’s not what we expected,” Knight said from his other side.
“She’s something,” Maxen muttered. “More than I can make sense of.”
Saint hunched down in the corner farthest from them. “I’m happy for you.”
“What the bloody hell does that mean?” Maxen snapped.
