“All right, all right!” Leap shouted, his voice pitched high in exasperation. “Einar, can you please just…take a step back? And Storm, can you tell us what in the devil winds you want from us? You didn’t come here to kill me, that much I know.”
Storm rolled his eyes. “Even if I had, I wouldn’t be able to now.” Huffing, he plopped onto one of the beds and assumed a lounging position, then fixed Leap with a gimlet stare. Even mostly disarmed, he still acted like he owned the place. “I want you to steal Onche’s Fan during the Twelve Winds Festival.”
Leap scowled. “Onche’s Fan? No one knows where that artifact is kept. I don’t even think it’s been seen in the last five hundred years!”
“Oh it has been,” Storm said with a toothy grin. “Madame Gale, one of Wynth’s biggest financiers, has had it in her grubby hands for the past few years, and she’ll have it with her at the air temple festival gala. And wouldn’t you know it, but I have several invitations.” He pulled three cream envelopes with silver wax seals from the inside of his breast pocket and dangled it in front of our eyes. “You’ll need appropriate costumes, of course, but these should get you in.”
“Onche’s Fan is a priceless artifact,” Leap said, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Why are you trusting me, of all people, to steal it for you, after everything that’s happened?”
Storm curled his lip, that look of loathing back on his face again. “Because even with disguises it’s going to be hard for any of us to pass as adults,” he said. “You have two with you, so the three of you can pose as a family, and since it’s a masked ball, you won’t run into any issues being recognized.”
Adara, Leap, and I exchanged veiled looks. On the one hand, I loathed the idea of being forced to do this shrimp’s dirty work, but on the other hand, these invitations provided us an easy in to the temple. We could kill two fae with one fireball, so to speak.
“All right,” Leap agreed. “We’ll do it.”
“Excellent.” Storm sat up, rubbing his hands together gleefully. He gave Leap the invitations, along with a scribbled note with instructions. “Be there no later than seven o’clock,” he warned. “If you fail to check in at the appropriate time, I won’t just rat your friends out. I’ll send word to your uncle, too.”
Leap’s face turned white. “You wouldn’t.”
“It’s the least you deserve,” Storm sneered, hopping off the bed. He moseyed over to the window, then turned back to wink at me and Adara. “Nice meeting you both. Welcome to Wynth.”
And with that, he jumped out the window and disappeared into the night.
* * *
“All right,”Adara said once we’d shut the window behind Storm and inspected the room for any other unpleasant surprises that might be lurking. Her expression was like a thundercloud as she rounded on Leap, and she looked as if she would strike him down with a lightning bolt if she had the power. “It’s time for you to tell us the whole story.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed furthest from the window and stared pointedly at Leap, who started fidgeting. Hands behind his back, feet shifting from side to side, he looked like a child who’d been called to the front of the class.
“I guess you want me to start from the beginning,” he said, not quite meeting Adara’s eyes.
“Normally, yes,” she said. “But first, I want to know what this fan is, and why Storm wants it.”
“It’s a royal heirloom that was commissioned by Ythor, one of House Reatha’s earliest rulers,” Leap said. “He felt that the other members of his house were a little too free-thinking, so he had the witchlings enchant him a fan that would allow him to influence people. All you have to do is give it a little wave, and the person you’re talking to becomesverysuggestible.” A wistful look came over Leap’s eyes. “It would actually be a really handy tool to have as a thief.”
“Or a politician,” Einar said dryly. “I imagine that this Madame Gale moves in elevated circles, and that this fan helped her get there.”
I shook my head. “How do you even know all this?” I asked Leap.
Leap smirked. “It’s my business to know these things.”
“Leap…” Adara said in a warning tone. “We said no more secrets.”
Leap huffed. “Itismy business to know these things,” he protested. “I was part of a gang that traded in stolen goods and information.”
“Fine,” Adara said, waving her hand impatiently. “But what’s this grudge between you and Storm about? Who is Skye?”
Leap’s face fell at the mention of Skye’s name. “She was an air fae orphan, like the rest of us,” he said sadly. “Storm and I both had a crush on Skye. We used to compete for her attention all the time, even though outside of missions she wouldn’t give us the time of day. She was the safecracker of our group—she could pick any lock, open any door, no matter how complex the combination. But during that last job…” he heaved out a sigh. “We were stealing a priceless necklace from a merchant’s vault, but the guard I blackmailed to look the other way betrayed us, and the guards caught us on the roof on our way out. The rest of us managed to escape, but Skye took an arrow straight through the eye. I didn’t even have time to catch her before she tumbled off the roof.”
“Oh Leap,” Adara said as Leap’s face crumpled. My own heart twisted with sympathy as the boy raked a hand through his wild, silver-white hair, his face stark with anguish. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why did the guard double-cross you?” I asked. “Was your blackmail threat not strong enough?”
“I guess not,” Leap scrubbed a hand over his face, a haunted look in his eyes. “I told the guard that I’d tell his wife about the midnight trysts he was having with the merchant’s missus. Seems he decided his job was more important, or maybe he just knew the merchant’s wife loved that necklace and didn’t want to see her upset. So I made good on that promise, and sent a note to the merchant too, for good measure.”
“So the guard ended up losing his job after all,” Adara said. “I guess that’s some consolation.”
Leap sneered. “Yeah,thatseems like a fair trade for Skye’s life.”
