“Didyouknow?” The question came out sharper than intended. “That shifters are getting stuck mid-change?”
He looked away, another tell I was learning to read.
“Wickett.”
“It doesn’t change anything if I do. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we still have to go down to the docks.”
Damnit.
Chapter 31
Syneca
When the clock chimes thirteen bells, make a wish quickly, before the shadows hear it first.
“Pairs make sense,” Lucette said. Her mind was already three steps ahead of the rest of us as we made our way across Grimora, leaving the tragedy of the games behind. “Wickett and Syn take the northern docks with Silas. Calder, Pip, and I handle the southern section.”
“Why split it that way?” Pip asked, steadier now, but still subdued.
“Strategy.” Lucette ticked off points on her fingers. “Silas and Pip can fly. Aerial surveillance from both directions. Calder and Syn both know what Vitoria actually looks like beyond that one photograph we’ve seen on the banners. Wickett and I are both tactical. Split the strengths. Cover more ground.”
Wickett nodded once. “Agreed.”
He pulled Calder aside, speaking about what they’d heard, rumors of smuggling, unusual activity, patterns that didn’tmatch legitimate trade. And then what to search for, which questions to ask.
Theater. All of it. We didn’t need to find anything. We just needed to look like we were trying in order to keep the Magistrate from acting on his death threats. Just as Wickett had suggested.
Pip swooped low to pick something shiny off the ground. After a quick examination, she made a sour face and tossed it over her shoulder. “Shouldn’t we be asking about the Phoenix? That’s who we’re supposed to be hunting.”
Calder’s expression flattened. “I have a feeling anyone who would have anything to say about her is already dead, Pip.”
Silence. Then Pip pulled out her tiny sword with deliberate care, nodding once. The clocktower rang out across the city. Deep bells marking the thirteenth hour.
“Sixteen bells,” Wickett said. “We meet back at Chancellery House. No exceptions.”
No one asked what happened if we didn’t make it back. We all knew. And with that, we went our separate ways.
Wickett and I walked to the northern docks in silence. Apparently, we’d exhausted our quota of near-kisses and emotional revelations for the day.
Fine by me. I needed to think. Needed to process Vitoria’s moves, the dead families, Calder’s suspicions that were starting to sound less like paranoia and more like terrible, inevitable logic.
Wickett moved with purpose, his stride so long I struggled to match his pace. Silas crept ahead, a shadow among shadows, barely visible, just how he liked it.
“What if the hunters are there?” I asked finally.
“We make a show of it. Performance. Make them believe we’re more dangerous, and more confrontational, than they expect.”
My stomach dropped. “And if the performance requires blood?”
His jaw tightened. “It won’t come to that.”
“You can’t know?—”
“I can make sure it doesn’t.” He glanced at me. “Trust me.”
The words hung between us, weighted with everything that had happened in the hallway this morning. Everything that almost happened.
I did trust him. That was absolutely a fucking problem.
