“Yes.” The word barely made it past my throat.
He smirked—andfuck meif it wasn’t the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Then he stepped back, pocketing the scroll. “Come on. The others need to see this.”
He was playing with me. Pushing buttons just to test my reaction.
Jerk.
I knew this was dangerous. He was dangerous. Not just because he’d promised to kill me, but because some reckless part of me was starting to wonder what would happen if I let him get close enough to try. He was so worried about my secrets, but every second that passed in his presence was proof that he had scores of his own.
We left Vitoria’s destroyed room to find the others had spread through the apartment.
“We found something. Hidden in her mattress,” I said, refusing to make eye contact with Calder so I wouldn’t see the judgment there. Maybe I was a little too convincing.
Lucette was beside us in seconds, Calder close behind. Pip was still in another room. They studied the single word with matching frowns.
“Crossing,” Lucette read aloud. “That’s it? Just one word?”
“Could be a location,” Calder said. “A meeting point.”
“Or a code word,” I added. “Something that meant something to her and whoever she was working with.”
“It could even be a surname,” Lucette said, eyes glued to the parchment.
“The paper’s interesting too.” Wickett held it up to the light so they could see the shimmer. “Fury made. Expensive. This is used for messages that need to stay secret.”
We all stood there, staring at the word like it might suddenly reveal its secrets. Lucette’s frown gave away her concentration. But there was nothing. Just a single cryptic term in an elegant filigree that meant nothing.
“We’ll figure it out,” Wickett said finally, pocketing the scroll with deliberate care. “For now, we keep it to ourselves.”
“You’re asking us to lie to your father?” Lucette asked, the draw on her words just enough to make it clear she approved.
“Let’s assume Pip will crack under pressure and leave her out of it,” Calder said under his breath as he looked toward his bedroom. He might’ve fooled them, but he wasn’t fooling me. He was trying to protect the sprite.
“Agreed,” Wickett said. “Until she needs to know.”
Pip came zipping out of Calder’s bedroom with a glass jar of small runes. Most of them were no larger than a coin, but the stones came in an array of colors, and I knew by the eager look in her giant eyes, that’s what drew her in.
“These are so pretty,” she said, dumping the jar onto the coffee table.
“We’re not here to appease your love of glitter, Pip,” Wickett said, his tone softer than it’d been with her all day.
“I know. But I thought maybe if Syn... Syneca looked through them, she’d know if any were missing. Maybe the Phoenix took some.”
“Considering they were in my bedroom, I think it’s best if I take a look,” Calder said, stepping forward.
Pip practically sank to the floor. “You?Yourbedroom? Don’t you, uh, eat your runes?”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing in a moment that was meant to be serious. The charidryn were called rune eaters for a long time, simply because no one knew how their power worked, and they were a private people. Ever since the rest of Calder’s race was murdered in a brutal attack, he’skept all their secrets close to heart. Even though he hated the nickname.
Calder’s genuine smile at the blue-haired sprite made her cheeks flush. He winked at Pip before popping a rune into his mouth. “Midnight snack.”
I was pretty sure Lucette noticed him spit it out moments later when Pip’s back was turned, but she didn’t say anything. The sprite’s wings fluttered as she sorted through the colorful stones, completely oblivious. “How’d you even meet her? Vitoria, I mean.”
“Market day,” I lied. “She was selling protection charms. Terrible ones.”
“The threadwork was atrocious,” Calder added, settling into his chair. “Syn couldn’t help herself. Started correcting her technique right there in the middle of the Crook.”
“Someone had to. They didn’t work at all.”
