Months had passed, yet sometimes it felt like a lifetime since I had stepped foot into that withering beauty of a haunted house.
Meanwhile, Cliff waited his turn for the shower, seated at the edge of the bed and toying with one of the bottles he’d brought into the room. The distance between him and Sylvia crackled with uncomfortable silence. He threw me a sullen look as I entered. I sensed the fight coming—and Cliff certainly had drunk enough to not mince words.
I sighed. “Look, before you—”
“What the fuck was that?” he demanded, standing. “You just saidyes? Just like that?”
“Of course I did. Since when do we turn away from saving lives?”
“Since when do we negotiate with terrorists?”
“Come on, Cliff. They’re notterrorists, they’re just…”
“Dabbling in blood magic?” Cliff finished for me, gesturing a hand vaguely toward the main suite. TowardDelilah. I worked my jaw uncomfortably. “We have our own shit to worry about, or did that slip your mind?”
“You saw that invitation. You think it’s any coincidence that Tammy sent us here? This Crimson Gala has to be what’s got her in over her head. Thanks to them, we literally have a ticket to infiltrate this event and dismantle it from the inside. This brings us closer to finding her. Shouldn’t we be grateful foronefreakish stroke of luck?”
“Luck?” Cliff gave a cold laugh. “We’re only standing here because their other meat shields decided to turn on them.”
“They could have killed us,” I said evenly. “But they didn’t.”
Cliff growled in his throat, glancing away. “We should’ve talked first.”
“What other option do we have? Tammy obviously couldn’t handle this on her own,” I said, my voice rising despite my best attempts to tether the emotion out of my voice. But I couldn’t help it. My head was aching, exhaustion pounding my entire body.
“Is that even a question? How about—get the fuck out of here, find Tammy ourselves, and go from there.”
“These people handed our asses to us, and eventheyclaim they can’t break into this gathering to do this on their own,” I said. “Thisishow we find Tammy.”
He narrowed his eyes with a particular viciousness he hadn’t aimed at me in a long while. Cliff stalked closer—aggressively close. “That’s just your way of justifying it after the fact. Face it, you were too fucking giddy about getting what you wanted to think straight. You could barely keep it together when Delilah said she’d puppet a spell for you.”
“Stop it!” Sylvia darted to block Cliff’s path, making us both stagger back a step. Although she wore a stern mask of calm, her eyes told a different story—wide and overwhelmed. And so, sotired.“Please, stop getting at each other’s throats. We’re lucky to be alive as it is.”
She turned to Cliff, her shoulders bunching with tension. “I can still feel the power radiating through the hotel. We’ve never crossed so much at once—ever. You heard what they said about the acquisitions being overwhelming. We don’t stand a chance if we try to tackle this on our own. We can at least listen to what they have in mind, can’t we?”
Cliff fixed a scorching glare on her, but she wasn’t cowed. As the seconds passed, he softened and dragged a hand over his face.
“Yeah, fine. Like I have a choice,” he muttered.
He turned for the bathroom, snatching a clean towel off the bed.
“Wait, I have something for you!” Sylvia called after him.
Cliff stopped short, and I found myself marveling at the pull Sylvia had developed over him in the last months. When we’d first crossed paths with Sylvia, I was fairly certain Cliff had come close to tossing her out the car window more than once just to get her to stop talking. Now, it was like seeing her hurt made him falter, made him question even his most base instincts.
She flitted toward one of the nightstands, rummaging through the few personal effects deposited there. She took hold of a glossy fountain pen emblazoned with the hotel’s name on the side, hefting it into her arms. I stifled a smile, knowing how she loathed being deemedcutetoo often. But at her size, the pen was like a thick javelin, nearly a quarter of her weight if I wagered a guess. She flew back to offer it to Cliff with a shy smile.
“You want me to draw something for you?” Cliff asked, giving her an utterlywhat the fucklook as he held out his hand for her to drop the offering.
“It’s a thank you,” Sylvia corrected, wilting slightly. “In return for the charm you gifted me for my birthday. I thought it might be nice to have a new one for your sketchbook. You don’t like it?”
“Sylv, you don’t need to return the favor with…” Cliff trailed off, apparently deciding against the explanation of human birthday exchanges. He shot her a crooked smile instead, tucking the pen securely into his jeans pocket. “I love it. Thanks, kiddo.”
The warmth in his face was apparently reserved solely for her. He pointed at me as he reached for the bathroom door. “For the record, I’m still pissed at you.”
The lockclickedbehind him, followed shortly by the shower running.
Sylvia released a heavy sigh into the silence that followed. Her eyes carefully traveled me up and down, undoubtedly looking for something to heal.
