Page 29

How is he tracking us? Surely he can’t actually smell my fear? Except maybe he can because, while the footsteps don’t quicken, they’re louder now. Closer.

I can’t fight him in these close quarters. I might have had a chance in the street with room to maneuver, but in the passageway with walls so close I can’t swing my sickles? All he has to do is grab me and it’s over. “It was a mistake to come here.”

“It was the only option we had,” Vesper snaps.

Maybe they’re right. All I know is the Fool is shrinking the distance between us, whistling a jaunty tune all the while. “We need a place to hide.”

“There’s nowhere to hide. This is a functional passageway, not a labyrinth.”

I don’t know what the difference is. All I know is that every moment we spend standing here arguing, the Fool grows closer. My fear demands I sprint, but Vesper can’t, and even if they could, I don’t know that it would make much difference.

Trailing my hand along the wall is the only reason I register another opening. It’s even smaller than the last one. It’s also shorter, too, ending in a wall that clearly used to be a door but has since been bricked over.

“There’s no exit here,” Vesper hisses.

“We don’t need one.” Not when we’re in the shadows; more than shadows, really. Aside from the irregularly interspersed sconces, the light of which doesn’t reach this particular spot, we stand in almost perfect darkness. I can hide us here … I hope. “Give me a second.”

“We don’t have—oh.”

I wrap the shadows around us. They answer my command instantly this time, slicking over my dress and dousing the faint glimmer of the fabric. They bathe Vesper’s silver faux armor in perfect darkness. I can barely see them, and we’re standing so close we share air. Apparently Death was right and the deeper the shadows, the more invisible I’ll be—and Vesper, too, by extension.

“Shhh.” I press my hand to their mouth and pin them against the wall, doing my best to flatten both of us into nothingness. The Fool is so close. We don’t have time.…

What turns the corner and steps into the passageway is the stuff of nightmares. Mouse said the last Fool could shift parts of his body, but he only ever mentioned claws. This Fool has shifted his entire head into some combination of human and … something else. A long snout has replaced his nose and mouth, fangs peeking from beneath snarling lips, a wet nose snuffling as he tracks me. Even worse, when he speaks, he sounds just like the man. “Come out now, Moon, and I will give you the courtesy of making it quick.”

Fear licks up my spine. My shadows have to hold. They must. I bite my bottom lip hard enough to taste copper. There’s no time to prepare myself, to come up with a plan, to figure out how I would even accomplish an ambush in such tight quarters. I can see his claws now, nearly as long as the Sun’s daggers. If the Fool finds us, we’re both dead.

He slows as he approaches our hiding place. I can feel Vesper’s chest rising and falling in panic, just like mine is. Somehow, we manage to keep our breathing quiet—or maybe my shadows dampen sound as well as sight. If this were any other champion, they wouldn’t find us, but the Fool clearly is tracking me by scent.

He’s close enough now that I could reach out and touch him if I was willing to risk losing my hand, his face moving back and forth as he snuffles the air.

A rumbling. I feel it in the soles of my boots, in my hand against the wall of the passageway near Vesper’s head. Dust trickles from the low ceiling, clouding the still air. What’s going on?

The Fool actually flinches. Then he sneezes. Another rumble, stronger this time. More dust cascades. The passageway seems to be seconds from coming down around us, but I still don’t move. Vesper is holding their breath, so I do the same. I’ll be damned before I drop my shadows now, no matter how many directions the danger comes from. If the passageway caves in, we have a chance at survival. If the Fool grabs us, we face certain death. It’s an easy choice, even if my brain is buzzing with terror.

“Next time,” he snarls. The Fool turns back the way he came and sprints away, disappearing in seconds. A third rumble has me closing my eyes and burying my face in Vesper’s throat in an attempt to keep from coughing. I think the Fool truly fled, but I won’t give him a reason to turn back for us.

Any moment, the ceiling will come down. Maybe Vesper’s luck will save us, but surely there are limits to what they can accomplish. If I understood how I traveled through shadows last night … But no more tremors arrive. The earth remains still under our feet and the dust eventually settles, even if my heart doesn’t. I’m not certain how much time passes before I’m willing to lift my head. “What was that?”

“I think it was the Tower.” Vesper matches my whispered tone. “Maybe he and Death are hunting the Fool.”

They clearly aren’t hunting us, or the destruction wouldn’t have stopped. I clear my throat, trying to wrestle my fear under control. I’ve barely come to terms with the idea that Death might actually regret my mother’s murder enough to stay his hand—and the Tower’s, by extension. It’s entirely too unbelievable that he’d hunt the Fool to save me. “Death is acting strangely. He called the Tower off yesterday right as the Sun rose. Which probably just means he didn’t want to lose his new ally to elimination, but…” But he knows who I really am. I can’t say that to Vesper. They might be my ally right now, but there’s no telling how they’d react to the knowledge that the last Moon was my mother. Maybe it wouldn’t matter, but I’m not willing to find out.

“Either way, we just escaped our deaths.” The tension leaks out of their body and they grasp my hips, almost as if we’re dancing, except I didn’t stand nearly so close with any of my dance partners. It’s only now that I realize we’re pressed together from chest to knees.

Their lips curve slowly, their expression going intense in a way I’m not ready to define. I swallow hard. “Vesper?”

“Clever trick with the shadows.” They match my low tone, their words almost suggestions of sound rather than actual speaking. “That will be really useful going forward.”

“We have hours until dawn.” Even unable to see the sky, I’m achingly aware of the seconds ticking by as the Moon drifts across the sky. “And after what just happened, I do not want to stay in the passageways.”

“Kestrel, pay attention.” Vesper is completely relaxed against the wall, their head tilted in a way I start to recognize. They’re … flirting with me? “I’m complimenting your shadows.”

I frown. “The Fool just attempted to kill us.”

“If he survives the night, he’ll try again. He won’t succeed.” They lean up, their nose nearly brushing mine. “As long as you’ve got your hand in mine, he can’t touch you. I won’t let him.”

They’re definitely flirting. In another time, another place, I would take them up on it in a heartbeat. Vesper is attractive in the way of priceless items everywhere, something to be stolen, to be tucked in my pocket and snuck home where I can marvel at their beauty through the night. It’s not just their looks, though. Things would be simpler if it were. Everything up on the hill is beautiful in the same untouchable way. I should reject them as easily as I reject where they came from. “It wasn’t your luck that saved us this time. It was the Tower.” Inexplicably.