“Let me take you back to where you came from,” the Jackal offered. “When it’s safe. Let’s get you out of here—”
“I want to see her.” The female looked up sharply. “I want to find my sister and see her.”
“There are almost two thousand people down here,” he countered. “It would take a month or more to go through all those faces, and it’s more likely the guards will notice you before you cross her path.”
“I don’t care. I’m not leaving until I see her.”
“Even if it kills you.”
“It won’t.”
The Jackal let out a hard laugh as he rubbed his aching head. “For truth, I cannot decide whether you’re courageous or crazy.”
“I’m neither. I’m just someone’s sister. If you knew you had a sibling out in the world who needed you, wouldn’t you go after them?”
“How do you even know she’s alive?” The way the female snapped to attention made him regret his choice of words. But had she never considered that possibility? “I’m sorry, but death is prevalent here. Disease, malnutrition, natural causes. You’re assuming she lives, and again, forgive me for being blunt.”
“We could take her to the Wall,” Kane suggested. “If the three of us—”
“No.” The Jackal burst up to his feet. “We’re not going into the Command’s sector with her.”
“What’s the Wall?” she demanded.
The other two males deferred to the Jackal on that. So he answered. “It’s a tally of those who have died herein.”
The female glanced around. “We have to go there.”
“No,” the Jackal said. “I shall go myself, and see if her name is listed—”
“I don’t trust you.” She got to her feet and stared at him. “You want me to leave here. How do I know you won’t lie and tell me you saw her name just to get me to go.”
“I give you my word.”
“I don’t know you well enough to judge whether your ‘word’ is worth anything more than the breath you use to speak the syllable. I want to go and see her name myself, and if it was your blood, you’d feel the same way.”
The Jackal crossed his arms over his chest. “You keep talking like we have these family ties in common. We don’t. So you’re not going to motivate me with that kind of argument.”
“Fine.” She kicked her chin up. “I’m either going to that Wall or heading to the Hub to see if I can find her face in the crowd.”
“The Hive, you mean.”
“Whatever.”
As their eyes clashed, the Jackal felt his blood stir. “You don’t want to go there.”
“I don’t want to be here. For a lot of reasons. But I am where I am.”
After a tense moment, Kane spoke up. “We can wait until the shifts change. There is time during check-out and check-in. We could sneak her through and get back out before anyone notices.”
“Great plan.” The female went over to Kane. “How long until the shifts are over?”
“It has been over a century and a half since I’ve been able to measure anything passing by an hour hand. But it would be a work night.”
“Twelve hours?”
“Or eight. Or ten. But the changeover just occurred, so it will be a full shift.”
“Then I wait. Where do I find you all again?”
The Jackal considered the merits of arguing, but given the grit of that female’s molars and the bow-of-a-tanker thrust of her chin, he was going to get nowhere trying to talk sense into her.
“We will reconvene here,” he said grimly. “And you will stay with me.”
The other males did not fight that, and he wasn’t surprised. Kane was too much of a gentlemale, and as for Lucan? Well, apparently he preferred his courting tackle right where it was.
So the wolven seemed very happy to take his leave with the aristocrat.
The Jackal waited until he heard the whisper-soft sound of the passageway’s exit opening and reclosing. Then he looked over at the female.
She was staring at the unlit fire, and he had a feeling if she knew how much exhaustion was showing on her face, she would have hidden it quick.
She seemed to shake herself back to attention. “I want to get my weapons from your cell. And I’ll stay here alone until you come get me.”
When he didn’t respond, she shook her head. “No, you’re not talking me out of anything.”
“Something tells me there are few who can do that.”
“Try none.”
He considered her for a moment. “What is your name. It seems like I should at least know it by now.”
“Nyx.” She stuck her hand out. “You?”
Leaning in, he slid his palm into hers and took note of the feel of her warm, slightly callused skin. He approved of the latter and wasn’t surprised by it. The warmth? He could have done without noticing that.
“The Jackal.” He bowed a little, as if they were making acquaintance in a drawing room. “And yes, that is my name.”
No, it wasn’t. But he didn’t use his real one. Hadn’t for . . . well, since after his transition.
“Your first name is ‘the’?” she said dryly.
“It was a nickname that stuck.”
“Down here?”
“And up there.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
There was a long silence, and as she broke off and walked around the fire pit, he studied her movements.
“How would you care for a hot bath,” he asked.
“Like this place has running water?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes, it does. But more than that, the bathing pool is in an even more secure place. I’d suggest you allow me to get your pack and show you the way.”
“I’ll get it myself. Which way do I go.”
The Jackal put his hands on his hips and stared at the stone floor. Then he strode over and got right in the female’s face.
In Nyx’s face.
“Enough.” He loomed over her. “I have had enough. You’re going to stay here. I’m going to get your pack. And then we’re going to the bathing pool.”
“No, I’m going to—”
“Your desperation to find your sister is making you reckless. If that gets only you killed, fine. You deserve it. But Lucan and Kane are now involved and I will not let you endanger their lives.”
“How does me going back to get my stuff have anything to do with them?”
“Because I’m going to be obligated to save you and what do you think they’re going to do? They’re going to come help me. Or are you saying that they don’t matter. That they’re just prisoners who are expendable. Hmm? Is that how you feel?”
“Of course not,” she spat.
“Then for once in your life, do what you’re told and stay here.”
Nyx crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. Going by the way her jaw moved, it was obvious she was grinding her molars, and her eyes were spitting fire.
Except then she muttered, “Fine.”
The Jackal threw up his hands and turned away. “Finally. A fucking breakthrough.”
“FYI, you just cussed. And it was a big one.”
“See what you drive males to?”
As he stalked off, she called out, “I get along with most people, you know.”
“If you believe that, you’re delusional as well as obstinate,” he tossed over his shoulder as he kept on going.
Before he did something stupid.
Like kiss her.
Although that was their deal, wasn’t it. He got her to her sister. She gave him what he wanted.
Fates, that was a tricky bargain, he thought as he left her in the dust. Because it had to just be about the sex. He had to remain emotionless and apart from her, only the physical side of things connecting.
“Not a problem,” he told himself.
Things kept up as they were, and he couldn’t wait to get rid of her.
As Nyx waited by the fire pit, she kept the knife she had almost used on that big Lucan guy against the palm of her dominant hand. Left on her own, her heart beat fast and her eyes skimmed around the secret gathering place, tracking shadows that did not move and contours that remained the same. Underground water easing out of fissures in the walls slicked the stone, and in the candlelight, she could pick out the carving marks that were testament to the effort that had gone into creating the space.
Had the Jackal made this with the others? Over a period of years? Decades? She couldn’t fathom the time lost.
She took out a burner cell phone and looked at the time. Four hours had passed since she had left the farmhouse. It felt like four years. Naturally, there was no signal down here—and she hadn’t expected there to be one—but she had plenty of battery life. And with the lack of notifications, she wondered if Posie had sent anything that hadn’t gone through. Her sister must have noticed her too-long absence by now. Unless . . . maybe Peter was in crisis. Had he died yet?
Probably.
The idea that she’d had to choose between sisters sucked.
Nyx checked the screen on her phone one last time, focusing on her wallpaper. It was a photograph she’d taken back in June, of the front of the farmhouse. Its lights were aglow, the cheerful yellow illumination spilling out onto the lawn and flowing over the peony beds that were in full bloom.
In her mind, she told Posie she would be back soon. But she didn’t say the words out loud because she feared they were a lie.
Then she turned off the unit to save the battery life and zipped it into an inside pocket.
Glancing over her shoulder, she thought she heard footsteps. No. It wasn’t the Jackal coming back, and it wasn’t anybody else, either.
That male drove her nuts. Especially because he was right. She was being reckless, and if she kept rolling the crazy dice, snake eyes was going to come up and get her.