Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“Sorry to intrude. This is safer than approaching you at the mountain,” Valia said.
“How did you even find out about this place?” Fordham demanded.
Valia arched an eyebrow at him. “You act as if it’s difficult.”
“Spy,” Kerrigan said by way of explanation. “It’s sometimes disorienting.”
“So I’ve heard.” Valia gestured upstairs. “Shall I help you into your dress?”
“That would be helpful,” Kerrigan admitted and gestured for Valia to follow them upstairs. “Why are you here?”
Valia shot Fordham a look. “I assume you trust him.”
Fordham growled, low and menacing.
“With my life,” Kerrigan said. “Anything you say to me can be said to him. Is this about the Collector?”
Valia nodded as they entered the room. Kerrigan stepped into her dress, and Valia worked on tying her back into the elaborate attire. She wished she had something else to wear. It would be obvious what they had been up to that night if she walked into the mountain, wearing the gown from the night before. A problem for another time.
“I told you before that I had narrowed it down to certain key members. I’ve since settled on one particular house. The owner is known to have a vault. He brags of it. Though refuses to say what the contents are. I believe we can make a good guess as to what it is.”
“And if it isn’t?”
“Then, we keep looking,” Valia said. “But we’re short on time. We need to break in tonight.”
“How do we know that you’re not sending us into a trap?” Fordham snarled.
Valia tied off the dress and stepped back.
Kerrigan walked to Fordham and put a hand to his chest. “You have to trust her. We’ve come this far together.”
“You don’t have to trust me,” Valia said evenly. “You can leave all of this behind. You can let the Father destroy your world as he destroyed mine. No one will oppose him when the time comes. If that is what you want, then don’t trust me. Return to your bed and do nothing.”
Fordham’s body tensed at those words. “That is not what we wish.”
“I thought not,” Valia said.
“Why don’t you break into the house? You’re a spy. Can’t you get into a house and open a vault?”
Valia tilted her head. “I can. But I have elsewhere I have to be tonight.”
“Where?” Fordham snapped.
“That’s not important.”
Kerrigan saw that he was going to argue with her, but they didn’t have time for any of that. If they could go after the Collector, then she was beyond ready.
“Tell us everything.”
* * *
“I don’t think she told us everything,” Fordham said as he stared up at the Row house from across the street at nightfall.
Kerrigan had known there were Red Masks on the Row. No one was as scared about losing their place and privilege as those with money. But it was still disorienting to be on the Row, knowing she was entering a member’s house.
“She told us as much as she knew,” Kerrigan said. “Now, shut up and move.”
They wore all black, and Kerrigan pulled a hood over her red hair. They stalked around to the rear of the building. The home that Fordham had bought for her was a townhouse. This was a Row mansion. It might not have been one of the old houses a street over, which were estates with hundreds of rooms, but it was close.
And the house wasn’t empty either.
Lights were on in the front windows. She had seen people walking through a second-story room. But what they were after was supposedly on the third floor, and it had seemed empty enough up there.
“Shadow jump?” Fordham suggested.
She glanced up the back side of the building. She could scale it. She was fit enough for that, but it didn’t sound appealing.
“How many jumps do you think you have?”
“Enough for the two of us to get up there and out if need be.”
She nodded. “Do it.”
Fordham’s arms wrapped around her. She sighed with relief at that touch. All day, she had wanted nothing but to feel him against her. The bond that existed between them strengthened every second that his hands were on her. She could feel it now. The thing she had never found with Tieran. A call within her to Fordham. She was sure she could feel him across great distances. But at the same time, she’d always felt that way about him. The bond was just the physical manifestation of what she had already known.
His fingers tightened around her waist, and then his shadows encased them. One second, they were there, and the next, they were gone. Fordham landed lightly on the roof of the house. It would have been convenient if he could have dropped them into the room they needed, but it wasn’t safe to jump into a place you had never been. You could run into a person or land inside some furniture. Always better to know exactly where you were jumping.