by Emma Savant
“Club is eighteen and up.”
“We’re both eighteen,” Kamala said.
The bouncer gave the three of us a look that said he didn’t believe that any more than we did.
“I’ll keep an eye on them,” I said. “We’re just here to have a good time. I promise we won’t cause trouble.”
Rules in the Glimmering world being what they were, he wouldn’t get in trouble with the law for allowing us here, just his boss.
But if his boss was who I suspected, that might be bad enough.
“We just want to dance and be with our friends,” Adamine said in an almost-whine that set my teeth on edge but which most guys seemed to find adorable.
I reached into my bra and pulled out a gold coin. His eye caught on its shimmer, and I casually let the coin drop to the floor.
After a minute, he handed the IDs back and stepped neatly onto the coin, covering it with his big boot.
“I see any trouble, you’re all out,” he said.
“That’s fair,” I said, grabbing both women by the shoulders. “Thank you!”
I pulled them away before he could change his mind. We danced to the rhythmic music until he got distracted by someone else, and then I nodded at my sisters and cut a path through the dancers to the game room.
“You guys okay?” I said once we were on the stairs.
The air felt thinner and cooler here, and it was a relief to finally have some elbow room after the crush of the dance floor.
They both nodded.
“We could have handled him,” Adamine said.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “Just didn’t want to risk a scene. Okay, so we’re over at a poker table with some werewolves. I need you guys to flirt and make friends and just generally settle in until I make a move. That sound all right?”
“You got it, boss,” Kamala said.
I had never been called boss before, not seriously. A little thrill of fear traveled down my spine.
I was in charge of this mission.
What if one of them got hurt? What if something happened and they ended up in a situation where they didn’t feel safe, or felt violated by having to flirt with these werewolves, or ended up tipping our hand to the people we were here to smoke out?
I took a deep breath and pasted on a smile. My fears didn’t belong in this room. Not right now.
The wolves were more than willing to welcome Kamala and Adamine to the table, and the girls quickly snuggled up to whoever showed them the most attention. The alpha seemed to have determined we were no threat, and merely rolled her eyes a little when Adamine ended up on someone’s lap.
Adamine, I noticed, was a little too good at this. I'd have to keep a close eye on her.
The poker game continued, with the stakes low and no one paying much attention to the cards. I set my girls up with drinks before any of the wolves could offer, and lounged around and played with the long hair of the guy next to me while everyone talked about nothing. After enough time had passed, I stretched and crossed my legs.
Instantly, Kamala leaped into action.
“Where’s the bathroom, Whitney?” she said, which was the name I was using tonight. “I need to fix my dress.”
I arranged my face into an expression of concern. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s that stupid hook on the back again,” she said. “It keeps scratching me.”
“I can fix it,” Adamine offered.
“You guys don’t want to use the bathroom here,” I said. “It’s totally gross, and there’s always a line. There’s an alley right out back, though. We can step outside for a sec and fix it.”
The wolves’ posture changed, and I tried to ignore the way their eyes lit up as they glanced at one another. They were embarrassingly obvious, at least to a Dagger’s trained eyes.
“Okay,” Kamala said with a shrug. She offered a dazzling smile to the wolf who’d been fawning over her and stood.
“Don’t let anyone steal my seat,” I said.
One of the wolves shifted eagerly, and the alpha stilled him with a single, sharp look. She gestured toward the mesmer table with her eyes, and the wolf silently left the table. I fussed over my girls, careful to appear too dumb and distracted to have noticed any of the alpha’s interaction.
Ginger had scouted out the alley when she’d come here yesterday, and now I led the girls toward it as if I’d traced the route a thousand times. The door was down a hall just past the bathrooms; as usual, the men’s was virtually empty, and the women’s had a line that snaked down the hall. I pushed open the exit to the alley and took a deep breath as the bracing autumn air hit my bare shoulders and legs.
Once the door was securely shut behind us, I turned Kamala’s back toward the single, dim yellow light that was mounted on the alley wall, and Adamine pretended to fuss with the hook at the top of Kamala’s zipper. I offered advice and made sure to keep my eyes trained on the hook while all my other senses reached out into the darkness around us.
We weren’t alone. Ginger and Cerise were here somewhere, hidden deep in the shadows or behind the Dumpsters, but I sensed other eyes on us, too—watchful canine eyes that saw us as nothing more or less than prey. Goosebumps rose on my skin that had nothing to do with the cold air.
“You’ve got to twist it backwards here,” I said, pointing. “But don’t snag the fabric.”
“This would be easier if I had a pair of pliers,” Adamine said.
“Hurry,” Kamala whined. “I’m cold.”
I felt him behind us. Even without the throngs of club-goers who opened paths for him wherever he walked, his presence was enough to fill the alley. I held my breath, and his well-heeled footstep landed on the asphalt with a solid click.
I knew that sound. I’d heard it in the alley beside Straw.
I turned just as he stepped into the pool of yellow light, which cut patterns of light and shadow across his sharp face.
“Mr. Brick,” I said, feigning surprise.
25
He smiled. “Do I know you?”
I had a different face and hair tonight, but the curl of his lip suggested he did recognize me after all, and maybe had when I’d met him at the bar, too. Something about me standing there seemed to amuse and delight him in a way that made my skin crawl.
“No, but I know who you are,” I said. “Of course. You run the club, don’t you?”
“Does that impress you?” he said.
I smiled a little, not sure what game we were playing. “Shouldn’t it?”
He smoothed the already flawless lines of his suit jacket. “You ladies shouldn’t be out here alone.”
“We’re not alone,” Kamala said with a bright, innocent smile. “We have each other.”
Mr. Brick walked smoothly past us and leaned against the door leading back into the club. Even though the alley opened to the street on both sides, the gesture was clear: we were trapped, in every way that mattered.
I pretended to give a last tug to the hook on Kamala’s dress and patted her shoulder.
“There you go,” I said. “All fixed.”
I met Brick’s eyes, and he peered down at me with his thin lips quirked into an uneven smile.
“Would you get the door for us, please?” I asked.
I kept my voice light and friendly, as if I believed every good thing I’d ever heard about him and had no doubt he’d be every bit the gentleman he looked.
“Why go back inside so soon?” he said. “It’s nice to get a little fresh air.”
“It’s cold,” Kamala said. Despite her smile, there was a slight quaver to her voice.
I put a reassuring hand on her back. Ginger and Cerise were there, I reminded myself. They would intervene the instant Brick shifted or threatened us. He’d as good as confirmed he owned the club; now all we needed was proof of his werewolf nature. If I could establish those two pieces of information, we could begin to draw lines—between Brick and the illegal mesmer parlor, between the mesmer parlor a
nd the werewolves who seemed to always be here, and between those werewolves and the attack at the bamboo nursery.
He unbuttoned his jacket and shrugged it off, each gesture elegant and no movement wasted. He held out the jacket to Kamala.
“I wouldn’t want one of my guests to be cold,” he said with a courteous nod.
I nudged her toward him, and she took a stumbling step forward and turned around. Her eyes were wide, and I met her gaze and gave her the tiniest of nods. The jacket slipped over her bare shoulders, and she wrapped it around herself and smiled back up at him.
“Thank you,” she said.
We all fell silent. The conversation was over, and it was time to leave, but Brick didn’t move. He watched us, the corner of his mouth still stitched up in amusement, and then he took a step forward.
“You seem awfully young to be at my club,” he said, mostly to Kamala and Adamine.
He reached out a hand and touched Adamine’s cheek, then gently lifted her chin so he could see her better in the light. The touch wasn’t even on me, and I still wanted to wriggle away. It was like she was an animal, and he was examining her for flaws.
He didn’t seem to find any. He took another step forward and brushed Adamine’s hair back from her face.
“You’re pretty, though,” he said. “I like pretty girls at my clubs.”
He leered down at her, and she smiled up at him. Only I could see the way her feet inched backwards as he leaned in.
“Are you their chaperone?” he said to me.
I laughed. The sound felt grotesque coming out of my mouth.
“That wouldn’t be any fun.”
As if anything happening could be described as fun. Dagger jobs usually involved at least moments of excitement or accomplishment. This one felt gross all the way through, and the way Kamala was looking around for an escape told me I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
“I heard a rumor about you, Mr. Brick.” I took a step forward, and his attention shifted away from Adamine. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
I tried to make it sound like a dare, and that seemed to appeal to him.
“If I can ask you one in return,” he said.
His eyes flickered down to my cleavage and up again. I stepped even closer, silently praying that my perfume was enough to mask any familiar scent.
“I heard you’re a werewolf.” I looked up at him through my lashes, trying to fill the words with desire instead of revulsion. “Is that true?”
“Do werewolves frighten you?”
I leaned in even closer, close enough that he could kiss me if he chose to close the gap.
“I think they’re exciting,” I said.
Adamine edged away, and he let her go. His eyes locked onto mine, and I tried to keep mine wide open and my lips parted.
I’d drilled in these exercises a thousand times: look sad, now scared, now curious, now innocent, now threatening. I heard Cardinal Saffron’s voice in my head: Lift your eyebrows just a hair, smooth your forehead, smile only with your eyes, no, that’s too much, back off a little—there.
I bit my lip, took in a quavering breath, and focused on the spot between his eyes like I’d find the answer there. He reached out a hand and ran his fingernails down my throat. The sound of a car driving out on the street barely broke the silence between us.
Then the door to the club slammed open, and the sound of a woman’s heels clicked sharply on the pavement. I jumped away from Brick as my heart leaped to a gallop.
He didn’t seem startled. Instead, he let out a breath and smiled, this time in a way that seemed genuine.
“Joseph?” a woman said.
My stomach clenched at the sound of her voice in remembered fear and anger.
“Yes, my dear?” He turned around.
Sienna stood in the light of the open door, a sparkling gold dress clinging to her curves, and thick bangles ringing her wrist. She surveyed us with cool eyes, taking in Adamine’s frightened expression and Kamala wearing Brick’s jacket before her attention landed on me.
The glamour wasn’t enough to shield me from her gaze. We’d spent too many years practicing disguises together, and we each knew the Daggers’ many faces as well as we knew our own.
She held out a hand to him.
“You’re needed inside,” she said, then looked over at Kamala. “Kammie, sweetie, we’ll need the jacket back. Can’t have anyone casting spells with it.”
Kamala removed the jacket in silence. Sienna waited coolly until Kamala had handed it over, and then she took Brick’s hand and led him back into the building. She glanced over her shoulder as the door began to fall shut.
“Have a good evening, girls,” she said.
26
I stormed through the forest behind the mansion, trampling saplings and ferns underfoot. The delicate branches bent and cracked beneath my boots, and it was a relief to destroy things—even things as tiny and innocent as the plants that ventured to grow on the path to the Wildwoods’ den.
Before I reached the den, though, I stopped and turned around.
I didn’t want to talk to Brendan or Alec or Cate or any of the other wolves. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. There was no point. I’d already given my report to Mom and Grandma of the whole stupid failed venture, and that had been more than enough talking for one night.
Everything had fallen apart. I hadn’t managed to trick Brick into revealing his werewolf form. I hadn’t even managed to prove he was more threatening than any other everyday creep who thought it was okay to flirt with underage girls.
I’d failed, dramatically, and in front of my sisters.
And Sienna.
I swatted at a bramble obstructing the path. It sprang out of my way, but not before slicing a thin gash into my hand. I sucked on the injury and tasted the sharp copper of blood.
It wasn’t just that things had gone wrong. It was that they had gone spectacularly wrong—so much so that I couldn’t have even imagined myself in that situation. Fury and humiliation swirled into a toxic cocktail inside me.
How had Sienna gotten out of jail? How had she outsmarted me again? Why did she seem so utterly determined to be the central problem of my life?
I stumbled out from under the trees and onto the edge of the backyard. The comforting scent of a campfire greeted me. Someone in a bulky red sweater was sitting next to the fire pit, stirring the logs.
No, not someone.
Grandma.
She was the only person I could stand to be with right now. I approached and dropped myself into one of the lawn chairs at the edge of the pit, and she handed me a thermos of hot tea like she’d just been waiting for my arrival.
“Long day, sabre?”
“The absolute longest,” I said.
She took a sip from her own thermos. “You know nothing that happened today was your fault, right?”
I picked a piece of grass and started ripping it into tiny ribbons. “Don’t see how it’s not.”
“I didn’t know Sienna was out of prison,” Grandma said. “Why should you?”
“But how is she out?” I demanded. “And why didn’t anyone tell us?”
“She’s an adult,” Grandma said. “No one was under any obligation to inform us, and she clearly didn’t decide to reach out.”
“She was supposed to be in prison for years,” I said. “She murdered people.”
“No justice system is perfect,” Grandma said. “If she’s involved with Joseph Brick, I have no doubt his influence or his money worked in her favor.”
“Even after murder?”
She made a noncommittal noise and stirred the logs again, although they didn’t need it. Her face was tight, and I realized with a jolt that this had to be affecting her at least as much as it did me.
“Do you think she’s part of the wolf pack?” I said. “Brick has to be a werewolf.”
“You didn’t see him transform.”
“I didn’t have to,” I said. “The wolves
we were with definitely let him know we were out there, and—” I tossed the thin strips of grass into the fire. “It was his shoes,” I said finally. “His shoes on the pavement. I knew that sound.”
“I believe you,” Grandma leaned forward, elbows propped on her knees, and looked into the flames. The light from them reflected off her glasses, covering her eyes with a screen of dazzling orange.
“I put Sienna in prison, and she’s still out there,” I said. “Living her best life.”
I picked another piece of grass and ripped it into shreds.
We sat in silence for a long moment. A log popped, vaulting an explosion of swirling embers into the air.
I had been trying to investigate this werewolf on my own, but I hadn’t really saved anyone until I had called all my sisters to my side. I had defeated Sienna more or less on my own the first time she’d shown her true colors, but now she was out, and I knew it was only a matter of time before she came to get her revenge.
“We’re all in danger,” I said.
Grandma nodded, like this wasn’t news or even something to get worked up about.
And it wasn’t, not really. We were always in danger. The Daggers had enemies across the globe, and I had more than one childhood memory of some furious troll or sorcerer trying to break past the enchantments around Grandma’s property to take revenge on a Dagger who had wronged him.
This was different, though.
This was personal.
And I wouldn’t be able to handle it alone.
“We need every witch in the coven working on this,” I said. “Except for Garnet.”
“Even Garnet,” Grandma said.
Garnet was Sienna’s mom, and my aunt. She’d been in Australia for much of the past year, studying a dangerous and evasive creature called the Garkain. She’d been informed when everything had gone down with Sienna, and had briefly flown home for Sienna’s trial before the Faerie Court, but had gone back to Australia almost immediately.
“Are you sure?”
“Garnet is angrier with Sienna than I am, I think,” Grandma said. “They’re not speaking now, not since Sienna learned her mother didn’t support her cause.” She sighed. “Garnet is safe. And perhaps she can help us when she comes home.”
