Which was when I realized she’d gotten to him.

Somehow that bitch had wriggled through the cracks in his heart and set down roots. And I had no idea how to respond to the anger snapping in his eyes now. Except to be honest. “You can’t get that done on this plane.”

“I know.”

“You shouldn’t kil her at al .”

He glared at me. “Why not?”

“Because you’re mad at her.” I didn’t have to remind him of the first rule. I could see he remembered that we don’t kil when we’re angry, because that’s when we stop being assassins and become something else entirely. He was just standing in a place I’d been too many times myself. And he real y didn’t give a shit.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

So we waited. Dawn approached. Vayl drove back to the riad. Yousef went down to work. But Kyphas never showed.

We began a watch, two on, one sleeping in the room nearest the roof access, al of us with our noses so deep in the mint we began to forget what real air smel ed like.

The room we picked felt like the rest of the tannery, stripped of everything beautiful, its bones dry and cracking, but stil of practical use. I’d been in worse places. Then I realized the brown stained wal s, the dirt-choked floors, the single hanging bulb that hadn’t felt a charge in decades weren’t depressing me. It was Cole, nursing an anger that fit him about as wel as a judge’s robes. And Sterling, il at ease enclosed in a space that sucked in the heat while it rejected light, air, and worst of al , music. He’d start to hum a tune and then trail off, like he’d forgotten the melody. Until he final y just stopped.

Yousef brought us meals, for which we paid him so wel that he nearly wept. And I tried not to develop an attachment to him. I liked his loyalty. It was just that I knew he hoped I’d reward him with a hearty slap on the cheek fol owed by a kick to the shin. And I couldn’t wrap my mind around that.

Didn’t even want to try.

At dusk Vayl returned. He took one look at us and said,

“We are going to the roof.”

As soon as we stepped into the open we felt better. I wondered how entire families survived in rooms like the ones we’d left, how they shielded their souls from the crushing hopelessness wal s and ceilings like those brought down on them. And I thought, looking sideways at Yousef and Kamal, who’d come to join us after their visit to the hammam, that some of them didn’t.

“Kamal,” I said, “tel Yousef that we’re expecting violence tonight. And if it comes, the two of you have to stay on the roof.”

When Kamal translated and I saw the excitement brighten Yousef’s face I nearly shook him. But I knew he’d enjoy it too much, so I just said, “It won’t be the kind of pain Yousef enjoys. You have to make him understand that. You could both die.”

Kamal half turned, like he wanted to bolt but his feet had somehow stuck to the floor. He whispered, “Who are you?”

“It’s better that you don’t know, okay? We need Yousef to read the map after we get it, but only when it’s safe.” I handed them both more euros than they’d ever seen. “We’l give you twice that when this is over. Just hang out here.

That’s al you have to do. Okay?”

Kamal nodded until Yousef pinched him and demanded some translating, dammit! Then he seemed even happier to cooperate than his buddy. To the point that they found us al rickety folding chairs to sit in while we watched and waited some more. My work is way exciting. Except for the times when it bores me out of my mind.

I couldn’t have been asleep long. My dreams had only begun to take on the detail of real life when Vayl shook me awake. I checked my watch. Three a.m. He motioned for me to join the rest of the crew at the edge of the roof, al squatting in a neat row like marksmen waiting for the bank robbers to come riding into town. Yousef and Kamal huddled on one end, whispering to each other. Next to them Sterling crouched, watchful as a stalking lion. Cole knelt to his left, grasping the hilt of his sword like he meant to pul and charge within the next couple of seconds. Vayl went to sit at his shoulder, waiting patiently until Cole turned to meet his eyes.

“Remember why we do this,” Vayl said. I’d sunk to my heels on the other side of him. Now he tilted his head toward me. “Jasmine cannot be free without the Rocenz.”

“I know that,” Cole snapped.

“Did you know she has been experiencing nosebleeds and headaches?”

We both stared. “Little escapes my attention when I am ful y attuned,” Vayl said.

“It’s nothing—” I began.

“He is kil ing you!” Vayl let me see the flecks of orange starting to paint over the stormy blue of his eyes before he turned them back to Cole. “Saving Jasmine is your priority tonight. Al else pales.”

He turned back to the scene unfolding below us, and though I could feel Cole’s troubled gaze on me, I concentrated on the action in the tannery as wel . Because nothing could come of significant looks, no matter how mopey we made them.

The creatures who’d appeared below us kept to the tannery’s dark corners at first. But as their search went on and it became obvious that they couldn’t figure out their map, they lost the patience stealth requires and became a lot easier to count.

“She sucks at recruiting,” Cole said.

“How many do you see?” Vayl asked.

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