“I’ll pay you,” said Alan.
“I’m listening,” said Sin.
“Six-thousand-year-old Sumerian translation. It’s a full ritual, too, so the going rate will be higher.”
Sin’s eyes widened, but she was a Market girl. Mae wasn’t surprised to see that her face and voice betrayed nothing more. “Done,” she said briskly, and then a thought seemed to occur to her. She smiled, the curve of her lips cynical and not happy. “So you want me to play nice with the demon, do you?” Her stance shifted, ever so subtly. Suddenly the curves of her body were on offer, as was the curve of her red mouth when she said, low, “And you, traitor? How do you want me to treat
Alan laughed. Sin looked outraged.
“Really, Cynthia.” He gave her a look over his glasses. “Your usual barely concealed contempt will be fine.”
“It’s Sin,” Sin snarled.
“Want to do another deal?” Alan asked. “Watch me walk across a room without flinching, and I’ll call you whatever you like.”
Sin bit her lip. “Get me that translation. I want to be paid in advance.”
Alan nodded and made his way across the kitchen. Sin leaned against the counter with her back deliberately to him, so she wouldn’t have to see him walk.
That meant she saw Mae standing at the door. She gave her a slight smile and pushed herself up so she was sitting on the counter, one slim leg kicking out at a cabinet. “Hear anything interesting?”
“I think so,” Mae said slowly. “Merris is incapacitating the Market and allying with the magicians.”
Sin looked angry for a moment, then sighed and let her tense shoulders relax. Mae crossed the room to Sin and leaned against the counter, close enough that Sin’s bare shoulder was pressed warm against Mae’s blouse.
“Gerald of the Obsidian Circle wants Alan to trap Nick on Market night and strip him of his powers,” Mae said. “One blow and he gets rid of the greatest threat they have. Nobody can stand up to him then. Merris isn’t even trying to stand up to him now. How long do you think the Market will survive?”
“The other choice is that Merris dies,” Sin said, her voice a thread.
Mae closed her eyes. “I know. I’m really sorry. But you told me you loved the Market.”
“What can I do?” Sin demanded.
Mae could hear Alan’s step outside the door and only had time to say, “Something,” before he came in. He looked mildly startled to see her but approached Sin anyway, handing her a folded piece of paper and a tablet wrapped in cloth. Sin opened the paper and scanned it with an expert’s eye.
“All I have to do is pretend to like your demon?”
“Putting on a show is kind of your specialty, isn’t it?”
“I thought it was yours,” Sin said, level. “You had us all fooled.”
“True. I know all the acts people put on,” Alan told her absently, fetching a plastic bottle of lemonade out of the fridge as he spoke. “So you’d better make your act good.”
He left, swinging the bottle in his hand. Sin looked very annoyed as she swung her little black bag off her shoulder and onto the counter and stuffed the tablet and the translation inside. Mae felt a little ill watching an ancient artifact being handled like Monday’s homework, but she stopped herself from snatching it away.
Instead she said, “Can we talk?”
Sin looked up, her eyes narrowed. “Later,” she promised, low and thrilling, the voice she used at the Market. “Right now I have a show to put on.”
She left her bag on the counter and walked out into the sunlight. Even her hair seemed to be moving differently, swinging jauntily around her slim shoulders. She headed straight for Nick.
Mae watched from the door and felt the mark burn hot under her blouse.
“Now I have the boring part of the afternoon done with,” Sin said, without even sparing Alan a glance, “I thought I might stick around. See if there’s anything exciting going on.”
Nick leaned back on his elbows, looking more relaxed as well as slightly predatory.
“What did you have in mind?”
Sin offered him her hand and he took it, thumb moving deliberately over the inside of her wrist, and let her pull him to his feet. She did not wait a moment before she stepped in and kissed him on his curling mouth.
“Surprise me,” she suggested.
Then she sat down gracefully beside Jamie and gave him a smile. Jamie gave her a look of wholehearted admiration.
“You should draw her,” he advised Seb, having clearly decided Seb had a use after all.
“If you like,” Sin allowed, brushing her hair back. It was glinting brown and red in the sunlight, enough glowing tones to show it was dark instead of black.
Seb looked pleased to show off his artistic skills, shifting his notebook to one knee and starting to sketch, lead whispering against the smooth paper. Mae noticed that he didn’t seem all that impressed by Sin, which was kind of nice after the way Alan’s and Nick’s eyes had followed her entrance.
While Seb was drawing, Sin wandered over and sat on Nick’s Vanquish, pulling Mae over to put her hair in tiny pink braids. Nick regarded them both with amusement.
