Sin unwound her chain carefully and leaped lightly onto the ground. She barely made a sound, only a very faint jingle, like faraway bells.
He turned.
“What are you doing here, Alan?” Sin asked softly.
Alan pushed the hood back, curly hair ruffled and looking almost black in the dim lights.
“Rescuing you?” he suggested with a small wry smile.
“I appreciate the thought,” Sin said, smiling back.
“I’m lying,” Alan told her.
Sin raised her eyebrows. “I’m shocked.”
“I came to bring you these,” said Alan. He drew out two long knives, one in each hand. “I know candy and flowers are traditional, but…”
“I’ll call them candy and flowers,” Sin said. She took one in her right hand; it was a beautiful weight. “This one’s Candy.”
“Nick sent me a text message saying they’ve got Lydie in a cabin away from the main living quarters, the first door across the deck.”
“Nick,” Sin said, tensing. “Alan, do you know—”
Over Alan’s shoulder she saw a flicker of movement, and the magician at the door, backing away. There was no time to think, so she didn’t. She already had the knife in her hand.
Sin threw. The magician caught her knife in the throat and crumpled.
She and Alan went toward the door and stood together at the foot of the stairs. Sin bent and pulled her new knife out of the body. Alan picked the end of his cloak up from the floor and offered it to her. Sin accepted the swathe of material and cleaned the blade carefully.
“Nice cloak. Where’d you get it?”
“There was a magician in this stylish thing,” Alan said. “And now he’s in the river. I imagine he could use some company.”
Sin nodded. “You dump the body. I’ll get Lydie.”
“Meet you on the deck?”
He stood in the doorway, regarding the body with serious attention. He spoke casually, his mind obviously already on getting rid of the magician, trusting her to do her part.
She knew where Lydie was. She couldn’t wait to go get her.
She did pause for a moment before she headed up the stairs. She rested her hands against Alan’s shoulders, met his eyes steadily, and kissed him on the cheek.
“Thanks for coming,” she said.
Then she ran up the stairs to find her sister.
Sin just kept going up, chasing through corridors and up stairs, until she opened a door and found herself on the deck. The wash of cool night air was sweet on her face, the lights of the city bright against the deep, dark blue of the sky.
Across the deck a door swung open. Jamie emerged, holding Lydie’s hand. Lydie was stumbling and obviously scared, her fair hair tossing in the wind.
Sin threw one of her knives at Jamie. The magician lifted his free hand and the knife went clattering onto the deck, as if some invisible fist had struck it down in midflight.
Jamie thrust Lydie in front of himself. His unearthly eyes blazed over her little sister’s head.
Sin did not throw her other knife. She advanced on Jamie, shaking the chain out from around her right wrist. The end of the chain hit the deck with a rattle.
“Wait,” Jamie said.
“No,” Sin told him, and lunged. The chain spun through the air and Jamie dodged backward: It only caught him a glancing blow on the head.
Jamie gasped aloud, the sound trembling with pain, and Sin whirled to hit him again before he could retaliate.
The invisible hand of magic caught her chain and held it suspended in midair, like a curtain between them.
“Stop,” Jamie said, his voice still shaky. “Now.”
Sin was very close. She could duck under the hanging chain and stab him. She moved fast enough that she was pretty sure his magic wouldn’t stop her in time.
But he’d used his magic to stop the chain, not hit out at her.
“Why should I?” she snapped.
“I fought for the Market once.”
“And now you’re part of the Aventurine Circle, and you treat one of our allies like a dog.”
Jamie flinched at the reference to Nick, and Sin followed up on that advantage.
“He told me you were his friend,” she said, moving forward. He stepped back, but she saw his fingers tighten on Lydie’s shoulder, and that only made her more furious. “And you’re using him as a power source.”
