Page 68 of A Steeping of Blood (Blood and Tea #2)

JIN

As far as Jin knew, Arthie was sitting in a chair and keeping a close eye on her pocket watch, awaiting the moment the tribute began and their retribution could finally run its course. But with three hours left, he couldn’t let her remain there any longer.

He had detoured to the ledger’s hiding place in White Roaring Square with Flick and retrieved it on their way back to the Athereum.

It was like a bomb that had turned inert—dangerous and valuable once but fairly useless now.

It was written in a cipher, which made it near impossible to be used as evidence in front of the Council, but incredibly of service to Jin and the crew.

It had led them to Ceylan and his parents—and the Ram’s bunker too.

He tucked the ledger into his vest and smoothed down the lapels of his coat with a sigh. It was his first time dressing for a special occasion since being turned into a vampire, and without a mirror to see himself in, he hadn’t the faintest clue how well he was doing.

Nor did he find much joy in wearing a suit as he once did: He’d worn them because of his father. For years, when Jin closed his eyes, he would see his father as he did when he was a little boy, sitting in his study, legs crossed, back straight, jacket crisp.

Now Jin saw his father’s glassy eyes and slumped-over form. He saw his dead body.

A knock sounded on the door. It was stilted, like someone was using their elbow instead of their knuckles. He knew exactly who it was, which gave him pause.

“I know you’re in there, Jin,” Flick said from the other side. “And I—I can help.”

“How do you know I need help?” he asked.

She said nothing.

He growled beneath his breath and opened the door. His jaw dropped.

She was wrapped in the most stunning shade of crimson.

It was dark and rich, the hue painting a lively flush on her already gorgeous skin.

It hugged her chest and middle, the neckline shaped like a heart, cupping her curves while the skirt flowed wide.

A necklace was cinched tight around her neck, made of tiny red beads, a rainfall of red along the side of her neck, large jewels hanging off the end of each one.

Jin knew what the necklace was meant to represent: blood trickling down the bite of a vampire.

It taunted him no differently than the sheen on her lips.

He had grown so accustomed to seeing her in trousers and a shirt that the sight of her in a dress tugged at every fiber of his being.

She was waiting with lifted eyebrows. Somewhere since escaping the prison of Lady Linden’s estate, Flick had picked up a good bottle of sass and gulped it in one go.

“Do you approve?” she asked. “There wasn’t time for the tailor to make me anything custom.”

“Are you aware that we have somewhere to be quite soon, Felicity?” he asked in a slow drawl. “We haven’t time to find another bed and get snug.”

The way he spoke the words get snug made it clear he had no intention of doing anything as sweet as they had the night before.

She swallowed. Jin smirked. Her eyes drifted down his outfit, lingering on his trousers and then his double-breasted ivory shirt and the dark teal tailcoat that tied it all together.

“I see that you didn’t need help,” Flick said quietly.

“Hmm,” Jin drawled. “I wasn’t sure I didn’t until that reaction, honestly.”

She looked like she wanted to throw something at him. “You really are infuriating, did you know?”

He pouted, and she sighed, watching as he ran his fingers through his hair, wishing it was hers again. “Good?”

This time, she smiled softly and replied with a nod.

He held out his arm. “Shall we save my sister and ruin the Ram’s night?”

“Please,” Flick said.

Out in the hall, Sidharth was already waiting, as was Matteo. Impatiently. He still couldn’t find his buttons, it seemed, but his hair was tied neatly at the base of his skull.

“Ready? Good. Let’s go,” Matteo said. He was holding the Council member’s mask in one hand, a bag in the other. A gift for Arthie, he said, as if this were any time for gifting. “What does Arthie usually say? Time for mayhem, charlatans.”

“That’s not even remotely close,” said a new voice. “She’s had her tea; now she’s out for blood.”

The four of them whirled to the hall entrance. A Horned Guard stood by the door, one Jin didn’t think he’d ever see again.

“You’re alive?” he asked.

“Unlike you,” Laith replied.

“I’d almost forgotten how little I like you.”

Laith tilted his head. He was panting, bloody and bruised, and his clothes had seen better days. “I am sorry for what transpired that night.”

“What happened to you?” Flick asked.

“The Ram,” he replied, which was answer enough.

“You.”

Matteo stormed past Jin and flung Laith against the wall. The boy was already bleeding, his hair a dull matted mess on his brow. “You killed him.”

“And if you don’t let me go, the Ram’s going to kill Arthie,” Laith said.

Matteo dropped him immediately. “What?”

“We were trying to escape and found a cage full of people,” Laith said. “They’re—”

Flick cut him off. “We know about them. What happened to Arthie?”

“The Ram was in the room too. Preparing something, I don’t know.”

“Preparing to turn them,” Flick answered. “I spoke to two of the girls on the day I escaped.”

“And now she can use Arthie to do it,” Jin whispered.

Laith looked like he hadn’t considered that. “How do you know?”

“I know,” Jin said. The Ram was full of twisted ideas, and it was as Arthie said: She wanted to break them.

He looked to the time. The tribute didn’t begin for another four hours.

“We need to go. Show Laith the sketch of the bunker. You, tell us everything you know, and if you think you can lie and get away with it, I will kill you.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Laith said quietly, following them to Matteo’s sketches that he’d made using the Ram’s terrible artistry and Flick’s recollection of the place. “There are two entrances. One here—”

“Where I exited,” Flick said. “It leads to the outside.”

“And another here,” Laith said, pointing to a corner at the top of the other end. “Connecting the palace to the bunker. The door leads to a tunnel, at—”

Matteo didn’t move to make note of it. “Forgive me for not trusting a traitor.”

Laith crossed his arms. “Am I a traitor if you never trusted me to begin with?”

“And a murderer.”

“Aren’t we all? The tunnel is at least thirty feet long, and if we enter through the palace, it’ll take us close to the room with the cage.”

“Us?” Matteo asked. “There is no us after what you’ve done.”

“Be that as it may, you haven’t seen the bunker to navigate it on your own,” Laith said.

Jin shook his head. “We need to get to Arthie before the tribute begins. One, that means there won’t be an audience loitering in the gardens for us to use as cover. And two, the palace doors won’t be open yet to even access that entrance to the bunker.”

“I’ll lead us through the other entrance then,” Flick said.

“You need to stay safe. Aboveground,” Jin said.

Flick furrowed her brow. “No, I do not. I promised the humans I’d be back for them. Even if I hadn’t, I’m not letting the rest of you go in there while I sit outside.”

Jin wanted to lock her away and keep her safe, but she was right. He had trusted her before; he couldn’t stop simply because she was hurt. Flick could handle her own. She had handled her own when they were leagues away in Ceylan.

“The Ram’s men outnumber us by a large shot,” Flick added. “Plus, we have to prepare for the humans to have been turned, and possibly free of the cage. We need all the help we can get. That means Laith’s too.”

“Very well,” Matteo said, the look on his face making it abundantly clear he was ceding only because of her.

“Sidharth, get the assassin armed and cleaned up, please,” Jin said. “Your vampires?”

“Thirteen Athereum members were invited,” Sidharth said. “A few more managed to get invites through friends and other means, but fewer and fewer of us are able to keep our identities a secret. I have twenty vampires total, nicely polished and dressed for the event.”

Twenty powerful Athereum vampires. That was more than Jin thought they would have.

“We’ll take two to accompany us through the bunker,” Jin said.

Sidharth nodded. “The rest of us will remain aboveground and await the tribute then.” He gestured to the hall. “Shall we?”

“What about the Council mask?” Flick asked Jin as Laith and Matteo followed Sidharth out.

Jin turned it over in his hands, running his fingers over the bronze ridges and lines. “It’s for Arthie. She deserves to unmask the Ram more than any of us. I just don’t know where to put it.”

Flick took it from him, lifting the hem of her skirt and securing it beneath the buoyant folds of her dress. She didn’t wait for him to turn around. She didn’t move to hide every inch of her skin.

Jin averted his gaze from her leg and directed it to her eyes, only to find her already waiting for him. Goodness, this girl. She grinned and held out her arm. “Let’s go save your sister.”