Page 124 of Moonlight Hearts

“Just wait.I’ll talk to them.”Echo opened his door and got out, heading to a speaker system integrated into the wall itself.

I leaned forward to get closer to Thaeros.“What is going on here, Thaeros?”

I’d seen Thaeros aloof that first day they’d come to the Moonlight, but right now, they seemed guilty.They seemed miserable.“I…I told him I wouldn’t do anything that gets you hurt.I want you to know that.That was before we’d met, and I just didn’t want to hurtanyone.He said that was the entire point here.I came to Newstaten to get away from things and live a quiet life here, you know?Then Echo walks into the Moonlight this morning and tells me my fucking brother has it out for you, but the second favor I owed him would be all about thwarting Peiras.That’s really all I know.”He gestured to the now-empty passenger seat.“I’d never even met the Sandman.I mean, the fuckingSandman?That’s not the crowd I hang out with, Amory.I worked for Shamhat, not a ’cubus but almost as good, you know?All this?Above my pay grade.”

“I still don’t know who that is.”

“The Sandman?”

“No, Sham…”

“Shamhat?You don’t know Shamhat?”He gave me those big, incredulous eyes again.

I shook my head.“Nope.Never heard of them.But…I’m still new to everything, to the underground.To pawns and cursed.”

He was staring.“No one even says that anymore these days.We’re all just supernaturals.”

I exhaled heavily.“I did know that.Sorry.”

Outside, Echo was making his way back to the car.The gate was starting to move, sliding open to let us in.

Echo got back in behind Thaeros.“Drive.It’s straight ahead.”

Thaeros did.“What did you tell them?”

“That I was here to see the Lord Elias Hawthorne and that it’s urgent.That I have Amory with me.”

Thaeros’s neck muscles tensed, and he bit his lip, completely ruining his makeup in that spot.I used the short drive to look around at the garden.It wasn’t even a garden, not really.This was a park with bushes trained into spherical shapes and flowerbeds stretching around trees.Most of it was covered in snow, but since nothing much was in bloom, I saw artwork dotted around the sleeping landscape.Some of it was concrete, some abstract.One piece was an obelisk with a weathervane on top—a bird in flight rather than a rooster—and the sight of shimmery feathers against the sky reminded me of Soyer.

Thaeros stopped in front of a massive building, the entrance making it look like a set from a fairy-tale movie.Stone steps led to a door—modern looking, which made it feel at odds with the garden and the gate, with the sheer size of the building.

The door opened, and Ambrose came out.I didn’t see Elias.I could tell when Ambrose spotted me though, our eyes meeting and something sparking in his, perhaps relief.He waited at the top of the stairs.

“All out,” Echo said, not that I needed the instruction.

Thaeros turned off the car and was clearly more hesitant than me to get out.

“Is Elias here?”I asked while making for the door.

Ambrose’s gaze flicked from me to Echo.“What is this?”

“It’s important.”Echo gestured at me.“We’re friends.Well, we will be, at any rate, so I’m technically paying it forward.Cecil tried to abduct Amory maybe half an hour ago.You can’t tell the two absent Lords or the Lord Shuck.”

“Why?”

Ambrose sounded pretty calm.I wasn’t sure how he could be.This situation deserved freaking out.I only didn’t because I’d burned off a lot of that energy on those nineteen flights of stairs.

Echo sighed.“You know what I do.You know how accurate I am.”

Ambrose raised his right brow.“Yes, and I know you usually take a pretty sum for the pleasure of your predictions.”

“Well, have a freebie.”

“Oh, Amory!”I heard Elias, and saw him at the door a moment later.“Won’t you come inside?You look so cold.”

Ambrose beckoned me to him, so I went up the stairs.I was absolutely not prepared for him to grab me with inhuman speed.I barely had time for a breath in before he had one of my arms pinned behind my back and me in front of him, holding me there with his arm around my neck.

“You two don’t move.”Ambrose walked backward into the house and kicked the door shut.He was not easing his hold, not even a little.