Page 125 of Moonlight Hearts

“That looksveryuncomfortable, Ambrose,” Elias said.“Are you sure it’s necessary?”He wasn’t standing that far away in what felt like a wide entrance area, not that I could really see with how pinned I was.

Ambrose growled.“It’s fucking necessary.Grab his left arm and bite him, then tell me if it’s really him or an impostor.”

Elias pointed at himself.“Me?You want me to bite him?”

“This is not the time to fuck around.Just do it.”

Elias looked at me.His eyes were huge, and he was biting his lower lip.“Um.I…am sorry.In case this is really you, Amory.”

“R-really me?”

Ambrose made a low noise.“No talking.”

Elias reached for the arm Ambrose hadn’t pinned, and while he looked hesitant about it, he bit my wrist.The pain of it barely even registered, because having my other arm pulled back in this unnatural way hurt a lot more.

After a moment, Elias looked back up and licked pink off his bottom lip.“It’s him.Let him go.Let him go now, Ambrose.”

He did, and the very next moment, Elias’s arms fell around my neck.“I said to visit me, but not like this.Why would you do that and scare me so?”

“What the fuck happened?”Ambrose asked, his voice gruff but calm.“Explain, now.”

I tried to extricate myself, but Elias held me in place.“Uh, I was asleep.Someone knocked, and I figured it was Jules or Soyer.Thought he’d lost his key.”

Ambrose frowned.“Jules?”

“The house pawn.”

He nodded.“Continue.”

“Well, it was this guy who’d been at the diner for tea.British accent.And those fancy gloves, you know?”

Elias pulled back.“Gloves?Do you mean custom gloves?Italian?”

I rubbed my arm.“I didn’t ask where he got them, but I guess they looked custom made.”

Elias’s eyes went wide.“Oh, shit.”

Ambrose made a grumbling sound.“What?Why do gloves matter?”

Elias hugged himself.“Well, I happen to know that a certain someone used to have a personal glover he used as his forwarding address.”

Ambrose bared his teeth, but still kept calm.“Stop with the subtlety.This is not the fucking time.Who has a glover, and why do I care?”

“Caecilius,” Elias said.“He had a glover in Florence.”

Ambrose’s nose flared.“Fuck me.Why on my watch?”

I shook out my wrist, the one Ambrose had bent back.“He had a guy with him, Thaeros’s twin—Thaeros is my co-manager, the one out there in the blue coat.”

Ambrose nodded.“Yeah, the narcissan.Hell of a choice.”

It annoyed me that people knew what Thaeros was when I didn’t, but not enough for it to take center stage among all the reasons why my heart was racing.“He—Echo—showed up.He had the Sandman with him, who made the Brit and the twin fall asleep, and we left through the other apartment on our floor.He said no one lives there because they died and that Soyer looks after the place.”I looked at Elias.“I didn't know that.”

He took my hand.“It’s a harmless thing.Like this.We have a Band-Aid to put on this, don’t we, Ambrose?”

Ambrose opened his mouth, paused, then closed it.“Bathroom upstairs, the one two doors down from your room.Take him up there and then go to your room.”He looked at the door.“I’ll deal with this.”

Elias nodded, his head bobbing rapidly.“Good idea.Amory—”