Page 129 of Moonlight Hearts

“Do you want to find a couch?”

They shook their head.“I can’t sleep.Too nervous.Hey, did… My brother.Did he do anything, say anything?”

“Not really.I thought you’d gotten a haircut.”

They snorted.“Yeah.Very different kind of fashion sense.”They let go of the button and fumbled with the sleeve of their uniform shirt.“It’s not that unusual.For my kind to be different from their twin.Sometimes it’s talent or the jobs we gravitate toward, but Peiras…Peiras was just always extreme about the things he wanted.The things he thought he should have.”

That brought up memories of Florence.“Do you miss him?”

“Miss my brother?Fuck no.I want nothing to do with him.I mean, I didn't know he’d gone over to fucking Caecilius.I know some of his people give talks and recruit that way, but…it’s just not right.It’s not how the world works.Maybe it did in the past, but you can’t just turn all humans into slaves.”

The door opened, and a woman wearing a nice suit walked in, pushing that fancy kind of food trolley you saw in restaurants like the Doge.She stopped, looking at Ambrose.“Tea and human food?”

Ambrose gestured at us.“Those guys for the human food.Put it on the table.”

“And tea with extra sugar for me, please,” Elias said, sounding needy while typing at extreme speed, his eyes glued to the screens.

I tried to see what they were doing, but it was no use.Echo was describing a building, I understood that.How they were finding it from what he was able to tell Elias, I had no idea.It was all just images and diagrams, and some of it was really grainy.

The woman poured tea and put a large plate with tiny triangular sandwiches in front of us, the crusts cut off.Unless I was mistaken, those were cucumber sandwiches.All very fancy.

Echo ignored the cup he was being offered and began pacing.“The timing.We have to get the timing right.”

He looked at me, but his eyes were seeing past me at the same time.

Timing.Timing reminded me that I had other things to do besides being here and…plotting.“I think I have to call Ben.”

“Why?”Echo asked, his eyes narrowing but still not really seeing me.

I pulled out my phone.“I thought you knew everything.He’s my…bodyguard, I guess.Soyer has him watch me and take me to work.”

“I don’t know everything, but Cecil clearly had you followed if his lawyer came to the diner.Which means he had someone watch your bodyguard in the hopes you’d turn up there.”

“I don’t even know where he lives.”

Echo pulled out his own phone.“Beside the point.Don’t call him yet.I’m—oh.”Echo stopped.“You’re not calling at all.I get it now.The Lord Shuck can track your phone, can’t he?”

I blinked at him.“I guess.He set everything up for me.He mentioned that, I think.I told him to do what he had to and that I didn’t mind because I trust him.”

“Aww!”Elias said.

“Yeah…yes.This can work.Your Ben would call the Shuck right away if he knew anything was wrong.He’d come in hot.”

“Might be easier to just tell everyone what we’re doing here,” Ambrose said, and I nodded.

Echo pinched the bridge of his nose.“Both Lords Hawthorne as well as the Lord Shuck will react in a very particular way if they think their lovers have been harmed.You know that.If they think their lovers are doing something foolish, they will focus on stopping them from doing that, and in this situation, that is the wrong thing for them to focus on entirely.”

Ambrose reached for the teacup the woman had left on the table next to him.It looked ridiculous—Ambrose, with that no-nonsense look on his face, holding a flowery teacup, his pinky slightly raised.“Possibly.I know they’re gonna have my head before they even go for yours.”

Elias turned in his chair.“I am not a tactician, but I have learned from the best.More than that, Echo is right.I know how Simeon and Valentin would come for me, and I saw how Soyer came for Amory.”He waved his hand at Ambrose.“Even if Echo conveys what he sees of the future and what he knows must be done, you’d be ordered to chain up myself and Amory, and not in the sexy way.”

“That’s because noncombatants have no business getting involved in combat.That’s how that works.”

I’d been bouncing my heel, but that made me stop.“I’m involved in this.Caecilius really doesn’t like me, and he wants me gone.He had someone…blow my brains out.”

I shouldn’t have said that, because the words alone brought back the memories of that day.I swallowed bile as I remembered the…mess all over me.

Ambrose stared at me for five seconds before he said, “I really am the babysitter around here.”