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Chapter sixteen

Rae hadn’t slept for long. She didn’t want to see Aidan on another exploratory wander through the manor, not with how things had gone down at Cosia. Not when he would have questions that she was too tired to answer.

She was stuck inside, but that hadn’t stopped her from giving orders to Omnia recruits, and despite the questionable morality of it, asking them to follow up on Nim’s whereabouts in the hopes that her friend was taking that romantic trip away somewhere with Reed.

The heavy weight that had wedged itself under her ribs told her otherwise, and Rae needed a plan.

Confined to her room, she pulled a bench pin from her bag and clamped it to the dressing table, dragging the bedside lamp over and securing her leather underneath.

Pulling out the drawer and pinning the edges of the skin to the underside of the table was far from ideal, but she’d worked in worse setups.

She thought of the first time she’d explained the importance of catching every last scrap of metal to Nim as they worked, how even the fine filings could be melted again and turned into something usable.

“Lemel,” Nim had repeated, the word used to describe the dust left behind after piercing the metal with a saw blade. Then Rae had shown her friend how to melt the scrap and repurpose it, just as Cillian had shown her.

“You’re a good teacher, you know,” the little Witch had informed her with a soft smile, and it had cracked something in Rae’s carefully constructed armour that day to hear her friend’s words, to see the way Nim’s face lit up at everything she’d learnt.

Witches were often reluctant to share their teachings, to pass their knowledge beyond their covens, something that had stilted their growth for many years, and it didn’t just extend to magic.

Nim would have felt that just as acutely as Rae did growing up.

She shoved the memory to the back of her thoughts.

Given the hour, she opted for filing, a relatively quiet process.

Aidan didn’t sleep much, but Rae had no idea about Baelin and Shaw’s sleep schedule, and the goddess knew who else was inside the manor.

Evander and Roak seemed nice enough, but Orion said very little.

There were likely at least half a dozen more Vampires within the compound at any given moment.

She worked her way down through her files before moving on to sandpaper, roughest to smoothest, working slowly at the silver cuff until it reached a mirror shine.

It was a much faster process with the polisher, but Rae loved to slow it all down and go back to basics whenever sleep evaded her, needed to, to keep her thoughts from racing.

She was restless, her body aching from sitting on the hard stool, so she set her tools aside and paused by her door to listen for any signs of Orion before heading to the natatorium.

Perhaps it was foolish to wander, but Rae wasn’t going to miss her second night in a row with a chance for a late-night swim.

Or early morning. Dawn probably wasn’t far off.

Quinn sat waiting as she rounded the end of the corridor, and Rae huffed a quiet laugh as the dog yawned at her. “Did he make you wait here or do you just like me that much?” She scratched his head in greeting. “Don’t tell me. Let me believe I have an adorable bodyguard.”

He grumbled in response as he nudged her hand.

“Thought so,” Rae murmured.

Further down the next corridor, she could hear Baelin talking quietly, but not with who.

More Vampires, she suspected, which was just perfect for her.

She’d known it wouldn’t be easy living in the Lord’s manor and had known the risks, but Aidan’s willingness to let her into his home had been too good to pass up, his arrogance too grating.

Her intel had told her the security usually remained outside the manor grounds, which meant whatever happened at Cosia had Aidan worried.

She recalled the way he’d carried her to the car.

How he’d offered to carry her to her room.

Protecting his asset, she reminded herself.

“He mentioned the other facilities, but…” a voice Rae hadn’t heard before said.

“Aidan got tired of waiting?” Baelin asked.

The silence told Rae everything she needed to know.

She almost tipped a vase, Quinn’s nose nudging against her thigh as she righted it, as if the mutt was telling her to be careful.

She stifled a laugh, but the thought of precisely what Aidan’s impatience might look like quickly dried up any traces of humour.

There was the matter of Zeke’s data that she couldn’t access, though not through lack of trying, and whether that might have saved someone from Aidan’s torture.

Even Miller, her best tech operative, hadn’t been able to access it, but she still had other options to exhaust. Rae always had other options.

She pressed on to the natatorium before her thoughts grew too loud inside her skull, before she allowed any trace of guilt to surface.

The doors were unlocked, which was just as well because she was far too drained for more spells.

Warm air hit her as she made her way inside, holding a door open for Quinn to ease past.

Water reflected off the ceiling, though she couldn’t see it yet.

Mosaic tiles in blues and greens lined the walls, the floor, and the ceiling.

Lush plants overflowed from beds running along the wall just above her head.

Ordinarily, she’d have opted to shake off some of her unease at her favourite bar in the Western Quarter, but Rae pulled off her shirt and let it fall to the floor behind her as she followed the curve of the tiled wall to an area with showers.

She peeled off her sweats and left them where they fell, the spray turning on automatically as soon as she entered the shower area. She’d pushed hard earlier, harder than she had in a while, and she still felt hollowed out, likely would for days unless she could tap a source.

The immortals outside the perimeter of the restaurant could have been the same ones responsible for Nim’s disappearance, and in that moment, Rae hadn’t cared what suffering Aidan would inflict upon them, only that he did.

That had meant bringing down the wards for him to reach their minds, to keep one of them alive for questioning.

Rae didn’t let herself dwell on how someone capable of so much brutality had held her so carefully, touched her so gently, forcing herself instead to remember all the reasons she was in this predicament in the first place.

The same feeling that chased her, night and day, slid along her bones. She held her face to the water, willed it to wash the feeling away, but nothing would. She’d tried. Diving into her work. Visk. Weed. Sex. Nothing worked.

Quinn followed her as the spray ceased, padding along quietly beside her as she took in the pool.

A ceiling painted like a starry sky stretched above it, tall arched windows on one side, the pool so large it curved in different directions, some parts leading into dark corners full of more lush foliage.

For a house full of Vampires, the manor contained an unusually large number of unprotected windows.

More of the Lord’s arrogance, Rae suspected.

A small waterfall flowed off a rock garden, and she hummed quietly to herself in approval as she dove into the warm water, breath held, exploring beneath the surface for every turn in the pool.

Water had once been a punishment, but Rae had learned to turn it into a comfort.

To remind herself that she wasn’t just existing; she was alive.

Nim had reminded her of that too. Had given her a reason to show up every day, even when her thoughts were too loud, too much, too messy.

A bark registered over the sound of the falls and Rae broke the surface to find Quinn at the edge of the pool beside her, dancing from one foot to another. “Relax,” she told him, swiping water away from her eyes. “I can hold my breath for a little while longer than that.”

“Should I ask why?” Baelin’s voice echoed quietly through the natatorium.

The answer wasn’t pleasant, and she didn’t feel like a heart-to-heart tonight, as much as Baelin had put her at ease back in Cosia.

In truth, he reminded her of Seylan, and hearing the Vampire crack jokes at Cosia to make her feel comfortable had made her homesick for the first time in as long as she could remember.

“I’m part Siren,” Rae said with a mocking grin as Baelin rounded a mosaicked column, running a hand over Quinn’s sleek head.

“A likely possibility, given what you did tonight.” He crouched at the water’s edge, one hand swirling in the water, watching the ripples he made. “There’s no news about her yet,” he said quietly.

Rae resisted the urge to swim closer, just to hear more information about her friend. “Do you want what’s best for your lord, or do you truly care if she lives or dies?” she asked, treading water as she swam closer.

“Can’t it be both?” Baelin glanced up, a boyish smile on his face, and Rae decided to believe him. “He’s in here a lot, by the way. It’s kind of his safe space, but don’t tell him I told you that.” He waved a hand at the pool.

“Why are you telling me that?”

“Because he told you he’d give you space here, but I don’t see why you can’t both peacefully coexist until this arrangement reaches its conclusion.” Another of his boyish smirks.

Rae scoffed. “Until one of you tries to kill me, you mean?”

“I’m fairly certain that’s the opp—”

“Baelin.” There was no mistaking the command in Aidan’s tone.

For someone who’d just tortured a prisoner, if Rae’s guess was correct, he looked surprisingly unruffled as he joined Baelin at the side of the pool.

Then again, he could have gotten whatever information he needed without lifting so much as a finger.

Dispatched a life without even breaking a sweat.