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His gaze was bloodshot, unblinking, fixated straight ahead. His expression reminded her of one of Finnian’s ghouls in the seconds before he brought them back to life—peaceful and immobile.
Naia dropped her eyes down to the empty can of coffee in the cupholder. Ronin had downed it in less than five minutes, and she was prepared to argue the amount of caffeine consumed so quickly couldn’t be healthy for a mortal’s heart, but she refrained, given Ronin had grown intensely quiet.
“Do you need me to take over?” she asked.
He would have little use to her if he crashed the vehicle and ended up dead.
His eyes came to life, glancing over at her. “Does that mean you have a driver’s license?”
She had no recollection of what a driver’s license was, but she could presume it was required to operate his car. “No, I do not.”
“Do you know how to drive?”
“No.”
He sputtered out a laugh. “Then why did you offer?”
“You resemble the undead right now.” She gestured to her own eyes, emphasizing the dark circles puddling beneath his.
He repositioned himself in his seat and exchanged hands on the wheel. “I’m fine. I’ve stayed up a lot longer than this before, and besides, right over this hill, we’ll be in city limits.”
Naia spun her head to look through the windshield.
The dawn split in the sky like pomegranate arils, spraying the clouds of burgundy and patches of blood orange.
She bit her lip back to contain her excitement as they topped the hill and skyscrapers came into sight. A view she’d only seen in pictures in her books.
The lanes of traffic veered from two to six. Vehicles whipped past them. Ronin stayed in a center lane, cruising at a tolerable speed.
Naia was all but pressing her nose up against her window, taking in every large sign and tall, enormous building, hypnotized by the looping of the bridges above and underneath them. Her heart sped up as she took in the open sky ahead of them. The sun climbing over the edge of the earth, its rays bursting like an egg yolk backdrop behind the city.
“Have you ever been to a city before? You look like Akane when Yuki got her a tablet for her birthday.”
Naia had no clue what a tablet was, nor did she care how her reaction came off.
“Never. This is my first time,” she confessed.
“You appear on the shore of the island, and you’ve only ever watched the festival from afar… Sounds like you’re a mermaid.” Ronin flipped his blinker on.
She toned down her awe-struck reaction by settling back in her seat and clearing her throat. “Tell me, how do you intend to track down Finny—an?”
Dammit. Her tongue pressed on the roof of her mouth.
He looked from his rearview mirror over his shoulder before gliding the car two lanes over to the right. “He holds a charity event every year around this time. The guests are always wealthy as fuck, and they end up raising close to a mil. The event is about a week away.”
Naia found it hard to imagine Finnian hosting an event and mingling with people.
“And you’re invited to said event?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about it.” Ronin brushed it off with a shake of his head. “I’ll get us an invitation.”
The prospect didn’t sound promising. “What are we to do until then?”
He flashed her a smirk. “I guess you get to hang out with me.”
Naia had only experienced life above the surface once, and even then, her time was limited and cut short in such a traumatic way that it took her decades to crave the opportunity again.
However, when Ronin turned off the narrow street with flickering lights and faded yellow lines, she could feel the energy of the bustling city engulf her as people hurried along the crowded sidewalks.
