Page 29 of Heart of Thieves

She avoids my gaze. “To pay a little visit to someone the gods have told me needs to be exterminated. For the good of Aethera.”

A pit boils low in my stomach.

She pulls me through the gold-trimmed doors of one of the most luxurious apartment buildings I’ve ever seen, and we mount polished wood stairs to the third floor, stopping at the first door. She knocks three short raps.

“Whose apartment is this?” I ask, trying to keep my voice calm.

She turns to face me. Holding cold, heady eye contact, she places her hands on my chest, then drags them into my jacket, checking my pockets, tracing the seams of my shirt and my vest, slipping her fingers along my belt. It isn’t until she bends to draw her palms along my legs that I realize what she’s doing.

She’s looking for voratium.

“Laurel,” I say.

Finally, satisfied, she straightens. “Fix your hat.”

“Laurel.”

She trains her eyes on the door.

I sigh, straighten my tie, and resituate my fedora as footsteps shuffle inside and a lock pulls.

A butler answers, a short white fellow with a kind—if tight—smile. “May I help you?”

“Yes,” Laurel says smoothly. “Tell Emmeline the Liar is here to visit.”

My stomach jolts. A nurse named Emmeline worked for me at the casino, concocting her special salves and mixing formulas to take the edge off my clients’ hangovers. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. Why the depths would Laurel think she deserves to die?

“I’ll fetch her at once.” He gestures at a settee in the foyer as he ushers us inside and takes our jackets. “Please, do sit down.”

“Surely you’re mistaken,” I hiss to her once he disappears down the hall.

Laurel sits, crossing her feet at the ankles. “Not at all.”

“Emmeline’s the least sinful person in this city.”

“You give people far too much credit, Nic,” she says, her eyes finally lifting to mine. “It’s how I know there’s still good in you.”

“Oh, Liar!” Emmeline comes around the corner in a lovely maroon frock, gray curls piled atop her head. Bulbous pearls weigh down the soft lobes of her ears, and a string of matching ones rests at her throat. “How kind of you to pay me a visit! After the casino closed, I feared I wouldn’t see you again.”

How does Emmeline afford to wear jewelry like that? And live in such a place? And pay for a butler? The Emmeline I knew was barely scraping by due to her sickly granddaughter, Lizette, needing all her funds for medical treatments. It’s part of why I gave her so many bonuses.

“Of course not,” I say nervously, eyes flicking to Laurel.

“Just get on with it,” Laurel says, nodding at Emmeline. “The gods have shown me her guilt. She has to go.”

“Wh-what did you say?” Emmeline asks, smile fading.

Once, Laurel would have found speaking for the gods far too prideful and corrupt. Now she’s claiming to know their minds as though she is one, all because of my Unbreakable Lie.

“Nic,” Laurel prompts, eyes sharpening. She’s testing me. After what happened last night with Lola, she wants to see where we stand. How loyal I truly am to her and her gods.

I cannot afford for her to question me any further, not if I want to keep Lola—and the rest of Aethera, for that matter—safe.

But Emmeline? Acid rises in my throat.

“What was her sin?” I ask, trying to keep the horror out of my expression.

“Poisoning her granddaughter to get people to give her money.”