I took the four steps between us, my boots hitting the cobblestones in an echo, and I threw my arms around him. The cry that had been trapped in my throat finally escaped, and I leaned into him, my fingers clutching his jacket. I didn’t care that it was weak. That it was an admission to how scared I was. I only wanted to feel like for a moment, I wasn’t alone.

Clove stood rigid, watching around us warily, but after a moment his huge arms came around me, squeezing. “There now, Fay,” he said, one hand rubbing my back.

I curled my arms into my chest and let him hold me tighter, closing my eyes. “Does he know where I am?” I couldn’t say my father’s name without my voice fully giving way.

Clove pulled me back to look up at him and one rough hand brushed the tears from my flushed cheek. “He knows exactly where you are.”

If Saint was in on this, he’d known the morning I saw him in Dern. He’d sat across the table from me drinking his tea without so much as a hint about what was waiting for me in the alley.

I gritted my teeth. I was so tired of my father’s games. But the anger I felt was immediately replaced by desperation. I took hold of Clove’s jacket, pulling him toward me. “I have to get out of here. I have to get back to the Narrows.”

“You’re not going anywhere until we finish this.” Clove planted a kiss on the top of my head before he started up the street again, his hands finding his pockets.

“Finish what?” My voice rose as I followed after him. “You haven’t told me anything.”

“We’ve been working a long time for this, Fay. And we can’t finish it without you.”

I stopped in my tracks, gaping at him.

When he could no longer hear my footsteps, the gate of Clove’s stride broke and he halted, looking back.

“Tell me what’s going on or I’m bartering with the first ship down in the harbor for passage back to the Narrows,” I said, my voice tired.

He stopped beneath the faded sign of a fishmonger, sighing. “In a day’s time, you’ll know everything.”

I could see that I wasn’t going to sway him. If this was the work of my father, then there were a lot of moving pieces and I was one of them.

“You swear it?” I took a step closer, daring him to lie to me.

“I do.”

I searched his face, wanting to believe him. “On my mother’s soul?”

The words made him flinch and his lips pressed into a hard line before he answered. “I swear it.” He shook his head with an irritated smirk. “Same stubborn ass as her,” he muttered.