Her lips twisted up as her boots crunched over the loose gravel. She was halfway down the narrow land bridge to Swifthill when she spotted Lina’s cloaked figure up ahead. She’d already made it most of the distance down the road and didn’t seem intent on stopping.

“Curse the Gods,” Bri muttered. She should have known that Lina was trying to lose her when she shoved her in front of those guards. Anyone with skill could have snuck past them without need of a distraction.

She picked up into a jog as Lina disappeared into the streets of Swifthill. She rushed into the city and down the first alley that she saw Lina shoot down. Nothing. She gritted her teeth. Delta would kill her if she found out, but she suspected she knew where Lina was going.

A drunken man stumbled down the alley, fumbling for keys in his pocket. Clenching her fists, Bri willed the glamour to shift her fae body into a human one.

“Do you know where the Mesons live? A husband and wife and a baby?” Bri asked.

The man jolted. “What does he owe ya?”

“Nothing, I need his help,” Bri hedged.

“I think he’s had a lot of your kind of help lately,” the man chortled, flipping through his ring of keys. “But I don’t want any trouble at my door. He’s three roads down. Third house on the right. If it looks abandoned, that’s the one.”

“Thank you.”

The man gave her a wary nod. “Don’t tell him it was me.”

“I don’t know who you are,” Bri replied with a grin, patting him on the shoulder and grabbing the keys from his hand. She selected the one his trembling hands had struggled to grip and unlocked the door for him.

“Thanks,” he muttered, a surprised look on his face.

Bri tipped her chin to him and dashed off down the road. He probably would have fumbled with his keys all night if she hadn’t intervened. Walking as quickly as she could without drawing suspicion, Bri rushed down the streets of Southside. It was still early in the evening, and the streets were filled with people. Luckily this seedy part of town was populated by people who also hid in cloaks, and Bri fit right into the crowds . . . but so did Lina.

Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

She ducked down the poorly lit road, reaching the third townhouse on the right. Sure enough, the paint chipped from the clay walls and the roof looked one heavy rain from collapse. The door was shut by a piece of string hooked on a nail. Clearly the lock had been broken so many times it wasn’t worth replacing. Bri stared at the door for another breath, grimacing at the foul stench from the brown fluid that flowed down the open gutters.

“Of course,” Lina’s voice growled.