“Good thing you have more than your fair share, then.”

“Indeed.”

Sebastian huffs. “One more word out of either one of you, and I’ll slit your throat on principle.”

Ana’s jaw ticks with the force of her clenching it.

“Sebastian,” I venture, trusting that his threat runs only so deep. He wouldn’t go through all the trouble of kidnapping me just to slay me in the carriage. “I think you’d make a really shitty husband.”

He digs the knife in a little deeper, just deep enough to ever so slightly nick the skin, and that is the last thing I say as the carriage begins to trundle on into the night.

CHAPTER 36

Ana

Don’t get Kiki hurt.

I repeat those words over and over in my head as the carriage jumps and jerks over uneven terrain. The prick who grabbed me at the tavern has a musket on his lap, its barrel pointed in my direction. He knows I’d be trouble if given the chance.

But I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Kiki. And hurting him would hurt Kiki. Because Sebastian—that smug bastard I knew was no good from the goddamn start—still has that knife in his hand. His arm is around Kiki’s shoulders, the knife held nonchalantly by her neck. With her hands tied behind her back, there’s not much she can do. They have us arrayed against each other. If I try anything, Kiki gets hurt. If Kiki tries anything, I get killed.

I’d hate to call any of these assholes smart, but they are. They know us well enough to understand that our first priority has always been each other.

The carriage hits a divot in the road and lurches to one side. The curtains sway open, giving me my first glance outside since we left. A dusky blue sky, brighter toward the horizon as if it has been dipped in honey, lit up by the lights of the bustling city below. So we’re leaving Potosí. Not a good sign.

Kiki must see it too. “Ana—”

Her words are stolen by the tightening of Sebastian’s arm around her neck. The dagger presses against her skin, not quite hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to indent.

I am going to kill him.

The thought sings through me with the clarity of lightning scarring the night sky. It is not an abstraction. It is not hyperbole. It is a certainty. He has put his hands on her, and now, he will die.

“Where are you taking us?” Kiki asks. Softly. Cautiously.

“You’ll see,” Sebastian replies.

I want to punch him in the face so badly, my knuckles are tingling with anticipation. But not yet. Not yet.

Kiki catches my gaze and holds it. We’ll get through this those eyes say. We just need to bide our time, but we will get through this.