Nocturna (A Forgery of Magic #1)(43)

Alfie seized it. She looked at him, her eyebrow raised in challenge.

He tugged the cloak around his own shoulders. He would need it for what he had to do. “For your help thus far, I’ll do you the favor of letting you go. But our deal is off.”

“What the hell do you mean the deal’s off? You can’t call off a deal once it’s set.”

“I’m doing it anyway.”

Her jaw hung slack. “Aren’t you a prince? Aren’t you supposed to be all about honor?”

“Today I’m making an exception,” he snapped. “Listen, I have more important matters to deal with right now. I’m letting you go when I should be calling for the guardsmen. Leave the palace now before I come to my senses.” He didn’t have time for this. He needed to put Luka to bed and find that book. The longer that corrupted magic was free, the more damage it could do. Each second he wasted struck him like a blow.

The thief cocked her head. “You’re going off to find that thing you set free, aren’t you?”

“If you must know, yes,” he said as he crouched beside Luka. Why did she care?

“All right,” the thief said, rolling her shoulders back. “Let’s get going, then.”

Alfie stared at her. “What?”

She rolled her eyes as if it were obvious. “Vámonos. Let’s go find this thing.”

“You want to help me find it?” He would never expect her to be so generous.

“It’s got nothing to do with you, Prince.” With a flick of her wrist she produced yet another dagger. She picked her nails with its sharp tip. “Nothing makes me feel small without paying the price. That creepy thing owes me a debt for that, and I always get what I’m owed.”

Alfie stared at her, wondering how anyone could be so foolish as to chase this magic in the name of pride. Yet he couldn’t help but consider the offer. He didn’t want to go after this magic at all, let alone by himself, and it wasn’t as if he could ask someone else. Admitting what he’d done would be too shameful, but this girl already knew it all. She’d witnessed it with him. Alfie shook his head. This was absurd. Fear was driving him to stupidity.

“As if I would take you with me.”

Finn gave a snort. “You’d be maldito lucky to have me.”

“A moment ago you threw a dagger at my face—”

She waved her hand at him dismissively. “Just to scare you a bit, don’t be a baby.”

“—I cannot have someone I don’t trust with me while I’m trying to remedy this.”

“You don’t need to trust me, you need me. Period. You know your way around a library, but this won’t have anything to do with that. At least not completely.” Alfie looked away from her. “You know I’m right.”

“Why do you want to come?” He didn’t want to do this alone, but he wasn’t foolish enough to depend on a girl who’d leave him in the lurch. If she was coming, he must know why.

“I told you, nothing makes me feel small wi—”

“Yes, I heard that.” That brash response was nothing. He wouldn’t rely on the promise that her ego would keep her around. That was too much of a gamble. “It isn’t enough.”

She threw her hands up. “Why do you need to know? You’re lucky I’m even offering.”

“I won’t take you with me unless I know your motives.” Alfie watched her magic flow erratically. She did not like this question. “I will know if you are lying. So don’t waste my time.”

With every moment that she stood before him refusing to tell him, time bore down upon him, begging him to chase what he’d released. He needed to make this decision quickly. The city was full of representatives from every province and major city here for the ball. For months his parents had toiled to instill confidence in them for Alfie’s upcoming rule, all their hard work leading up to tomorrow’s ball. If it got out that the prince had released something dangerous so carelessly, they certainly would not want him to be king.

His mistake could put an end to the Reyes’ reign.

When she only glared at him, Alfie pressed on. “Tell me or I will leave you behind.”

Finn would’ve laughed at how ridiculous the boy looked, demanding an answer from her as if she couldn’t beat him to a bloody pulp with her hands tied behind her back. But his question hung heavy in the air, smothering her chuckle.

She should know better than to go after an opponent that she didn’t understand, even if it had the gall to make her feel like a scared child. But still, there was something to be gained here and she couldn’t grasp the words she needed to explain. Or she didn’t want to grasp them, to turn them over in her hands and see them for what they were.

She thought of the moment she’d left the prince’s rooms without dumping out the poisoned bottle. Of Bathtub Boy dying of that same poison. She’d done her fair share of terrible things, and she knew that such things would cause others pain, but she’d never been around to witness the aftermath. The prince’s face at seeing the boy dying, the terrible hopeless sound that had wrenched through him; these were things she would never forget. They’d crawled into her mind and made a home there. She couldn’t help but wonder how many were left to mourn, how many had wept over a corpse that she’d left behind with reckless abandon for survival.