Gates of Thread and Stone(9)

The bridge creaked as I hurried across. The river sloshed green and brown beneath the boards. This early, the docks were quiet, the buildings twice as drab in the daylight. I headed straight for the post and ran my fingers along the wood.

There was nothing beneath the R I’d scratched in yesterday. There should have been a mark for when he’d left work last night.

Keeping in touch was Reev’s rule. Even if we didn’t see each other, we’d know we were safe.

Reev had never broken that rule before.

Caging my fear, I turned down the road to the docks, my pace quickening until I was running. I almost ran straight into the closed door of the Raging Bull but caught myself in time to tug it open. I prepared to yell at Reev for working late without telling me.

He wasn’t there. My pulse jumped beneath my skin.

Angee’s spot at the desk was empty. The door nearby opened. Joss paused when he saw me.

“Where’s Reev?” I demanded.

Joss grunted. “He left same as always. What do you want? Ready for a real job?”

I fled, chased out onto the boardwalk by Joss’s laughter.

This wasn’t right. Reev would never go anywhere without making sure I knew where he was. He was Reev: consistent, reliable, unfailing.

I’d been afraid even to think it until now. . . .

People were disappearing. Had been for years. Like many others, I pretended not to notice. The Watchmen were supposedly still searching for them, but as long as it didn’t affect me and Reev, it wasn’t my business. Worse things happened in Ninurta.

I was safe with Reev. With his silent strength and the subtle tenderness he reserved just for me and the way his arm felt around my shoulders.

He was untouchable.

He was supposed to be untouchable.





CHAPTER 5




REEV WASN’T IN the habit of making friends, so I didn’t know who to ask if they’d seen him. Besides Angee, that is; but she hadn’t been at the Raging Bull, either, and I didn’t know where she lived.

Reev’s past was as much a mystery to me as my own. He avoided talking about the time before he’d found me. Now I wish I’d been bold enough to push him.

The idea of going back to ask Joss for information made me shudder. He wasn’t the type to give anything for free. Few people in Ninurta gave information freely.

Since I had nothing to give, I’d have to rely on myself.

I started my search in the Labyrinth. I doubted I’d find Reev hidden in some obscure corner, but I wanted to cover all my bases. I’d spent months exploring the entirety of the Labyrinth when I was younger, so I knew my way around the maze-like corridors. Checking the ground level and the common areas where people liked to gather was easy enough, but poking around the less stable floors was trickier. I didn’t know how anyone could stay in those sections and not feel as if they were living on a spinning top that could tip over at any moment.

With no sign of my brother in the nooks of the Labyrinth, I left for the North District. I started at the docks and headed up through the cracked streets. My mind tortured me with images of Reev lying bleeding in a hidden alley. Maybe he hadn’t been kidnapped. Maybe he’d just been outnumbered by one of the street gangs.

I peered down alleys and searched through neighborhoods I hadn’t dared enter before. The buildings slanted from poorly constructed foundations. Most of them bore holes where the elements had eroded through stone and wood, revealing the rotting frames beneath like skeletons.

By noon, I was tired and frustrated, and hours late for my shift. Drek.

When I walked through the doors of the DMC, my boss’s nostrils flared. My shoulders drooped. I had to keep this job, but I really didn’t want to beg.

“You’re usually a reliable worker, Kai.”

I winced, waiting for the catch.

Ellane planted her fists on her nonexistent hips and sucked in her hollow cheeks. “Tell you what,” she said. “I got a package I need delivered. Do that for me, and I’ll only cut half your credits next week.”

It was a shoddy deal, and we both knew it. But we also knew I couldn’t turn it down. The address on the package was in a neighborhood a little farther north than my usual route. Since I planned to search the area, it wouldn’t be out of the way.

By the time I reached the neighborhood two hours later, my feet ached. I sank against the side of a building and tucked the package beside me. The uneven stone dug into my shoulder blades.

My plan wasn’t working. People noticed when a new face wandered into their part of the district, and they weren’t friendly to outsiders, especially outsiders with questions. A couple of guys even stalked me back to the main road, but I lost them on the crowded sidewalk.

How was I going to find Reev? I closed my eyes, keeping the panic at bay. When I opened them again, my gaze settled on the outer wall, the one that bordered the entire city, visible above the drab buildings.

The wall marked Ninurta’s border and protected us from the gargoyles that all but ruled the Outlands. They ran in packs, but there was little else anyone knew about them. Despite what the bedtime stories said, they’d only ever been seen at a distance.

I didn’t know how anything could survive out there. The Outlands could be glimpsed easily through the city gate—flat, barren earth as far as I could see. What if Reev was out there? What if he really had been kidnapped by some crazy rebel?