Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Henry and I stopped talking and instead turned towards them while Levi just remained leaning against the front door with his arms crossed over his chest. My eyebrows rose in surprise. Next to me, Henry openly gaped.
Paige was walking down the steps with Audrey behind her. Her wavy blond hair had been swept up before it curled down her back, and she was wearing an incredibly well-tailored red dress that matched her red-painted lips. Since the day I met her, I had practically only seen her in those brown pants and the loose white shirt she had been wearing when she fled from Quill’s constables on horseback. She was objectively good-looking, but when she dressed up like this, it was taken to a whole other level.
“Well, what do you think?” Paige asked once she reached the hallway floor. Paper rustled as she unfolded a wanted poster and held it up next to her face. “Not much of a resemblance, right?”
“You’re gorgeous,” Henry blurted out.
Surprise flitted across her face, and a blush crept into her cheeks as she blinked at him.
He cleared his throat. “I mean, uhm… You look nothing like your wanted poster, which looks terrible, so you look… uhm. Well, I mean…”
It took all of my self-control not to laugh. Henry looked like he wanted to punch his way out through the wall as he awkwardly trailed off.
A brilliant smile spread across Paige’s lips. “Thank you.”
“You’ve got some new clothes too,” I said, and jerked my chin at Audrey in a, in my opinion, very generous act of mercy to save Henry from trying to figure out what to say next.
Audrey ran her hands down the metal corset before smoothing down the flowing black skirt. It was one of those half armor dresses complete with metal bracers that she always used to wear before we went on several consecutive secret missions that required less conspicuous clothes.
“Yes,” she replied. A hint of fury sparked in her eyes. “Since Quill made the incredibly ill-advised decision to burn my mansion to the ground, I need to start restocking my closet.”
“Where did you even get it?”
“From the same shop that I custom-ordered all my other ones.”
“If you’re quite finished gawking at each other,” Levi interrupted from where he was still draped against the door. “Let’s get this done already.”
Audrey rolled her eyes, but both of them started for the door. I turned around as well. Another wave of amusement rolled over me. Both Henry and Levi were wearing stylish black suits with a dress shirt underneath. It was such an odd sight on the King of Metal, who always favored tight black shirts and metal shoulder plates and bracers, that I had to fight hard to keep from grinning.
Pushing off from the door, Levi straightened and shot me a sharp look that I knew meant that he would break every bone in my body if I made a single comment about it. Mission and deal be damned. So I swallowed my mocking words and instead cleared my throat.
Apparently satisfied, Levi turned and opened the door.
Warm evening air smelling of roses and jasmine drifted into the hallway. I let Levi, Henry, and Paige exit before I followed Audrey out the door. We were going to take different routes to our target, so we needed to split into two groups.
“Alright,” I began while locking the front door behind us. “Once Elise Dawson confirms that everyone has arrived, give us the signal. Then all hell breaks loose.”
Henry and Paige nodded agreement. Levi only turned on his heel and stalked down the street. Shaking my head at his retreating back, I gave the others one final nod before Audrey and I slipped away in the other direction.
Thick clouds blanketed the already darkened heavens and blotted out the moonlight. Thankfully, the areas we passed through were all wealthy ones, which meant that the streetlamps had already been lit. Flickering pools of warm yellow light broke up the darkness as Audrey and I made our way towards the Dawsons’ house.
Music and laughter spilled out of the bright windows when we at last crept up to the gardens. Even with only two days of preparation, it looked like Elise could put together one hell of a party.
Audrey and I snuck over to one of the thick bushes in the small garden that we had marked earlier. It was dense enough to hide us from view, but still close enough to the living room windows that we would be able to see when Levi gave the signal.
My leather armor groaned softly as I lowered myself to the ground. Audrey scowled at the grass as if she would rather not ruin her new dress, but she sat down next to me in the end anyway.
For a while, we just sat there next to one another, watching the party from the outside.
Since we took the long way around, Henry, Paige, and Levi had already arrived by the time we got to the garden. Through the window, I could see Paige and Henry dancing. There was a wide smile on Paige’s lips, and Henry looked absolutely mesmerized by it. I couldn’t see Levi from this angle, so I just had to hope that he wasn’t blowing their cover by glaring people to death.
Footsteps sounded on the street.
Audrey and I remained completely still as a man and a woman strolled up to the front door and rapped the metal knocker against it. A few moments later, Elise became visible in the doorway. Against the darkness outside, the brilliant light from the candles in the room beyond created a glowing halo around her body. She kept a smile on her face as she waved them inside.
If she was nervous about tonight, she didn’t show it. Though I supposed that people who were high up on the social ladder had to be incredibly accomplished liars to even get that far.
Leaves rustled around us as a warm evening breeze swept through the garden. It brought with it the scent of blooming night flowers and rain. I glanced up at the dark clouds. Hopefully, we could get this done before the skies opened.
Tipping my head back down, I returned my gaze to the windows. In the glowing candlelight, Carl Dawson was laughing while putting a casual hand on a dark-haired woman’s shoulder. Memories flickered to life inside me.
“Did you know,” I began, keeping my eyes on the scene inside the living room. “That when Carl was showing you around that time we went to their soirée, the only thing I could think about was that he needed to get his hands off my wife.”
I could feel Audrey turning to look at me. “Really?”
“Yeah. Why do you think I ditched Elise and stalked up the stairs to find you?”
“Well, at the time, you said that it was because you were worried that I was going to blow our cover and poison the whole house.”
A chuckle drifted from my throat. “I lied.”
“Shocker.”
Huffing out another laugh, I continued watching the windows. No signal yet. But it should come any second now.
“Maybe we should make that official sometime.”
While still scanning the building, I replied, “Make what official?”
She said nothing.
For a few seconds, everything was silent and still while my mind finished processing her words. My wife.
I whipped around and met her gaze head on. There was an open and almost a bit vulnerable expression on her face.
My stomach lurched and my heart seemed to skip several beats and then thump twice as hard to make up for it.
She was dead serious about this.
An absolutely ridiculous sense of giddiness swept through my whole body, and my face split into an idiotic grin.
“Yes,” I said, holding her gaze. “I think so too.”
A smile spread across her lips, and her eyes sparkled even in the dark.
Something moved in the corner of my eye.
Both of us snapped our gazes back to the windows. Levi was standing right in front of the one in the middle, and he lifted his glass of wine in a small salute.
“Showtime,” Audrey said. “I’ll take the back.”
I gave her a nod and squeezed her arm before I darted towards the front door. My mind was still reeling from our conversation, and it took every ounce of strength I possessed to push that aside for now and focus on the mission.
Stopping briefly in front of the door, I drew in a deep breath to gather my wits. Once I felt calm and in control again, I opened the door and snuck inside without knocking.
The sounds of music and happy chatter washed over me as I stepped into the elegant hallway. Since Levi had given the go-ahead, it not only meant that everyone was present, but also that Elise and Carl had gathered everyone in the living room for their fake welcome speech. Remaining where I was, I waited for Audrey to appear on the other side of the corridor.
At last, I caught a hint of candlelight glinting against her metal corset. I waited until I could see the soft green glow of her poison before I started forward. Brushing my palms together, I called up my magic as well while rounding the corner into the living room.
And then I hurled a wide force blast straight into the ceiling.
