EVENTUALLY MORGAN shoved me away (“Come on! We’ve only been hugging for six minutes. We should just go for the record since we’re already here!”), telling me that we’d tarried long enough and that people were waiting for us. Since I was floating on a high of being next to my mentor again, I had no problem with agreeing to everything he said.
Any smile I might have had faded slightly when I opened the door and found Ryan standing outside, apparently trapped in a stare-off with Moishe.
“So awkward,” I breathed.
Ryan’s glare softened when he saw me, and it took all I had not to jump him right then and there, given that his hair was still a little wet and he wore a leather vest with no shirt on underneath, displaying miles and miles of chest hair and muscles. The trousers he wore hung obscenely low, and he was barefoot, toes digging into the plush carpet.
And since I loved him so, I said, “You’re dressed like you work here, and I would pay so much gold for you, you don’t even know.”
“I kind of got that idea when your tongue started hanging out of your mouth,” he said dryly, all while trying to act like he wasn’t flexing. “Apparently Mama picked out clothing for me herself.”
“I don’t know whether to thank her or set her wigs on fire.”
“How disappointing to learn that even Mama’s tastes aren’t infallible,” Moishe said.
Ryan resumed glaring at him.
“Have you guys been standing here like this the whole time?” I asked as Morgan closed the door behind me.
“I was just waiting for you when I came out of the room,” Ryan said. “I told him he could leave.”
“And as I explained to the Knight Commander,” Moishe said, “I am to escort you to Mama’s office per her request. I do whatever she asks me to.”
“I know where her office is,” I reminded him, but knew things were done differently here.
“You may lead the way, Moishe,” Morgan said. “And thank you.”
We followed him down the ornate hallway, the sounds of sex coming from either side of us. I took Ryan’s hand in my own, squeezing his fingers gently as we followed behind Moishe and Morgan. I knew that places like this always made Ryan uncomfortable. Not because he was a prude—no, it was exactly the opposite. Ryan had sold his mouth and body on the streets to make enough money to get himself out of the slums. It wasn’t something we talked about often, given that Ryan had clearly expressed that the less said about it, the better. It didn’t help the guilt I felt at it, though, given that I was a big reason he’d tried to get himself out of the hellhole that had been our childhood home. He’d told me it wasn’t my fault, that he’d made his own choices.
“I’m okay,” he muttered, voice low so that Moishe and Morgan wouldn’t hear him.
“I know,” I said, just as quiet. “Maybe I’m not and need you to hold my hand to feel better.”
He quirked his lips, seeing right through me. “You’re kind of an idiot, you know that, right?”
“It’s part of my charm.”
“I suppose it is. Inexplicably.”
“I’m good at being inexplicable.”
“So I’ve noticed.”
“I’m taking that as a compliment.”
“Of course you would.” His hand tightened on mine. “We’re safe here?”
“I think so.” I didn’t know that one could ever really be safe in Meridian City, but I got what he was asking. Myrin had told me he was going after Meridian City. We’d gotten here, and nothing had happened, which left three possibilities: he’d been bluffing, we’d beaten the Darks to the city, or this entire thing was a trap.
I didn’t know which was worse.
If he’d been bluffing, why? Just to rile me up? Or to get my attention elsewhere while he went after some other corner of Verania?
If we’d beaten the Darks here, we still had a battle ahead of us.
If this was a trap, well, I was going to be pissed.
I fucking hated traps.
Only because I seemed to get stuck in them more than I’d like to admit.
But it’d be smart, wouldn’t it?
Getting all of us in one room: me, Morgan, and Randall.
One fell swoop, all at once.
I’d seen Meridian City burning when Vadoma had blown her powder in my face, her runes adorning my body. It didn’t mean it had to be today. It didn’t mean it had to happen at all. I could have been seeing what she wanted me to see. With Lockes, with Meridian City, with… Ryan. The star dragon had told me it would burn like nothing had ever burned before, this sacrifice.
The pieces didn’t fit together.
It was annoying as fuck.
“Just keep your eye out,” I muttered to Ryan.
“Should have brought my sword.”
“Nah. Your chest is distracting enough.”
He squeezed my hand.
Moishe led us to the end of the hall to a large wooden door carved with leaves and trees made to look like dicks. MAMA was burned into the wood. It was ridiculous and yet somehow still ominous, just like the drag queen who waited inside.
Moishe glanced over his shoulder, looking past Morgan, gazing at me briefly before he turned back around, knocked on the door twice, and entered without waiting for a response.
Mama’s office hadn’t changed much since I’d been here last, when we’d been tracking down a lead on Gary’s horn that proved to be false. Mama’s tastes were… well, not refined, per se—the nude paintings of her favorite courtesans in risqué positions adorning the walls didn’t really allow for it—but it was so distinctly Mama in that it was classy and pornographic all at the same time. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling was made from the finest crystal, cut by a master craftsman. The floor-to-ceiling bookcase was filled with everything from philosophy and biology texts to spit-roasting and triple-penetration smut that Mama would read while sipping rosé wine out of a chalice shaped like a veiny black cock.
She was a study in contradictions, and I cherished the ground she walked on.
Randall was the first person I saw, standing near a window, his distaste evident on his face. While vocally known to be sexually adventurous in his youth (much to my horror), I didn’t think he appreciated the finer aspects of being in a whorehouse in Meridian City. Knowing him, he had probably been complaining the floors were sticky.
The next two people caused me to stutter in my steps, only because I wasn’t used to seeing them face-to-face, especially given how ruthless they were.