Whatever other shadowkind he’d known who’d mingled with mortals, they must not have cared the same way I did. She was mine, and she’d called me hers, and nothing had felt more right in my entire existence. He didn’t need to worry about how much she mattered to me precisely because of how much she mattered to me.
Satisfied with that conviction, I eased down on the bed next to her to soak up a little more of her warmth. If I was particularly lucky, she’d share a morsel of that chocolate delicacy with me when she woke up.
9
Sorsha
When I returned after placing the police cap I’d stolen a couple of days ago on the head of a ten-foot-tall horse-and-rider statue in the park, Omen barely gave it a glance, even though he’d given me the challenge. “All right,” he said. “Now let’s see you collect, oh, we’ll say ten wallets. You never know when some mortal cash might come in handy.”
I stopped myself just shy of glowering at him. It was a hazy afternoon, the sunlight filtering through a thin layer of grayish clouds overhead, but warm enough that plenty of people were roaming through the park around us. Nabbing ten wallets wouldn’t be tough. But we really didn’t need cash when Ruse could charm anything we needed out of just about anyone—and at this point I was pretty sure that Omen’s tests weren’t meant so much to confirm my abilities as to arrange my arrest or some disabling injury. Maybe he’d have liked both.
I’d thought he was done with the Sorsha Trials after yesterday’s ambush, but apparently not. Ellen’s phone call this morning appeared to have set him off. I’d only spoken to her for a few minutes to get the plans for a Fund meeting in an undercover location this evening, but Bossypants had been fuming behind his controlled exterior ever since.
My own patience was wearing so thin you could have severed it with the blunt end of a spork. I also didn’t love the idea of screwing over ten random innocent bystanders who’d just wanted to enjoy the last few days of summer.
I set my hands on my hips and smiled thinly at Omen. “How about I do you one better? I’ll steal the wallets, lift the cash, and return them without the marks ever knowing what they lost.”
“A thief with a heart of gold,” Omen said with a hint of snark. “I’ll be watching to make sure you collect the full ten.”
“I’m counting on it.”
I slipped through the park, focusing on purses left by picnic blankets and on larger gatherings where I could blend in with the crowd long enough to score. I only took a bill or two out of each wallet rather than all the cash, because Omen wouldn’t know how much I’d left behind. When I’d replaced the tenth and walked back to the edge of the park where he’d parked Betsy, I had a hundred and fifty bucks and no intention of playing this game any longer.
“Here you go,” I said when he emerged from the shadows between the trees, and handed him the money. “Buy yourself a better attitude. Somehow I’m guessing you didn’t put the shadowkind guys through half this much work to prove they belonged on the team.”
“I picked them, knowing they already belonged.” Omen grimaced at the bills as if he found them distasteful and stuffed them into his pocket. “You don’t get to decide when we’re done. I’m feeling like a snack. Get me a pie from that shop.” He pointed to a bakery across the street.
Was he kidding me? I opened my mouth to tell him where he could shove his pie… and then realized there was an even better option. Instead, I gave him another smile. “Does it have to be stolen, or can I buy it? And any particular flavor you’d like, boss?”
Really, calling him “boss” should have tipped him off. I could almost hear Ruse’s snicker from the patches of darkness nearby. But Omen either wasn’t paying enough attention or assumed he’d actually persuaded me of his ultimate authority. He waved dismissively at me. “An expert thief shouldn’t need to spend any money, right? And I’ll take apple or cherry.”
So generous of him, giving me two options. I gave him a mock curtsey and strode across the street.
A beautiful cherry pie was sitting on the top shelf of the glass display cabinet beside the cash register. I asked for one of the tarts next to the pie, and once the clerk had opened the cabinet door, “accidentally” knocked her tip jar onto the floor. As she scrambled to grab a broom to sweep up the broken glass and scattered coins, I thought a silent apology at her and liberated the pie. If she’d understood what good use I was going to put it to, surely she wouldn’t have minded.
When I returned, Omen was leaning against his car, looking way too smug. I had the perfect cure for that.
I gave him a broad grin as I crossed the street. “Here’s your pie. Enjoy!” Then I lifted his just dessert and planted it smack-dab on his face.
I moved quickly enough that the unsuspecting shadowkind didn’t have a chance to dodge. He jerked away an instant too late, sputtering as chunks of golden pastry and syrupy globs of cherry filling dribbled down his face and onto the front of his shirt. A couple of passersby snickered at the sight. He couldn’t blink away into the shadows to remove the mess in front of witnesses.
His eyes flashed with the fiery glow I’d seen in the Company’s facility. “You.” With a wordless growl, he snatched my wrist and spun us around to slam me into the car.
The impact radiated all through my back, making my healing shoulder throb, but it was worth it—to see his sneering face covered in fruity gore, to watch his rigid control snap and let out the heated rage underneath. To prove he wasn’t the perfect model of cool authority he liked to pretend he was. As he raised a fist, I stared right back at him, daring him to use it.
My trio ruined the fun. All three of them dashed from the shadows in the same moment. “Omen,” Thorn said in protest, and Snap leapt to my side.
Ruse cocked his head, studying my masterpiece. “You did want her to show she can stand up for herself, didn’t you? You’ve pushed her pretty far. Looks like sweet payback to me.”
Omen’s shoulders had already come down. His teeth flashed as he bared them, and then, with Thorn’s massive form hiding him from view, he slipped into the shadows and back again so swiftly his body only seemed to stutter before my eyes. Just like that, the mashed pie was gone other than the bits that had fallen to the sidewalk. The lingering scent smelled pretty damn good. Almost a waste of a tasty dessert—almost.
Snap eyed the splatters on the ground as if he was thinking the same thing, but he stayed next to me, his arm coming around my waist. Omen glanced around at his supernatural companions, his expression back in its chilly mask but his stance tensed and the ice in his eyes searing.
“I decide when she’s done,” he said, and shifted his gaze to me. “Was that prank supposed to convince me of your self-discipline?”
“No,” I said. “I was just getting the pie to your mouth in as speedy a fashion as possible. But it probably does show my self-discipline too, considering I’d been wanting to do something like that for ages. I’ve met all your challenges. Either I’m in or I’m out, Luce. Or are you not very disciplined at making up your mind?”