Proxy: An Avalon Novella by Mindee Arnett

Author:Mindee Arnett [Arnett, Mindee]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-12-02T20:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 06

MINUTES PASSED LIKE HOURS. JETH AND CELESTE TALKED only long enough to relay their stories. Hers was as Jeth had guessed: Aileen’s mountainous partner had ambushed her while she stood watch down in the hallway below.

They fell into silence afterward. Jeth wondered how long it would take before someone discovered them, and what was happening with Lizzie and Shady and Flynn. Maybe Danforth’s new crew would leave them alive, too. He clung to that hope. Alive, they had a chance of being rescued. The Malleus Shades were valuable to Hammer. He might spring them from whatever jail or prison they ended up in.

That is, if we don’t get executed first.

Jeth closed his eyes, swallowing down his fear. Of all the jobs he’d worked, none of them had gone this bad. There was no telling what Hammer would do when he found out.

Celeste nudged him hard in the ribs with her elbow.

Jeth opened his eyes and glared at her. “What?”

She pointed at the door, scrambling to her feet. He glanced that direction and saw a blond woman standing in the doorway. She wore an elegant red dress, the color marking her as a member of the Grakkian royal family. They’d been discovered at last.

Jeth braced for the scream that must surely be coming, but the woman only stared at them for several seconds, her expression more evaluative than alarmed. She looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite place her. A moment later she hurried forward, the long trail of her dress fanning out behind her like a red banner. She stopped in front of the vault’s control panel and opened the door, keying the passcode with such quick efficiency that Jeth knew she had done it before.

“Come on,” the woman said, waving them out. “You must not get caught in here.”

“Who are you?” Jeth followed her to the door, with Celeste staying in step beside him. He was thrilled about this unexpected turn of good fortune, but he knew better than to trust it without question.

“That’s none of your concern.” She glowered at him over one slender shoulder.

He couldn’t pinpoint her age. Certainly a lot older than he was, but definitely not old. She wore her hair in an elegant coiffure that exposed a long stretch of pale, thin neck.

She turned back, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides as if she was struggling not to panic. “This couldn’t be worse. If the emperor finds out you work for Hammer, he might trace this back to me. What went wrong?”

Jeth winced at the alarm in her tone, guessing at once that she had been Hammer’s inside source. He wondered who she was. Someone very important to have such casual access to the emperor’s bedchamber.

His mistress, he realized, as he finally placed her face. The briefing he’d been given by Hammer’s research team before coming on the job had included a summary of the familial landscape of the royal family, just in case he bumped into one of them, but he hadn’t applied himself very hard to memorizing faces.

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