The Hidden Knife by Melissa Marr

Author:Melissa Marr [Marr, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2021-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

Milan

Milan was glad to return to Glass City. He looked out the carriage window as they rolled toward the school. He was surprised to be inside rather than on top, but the alchemist had simply given him a shove toward the door when he’d started to ascend to the roof. And Milan went with it.

Somewhere in the crowds were the people he used to know—and he felt like he’d come home but found that the door was locked. It wasn’t that the thieves would no longer accept him, but they wouldn’t understand why he was going to school. His love of learning and of books was something many of the thieves had mocked.

Milan didn’t care much about being a Raven, but he wanted to learn. He wanted to be something other than one of the rare old thieves who had survived the streets and created a house. The odds of growing old were low for a thief. For a boy whose biggest dream had been surviving and owning a few books, the possibilities that Corvus offered were too big to comprehend.

For now, Milan was just happy to be back in Glass City. He’d missed it. The sounds of confusion and crowds were like music in the city. Voices lifted in anger and joy, calling out warnings and greetings. Wheels clattered over uneven streets. It was home.

The brief time at Nightshade Manor had been fine, but it wasn’t the same kind of peace as the chaos of the city. The open spaces of the country still felt dangerous in ways that the familiar closeness of the city didn’t.

Or maybe it was simply knowing where to look for dangers.

“Is this where you learned to steal?” Algernon blurted out.

“The city?”

“Here.” Algernon gestured at the area around them.

It wasn’t good pickings, too many people with empty pockets.

Milan shook his head. “Not right here.”

“Will we pass it?”

The alchemist ignored them—or was lost inside his own thoughts. He was often so distracted that he had no idea what was happening around him. The lab had been on fire at least twice without the alchemist noticing.

“No, we won’t be anywhere near my old haunts,” Milan said.

Both of the Nightshades stared out opposite windows after that, and by the time the carriage arrived at the school, it had been well over an hour of silence. The sound of a stranger greeting them was very welcome—even if it was only Master Nightshade who was greeted.

“We were starting to think you’d changed your mind, Nightshade. You were to be here several days ago.” The woman smiled with the sort of chill than would make pickpockets and highwaymen flinch. She had an assortment of enormous feathers jabbed into her towering hair, and her eyes were flat and cold, like a swamp serpent who had spotted a meal.

The alchemist muttered something Milan didn’t catch, and the woman made a quick gesture with an athame before pivoting on one foot and walking away. She was several yards away before she said, “The children are both in House Valentinus, since the ragged child isn’t a legacy.

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