Page 96 of The Dagger and the Flame
‘That took a lot longer than you said it would,’ said Val, looking her up and down. ‘How did it go?’
Sera sank into a chair, resolving to skate over the details forboth of their sakes. ‘I got the journal. But I don’t know how useful it is yet.’
‘Youarea good Cloak.’ Val smirked. ‘How was your Dagger?’
Seraphine’s cheeks burst into colour. The memory of their kiss struck her like a bolt of lightning as it had many times on the way home, her footsteps so light she felt like she was floating.
Val chuckled into her tea. ‘You need to work on your poker face.’
Poker body. Even her toes were curling.
‘You’d better hope Mercure doesn’t find out. You’re not supposed to sleep with the enemy.’
‘We didn’t.’
She slurped her tea. ‘Howexactlydid you get the journal?’
‘Please don’t interrogate me. I’ll fold like a napkin.’
‘I’m not sure I even want to know,’ she said, chuckling. ‘You certainly look exhausted.’
‘I am,’ Sera admitted.
‘Don’t let me keep you up.’ Val rested her head against the window, turning her gaze to the crescent moon.
Sera stood up, and Pippin hopped off the bench to join her. She paused on the threshold of the hallway, drawn to the faraway look in Val’s eyes. In the fractured moonlight, her tinted hair shone violet, her brown skin glowed softly.
‘Are you all right, Val?’
She nodded, absently. ‘Just daydreaming.’ Then as if remembering herself, she shot Sera a warning glance. ‘Donottell Bibi.’
‘I think she already knows you’re human.’
‘It’s my birthday tomorrow.’
‘Oh. I had no idea.’
‘I hate birthdays. They just remind me that I’m still stuck here.’ She blew a curl from her eye. ‘When I would rather be anywhere else.’
‘Really?’ said Sera. ‘You seem so at home here.’
‘You get tired of it after a while. This place stops feeling like a castle and starts feeling like a prison. And all these riches…’ She jerked her chin towards the chandelier, gestured at the priceless vase by Sera’s left elbow. ‘They don’t make up for what we’ve lost.’
Sera edged back into the room, careful not to break the spell of vulnerability that seemed to shimmer between them. All this time, she’d thought Val was impenetrable, unshakable. That she was born to be a Cloak and loved every minute of it, but now she could see they were more alike than she thought. Both of them were stuck in a place they didn’t truly belong. ‘You don’t have to be a Cloak if you don’t want to be, Val. You’re smart enough to make it anywhere in the city.’
Val huffed a mirthless laugh. ‘I’m not talking about House Armand, Sera. I’m talking about Fantome.’ She looked up, fear pooling in her eyes. ‘Can’t you feel it? These creeping tendrils of darkness. They were here long before the monsters. If you ask me, this whole city is rotten to its core. The Cloaks are just one part of the problem.’
Sera was struck by Val’s candour, how her words sounded so much like the things her mother used to say. On the surface, Fantome glittered like gold dust, but beneath the gleamingfaçade, the city reeked of fear and avarice. After all these centuries, it still languished in the long shadow of the Versini brothers’ legacy. It had been damned long before Mama made those monsters. All they did was drag the terror of this place into the light, made it so that people could no longer look away from it.
‘I didn’t know you felt that way.’
‘Most people feel this way,’ said Val, with a shrug. ‘They just make do with their lot in life because they’re too afraid to try to change anything.’
‘Why don’t you leave Fantome? You must have saved enough money by now.’
Val’s lips twisted. ‘Being a Cloak is the only thing I’ve ever been good at.’
‘It’s also the only thing you’ve ever tried,’ said Sera gently.
