with Cinderella? Her sweet face hung in his memory. If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel her standing beside him, an arm about his waist. She was dear to him, had been from the moment they met. That didn’t explain the sickening cramp in his gut. It didn’t explain the shadow that hovered.
A slender man walking in front of the market captured his attention. Robert moved closer to the wall, out of sight but still able to have a clear view of the street. It could be the man who nabbed Marissa. Any sense of a shadow lifted as he spied on the stranger. The man stopped, leaned against a wall. A smaller man ran to him. The two exchanged words. Money changed hands, and then the boy faced the inn and pointed up and a little to the left of Robert’s window. In the direction of Marissa’s room. The nauseous feel in his gut intensified.
Robert closed his lantern and watched until the two faded into the night. He couldn’t say for sure the direction the taller man had taken. It was as if he melted into the dark. Robert tapped his finger on the edge of the sill. Mrs. Boyde would keep Marissa safe. They had selected the upper floor, but what if there were a way through the windows? Would Mrs. Boyde know to keep watch? His thoughts whirled until he wanted to hit his head against the wall. The urge to go to Marissa’s room didn’t lesson.
Self-recrimination clenched his chest as he crossed the hallway. He should go back. Sleep. A deeper part of his mind urged him to ignore the contrary voice and go on. The carpet runner on the floor muffled his steps. Gold light of oil lamps on the walls flickered, simulating movement of things that weren’t there. He stopped at Marissa’s door. Uncertainty gripped him, but the man in the alley had been real. He tightened his jaw and knocked twice. Easy knocks, not meant to cause alarm. It took a moment for Marissa to open the door.
Robert felt his breath catch in his throat. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Her feet were bare. Hair fell around her face, across her shoulders, and down her back. Her brows lifted in an articulate question. What was he doing here?
Her eyes were the color of a fawn’s coat speckled with gold. Color seeped into her cheeks and she turned from him. “The hour is late. Why are you here?”
Marissa’s flat tone calmed the odd thoughts churning with feelings he shouldn’t have. Not considering his engagement to Cinderella. “I saw a man in the street, like the one who nabbed you.”
“We are three flights above the ground. Captain Standish will not allow a stranger to climb.”
Something struck the window across the room from them.
“Stairs were not my concern.” He pulled her behind him as the window casing flew open, striking the wall, back to the window, and then slowing to a halt. Marissa’s hand gripped his arm as they stood together. A black creature with wings and beak broke into the room. It stumbled to the wood floor, Marissa gasped, and Robert grabbed for his sword. But his side was bare, his weapon remained in his own quarters.
The creature shifted. Among the night beyond the dim glow of a candle, something unfolded, stood, and faced them. Marissa stepped closer, pressing against Robert as her fingers dug into his arm. The man standing before them had skin the color of tea. Thick, black hair tied back resembled the gloss of feathers. His dark eyes pierced with a determined hatred.
“What foul devil are you?” Robert glanced to the left. A fire poker lay against the fireplace. He stepped closer to it, never taking his eyes from the creature while keeping Marissa behind him.
It laughed, the throaty sound of a man out of humor. “Devil, perhaps. Cursed more likely.”
Marissa pressed iron into his hand. Smart woman. He shifted it to his right, raising it between them and the foul creature.
It shook his head. “You think that can stop death, if death is meant to join us this evening?” It moved further from the window, still on the other side of the bed.
“Stay where you are.” Robert lifted the poker higher. “Better yet, return your cursed self to the night where you belong.”
“Where I belong? What of you? You are caught as well, surely as a fly in the spider’s web. Her poison will destroy us both.”
“Her?