the guards?”
What the hell was she doing here? She was going to ruin everything. “Yes, I did. Now, Keira, get out of my way.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You need to go. I can’t let you ruin everything I’ve worked for.”
“Don’t you mean we?” he muttered.
She scowled. “What nonsense are you spouting now?”
“We as in you and your toothy lover boy.”
“Stefan?” Her scowl darkened and a look of distaste flickered in her eyes. “I’ve told you. He’s not my lover.”
Finn shoved back the elation that tried to surface at her disavowal of the rogue leader. He walked a few feet forward and scowled when she moved to block him. “Keira, get out of the way.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said.
“Me?” He glared at her. “What about you?”
“I—” Her fists clenched at her sides. “What does it matter to you?”
“It matters because I care about you. I want you to be safe.” He took a deep breath and held it a moment before exhaling. He had to get through to her. “Look, I know you want Stefan’s plan to succeed, but I can’t let that happen.”
She gasped. “Finn, I don’t want him to succeed.” Guilt passed through her eyes. “I’m here to take care of that bloody machine once and for all.”
Finn felt like he’d come into a conversation midway and didn’t have a clue what was going on. “What exactly do you mean by, ‘take care of the machine’?”
“I mean to destroy it,” she said.
Now it was his turn to be stunned. And disbelieving.
Her gaze turned pleading. “Finn, don’t you see? What he wants to do is wrong, on so many levels. Not least of which is the fact that bringing such a high number of new prets through the rift will only further enflame relations between preternaturals and humans. He’s putting all of us in danger.”
Finn moved closer to Keira and studied her, trying to gauge her sincerity. “You’ve been acting as a spy all this time?”
She nodded. “For Caladh. He came to me months ago and asked for my help.” She paused and her lips tightened. “No, that’s not quite accurate. He basically blackmailed me into helping him.”
Finn’s gut tightened. He knew Keira had history. Hell, she was three thousand years old, so of course she’d done things she might not be proud of, above and beyond grifting. But something she could be blackmailed over?
“It’s true,” she whispered. “Many years ago I fell in love with a man who I thought loved me, who I thought I was helping by agreeing to run a job on a wealthy mark. Even though I’d stopped grifting several centuries before, I came out of retirement. And just like now, on the jobs I pulled with you, there was no getting back into the groove, no trying to remember how to do something. It was as easy and natural to me as breathing.” Her blue eyes took on a slight sheen of tears. “He was only using me, but that’s not the worst of it. Due to our actions, the mark died. Not by our hands, but because of the circumstances we manipulated.” A tear slid from the corner of her eye and she quickly wiped it away. “It’s something I’m deeply ashamed of and an action which I’ve been trying to atone for ever since. I thought if I could do this, if I could stop Stefan from ruining countless lives, it might make up in some small way for my lack of judgment before.”
Finn had to accept Keira was telling the truth. His initial instinct about her had been right—she was trying to be better. She studied him as closely as he had her. “You believe me then?”
He gave a nod. “I believe you. That’s why I’m here, too. To stop Liuz.”
“You…” Her eyes widened. “You killed Tobias!”
“No, I didn’t.” When she looked doubtful, he said, “You’ll see soon enough. Let’s go.”
The thought crossed Keira’s mind that Finn might be lying, trying to fake her out. However, if that was the case, why hadn’t he killed her while he’d had the chance?
Either way she’d get close to the machine. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do once she did, she was making this up as she went. She’d been a warrior queen once upon a time, but that had been fighting other tribes with spears and arrows, not trying to take out a great metal beast.
Finn checked his watch. “The next rift is due to open in