the corner, spotting the guards. “We’ve got to go.” He huffed, spinning the opposite way and hurrying down the passage. “They’re heading back this way.”
Jogging down the path, I followed him. The paralyzing fear of getting caught didn’t return even after his comment. I felt strangely calm, like together we could take on anything. Which was stupid. We weren’t a team. We weren’t anything.
I hadn’t traveled far from Madam Kitty’s, but with the fear of guards patrolling, it took us longer to sneak back.
“They’re stationed at the front and back entrances of the alley.” Warwick waved me to follow him into a decrepit building, the white stone painted with the sayings:
“Sarkis will lead the resistance to the future!”
“Markos the murderer!”
“Sarkis is our light to a new way!”
What? I knew Istvan had made many enemies, but he was fighting for the humans. To make us equal. It was Killian who was oppressing. Killing.
Istvan told me this Sarkis guy was nothing more than a thug. A guerilla army wanting to become the resistance in Prague, the Povstat, trying to find their piece of the pie.
“Kovacs,” Warwick hissed, gesturing me to follow. Touching the quotes stirred up questions in the back of my mind. “Come on!”
Following Warwick out the back of the building, we made it back to Kitty’s, where we ran up the stairs to our room. With every step, his body tensed with rage.
“Uh-oh! A lovers’ spat already?” Rosie leaned in a doorway, smoking a joint.
“You!” Warwick growled, storming up to her. Her eyes widened in fear. “I told you to keep her inside the fucking house, tie her up. Not help her escape.”
Rosie stumbled back, swallowing nervously.
“Hey.” I jumped between them, my palms pressing into his chest, trying to push him back. “She’s not your minion. We’re no longer in Halalhaz; you don’t get to order people around.”
“Oh really?” He tilted his head, his face barely a sliver from mine, his fury smashing against me, encouraging mine. His gaze scoured over me, hacking into my skin. “Want to test that?”
Yes.
No.
“I’m not afraid of you.” My toes hit his. “She was being a friend to me. If you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at me…not her.”
“Believe me. I am.” He stepped even closer, his voice low, caressing my throat. “That was the most foolish, idiotic, dangerous—”
“Enough.” I put my hand up to his lips, stopping his words, but the feeling of his lips against my flesh made heat rush through me. His gaze leveled with mine, the intensity in it pounding my heart. My body flamed to life at the touch. Dropping my hand, I stepped back, taking in a breath to speak.
Nothing.
Words wandered off, losing their way from my head to my tongue. I rolled my fists, marching into the bedroom, needing to put distance between us.
If he wanted to yell at me, he could leave Rosie out of it.
Following behind, Warwick grabbed the door, flinging it shut behind him. Right before the door closed, my eyes found Rosie’s. Her pressed lips curved into a smug smile; an eyebrow arched in a knowing expression.
I glowered at her before the door slammed, her laughter trailing into the room.
Warwick gave me no time to regroup, barreling for me. I stumbled back, my ass hitting the wall. My chin jutted up, my nose flared as he closed in on me, and his chest knocked into mine with heavy breaths.
“Do you know how reckless it was?” He pressed his hand into the wall by my head, anger straining his shoulders.
I rolled my jaw, not answering.
“Were you trying to get caught?”
I glared at him.
“Because that has to be the only reason.” Derisive, he loomed in closer, his mouth almost grazing mine. But it was neither seductive nor sweet. He was taunting, batting at a toy. “You couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to try to get home…in the middle of the day? While you are being hunted? You think I’ve been going out every day to enjoy a nice walk? I’ve been out there spying on the scouts covering this city for us. I thought when I said the streets were swarming with fae soldiers, you would have taken it to heart.”
“Seems they were looking just for me,” I countered, my voice low.
He leaned on his forearms, bringing his threatening presence in closer, crowding me. “Anyone with a brain cell would know you’d try to go back to Leopold. They were watching out for you at every section along the wall, waiting to