Read Iron Kin: A Novel of the Half-Light City for Free Online

that we would keep our association . . . quiet.”
    Guy tilted his head at me. “We all knew that you would be discovered at some point.”
    “Hasn’t happened yet.” I was stalling. Truly, I hadn’t wanted to think about what would happen if someone ferreted out the truth of what I was up to. I’d been telling myself no one would. Apparently I’d been happy to believe me.
    Fool
.
    “I don’t think I would be particularly helpful,” I said. I gestured toward the wall closest to the ballroom. “In crowds, my sight is less than reliable.” I wasn’t going to mention the pain. Not just yet. Not if I could talk my way out of this without giving myself away.
    “Don’t you care about what happens?”
    “I care about what happens to me,” I said. “And mine.”
    Guy’s eyebrows lifted. “If ‘mine’ includes Holly, then she’ll be at the negotiations.”
    Of course she would be. She’d thrown in her lot with Guy’s, for better or worse. And her skills as a spy and someone familiar with the players of the Night World would no doubt prove an asset to the humans. But just because she’d lost her head, that didn’t mean I had to volunteer to lose mine.
    But what would she and Reggie think of me if I didn’t?
    The brandy suddenly soured in my mouth.
    I put down my nearly empty glass, then rose. “I need time to think about this. Now, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I promised Reggie a dance.”
    For a moment I didn’t think they were going to let me go, but neither moved as I crossed the room. I kept my pace slow and steady, not giving in to my urge to run from the building. I didn’t think I had heard the last of this particular request, but for now at least I was still free.
    * * *
    The night air was cool as I stepped out through the double front doors several hours later and crossed the marble portico, feeling the weight of the visions ease like a change in weather. I let out a breath of relief. There was still a thunder in my head and flames flickering at the edges of my vision—after almost five hours surrounded by hundreds of people it would take a while for the visions to retreat—but it was easier to bear.
    The second and third brandies I’d downed after leaving Simon and Guy helped somewhat . . . just enough to make the world feel a bit detached, as though I was part of the mist dampening the cool night air.
    I sucked in a few more breaths, clearing my head. I still had Martin to deal with, after all. I checked my watch. I had paid the driver of the hackney to return for me at two thirty. I was about to discover if I’d thrown my money away.
    The semicircular drive that curved around the front of the house was empty except for one thing.
    Saskia DuCaine.
    She stood on the bottom step, watching the front gates. A dark cloak hid the pink dress, but her hair was uncovered and gleamed in the misty light. I could only see the side of her face, as she was half turned toward the house, or the warmth from the gas lamps that hung from wrought-metal poles and chains fastened to the marble portico above her perhaps.
    I hesitated, debating whether I should attempt to remain unseen. Moving closer would only bring the visions back, plus she wasn’t the type of girl who loitered with men in the dark. I was surprised there wasn’t a servant waiting with her now. Perhaps she was sneaking away too. It was early for her to be leaving her own family’s party, but who was I to judge when I was making a break for it myself? The thought of her giving her family the slip made me like her even more than I did already.
    I squelched the sentiment hard, but it refused to vanish.
Stupid, Fen
. Even Holly had warned me off this girl. A warning that right at this moment, the brandy seemed disinclined to heed.
    After all
, it said,
it was only gentlemanly not to leave her standing out here unaccompanied at such an hour. It’s not safe out here
. Of course, I didn’t imagine that Saskia DuCaine was headed off to