broad, homely face. Next to him, smaller, also dark-haired, stood Nap, a flintlock pistol in his hand, full-cocked and aimed at Ethan’s heart.
The third man held a blade instead of a pistol. He had pushed up the sleeve on his left arm; a trickle of blood ran from a cut on his forearm, twin to the gash Ethan had carved into his own skin. Gaspar Mariz was a conjurer like Ethan, and though in private conversations he had declared himself Ethan’s friend, he still answered to Sephira. Ethan had no doubt that if she ordered him to kill Ethan with a spell, he would attempt it. He stared at Ethan, his expression grim, the lenses of his spectacles catching the light of a candle so that they appeared opaque.
Behind these three were three others. Will Pryor, lanky, youthful, with yellow hair and dark eyes, sat in a chair, blood seeping from his nose and split lip, as well as from a raw wound on his temple. He watched Ethan, clearly uncertain as to whether his arrival presaged an escape from his predicament or a worsening of it. Another brute loomed over him: Gordon, as big and as ugly as Afton. And beside these two, a look of smug satisfaction on her lovely face, stood Sephira.
There could be no denying that she was beautiful; even Ethan, who had as much cause to hate the woman as anyone in Boston, had to admit as much. Ringlets of shining black hair fell over her shoulders. Her eyes, bright blue and dancing with mischief, shone in the candlelight. A black cloak that he assumed must be hers—it was far too fine to be Pryor’s—lay on the thief’s bed. She wore her usual street garb: black breeches, a white silk shirt opened at the neck, and a black waistcoat that hugged her curves with the ardor of a lover.
But though she was exquisite and alluring, her beauty put him in mind of a cut diamond. She was hard, remote, cold, and sharp enough to draw blood. He had never met anyone more ruthless or better suited to a life of thuggery and deception. She could be cruel as well as charming; he had known her to be shrewdly calculating one minute and utterly capricious the next. There was no predicting what she might do under any given circumstance, which was one reason why she could be so confounding as a rival.
Another reason: she—or at least men in her employ—bore responsibility for a good number of the thefts she investigated. She stole from the wealthy and then took their money as reward for returning their property, all the while basking in their praise. “She can solve any crime,” they said, their praise as fatuous as it was fulsome. “No thief in Boston can elude the Empress.” Those like Ethan, who encountered her in the streets, knew her for what she was: a brigand, bonny and winsome, but villainous. To the rest of the city, however, including its wealthiest and most powerful citizens, she was a heroine.
And tonight she had bested Ethan yet again; she would claim as her own the three pounds Mr. Wells had promised him. Ethan felt reasonably sure that this would be the extent of his loss for the evening. But he couldn’t be entirely confident that the night wouldn’t end in his death. Such were the risks of any encounter with Sephira Pryce.
She smiled at him as she would at an old friend, but then her gaze fell to the cut on his arm, and her mien turned icy.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
“And you shouldn’t be surprised that I did. You’re going to have Nap take my knife. All your men are armed. Did you expect me to walk in here without any means of protecting myself?”
Sephira stared daggers at him, but then nodded once to Nap, seeming to concede the point.
Nap stepped forward and took the blade from Ethan’s hand, all the while keeping his pistol trained on Ethan’s heart.
“Will, how are you bearing up?” Ethan asked.
The thief swallowed. He cast a wide-eyed, fearful look Ethan’s way, but a second later his gaze was drawn back to Nap’s pistol. At last he gave a tentative shrug. “I don’t know.”
“He’s quite the intellect,” Sephira said, regarding Will with unconcealed scorn. “I find it hard to believe he eluded you for as long as he did.”
“Aye, well thieves are easier to find when you have another thieftaker doing all the difficult work for