Jin watched Matteo draw a line down the length of Arthie’s paper, and slowly the stately profile of the Athereum on Ivylock Street began to take shape. Was there really no other way to save Spindrift? Jin thought of his mother’s stern love, his father’s easy smiles, and wondered what they would do.
The Athereum was old money paired with old families. It was born in the Wolf of White Roaring’s massacre, when the government approved the creation of the society that was part authority, part revelry, where members spent their nights enjoying the Athereum’s dark delights and Ettenian gossips flocked to its stone walls, hoping for a glimpse.
Though the Athereum never found the Wolf of White Roaring, it did its part in keeping order among vampires, from apprehending those that breached vampire-human laws—like drinking blood without consent—to those who violated basic Ettenian laws—like burglary. But as the Ram continued to step on toes with a widespread anti-vampire agenda, it seemed to Jin that the Athereum maintaining order was more tolerance than not. And as Arthie would say, tolerance suggested something had an end—when would the Athereum’s patience end? How long was it before the Athereum decided it didn’t want to heed the Ettenian monarchy’s wishes?
“Here we are,” Matteo said, presenting his sketch with a wave of his hand. “Stripped of its fancy corridors and furnished nooks, the Athereum is comprised of three essential parts. The parlor leads to the central ballroom where parties and events like the Festival of Night’s charity auction take place. Next we have the right wing, with living spaces that double as a home for debauchery. And then the left wing, used for matters of business. Offices, the library, et al.”
He drew a cushion of space around the offices and shaded it in.
“Why is it shaded?” Flick asked. “And you draw very nicely, I dare say.”
Jin wondered if he should take up drawing.
Matteo laughed. “Haven’t heard that one before.”
“You don’t hear it nearly enough though,” Arthie said, forever observant. Matteo’s hand slipped, the only indicator he’d heard her. It seemed her words had landed a little too close, for he had no quick comeback. “I know a thing or two about being recognized for the wrong reasons.”
For Arthie, it was her skin tone over her brains. For Matteo, it was his beauty over his talent. Outside of 337 Alms Place, his name was more often associated with titters and temptation than respect.
“It’s”—Matteo cleared his throat—“shaded because it’s a secure area. There are two ways to get into this bit here, but both are restricted to authorized members only. No guests of any sort. Necessary, as it’s home to the vaults and several high-profile offices. If your ledger is anywhere, it’ll be in here.”
“Authorized members and anyone being sent to confinement,” Arthie said, gaze keen on his sketches. “How does that work?”
“Confinement?” Matteo asked slowly. “Get rejected at the doors, and one of the Athereum’s two bouncers will whisk you away, depending on who’ll be working that day. But the entire point of this operation is to not get caught, isn’t it?”
He pointed at his sketch. “Anywho. We’ll need to get into the building first, which is through a single entry point, fortified by our doorkeeper, Elise Thorne.”
His quick yet winsome sketch of Elise told Jin what Matteo thought of her.
“To maximize time, two members can get through at once. Each of them inserts their marker through a slot”—he sketched a little box on either side of the doorkeeper and connected them to channels that ran inside the Athereum—“and then those markers are propelled through these two metal chutes to this room where her sister, Eleanor, verifies them. The chutes themselves are set into the floor, but visible through a glass covering. In case they need to spot jams and the like.”
Or to show off their workmanship, Jin thought. That was what he’d do. Matteo drew a small room at the end of the chutes and a tiny stick figure inside of it. Someone didn’t like Eleanor.
“She matches the numerical code,” Arthie said.
Matteo nodded. “If matched and approved, the marker returns through the chutes marked in green. If rejected, it’ll be marked red. If you ask me, the markers seem to have us in a predicament, seeing how we don’t have any.”
“Hence why I’m not asking you,” Arthie said. Matteo studied the parlor molding with a sigh. Surprisingly, his walls were devoid of art, even his own.
Ivor came and went, metal soles clicking, his disapproval of Arthie and Jin spelled out in his frown. He didn’t offer them food, and that drove Jin’s disapproval of him up drastically.
“If Andoni’s doesn’t work, we’ll be in need of five markers,” Laith said as if that was Jin and Arthie’s fault.
“The markers aren’t our concern,” Arthie said.
Flick clutched her beret. “You can’t possibly mean that. They’ll stake us through the heart.”
“Death by the stake does sound like a fancy way to go,” Jin agreed.
“Stake is a type of Ettenian meat, no?” said Laith.
“No, the letters would be arranged a little differently,” Flick said.
“The peakies eat it mostly raw as homage to the cannibalistic carnage they commit throughout the world,” Arthie snarked. Matteo choked. She looked at Laith. “You should try it sometime, since you’re chummy with their lot.
“The markers aren’t our concern because Flick will be forging them,” Arthie continued. “She’ll create new ones with new identifiers and have them added to the log. We’ll only need one actual marker to get her in.”
“I’ve never forged anything that complex,” Flick said.
“Group project,” Jin said. “I’ll study the marker and give you the plans. You can work your magic after.”
If she thought she was quick about hiding behind those curls when his words made her smile, she was sorely mistaken. And if he had thought every pretty girl’s smile was created equal, he too was sorely mistaken.
“Do you still have access to casting materials?” he asked, clearing the knot from his throat.
Flick nodded. “A foundry not far from here.”
“Good,” Arthie said. “And how long will you need to add an entry into the log over in the Athereum’s archives?”
“It’s hard to say without seeing it,” she said eventually. “Maybe three minutes?”
“Wonderful,” Jin commented, jabbing his umbrella in the air. “Just enough time for them to grab a stake and personalize it with your name.”
Flick ducked her head, and Jin decided then and there that teasing Felicity Linden was a delicious sport.
“He’s right,” Arthie said. “And it’s not just one numerical sequence that needs inserting.”
Flick looked over Matteo’s marker. “I may be able to halve that time.”
“Better,” Arthie said with a nod. “But it’ll need to be a fraction of that. The Athereum is efficient, and any distraction we pull to get you inside that room won’t hold for long.”
“Without studying both the layout and script in the log beforehand, I don’t think I can.”
Arthie raised her brows, and Jin read the words in that look: It took a certain kind of confidence to air one’s incompetence before an audience. “I didn’t ask.”
Matteo rose and strode to a cart by the wide curtains where a decanter sat in crystal, narrow glasses rimmed in silver beside it. “Can I interest any of you in a drink?”
It wasn’t tea or even liquor in the crystal bottle but something a lot more red. Arthie stared at him, her gaze unreadable. Flick’s eyes were wide, while Laith looked uninterested.
“Suit yourselves,” Matteo said with a shrug.
Jin turned his attention back to the sketches and the marker they needed to replicate, hinged lid and all. Still, he heard the vampire’s swallow, his subdued yet relieved exhale, the tiny tinkle of the glass returning to the cart.
“I know where the sisters live. If you can study their penmanship, it might speed up the forging. I can give you the address, and you can swindle a sample or two that no one will miss,” Matteo offered. He gave Arthie a look. “If you ask nicely.”
Arthie’s lips curved upward. “Please, Matteo, give me the address before I take your paint and redecorate your walls.”
“You would never,” Matteo said with a sharp gasp. They had just threatened to expose his secret, and this was what scared him? “That is heinous.”
“I can be heinous, I can also be worse than that,” Arthie promised.
“Enough,” Laith said. Poor sod was feeling left out, more like it. “You’re forgetting something. How will Flick get to the marker archive room inside the Athereum without a valid marker herself?”
“The original plan was to use Matteo’s marker,” Jin said, tapping his umbrella on the floor. “Before we learned that it’s unusable.”
Arthie shifted her focus to Matteo’s sketch, more specifically, the two chutes that ran along the floor from the entrance to the archive room. Jin knew what she was thinking.
“If I get in first, we can rig the chutes,” he said. “You said they’re covered by glass, we’ll just have to break it.”
“Cut the chute open and approve the marker yourself?” Matteo asked. “Rejected by one sister but unbeknownst to the other. Smart.”
Arthie was nodding, deep in thought, studying the drawings and missing nothing. “Right. So, here’s our play. Jin goes in as a blood companion.”
Jin wasn’t excited at the prospect of calling in a favor, but he would do what was needed for Spindrift. He tapped the entrance with the point of his umbrella. “Flick follows with your marker.”
“It gets rejected in the archive room,” Arthie answered right on his heels.
“But I’ll approve the marker on its way back through the chute,” Jin said.
“And I’m in,” Flick said, joining in.
Arthie’s brow pinched at the interruption. Jin almost laughed. “Yes, you are, love. Once you’re in, I’ll cause us a distraction, as I usually do by walking into a room.”
“Which Flick will use to get into the archive room,” Arthie said before Flick could.
“She inserts the numerical codes and our forged markers are now the real deal,” Jin finished, rapping his umbrella on the ground.
Matteo pursed his lips. “A solid plan, but you still can’t use my marker. Just like sending forged markers through before they’re added to the log, my marker wouldn’t trigger a regular old rejection. They’re typically for renewals or suspensions, not violations. Mine will create more of a ruckus than help our cause. We’ll still need an actual marker. Even an expired one will do if Jin can get to the chutes.”
Arthie looked deep in thought before she glanced up at Matteo. “Make me a list of as many Athereum members as you can remember. Someone’s bound to have a secret they don’t want shared, and they’ll need to let us borrow their marker for an evening if they want to keep it.”
Matteo pulled out a fresh sheet of paper to begin his list. He looked a little too eager for the task, and Jin had a feeling it was going to be full of vampires the painter didn’t like. “So vicious, so ambitious. I like it.”