“Yes, exactly that. How did you know?”
“Because I felt the same way the first time I flew.” He turned his gaze forward. “We’re almost there. Brace yourself.”
“For what?”
Our feet slammed against the side of the airship so hard that the impact shot vibrations from my feet all the way up to my head. Nero’s arms remained locked around me, which was a good thing because we were standing parallel to a several-hundred-foot drop into New York City. Only Nero’s wings were keeping us in place.
“We will enter there,” he said, pointing to a hatch in the airship’s bronze hull.
It didn’t appear openable from the outside, but that didn’t stop Nero. He waved his hand, and the hatch flung open so hard that it ripped off its hinges. Nero caught the broken door as it flew past us.
“You used too much power,” I told him.
“That was unexpected,” he commented, glancing at the door in his hand. “They’re usually attached better.”
“So you do this often?” I said with a smirk as we moved into the airship.
“On occasion.” He stepped away from me to get a closer look at the spot where the hatch had been mounted just a minute ago. “We are not the first to sneak aboard tonight. They burned their way through, then tried to staple the hatch into place.” He lifted the door to the hole.
“And now you’re going to do the same?” I asked him.
In response, he lifted up his free hand. Flames burst out of his palm. It took him half a minute to seal the hole in the airship.
“You welded the hatch shut,” I said, gaping at his handiwork.
“Yes.”
“But you welded the hatch shut,” I repeated. “You melted through metal. I don’t even know how hot your fire spell had to be to do that.”
“Would you like me to answer that?”
“No.” I tore my eyes away from the wall. “Let’s just focus on finding our thief.”
I walked down the hall toward the door at the end. Rising to my tiptoes, I peeked quickly through the circular window at the top. In the room beyond the door, a party was raging. Men and women dressed in a puzzling but not unpleasant contradiction of materials—ruffles and silk, leather and denim, metal and mesh—danced and drank and shared dignified laughs.
“This is a witch party ship,” I whispered to Nero.
“Do you see the thief?”
“There are no ninjas dancing on the ceiling, but he probably changed clothes.” I glanced back at him. “Even if he is in here, we wouldn’t know it.”
“I can.”
“How?”
“The thief stole Ice Crystals.”
“Another poison?” I asked.
“Yes, a potent one, so strong that it would have left an imprint on his aura. If we get close enough, I can sense that imprint, but we must hurry before it fades.” He reached for the door handle.
I caught his hand. “Wait. We can’t storm into the room dressed like this. We’ll never get close enough to find the thief that way.”
“I can freeze them with my mind.”
“All one hundred people in that room?”
A crinkle formed between his eyes. “No, that’s too many.”
“Then it’s a good thing I have a plan.”
He gave me a wary look. “What kind of plan?”
“A fantastic one, of course.”
I’d done jobs on a few party airships before, and they all had cabins for the guests to retire to when they needed to sleep off the drugs and fun. The abundance of cabins was good for us because we were going to borrow a new wardrobe. We had to break into three cabins before we had a complete ensemble for each of us. I tossed aside the leather jacket of my Legion uniform but kept the leather bustier I wore below it, as well as my leather boots. I paired them with black tights and a beige ballerina skirt.
“Take these,” I told Nero, handing him a dark vest and a green dress shirt.
He gave them a hard look. “These clothes are ridiculous.”
“Are you challenging the witches’ sense of fashion?”
“Yes.”
I chuckled and tossed him a belt with a wide buckle and funny symbols all over it. “Take that too. You can keep your pants on.”
Silver swirled in his eyes for a brief moment before it faded into the green abyss. He held my gaze as he peeled the leather top off of his body. I didn’t turn away. To do so would have been an admission that I was affected by the sight of his bare chest—by the hard, carved lines of muscle defined to delicious perfection by centuries of hard labor. Not that I was ogling either. Or drooling. Drooling would have given me away too.
Nero quickly pulled on the pilfered parts of his wardrobe. Then, dressed to kill, we walked out of the cabin, following the curving corridor back to the party zone. A soft, sweet ballad spilled out of the room when I opened the door. We navigated around a couple making out against the wall.
All of the interior walls were painted a cheerful shade of sunset. It matched beautifully with the midnight blue and gold of the night sky and city lights beyond the glass windows that encircled the room.
“How close do you need to be to pick up the Ice Crystal imprint?” I whispered to him as we zigzagged past ten people along our way to the bar.
“About three feet.”
We circled around the bar, glancing down at the array of fancy appetizer platters sitting on the counter as we passed seven more witches.