Chapter 14 · The Key Gets Stolen

"Where's the key."

Adrian didn't ask. He shoved Theo against the archive wall hard enough the plaster cracked.

Theo grinned. Blood on his teeth. "You mean the one you've been hiding in your coat for three days?"

"Give it back."

"Can't. Already gone."

Adrian's hand went to his inside pocket. Empty. The brass casing he'd wrapped the black key in—gone. He'd felt it there ten minutes ago, right before the stairwell under the Quinn house had tried to swallow them whole.

"When did you—"

"When you took the hit for her." Theo jerked his chin toward Mara, who was pulling herself up from the rubble near the archive's west entrance. "You went down. I went shopping."

Mara's voice cut through before Adrian could break Theo's nose. "He took it off you?"

"While I was bleeding, yeah."

"And you didn't notice."

"I was a little busy keeping the floor from eating you."

She crossed the distance fast. Her coat was shredded down one side, and there was dust in her hair, but her eyes were sharp. "Where is it now."

Theo shrugged. Adrian slammed him into the wall again.

"Talk."

"Or what? You'll key me? Go ahead. I'm already marked.