Kingdom of Scourge and Shadow (The Sightstone Series #1)

Chapter Twenty-One: Zoya

"It is rare to find a powerful man who makes a good friend. Too often, they are too aware of their position in life, and that makes them too aware that any true friend could soon turn to a true enemy."

-The Adventures of Miss de Wit, a novel by Dame Else Van Hassel

***

 It was too warm in Jan's office, and sweat dripped down Zoya's back as she watched Jan go over the night's accounts from a shadowy corner of the room. She knew that he knew she was there, but he hadn't looked up from the massive ledger where he tallied proceeds and expenditures for the Tempest.

"What do you want, Zoya?" he asked, after a long moment, without even looking up. "I'm busy."

"I can tell," Zoya said, wondering what he saw. Did he see her skulking in the dark corner by his bookshelves, or did he only see a patch of shadows, perhaps just a hair darker than they should be. No one else ever saw her when she hid, but, somehow, he always knew she was there.

Jan blotted the page and turned to the next one, pausing to dip his pen in the glass inkwell set into a carved-out hollow in his desk so it couldn't be spilled. Then, as if Zoya wasn't there, he carried on filling in the columns with sums that he figured out in his head.

Zoya had to smile. She'd long ago come to the conclusion that Jan would have made a particularly good mathematician if he hadn't somehow taken over the Specters. She still didn't know the story there. Despite all the rumors that swirled–some of them fantastical enough to have transcended from rumors to legends–she still hadn't been able to get to the truth behind them. And she'd been trying for a long time.

"Natalie's back," she said as Jan kept working. "She got the plans."

Jan grunted and still didn't look up. Zoya wondered if it meant he'd heard her, or if he wasn't paying attention. Knowing him, it could be easier. She was half-tempted to tell him she was running away to join a circus while he was distracted, just to see what his reaction would be, but, before she could, someone knocked on his office door.

"That'll be Max and Natalie," she said, and Jan nodded distractedly.

Zoya rolled her eyes heavenward, exasperation rising up within her. "Max and Natalie," she repeated more loudly. "Natalie has the plans. For the embassy job."

Jan said nothing.

"Saints above, Jan, are you even listening to me?" she asked, throwing up her hands, frustration getting the better of her.

"Of course, I'm listening," Jan said, finally pushing the ledger aside and wiping the ink off his pen. "I'm sorry, Zoya. I'm just trying to figure out how to launder the proceeds of an oil painting that Gleb just got it into his head to poach. Ten thousand krone that I have to figure out how to make disappear before the polizei start asking around, all because Gleb couldn't keep his hands to himself."

Zoya said nothing, just crossed her arms. A second knock sounded, more insistent this time, and she glanced expectantly towards the door, then back at Jan, who sighed and quickly blotted the page and closed the ledger.

"Enter," he called, back to his imperious self, and Zoya resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she melted out of the shadows, pulling off the headscarf she'd wrapped like a hood to hide her face.

The door swung open, and Jan and Natalie slipped inside. Zoya was struck by how different Natalie looked, as if the day had wrought a huge transformation upon her. Her tousled dark hair seemed to shine more than before, her dark eyes were alive and warm, and her skin was flushed and dewy. But it was the change to her demeanor that was the most dramatic.