Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
W e stole through the night and I couldn’t help but laugh aloud at our predicament as the bells rang throughout the city, calling the royal guards from their beds to track us down and end this petty rebellion. But I’d like to see them find us once we reached the slums.
The emperor might have believed he ruled Osaria from top to bottom, but the truth was that there were many self-proclaimed kings ruling slices of the underworld which surrounded his pristine city, and his laws and commands meant shit to them.
Out there, we were a law unto ourselves and the only enemies we had to fear were bad luck and poor fortune.
I looked up at the sky, drawing in a deep breath of free air and trying not to cough as I realised it was laced with sand.
The cool wind which had swept across us as we climbed down from the window of the royal dungeons had either been the forewarning of worse weather to come or a sweet taste of relief following the carnage.
“Was there a storm already or is one brewing?” I muttered, wondering if we would even have the time we needed to make it back to The Den tonight, or if we were going to have to take shelter elsewhere.
I glanced back at Cassius as he continued to follow our group, my peripheral vision always straying his way in case he decided to make a run for it.
If that treasure existed, it was mine and he was not going to disappear before I had it glinting in my palm.
I didn’t place any faith in the word of a man, even one who shook my hand and looked me in the eye when he gave it.
In fact, especially a man who shook my hand and looked me in the eye when he gave it.
Fae may have been honest once, but they weren’t anymore.
It was every man for himself out here, I knew that better than most. And I’d have shaken anyone’s hand and force-fed them a lie to save my own arse.
Hell, I’d have kissed him, fucked him and basted him like a farrier hen too if it had given me more sway over my fate.
“One brewing,” Balthazar grunted. “And it looks like it’s gonna be a bad one.” He still kept a hand pressed to his side and I noted the blood on his fingers as he pulled them away to check the wound. “It’s just a scratch,” he said dismissively as he noticed my attention on the injury.
“You shouldn’t have been so slow,” I replied with a grunt of irritation. “Then I wouldn’t have had to save your arse.”
“Seems to me like we’re even on that score,” Balthazar replied, and I guessed he had a point considering my current freedom.
Though I could have argued that Egos was the one who had wanted me freed.
But as I gave thought to the fact that my cock was still very much attached to my body, I decided to let it slide.
I scowled at the sky. I hated the sandstorms which swept across the desert and choked the air so that we could barely breathe.
Sometimes they went on for days and we’d be stuck inside The Den with nothing to do but wait it out and fight in the ring.
And as much as I enjoyed my life with The Forty, I far preferred sleeping in the open than enduring too much time in close quarters with their sweaty armpits and their raging testosterone.
There were too many of us with chips on our shoulders or points to prove for it ever to be a relaxed environment, and though I would always sleep with one eye open, I preferred to add a healthy dose of distance between myself and the arseholes I worked with when I did it.
Pip drew close to me, tugging the covering off of his face and smiling widely as he looked up at me.
His nose had been broken by one of the arsehole guards who’d caught me and he had two black eyes from the injury.
It looked painful as hell, but he was powering through like a real tough bastard even though he was little more than a kid.
“Well at least your face will be more interesting now,” I teased as I observed the damage with a weight in my gut.
He’d only gotten those wounds because he’d been trying to help me.
It made him a fucking idiot, but it still left me feeling like shit.
I hadn’t asked for his help. I’d never asked for anybody’s help.
But for some reason he’d offered it up willingly and I’d gone and done the same for him in return.
I didn’t know what that made me aside from a fucking fool, but here we were, alive and free. So maybe it had worked out okay.
“You saved my life back at the count’s house,” Pip murmured and I could see something a hell of a lot like gratitude glimmering in his eyes.
I stilled, glancing at the others around me as my skin prickled at the idea of that.
Cassius was looking at us with an eyebrow raised and I could tell he’d overheard that snippet of reputation-altering information.
No. Fuck no. I wasn’t having rumours of me going soft over some fucking kid circulating and making me look like a weak arsehole.
I scowled, glad that Balthazar hadn’t heard him at least as he ran on towards the end of the alleyway we were racing down, his dark clothes merging with the shadows between the white walls of the buildings which filled the sixth ring.
Around here, everything was pristine, even the streets were clean enough to eat your fucking dinner off of.
They weren’t as bad as the upper Fae who inhabited the inner ring, but anyone this deep in the city was doing far better than people like me.
They were precious, wealthy folk who didn’t have to muddy their boots with the reality of the men and women who lived just a few miles from their gleaming estates.
It made my stomach twist with a mixture of anger and jealousy every time I came here, and my fingers always itched to relieve them of some of their unfairly distributed wealth.
“You must be remembering wrong,” I told Pip dismissively, hoping he’d get the damn message to shut the fuck up about me saving him and just let it lie. He didn’t owe me shit. That wasn’t how it worked. I couldn’t have people thinking I was losing my damn touch.
“I told Egos that-”
I grabbed Pip by the front of his tunic and wheeled him around, shoving him against the wall of the alleyway we were creeping through, not caring if it held us up.
“Told him what?” I snarled.
The last thing I needed was Egos thinking I’d gone soft for him.
That wouldn’t end well for either of us.
Not well at all. The ruler of The Forty did not appreciate sentiments of loyalty beyond our subservience to him.
He wouldn’t think it was a good thing that I’d gotten myself locked up on behalf of some kid who hadn’t even proven his worth yet.
If he knew what I’d done I was certain he’d make me pay for it in blood and bone – if he even let me live at all.
Pip’s eyes widened in surprise and I could feel his heart hammering beneath my fist which was still bunched in the fabric of his tunic.
I didn’t care that he was looking at me with fear instead of gratitude now because that was better.
Far fucking better. I wasn’t a good man, I was as cruel and as ruthless as the rest of the thugs we kept company with and he needed to remember that.
“I told him that you’d hidden the stash,” he breathed, cowering before me. “Nothing else. I didn’t tell anyone anything else.”
“Oh.” I dropped him and he flattened his tunic nervously, his gaze cutting to Cassius who was lingering close by.
“Beating on the kid, Drake?” Balthazar taunted as he looked back to us from his position at the end of the alleyway. “Maybe you should save your strength for the ring.”
“Looking to get your arse beat again?” I asked, moving to pass him and ducking aside as he tried to slam his shoulder into mine. But I was far faster than him. Always had been, always would be.
“I owe you for leaving me so long with that countess,” he growled, a promise of violence in his eyes above the covering which shielded his face.
“I thought I should let you enjoy her while you could. It’s been so hard for you to get a woman recently,” I teased, openly mocking him and letting him know I’d be more than happy to go a few rounds in the ring with him.
Balthazar aimed a punch at my gut, but I twisted away from him with a laugh. He drew a blade and hounded after me and I grinned provocatively.
“Tell me, did you always have a thing for fucking goats or is this a newly acquired taste of yours? Because I could always buy you a gentle natured beast the next time I’m at the market – unless you prefer one that kicks?”
“I’m gonna gut you one of these days, pretty boy,” Balthazar swore, still advancing on me with that blade.
My blood heated at the challenge in his eyes and I found myself aching for this fight, wanting to feel the thump of my fists against his flesh, the splatter of blood on my skin and the rush of the win.
Cassius watched us like he was wondering whether we might just kill each other and relieve him of our company, but I’d be clawing my way back through the gates of the underworld if that happened, to claim the treasure he’d mentioned.
“Save the bullshit for the ring,” Finn snapped, barrelling between us and glaring at us.
He was a big bastard with half as many teeth as he should have had and a mean glint in his eyes which never let me forget how many men he claimed to have killed.
I didn’t doubt it either. He was the kind to enjoy spilling blood for sport and I tended to avoid running jobs with him for that reason – not because I was squeamish but because bloodstains were a bitch to get out and I didn’t have endless supplies of clothes to change between.
“We need to get away from here before the guards find us. We can buy Balthazar a goat to fuck once this heat is off of us.”
“Fuck off,” Balthazar grumbled but he reluctantly returned his blade to his belt.
“What are we doing with the spare?” Finn’s gaze locked on Cassius.