Chapter 8 #3
He narrowed his eyes as he glared at me, seemingly unaffected by the fact that I was one sharp thrust away from ending his life.
I guessed his training had prepared him for such a scenario, but I could tell that he had been taken off guard by my skill all the same.
I guessed he hadn’t expected a mere criminal to be able to pose any kind of threat to him, but we learned to fight dirty on these streets before we could walk, and I wasn’t above stabbing a man in the back and spitting on his corpse if he got in my damn way.
“Did you rehearse that speech?” Cassius growled. “Or are you just so full of shit that it spurts out naturally?”
Balthazar chuckled behind me and Pip tentatively joined in.
“Your pretty face isn’t so well suited for making threats,” Balthazar mocked me. “Want me to cut off his ear to make the point?”
I pursed my lips in irritation as Cassius’s gaze flickered to Balthazar and I got the feeling he was more concerned about him than me. And I was the one who had him pinned to the ground with a knife at his throat for the Fallen’s sake.
“I think he gets it. Don’t you, Cassius?” I demanded.
“I got it. You own me...pay my debt. Be scared of shadows and some shit.” Cassius held my eye and I wondered if I really should cut off an ear to drive the point home because he definitely wasn’t taking this seriously enough.
But making people believe they were my friend had always worked the best for me in the past, so maybe he didn’t need to fear me.
And so what if my pretty face made me nonthreatening?
It only made it all the more surprising when my smiles fell away and the cold sting of my blade came as a sharp reminder of what I really was.
Besides, I’d sooner look like me than any other fucker in my gang, or out of it for that matter.
They might have called me pretty boy and mocked me for the appeal my face held, but I was the one who never had to pay to get my cock wet and had women covering for my crimes all over the city for the simple price of a kiss from my lying lips.
“Good boy,” I said, slapping Cassius’s cheek a few times in the same patronising way that Egos always did to me.
“Just try not to fall in love with me while we’re stuck together.
It’s made things super awkward with Balthazar as it is, and I don’t need to add another broken heart to the list of men who follow me around. ”
“You wish, pretty boy,” Balthazar grumbled as I clambered off of Cassius and tossed his blade back to him.
He kept it in his grip and I saw something dark and empty in his eyes for a fleeting moment.
It was a hollow, lonely thing and I wondered if his brush with death had placed it there or if this man had had the bones of him carved out a long time ago.
The wind picked up and a wave of sand was driven over us, making us all turn our faces from it and curse the turn in the weather.
“We don’t have long to get back before that storm hits,” Finn muttered irritably. “If you’re not gutting him then let’s keep moving.”
I offered Cassius my hand and he grunted as he accepted it and let me pull him to his feet.
“No need to look at me like I just pissed on your grandma,” I said, noting the gleam of vengeance sparkling in his eyes.
Yeah, he was planning on punching me for that move alright, but I’d be ready for it when the blow came.
“We can go right back to being friends. Just stick with us and keep your word. You’re a man of honour, right? ”
“My honour is the thing that guides me and-”
“And we need to go.” I gave him a push and dove into an alleyway again at a fast pace, cutting through the city I knew so well as I kept those jewels on my mind and hoped to fuck that they were still where I’d left them.
“Keep up, horse boy,” Finn grunted from the back of the group, and I couldn’t help but laugh as I glanced at Cassius’s face. Priceless .
We raced down the streets as the wind blew harder and sand was thrown over us more and more frequently.
The others covered their faces once more and I kept my mouth clamped shut against the worst of it while squinting as I ran on.
We needed to hurry back to The Den before the storm hit or we were gonna end up stuck out here, taking shelter wherever we could and likely forcing entry into the home of someone who didn’t want us.
That would make for a wholly uncomfortable night for everyone involved – I knew so from experience – so I was hoping it didn’t come to that.
As we closed in on the count’s house, the others took shelter beneath an archway which marked the entrance to the next estate over and I headed in alone.
I pulled my cape over my head, drawing the hood low to conceal my features as I drew nearer to the wall which ringed the count’s property.
The iron gates were firmly closed unlike the other night when we’d stolen through them so easily, and I smirked at their attempt to keep out thieves. It was a nice try, but it would take a whole lot more than that to deter me.
I skirted the wall, which was at least three times as tall as me, until I reached the far end of the estate where I paused to look around for any sign of someone on watch.
Apparently, they were just going to rely on a closed gate to deter unscrupulous Fae such as myself, so I had no audience as I turned to the sheer wall and looked over the white paintwork for some footholds I could use.
The other thieves called me a spider for how easily I managed feats such as this, but it was no insult to me.
The skills my Affinities had helped me to perfect had gotten me to where I was in this world, and I wouldn’t have traded them for all the gold in Osaria.
Alright, maybe that was an exaggeration – every man had his price after all, but mine would have been a damn steep one.
I easily located the hand and footholds I would need and scaled the wall quickly, making my way to the top of it with nothing but the strength and speed of my muscles to help me.
When I reached the top, I pulled myself up onto the wide bricks, crouching low and thanking the storm for darkening the sky and keeping me hidden as I inspected the estate below me.
A smarter man would have gotten himself some dogs as well as locking the gates.
But the count didn’t strike me as a smart man, just a greedy one.
I mean sure, a Fae with a really strong Affinity for animals may have been able to calm a few guard dogs, but generally speaking the fangs and loud bark of a big beast was enough of a deterrent to be worth the investment against most outside forces.
I looked around for any signs of movement below, spying the stacked sacks of grain on the far side of the house where I’d stashed my loot.
It didn’t look like anyone had disturbed them since I’d hidden my haul and I grinned as I slipped off the wall, free falling the long drop to the ground and landing in a crouch on the other side.
I stole across the driveway at a fierce pace and danced between the shadows on silent feet as I headed for the stacked grain. I was little more than a malicious spirit stealing across his land in the night. By the time anyone realised I was here, I’d already be long gone.
A door closed nearby and I pressed my back to the wall of the building, sinking into the shadows with my dark cloak concealing me as I tugged the hood down lower over my eyes.
I watched as Perdu crossed the courtyard at the back of the house and tossed some kitchen peelings into a waste pot close to the stables.
The girl was pretty, and she had a nice arse.
It was a damn shame she’d gone and betrayed me, or I may well have come back to taste those lips of hers again and maybe steal a little of her virtue while I was at it.
But snitches didn’t get to come on my cock, so she would be left wanting, forever touching herself in the night while thoughts of the kiss I’d taken from her made her flesh ache with a desire I’d never return to fulfil.
And there probably wasn’t a much worse fate which I could bestow upon her for fucking me over anyway.
She turned back towards the house and stilled for a moment as if she could sense my eyes on her, but I didn’t flinch.
It was dark here and I was well versed in the art of the shadows.
She wouldn’t see me unless I made the mistake of moving and I was no fool.
I waited until she dismissed the notion of searching for the source of her discomfort and headed back inside, then I slipped along the side of the wall and found the sacks of grain.
It took me a few moments to shift them aside, and I grinned triumphantly as I found the bag of loot waiting at the bottom of the pile.
Some of the food I’d added to the stash had spoiled from laying out in the heat, and I tossed the cheese aside as the smell of it made my stomach turn.
I fished a cake out and stuffed it into my mouth though.
It was a little stale but still perfectly edible, and my empty stomach growled with appreciation as I swallowed.
I hated the feeling of hunger, the sensation reminding me all too sharply of the small boy I’d once been, begging for crusts and sleeping alone on the hard streets.
I hated that boy for his weakness, and I didn’t allow myself to remember him or his desperation often.
I slipped back across the estate and scaled the wall again with ease, a grin pulling at my cheeks at the simplicity of that success.
I paused as I crouched on top of the bricks once more, and I turned my head to look out over the Lyrian Desert, which I could make out beyond the roof of the estate where the dunes rose up like a mountain range beyond the city limits.