Chapter 16 #2
Because I didn’t trust them. I sure as fuck didn’t trust Jett not to mess with her.
“That’s if we get a request for a Goods Appraisal,” I bit back, shaking my head to flick the sweat-damp hair off my forehead. As much as I didn’t want an invitation to the Witches Ball, I needed it to save my mother.
“We will. I’ve been working on something with Zielenski,” Jett said, his voice a little stuffy from the rapidly healing broken nose.
He gave me a sly look when I turned to face my brothers.
All of them still hummed with wariness of me.
“Twofold. We’ll introduce the Wychthorn Princess to the Emporium the moment Jurgana arrives. ”
The Emporium.
Jurgana.
Holy hellsgate.
I felt ill, physically ill. Bile stung the back of my throat.
Months ago, I’d accompanied Kenton to his meeting with Zielenski, who ruled the Emporium, and teased out our bait. At the time, I’d hoped that would be enough.
But of course, my little brother had overheard what Sirro had said to me last week and had already hatched a plan.
Kenton rubbed his blood-smeared face with a meaty palm.
His deep voice rumbled, “We need Brangwene’s Hjarte, Gray.
” He moved to flank me, Jett taking the other side.
I was boxed in with Caidan in front and the wall at my back.
“The only way we can do it is by breaking Byron to make him hand it over to us. We need to threaten her to get to him, and it might pique the Witches’ curiosity so they request an appraisal. ”
“Besides, Aunt Valarie agrees,” Jett added, swiping away the strands of hair that had come free from his topknot and stuck to his temple and cheeks.
Aunt Valarie…simply her name had fear spiraling through me. Besides myself, Jett had been my aunt’s pet project all these years. It had been easy for her to mold my youngest brother into her weapon since he was my mother’s shadow.
“She isn’t going to like this when she comes home,” Jett continued, glancing pointedly at the tower.
“And when might that be?”
“Soon,” he answered vaguely, with a grin that made me want to smash it from his face with my fist.
“Holy hellsgate,” Caidan muttered between clenched, bloodied teeth, wincing as his broken cheekbones knitted back together.
Then Jett huffed a laugh, his nose still dripping blood.
I pushed forward, glaring. “What’s so funny?”
Jett pointed at the tower behind me. Morning sunlight struck his silver thumb ring.
And that’s when I heard her voice roaring, “GRAYSEN CROWTHER! LET ME OUT OF HERE!”
I pivoted around, and the first thing I saw was fluttering fabric, billowing as it fell.
My mouth fell open. Nelle tossed more from the tower.
A clatter of belts swiftly followed, and I watched in growing horror as she lifted a bedside table and pushed it over the balcony’s railing.
It dropped in a straight line, cracked upon the hard cobblestones, and split apart like matchsticks.
My books were flung. My chrome lamp. Anything light enough that she could lift and heave over the side of the balcony.
Holy Zrenyth!
And then my gut fell, and my heart exploded into a racing gait as I saw my board games tossed like frisbees. They flew through the air, spinning, their lids ripping free, and all the fake paper money fluttered, game pieces and cards hit the cobblestones, bouncing and scattering.
Oh, hells no!
I was going to kill her!
“You can’t keep her locked up there,” I heard Caidan say behind me. “Let her out. What is one tiny girl going to do?”
Oh, they had no idea what my little bird was capable of.
I whirled around. “Have you ever considered I’m protecting us from that spiteful, mischievous nature of hers?” I shot back, lying my ass off once again. “Worse, she could escape.”
Jett rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his lean chest. “She’s got Zrenyth’s magic tied around her neck.
She can’t even get near the boundary of our estate.
There’s no way she can run away.” His mouth tipped up on one side, revealing a sliver of bloody teeth.
“And if she wants to play with fire and mess with us, then bring it on.”
That wasn’t what I was worried about. I gave Jett a shrewd glance. I wasn’t sure why he’d want her free of my rooms. Out of all my brothers, he was the one I was most wary of. He was unpredictable and also might be more fucked up than I was.
“Let her out,” Caidan urged, right before the sound of metal striking hardened clay rang in my ears. I winced. Not my godsdamned chess pieces.
Violence burned in my veins as I took off, reaching the top of the tower’s landing a few seconds later. I pretty much kicked the door in and burst into my room. “Don’t you dare!”
Nelle stood on the balcony. Tucked under her arm was a precious board game.
“That’s my fucking Clue set!” I bellowed, storming toward her.
She quickly jabbed the hand holding a red figurine over the railing and wiggled the game piece, taunting me. “Take one more step and Colonel Mustard gets it!”
I groaned, halting at the opening in the wall, tugging at my hair with both hands. “It’s Miss Scarlett.” For fuck’s sake!
Her gaze darted to Miss Scarlett pinched between her fingers. “Huh?” She frowned before shrugging nonchalantly. “Whatever.”
“It’s a godsdamned collector’s item.” I pleaded, freaking out. I held my hands out in submission as I approached cautiously. “Worth thousands. I don’t want a single piece lost.”
“Then let me out of here, or else I’ll fling it all, including pretty Miss Scarlett, all over your courtyard. Trust me, you’ll never ever find all the pieces…guaranteed.”
I hesitated.
“You can’t keep me locked up here.”
“I sure as hells can.”
“Let me out.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“All I’ve had is these walls to look at. It’s driving me mad.”
No fucking kidding. Me too.
She fingered Zrenyth’s collar. “What do you think I can do? Run away?”
Fuck with me further. That’s what she could do.
I glanced at Miss Scarlett held haphazardly over the edge and gave up. I waved my hand, my stomach sinking, indicating for her to toss the piece over the side.
Then Nelle’s whole demeanor shifted and softened.
She sighed, pulling Miss Scarlett back to safety.
“I promise to behave. I just need to be able to stretch my legs properly, not pace around and around in this cage.” She slipped the game of Clue from under her arm, tucking the red piece inside, before looking up at me beneath her lashes. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”
When I remained silent, she walked closer to halt right in front of me, the edge of the Clue game resting on her thighs. Craning her head back, she blinked up at me. “Are you going to take this cord off and set me free?”
She was wearing a sundress in soft cream.
It was too big for her, perfect for a girl who couldn’t be harnessed like a wyrm.
It had buttons running down the front and capped sleeves, and a cut to the fabric with tiers of layers that gave the dress an old-fashioned, antique look.
She looked as if she was from another time period. A princess trapped in a tower.
“No.” Not a lie and not a truth. My answer was a gray area, the place between black and white, good and bad. Like my name. Like me. I resided in the shadows, as Nelle had rightly said when we were in the woodlands.
“Here’s the thing…” she replied, tilting her head and running her gaze over my face, searching for what, I wasn’t sure.
“Your family can’t do anything to me. They need me in one piece to sell at the Witches Ball.
I’m not particularly worried about your family.
What can they do that would be worse than what the Butcher will do to me? ”
I closed my eyes, reminding myself to breathe, just breathe.
“If I’m going to die, then I want to live, even if it is confined to this estate and only for a few months. Please let me out of the tower.”
I swallowed thickly. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
I nodded my head, opening my eyes to see her beaming up at me.
I shrugged. “Let me shower first.”
“Ugh,” she grouched, her shoulders slumping as she walked away. She tossed the game onto one end of the couch while flopping down on the other, the leather groaning beneath her sudden weight. She looked sullenly over at me. “You take forever in there.”
I shucked off my sparkly pink boots. I still hadn’t gotten around to ordering new shoes. “I’ll use my Crowther superpowers to move faster.”
Her mouth twitched on the cusp of a grin, but she bit it back with her teeth.
I was true to my word and scrubbed myself furiously with soap and water in a whirl of speed. I was washed, dried, and in fresh clothes within a minute, re-entering my rooms.
Nelle stood by the doorway, half-bent over, patting Sage, who sat on his haunches, his large bushy tail wagging. She’d fixed her hair into a fish braid, and the tail hung over a shoulder. Her cheeks were filling out, and she looked a lot healthier than she had almost a week ago.
She straightened when I joined her in front of the heavy wooden door. I silently called on the wild magic in the tower and simply allowed it to let her come and go as she pleased. It strummed through the room, the adamere walls shimmering in response.
I opened the door. Nelle’s big eyes flared even wider, her thick gray lashes fluttering with her building excitement. She stepped forward…
…and I slapped my arm across the open doorway, preventing her from leaving. She flashed me a dark look, one that was tempered with confusion.
“Three rules,” I said, holding up one finger at a time, counting them off. “One: keep that temper of yours in check.” She rolled her eyes. “Two: Sage is with you at all times, and if anything should happen, he’s to give you enough time—”
“For what?”
“To run,” I replied, hoping to hells it would never come to that. I was going to be with her, but I didn’t know what would happen out there with my family. “Three: you run fast and get back inside this tower. No one can come in here. Not my family. Only you, me, and Penn.”
She nodded and said softly, “I know.” When I frowned, because I hadn’t told her, she elaborated, “Penn told me last night.”
“My brothers are messed up,” I confessed.
She cocked her head, raising her brows. “And you’re not?”
“I’m as fucked up as they come.”
She patted my chest, and it sent a shockwave of electricity right through me so hard it punched the air from my lungs. Her freckled cheeks rounded as her mouth twisted to the side, and her eyes narrowed. Not mean, but playful. “Yes, that is the first true thing you’ve said.”
She turned a sparkling gaze to stare out the open doorway, grinning her crooked grin with excitement as she jittered on the spot. She glanced up at me, waiting expectantly.
I grinned back.
Her smile faded, and her features hardened. “I’m not smiling at you, Crowther.”
My smile faltered for a split second as part of me died a little bit, but the other part of me kept grinning. She hadn’t called me dickface. Small victories and all.
I dropped my arm and gestured for her to leave the tower.
Resuming her broad smile, Nelle pushed off, Sage by her side, and stepped out onto the stone landing. I followed and hoped to Zrenyth I hadn’t fucked up by letting her out earlier than I’d intended to do.