Chapter Twenty-Eight Damien #2
I stood behind them in brooding silence as the invisible clock ticked.
We were all on edge, the noble glancing anxiously over his shoulder while Wren fidgeted from foot to foot.
Maybe she was eager to begin. Usually, I could sit still easily enough—it was useful for my gift, after all—but I scanned the night as if it were my job, analyzing each and every movement like a threat.
This part of town was the worst place imaginable for us to be, but it was shockingly quiet, like even the lowliest of criminals knew to stay away.
When Ruby eventually strolled down the docks with a bounce in her step, the three of us let out a collective sigh. She’d take my side over a noble’s, surely, and I felt more confident now should this Lord Grayson pull any tricks.
“Wren!” Ruby immediately ran to wrap her arms around her. Wren startled, but she dropped Grayson’s hand and returned Ruby’s unexpected embrace. Ruby was touchy, and she showed her emotions without care. Living like that in the Void, it was surprising she wasn’t dead already.
Showing emotions is what she wants from you, I thought with a grimace.
Baby steps.
“I’m glad to see you again,” Wren said brightly. There was a teasing quality to her voice, her eyes twinkling.
I loved how we both had relieved Wren’s precious lord of his watch, and yet I was the only one paying the price for it. Figured.
Ruby grinned wide. “Same, princess. I asked to join you and Damien on your secret mission ages ago, but he was being greedy and told me no.”
Traitor.
“I didn’t want too many people involved,” I replied, glaring at my friend when Wren craned her neck at me, an eyebrow raised in question.
“Too late now,” Ruby mocked, stepping to my side before she nudged me.
I grunted in pain, my body still sore. Hell, sore was an understatement.
My wound was healing better than expected, but streaks of blood continued to stain the bandages, and while anyone with a lick of common sense would rest, I’d never felt more on edge.
“Who’s this handsome man?” Ruby ran her eyes over Grayson with interest. If she hadn’t preferred women, I’d have been worried.
He wasn’t that handsome.
Grayson made his introductions and explained the situation while Wren caught my stare, giving what she might believe to be a look of warning to behave.
My sunshine considered herself frightening. It was almost cute—if I hadn’t been so furious that she’d put herself at risk.
Was I being irrational? Territorial? Insane? All yes. But after the other night, well, maybe before then, I’d grown protective. And our kiss just now? It cemented things in my caveman brain.
She wanted me to make up my mind? I had, and now she’d probably regret asking.
“Let’s go, then,” I muttered, stepping between Grayson and Wren. I snagged her hand and ignored her grumbling protests. It wasn’t lost on me that Ruby let out a tiny gasp of surprise at the display.
“You’re injured,” Wren said. “Take it easy.”
As if my earlier rage had made me forget the pain, it now reared its ugly head. My damned shoulder ached, but I didn’t care. Besides, I’d survived far worse.
“I’m not leaving,” I said, gripping her hand tighter. “Besides, I have a dagger. Not a letter opener on me.”
She scoffed. “It worked well enough last time.”
With her safely in my hold, I led the way to where the workers were unloading the crates. Motioning to the group, I urged everyone to drop to their knees and keep low behind the reeds. I didn’t release Wren.
“This one’s heavy as shit, boss!” someone called, kicking at the side of a crate. The ship it sat beside belonged to Hockley, his logo of a hatchet framed by a crescent moon painted on its side. He trafficked mostly in carpentry, delivering wood and construction supplies.
Wren startled when two shadowy figures seemed to materialize from the darkness. One of the men snapped his fingers, and a flicker of light illuminated his face, a small flame cradled in his palm.
Hockley and his silver handheld lighter. He could summon deadly flames to his bare hands whenever he wished as long as his gift remained on his person—something that could prove useful in a fight or as protection.
The second man, I recognized from his overconfident gait alone. As Hockley’s enviable gift shone on the man beside him, I instantly curved myself around Wren. I grimaced when her entire body stiffened.
Cameron Hayes and Stuart Hockley sauntered down the dock and to the crate, dressed in their finest suits.
Stuart tapped a shiny black cane against the side, and I swore I heard muffled screams. The older man smiled.
“It should be heavy,” he boomed. “I paid plenty for the cargo.”
“Then everyone will be pleased,” Cameron replied, stiff-backed and emotionless. “Especially since it’s late. Next shipment better be double and ready to split. We can’t have any suspicion set on us yet. Things need to seem like business as usual.”
They were hiding something from the Fates. It sounded like they were tricking them with double shipments. So where did the overflow go?
Hockley’s victorious face fell, but rather than take it out on Cameron, he kicked the side of the crate once more. “Load it up!” he boomed to his men. “We have a schedule to keep. Bring the rest as quickly as possible.” The flame in his palm danced in warning, angry reds and burnt oranges sparking.
His workers rushed into action, pushing the crate to the walkway, where a wagon waited. They surrounded the crate, a few boasting weapons.
“Open it up and put them inside,” Hockley instructed.
I held my breath as they pried open the door with crowbars. I suspected what lay inside. But seeing it? Seeing the dirtied people stolen from their homes walk out in a frightened daze and onto the wagon made it all too real. Something I couldn’t ignore.
People. They were delivering people. Men. Women. Children.
“Souls,” Grayson whispered. “He really meant it.” Wren reached out for him with her free hand, comforting him regardless of the tears in her eyes. I ground my teeth but returned my gaze to the men.
“We need to follow them,” Ruby said to Grayson. “We’ll take that fancy carriage of yours and confirm the delivery location.”
For once she wasn’t smiling. In fact, I’d never seen her look so murderous.
Grayson stood, taking Wren with him before I could secure my hold. Together, they led the way back to the carriage, and I seethed—both at the sight before me and at Cameron fucking Hayes.
That room with all the documents and photographs of dead bodies. The shipment of living people. Those missing from the Void. He was the cause. No. The ringleader.
“Wren didn’t know,” came Ruby’s tranquil voice. She incorrectly guessed that my furious mood was directed at Wren.
Wren couldn’t possibly have known—she was the embodiment of sunshine.
The light I dreamed would one day shine on the fields of my farm.
Maybe that was why I’d taken to calling her that.
Ever since I’d laid eyes upon her, my cold black heart had warmed, and while the ice thawed, her brilliance wormed its way under my skin, marking me.
Sometimes I loathed it, but most of the time I craved the heat she exuded when she took me in, truly looking into the depths of my eyes and not flinching.
It was like a high, a drug no one could replicate.
Of course, she hadn’t had the heart to suspect her father of something so cruel until she’d seen the proof with her own eyes.
And because I understood her, I realized how her heart must be breaking—even as she walked side by side with her newest stray.
Wren might think herself weak and na?ve, and sure, she could be na?ve, but she was far from weak.
Many would shatter on the spot in a similar situation, yet here she stood, tall and unyielding.
The cursed fire in my chest flared to life as I resisted the urge to hold her. Comfort her. Tend to her like she’d done me. But she and Grayson had reached the carriage and it was too late.
“Where’s your driver?” Wren asked with a frown, peering around the carriage. The driver’s seat lay empty, and not a sign of the hunched-over man I’d spotted earlier could be found lingering close by.
Grayson swore, swiping at his hair. “I have no idea. He’s usually a footman, and I bribed him to take me here tonight. He hasn’t been on my father’s payroll for long.”
“Great, now we have to make a run for it, and the only thing I despise more than running is cake with fruit in it,” Ruby grumbled. “That’s not cake. It’s a trick.”
“Enough about cake,” I groaned, shooting Ruby a withering look. She rolled her eyes. “We need to leave. Now.” I turned to Grayson. “You all right to walk, pretty boy?”
He beamed. “Good to know you find me pretty. But yes, I’m perfectly fine, regardless of my life being flipped on its head.”
I wanted to rile him, but he just smiled, either genuinely charmed or playing a part superbly. When his right eye twitched, I suspected the latter. “All right. We head to Cap’s, and then—”
An explosion shook the ground, sending me to my knees. The others collapsed, yelps of pain following the impact.
Smoke flared from the docks we’d just left, the scent of char clogging my nostrils. There was another smell there, something almost sickly…floral. I twisted my head, taking in the plumes of smoke wafting from the ships.
It would be a nightmare tomorrow.
“Everyone all right?” Grayson shouted, his arm around Ruby and Wren protectively.
“No injuries here,” Wren murmured, Ruby nodding beside her.
I shot to my feet and offered Ruby a hand before lifting Wren. When she started to pull her hand away, I grasped it, not letting go as I scanned the darkness. I’d have to inspect her later to make certain she hadn’t been lying about injuries.
“Someone bombed the docks.”
“Obviously,” Ruby retorted. “Your impressive deductive skills are at it again.”