Chapter 15
The Vermillion Draught was closed for the night, but there were footsteps inside. Felix shared a look with Marlow—hers a warning for him to play nice, and his a defiant reply—then he knocked on the heavy oak door.
“We’re closed,” came a curt voice.
He knocked again, harder.
“I said get lost.”
“I have a sizeable amount of money,” Felix lied, “and I’m told you’re the best apothecary in town. Was I misinformed? Should I take my business elsewhere?”
A long pause, then more footsteps, and as the door unlatched, Felix slammed against it.
The man stumbled back, throwing out a slew of curses, and when he caught his balance, he bolted for the counter, reaching for the rifle hanging on the wall. His hand only made it halfway there before Felix called on his power, sending out the order to stop.
The shop owner froze.
Felix hummed in disapproval. “Are we really going to do this the difficult way?”
He released the man and waited to see if he’d try again.
He did not.
“You sold this to someone,” Felix said as he set the bottle on the countertop. “What was he here for?”
When the man didn’t reply, Felix gave him a warning glare that seemed to do the trick.
“Looking for a magic suppressor.”
“And is this a magic suppressor?” Felix was fairly certain those didn’t exist.
“Filthy trucagh,” the man muttered. “Get out. Now.”
Trucagh was the name the worst kind of people liked to use for wielders. It meant foul-blood. And it pissed Felix off every time.
With a dramatic sigh, he summoned his power again, just enough to ensure his eyes were glowing gold. “I assure you, the difficult way will be far less enjoyable for you than it will be for me. Personally, I’m looking forward to it.”
This was all an unnecessary dance. He could easily force the answers from the man’s mouth with an order. But he’d made a deal with Marlow that he’d at least give them a chance first. It was a waste of time.
The man took a nervous step back. “No, it’s nothing. A scam. But it’s harmless. I’m hardly the first apothecary to take advantage of a desperate customer.”
Felix flexed his fingers as impatience veered quickly toward irritation. “I need to find the individual who purchased this. Do you know where he was headed?” Even as he asked it, he knew the question was pointless. August didn’t make small talk. Why would he have told this man anything?
“No,” the man said. An expected response. But when he added, “I can help you track him down, for a price,” Felix’s mouth twitched with interest.
“And how would you do that?”
The man drew a strange caern from his pocket and set it on the counter.
“A finding token?” Marlow asked.
The man nodded. “I slipped him the other.”
Felix’s eyes narrowed. “And why would you do that?” Of course, he knew the answer.
“Big demand for wielders, and not many out wandering anymore.”
Not many alive anymore, Felix corrected silently.
Ashcroft and his elixir were like a damned plague. He had specialists in Bedwyck creating that poison for the shops to sell, and even now, with the horrible side effects on full display, nonwielders were still desperate to get their greedy hands on it.
Felix remained perpetually amazed by the sheer idiocy of humanity.
He shook his head. “You were going to sell the second token to Ashcroft’s people.”
“Still am. They pay well, and I get a fraction of the elixirs to sell here.” The man leaned forward on the counter. “Unless you’re willing to give me a better offer. How important is it you find him?”
The difficult way, then.
“I do have a better offer,” Felix said coolly. “You’re going to hand over the token for free, and perhaps I won’t kill you where you stand for profiting off the deaths of my people.”
The man scoffed, and then, as expected, he reached for the gun again. This time, Felix made no attempt to stop him.
“Felix,” Marlow cautioned.
He waited for the man to turn the weapon on them before calmly giving the order to stop.
The man did.
“Do you know how to use the token?” Felix asked Marlow.
“I do, yeah. Ciaran uses them now and then for important deliveries.”
“Brilliant.” With a slow smile, Felix said, “Put the barrel beneath your chin.”
The man obeyed, his face serene.
“Felix, c’mon.” Marlow swiped the token from the counter and held it up between her thumb and forefinger. “We have it. Let’s just go.”
His gaze slid over the man’s fine clothing purchased with wielder blood money before landing on two jars on the shelf behind him, each marked with an elegant A intertwined with a simple black rose. Ashcroft’s insignia.
A searing heat burned beneath his skin as his eyes cut back to the man.
Felix had given so much, trying to make this country safer for his people, and this man was profiting from their murders. Why should he feel guilty for his death? For any of their deaths?
He clenched his fists tightly. “Pull the trigger.”
The gunshot reverberated through the front room of the small shop, and the man’s brains painted the low ceiling before he crumpled behind the counter.
As Felix turned to leave, he snatched the finding token from Marlow. “Destroy those elixirs.”
She didn’t respond, but as he held the token up to the lamplight, studying the etchings, glass shattered against the floor behind him.
For nearly two years they’d hidden here, helpless as their own city was devoured. With each passing day, his fury grew, his burning desire to find the aesling an all-consuming thing.
But that ended tonight.
“What’s the plan once we find him?” Marlow asked when she’d finished.
“He’s going to fix the tear, then I’m going to put another bullet in his heart.”
“Don’t you think…” Marlow’s sentence hung unfinished in the air, and he tilted his head, studying her pensive expression.
“Don’t I think what, Mar?”
“He could drop our charges, and we wouldn’t have to hide from the Watch anymore.”
Felix spun on her. “You want to beg for his forgiveness? Ask him to call off his mother?”
“No, I—”
“After everything he’s done, you think I should let him live?”
“For Arunas’ sake,” she huffed. “Alright. Fine. Gods, you’re so bitchy.” When he responded with a slight smile, she asked, “How are we gonna keep hold of someone who can disappear?”
It was a question Felix had been contemplating since that night. A question he still had no answer to.
“I can handle it.” He passed back the finding token. “You just focus on tracking him down.”
Marlow held it to her lips and whispered something. Immediately, the engraving glowed like an ember, and she gave a decisive nod. “Well, come on then.”