Chapter 20
Twenty
Thrain moved through the tavern, Marina draped on his arm. The dwarf's chest puffed with pride as he introduced her to table after table of villagers.
"This is Marina," Thrain announced. "Just arrived in Wayside yesterday, looking for a place to winter."
Marina ducked her head with perfectly feigned shyness, her crimson skin glowing in the firelight. "Everyone's been so welcoming. I can see why Thrain speaks so highly of this village."
Vaskel curled his hands into fists. This was Marina at her most dangerous. She wielded charm as deftly as she did blades, and Vaskel knew how skilled she was with both.
“You should probably leave," Vaskel murmured to Iris.
She lifted her chin, green eyes flashing. "I'm not afraid of her. And I'm certainly not going to be run out of the tavern in my village.”
Before he could argue, Sass appeared at his side behind the bar, one hand planted firmly on her hip, her eyes narrowed to slits as she watched Marina wind her way through the room.
"I don't like her," the dwarf said. "Don't trust her as far as I could throw her, and considering she's twice my size, that's not bloody far."
A grin tugged at his lips. Trust Sass to see through Marina's artifice.
"Something about her makes my skin crawl," Sass continued. "Thrain's a goblin-spawned fool if he can't see she's playing him like a fiddle. Sweet simmering cauldrons, the way she's got him prancing about like a prize pig at market."
For the first time since he’d met the dwarf, he was grateful she was immune to hellkin charm.
Vaskel remembered his own failed attempts to win her over when he'd first arrived, despite his best efforts to charm her. She’d looked at him with the same suspicious squint she was now directing at Marina.
"Where in Grognick's beard have you been?" Lira emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray laden with steaming meat pies, her face flushed from the heat of the ovens. "These have been ready for ages!"
"Sorry," Sass muttered, still glaring at Marina. "Got distracted."
Lira followed their collective gaze across the room, her eyes widening as she took in the scene. “Who is that?"
Iris glanced at Vaskel, a question in her eyes. Should they tell her? Should they warn everyone about what Marina really was, what she was capable of? Then Vaskel thought of Lira’s upcoming wedding. He didn’t want to be the one to steal her joy with his problems.
“Just a newcomer Thrain brought in," Iris said smoothly. "Apparently she's looking for somewhere to spend the winter."
"Thrain has always been a soft-hearted fool," Sass grumbled, taking the tray from Lira with more force than necessary.
"Which is why he came all the way from the Ice Lands looking for you, right?" Lira teased.
Sass harrumphed, her cheeks darkening slightly. "That's different. We’ve been friends since we were no taller than a battle axe.” She flicked a hand in Marina’s direction. “She’s a stranger.”
Lira shook her head at Sass's grumbling and headed back to the kitchen. Sass stomped off with the meat pies, deliberately taking the long way around the room to avoid passing near Marina and Thrain.
Iris gave Vaskel a reassuring smile before she left through the crowd, carefully avoiding Marina's line of sight. Vaskel watched her go, then turned his attention back to Marina, who was playfully tugging Rog’s blue beard while the gnome blushed furiously.
His wife would have Marina's head if she saw this, but Rosie must still be tucked away in their wooden wagon.
The marks on Vaskel's skin pulsed with heat as Marina flicked her gaze away from Rog to catch his eyes. She was showing him exactly how easily she could get to him through those he cared about.
He snatched his gaze away, suppressing a growl. He knew what he needed to do.
“You mind covering for me for a bit?” Vaskel asked Sass when she returned to the bar, her gaze still tracking Marina and Thrain like a hawk watching a snake slither closer to its nest.
She nodded without glancing at him. “You go. I’ll keep an eye on those two."
The disgust in her voice when she said 'those two' would have made him smile under different circumstances. Now, he just needed to slip out before Marina noticed his absence.
Keeping to the walls, he edged toward the tavern door, sneaking out when Marina was pretending to laugh at one of Thrain’s bad dwarf jokes.
He took a beat to scan the empty road and woods.
Vaskel knew Marina well enough to know that she could have her new crew posted as lookouts.
Every shadow could hide a potential ambush.
He hadn’t even reached the corner of the tavern when goose flesh tickled the back of his neck. He felt the distinctive prickle of being watched, of footsteps matching his own pace so they wouldn’t be heard.
Marina. She'd noticed him leave. She was toying with him, letting him know she could follow him anywhere, that there was nowhere in Wayside he could hide from her. Fury and fear warred in his chest as he whirled around, ready to confront her, to tell her to leave his friends alone, to—
"Hells, Vask!" Lira jumped back as he almost slammed into her. "I thought I was jumpy. You want to tell me what's going on?"
Lira. Of course it was Lira. The half-elf had always been able to move like a shadow, and she’d always seemed to know when her friends were hiding something.
He exhaled slowly, his heart still hammering against his ribs.
He'd come to Wayside looking for her because he’d known, bone-deep, that he could trust her with his life.
They'd saved each other more times than he could count, and she'd never judged him for being a hellkin. She’d never treated him as anything other than her friend.
And now he needed to trust her again.
He took her hand in his. “I need to tell you something.”