StealStarve #2
This hadn’t been my plan, but if I had to fight my way out, I’d be happy to split a few knuckles.
I dodged her dainty punch with ease, sending one of my own toward her jaw, connecting hard, then thrusting an open palm at her bare chest, causing her breath to catch and her chest to cave as she stumbled away from me.
She doubled over, clutching at her ribcage, trying to suck in a breath and cupping her jaw.
Gods, it felt good to hit someone.
Two of the women were cowering on the bed while the man swung at Fadric and fell when he missed.
The last of the girls wasn’t going down without a fight, though. The thin, gangly blonde had jumped on Fadric’s back, one long-nailed hand wrapping around his throat and the other clawing at his hand guarding the coin in his pocket.
I covered the distance to them in two long strides and snatched a fistful of her long hair and pulled. She hit the ground with a loud yelp.
“We gotta go, Fad! People will hear!”
He rubbed his throat as we ran to the door. Small droplets of blood dotted the claw marks on his wrist. I glanced over my shoulder just as we crossed the threshold onto the upper landing to see the man getting to his feet, flaccid dick flopping with the effort.
Fadric slammed the door shut behind us, and we bolted down the stairs toward the front door, only to find several patrons and barmaids staring at us and blocking our way.
The music had stopped—I was fairly certain someone had heard the upstairs ruckus, and at least one barmaid knew the coin had been up there.
I backed up a step, and my back met Fadric, my mind trying like hell to figure a way out of here.
“Do you boys reckon they’ve got the coin now?” a short, stout, and half-bald man asked the group surrounding him.
“I was just a whore for the drunk bastard upstairs. I don’t know anything about no coin since the bastard didn’t even pay me! Too drunk to get it up,” I said, earning a few sniggers from the group blocking the exit.
They quickly stopped paying me any attention and turned to Fadric.
“So I suppose it was you then causing all the ruckus up there, pretty boy? Attacking a man while he’s trying to get his dick wet is rude, at best. But worst case? You was stealing his coin.”
Fadric threw his hands up in surrender, and as the group of men closed in toward him, I saw my opening to leave the tavern.
I moved slowly toward freedom as I heard another man say, “Aw, come off it. He’s Old Man Gallow’s son. He don’t need no ruddy king’s coin.”
I slipped through the front door before I heard Fadric’s response, and I did my best not to feel guilty leaving him, hoping his family name, indeed, convinced them he didn’t need or have the coin.
Because he didn’t have it. I did. He’d slipped it into my back pocket when we stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
I walked nonchalantly down the street, heading back toward my house with my heart racing. I had the coin, I could finally leave this all behind—Cassius and Aemilia, this dirty, run-down, dying town…all of it.
But my guilt kept me from heading back through my window. I couldn’t abandon Fadric after he’d slipped me the coin and drew the attention away from me so I could escape.
It was a mark of my desperation that it took me so long to decide whether I should go back for him. I knew he could handle himself, but I still needed to know they hadn’t tried to fight him for the coin if they were convinced he had it. As detached as I was, I still cared about him after all.
I peeked around the building on the corner to see if there was any commotion outside the bar—nothing.
He was still in there. With a deep breath, I leaned back against the side of the building that hid me from the tavern.
I needed to decide whether I would go back toward the danger for him, or toward Nella, coin in hand, so we could high-tail it out of here and never look back.
Survival instincts told me to be selfish, but my feelings told me that my humanity was important.
Thankfully, Fadric rounded the corner before I was forced to decide.
I loosed a sigh of relief as he smiled, a split bottom lip staining his teeth red.
“Nice work, Naci.”
“Fadric, jeez, are you okay?”
“Fine, fine.” He waved me off and put his hands in his pockets. “You did great, held on to it, I hope?”
I looked around without answering and beckoned him to follow me back down the alley toward my house.
“I did, thank you, Fadric. I hope you understand I—”
“I wanted you to have it. It’s yours. Your brains and mean right hook got it for us. I was just the sleight of hand.”
We both burst out laughing as my nerves finally calmed.
He hugged me. “Go get Nella. Let’s go out and celebrate with some proper food on the other side of town.”
My escape from Briarstead could wait a little longer. Besides, I needed time to plan Nella’s and my departure. So we headed back to my house, where I tapped on our small window. Nella’s eager face appeared.
I beckoned for her to open the window, holding a finger to my lips, telling her silently not to say a word, then motioned for her to come out.
Just as her feet hit the ground, her hand in mine, I felt a crackle of static that made the hairs on my arms and neck stand up.
I whipped my head around to see Aemilia coming up the alley, lightning in hand. The glowing magic cast eerie shadows in the darkness, and her smile was wrong. Too wide.