Chapter 13 #3
“Stupid,” she chokes out between sobs. “You’re so stupid. Why would you do that? Why would you—”
Shade turns his head with obvious effort and looks at her with those pale eyes. Blood trickles from the corner of his mouth.
“Because no one should be in a cage,” he whispers.
Shepherd watches the scene for a long moment before finally stepping toward Ravence.
“I have a proposal,” he says evenly.
Ravence arches a brow.
“Let the girl work off the debt through the guild instead,” Shepherd continues. “We will train her as a Grimsbane. You still get your money through her missions.”
Ravence considers it. “She’s worth more to me as a worker.”
Shepherd pulls out a heavy pouch of gold. “This is what you’d earn from her in five years, accounting for her inexperience and the cost of breaking her in. I’ll pay it now, up front. In exchange, her contract transfers to the guild.”
Ravence weighs the pouch in his hand. Greed wars with pride on his face.
Greed wins.
“Done.”
Kitty becomes a Grimsbane that night and becomes ours.
I sit in the punishment hall, holding Shade’s broken body, understanding for the first time that my friend isn’t like the rest of us.
He still has a soul.
And it’s going to get him killed.
Kitty cries for weeks. She sits beside Shade’s bed while the healers work on his back, trying to save what they can. The scars will be permanent, deep and terrible.
“You’re so stupid,” she keeps saying through her tears. “So stupid.”
Shade, barely conscious and dosed with pain medication, mutters weakly, “Wolf got struck too. You didn’t cry for him.”
“Why would you do something like this?” She’s crying so hard she can barely speak.
Shade stares at her through half-lidded eyes, pale and unfocused from the pain medication.
“You could’ve died,” she whispers brokenly. “Look at you. You’re so small. A skinny little kid who almost got killed over nothing—”
“If I get bigger than Wolf,” Shade interrupts, his voice slurred, “will you stop crying?”
She holds his gaze. Then nods miserably through her tears.
“I will,” he promises. “I’ll grow taller than Wolf. Taller than Shepherd even.”
Years pass. Shade keeps his promise. He’s slightly taller than me, by an inch.
Kitty stops crying. Mostly.
The door suddenly creaks open, pulling me back to the present.
Kitty melts from shadows like she was born from them. Moonlight filters through the broken roof and catches on her cat mask, sleek black leather molded into feline features with silver whiskers etched along the cheeks.
“Jumpy,” she observes.
She pulls the mask off and reveals the face underneath.
Kitty grew into something dangerous and beautiful, with sharp cheekbones and golden brown eyes that miss nothing. Her dark hair is pulled back in a practical braid tonight and she’s wearing her form-fitting Grimsbane suit.
“Wolf,” she says properly as she drops a pack onto the floor beside me. “Are those new leathers?”
Her eyes drag over me slowly. “You look... different.”
I ignore the comment. She pulls a bottle of wine from her pack and examines the label critically. “Decent vintage. Stole it from my mark’s cellar after I opened his throat.”
“Clean kill?”
“Three seconds,” she replies nonchalantly. “He didn’t even wake up.”
Then she studies me again with narrowed eyes.
“Seriously though. You look good.”
“You’re being weird,” I grunt.
“Take the compliment, Wolf. They’re rare coming from me.” But she’s smiling warmly beneath the teasing. “How’s the golden prince?”
Before I can answer, the door opens again and Shade walks in carrying what looks like half a feast.
“Friends,” he says, setting everything on the dusty table. “I brought food.”
Kitty and I stare. There’s roasted fowl that still steams, fresh bread, cheese, pastries decorated with actual gold leaf, and the wine… by the gods.
“Is that Avalon’s vintage?” Kitty breathes, reaching for one of the bottles. “This is priceless, Shade.”
“Is it?” He tilts his head, genuinely surprised. “Lord Rainer said to take whatever I wanted from the kitchens when I mentioned I was meeting friends.”
“Lord Rainer,” I repeat slowly. “You’re calling him Lord now?”
“That’s his title.” Shade says it simply, those pale gray eyes fixed on me. “He insists I eat properly and says underfed Grimsbane reflect poorly on House Wiolant.”
I exchange glances with Kitty. She looks as thrown as I feel.
Shade doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. He starts unpacking the food, arranging it on the table.
Kitty recovers first. “How many others did he hire for protection?”
“Twenty-seven.”
I nearly choke on air. “Twenty-seven grimsbane?”
“Yes. Lord Rainer made me the leader,” Shade says, completely serious. “He says I am focused.”
Kitty makes a choking sound, then snorts wine straight out her nose.
“Focused?” she repeats, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “You have many faces, Shade. Focused is not one of them.”
“Twenty-seven Grimsbane on hundred-day contracts? That’s an insane amount of gold,” I mutter flatly.
“The Wiolants control one of Aelfheim’s thirty-three regions, Volundr,” he says slowly.
“Their harbor city processes more wealth in a single day than most kingdoms see in a year. The naval fleet is the only thing keeping the Fae’s sea dragons from devouring every ship that tries to cross the eastern waters. ”
Kitty lifts her brows. “Someone’s been studying.”
“Rainer likes to talk when he drinks. He drinks often,” Shade replies. “He says his niece, the queen, inherits both the Wiolant wealth and the Kashran fortune from her mother’s side.”
“And you’re protecting her,” Kitty says carefully, her voice losing its teasing edge. “Your half-sister.”
“Yes.”
We eat in silence for a while after that. Shade cuts pieces of meat and tears off bread, placing them onto Kitty’s plate. He doesn’t eat anything himself. The lower half of his demonic mask still covers his face from nose to chin.
I wonder if Shade feels anything about the queen having everything he was denied. Does any part of him resent her for inheriting the fortune and legitimacy he’ll never have?
I remember him at thirteen, shaking after a nightmare, vowing one day he would kill Reinhart Wiolant with his bare hands. He spoke with the same cold certainty he reserved for Petyr Ravence.
Mid-chew, Kitty glances at him. “What’s she like?”
Shade actually thinks about the question before answering.
“She seems pleasant,” he says finally. “We haven’t spoken directly.”
Kitty and I exchange another look. This is delicate territory.
Shade’s parentage is complicated. He’s the son of a disgraced assassin and a Wiolant lord who abandoned her.
The queen doesn’t know she has a half-brother.
I wonder if Lord Rainer knows when he hired Shade that he’s employing his older brother’s illegitimate son.
Did he hire his brother’s bastard son knowingly?
I stop that thought before it goes anywhere dangerous.
“Rainer himself?” I ask instead. “What’s he like?”
“Drunk, usually. But he can hold conversations and make decisions even three bottles deep.” Shade pours wine into the glasses Kitty’s arranged. “He cares about his nieces very much. Talks about them constantly. Shows me paintings of them as children and tells me stories about their mother.”
Shade refills our glasses. “He mentioned your employer, Wolf. Lord Rainer says the young Lord Clayborne is dangerous.”
“Garrett’s not—” I stop, realizing too late that I’m defending him.
Kitty’s eyes go wide.
“Wow… wait. What? Garrett?” she repeats, grinning like a cat who’s found the cream. “First name basis with the golden prince? My, my.”
I immediately regret opening my mouth.
She leans forward, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Spill. What’s he really like? And I want details. Is he as perfect as everyone says?”
I think about Garrett in the dungeon covered in blood. Garrett laughing in the tavern with village folk. Garrett’s hand on my knee checking my scars. Garrett breaking in my arms after killing five knights.
“He’s complicated,” I settle on carefully.
“Complicated enough that his father hired a Grimsbane for his protection?” Shade observes quietly.
“He must really love his son,” Kitty mutters, attacking the roasted fowl. She tears off a piece of meat with her fingers, eschewing the fancy utensils Shade brought. “Gods, this is good. I haven’t eaten this well since... ever, actually.”
I smile. Her kill orders usually pay well but not ‘gold-leaf pastry’ well. The fae wine is extraordinary, smooth and rich with hints of cherry and oak.
“How’s your assignment going?” Shade asks after Kitty washes her hands in the basin near the wall.
“Finished. Clean and quiet.” She examines her nails like they’re fascinating. “Bought me a month free of the brothel.”
“Just a month?” I ask before I can stop myself.
“My rates are high. Freedom is expensive.” Her voice stays light, but I hear the edge underneath. The carefully controlled anger.
She can’t fail. Not ever. One mistake, one missed contract, she’s back in silk and chains serving people who think they own her.
“Wolf?” Kitty’s voice pulls me back to the present. “You alive in there?”
I blink, focusing on her concerned face. “Yeah. Just... remembering how we first met.”
“You still have the scars,” Kitty says, looking at Shade.
“Yeah,” he mutters.
“They remind me that you’re an idiot,” she quickly says, but there’s warmth in it.
She crosses to where Shade sits and wraps her arms around his neck. “Thank you. For that night. For every night since. For giving me a different kind of life.”
Shade tilts his head, confused.
She stops, something vulnerable crossing her face. “You’re the first person who ever saw me as more than something to use.”
Kitty kisses his cheek, quick and soft. I’ve watched her do this dance many times. She’s been dropping hints to Shade for years, touching his arm whenever she passes. Sometimes she steals his clothes and pretends it’s an accident. She lights up whenever he walks into a room.