Chapter 60 Theron
THERON
The streets ahead open into the famous Night Market, and for a moment even I have to slow down to take it all in.
The market spreads through a broad plaza and down two branching lanes, every stall lit by hanging lanterns or colored witch lights suspended in glass globes.
Music drifts through the air from somewhere deeper in the crowd—pipes and strings with a soft hand-drum rhythm beneath it.
The whole place smells of spice and sugar, incense and hot oil, and too many bodies packed too close together in one place.
Bright awnings of scarlet and peacock blue and deep green ripple overhead. Vendors call from every side—each louder than the last—hawking their wares to the evening crowd.
Elowen looks around with wide eyes and I can’t help looking with her—there’s a lot to see.
There’s a Trow woman selling glass bottles of liquid moonlight, pale and silvery and swirling with trapped sparkles.
Beside her, a one-eyed Goblin merchant has trays of enchanted lockets that open to reveal moving portraits instead of painted ones.
A broad-shouldered Satyr in an embroidered vest is grilling skewers of spiced lizard-meat over blue coals that smell unbelievably good.
Farther on, I see a cloth merchant with bolts of fabric that change color when touched, shifting from rose to gold to midnight black beneath his customers’ hands.
Another stall offers jars of glowing beetles for lantern-light, while a bent old witch with iron-gray braids sells little packets of luck powder and dried dream-herbs from a table covered in charms and bones.
Everywhere I look there’s something strange…something magical…something for sale.
Elowen turns in a slow circle, taking it all in, and despite the insult at the gate, a little wonder comes into her face.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispers. “I’ve always wanted to see the Night Market—I’ve heard so much about it.”
“It’s wonderful,” I say, though I’m not looking at the market anymore. I’m looking at her…at the green of her eyes in the lantern-light and the soft line of her lips I’d like to kiss.
But now isn’t the time for that.
I guide her through the crowd until we come to a jewelry stall set beneath a canopy of deep blue silk.
Lanterns hang on either side, making the gems glitter like captured stars.
Rings, necklaces, bracelets, ear-cuffs, chains and more gold and silver than I’ve ever seen in one place are all on display.
Elowen realizes where we are and stops, frowning.
“Theron, what’s this about?” she asks.
I ignore the warning in her tone and turn to the merchant, a narrow man with silver spectacles perched on the end of his needle-sharp nose.
“What are you buying?” I ask him.
“That depends what you’re selling,” he says, eyeing me and then Elowen with quick professional interest.
I reach up to my neck and unclasp the chain I’ve worn for years. The dragon tooth pendant drops into my palm, warm from my skin.
For a second I just look at it.
Kline made it for me when I lost my first Drake tooth.
It’s the same as when human children lose their baby teeth, only ours come in sharper and stranger.
I remember him laughing when I cried over the blood, telling me any proper Drake ought to make a weapon or a keepsake from something like that.
He carved the tooth smooth himself, drilled the hole for the chain, and handed it to me with a grin that showed his own missing teeth.
“Something from your first Shift should stay with you, lad,” he’d said. “So you remember you survived it.”
I haven’t taken it off once since he gave it to me, but now I place it on the merchant’s velvet cloth.
His brows rise immediately as he picks it up with two careful fingers, turning it so the light gleams along the ivory curve.
“A real Drake tooth,” he murmurs. “This is rare. A collector would pay well for it.”
“Then you’re in luck—it’s for sale,” I tell him.
Elowen catches my arm at once.
“Theron, no! You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do,” I say firmly. I look at the merchant. “How much will you give me for it?”
The merchant names a price. I almost laugh at how high it is, then realize he means it. It makes sense—Drake teeth aren’t just rare—they’re almost impossible to get unless a Drake gives one willingly, and none of us ever do.
I nod in agreement.
“I’ll take it.”
“Excellent.” He nods back and counts out the coin.
Elowen still looks distressed as I take it and set it on the cloth between us.
“Now choose,” I say firmly. “Do you want a ring for your finger or rings for your ears or both?”
She looks at me uncertainly…then realizes I’m serious.
“Well…since I don’t have pierced ears—they were forbidden at the temple because we were meant to stay pure all our lives—I’ll take a finger ring,” she says at last.
“Very good, Ma’dam,” the merchant says to her, all business. He bustles about, laying out trays filled with finger rings from plain and simple to elaborate and costly. The dragon tooth has brought me enough coin that she can have any one she wants.
But Elowen bypasses the gaudier rings and reaches almost at once for a slim silver band so plain it barely catches the light.
I snort and shake my head.
“No.”
She looks up at me, frowning.
“What do you mean no?”
“I mean not that one.” I point to a thicker golden ring set with a cluster of diamonds. “Try that one.”
Her eyes widen in horror. “Theron, that’s enormous.”
“It’s good,” I argue. “No one will ever question the color of your eyes again with that rock on your finger.”
“It’s too gaudy,” she objects.
The merchant coughs discreetly into his hand and looks away as we continue our debate.
I scowl at her.
“It’s not gaudy.”
“It looks like something a duchess would wear to blind her enemies,” she says, half-laughing. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m not a duchess. Besides, it would make me a target for thieves.”
I glower at the thought.
“They’ll stay the fuck away from you if they know what’s good for them!”
“Theron, you won’t always be there to protect me,” she reminds me gently. “Besides, we have so little time left together—I don’t want to spoil it with more violence.”
Her words make my heart ache, but I try not to show it.
“Well, I guess it would be a fucking pain if I had to go chasing every pickpocket from here to the King’s Court for trying to steal your gaudy ring,” I say.
“Oh, so now you admit it’s gaudy.”
She gives me a look halfway between exasperation and laughter, and for the first time since we left the demon’s mansion I almost smile.
After another few minutes of argument—and a tray full of rejected rings—we find one we can both live with. It’s gold, but delicate. Slim enough for her hand. Set with two stones nestled side by side—one sapphire-blue and the other emerald green.
Elowen stares at it for a long moment and I can’t read her face.
“For the past and the present,” I say quietly.
The words come out before I can stop them and her eyes lift to mine. For a second neither of us says anything but I know what we’re both thinking. The ring represents the past and the present because that’s all we have.
There’s never going to be any future for us. There’s just tonight and tomorrow and that’s it. We’ll forget each other completely and go our separate ways and never even meet.
The thought hits me so hard I can barely breathe but I try not to show the sorrow I’m feeling on my face.
At last, Elowen nods.
“All right,” she whispers. “For the past and the present.”
I take the ring from the merchant and turn to her fully. My fingers are not entirely steady as I lift her hand.
Her skin is warm and so damn soft. I slide the ring onto her finger slowly, watching the blue and green stones catch the lantern-light.
“Mine,” my Drake says instantly. “You gave her jewelry—you claimed her—-she’s MINE.”
Not true—I only gave her a ring so no one else would insult her, I answer back, but the denial has no force in it at all.
Elowen looks down at the ring, then back up at me. A tentative smile touches her face.
“Thank you, Theron—it’s beautiful,” she murmurs.
Something in her face undoes me. Before I can think better of it, I cup her face in one hand and kiss her, long and slow.
The market noise fades around us. The music, the vendors, the crowd—everything disappears until there is only her mouth beneath mine and the soft sound she makes when I deepen the kiss.
When I finally pull back, her cheeks are flushed, and her green eyes are bright.
I take her hand again, threading our fingers together carefully so I don’t disturb the new ring.
Then I lead her deeper into the city, not letting go.