Chapter Two No Good Deed
CHAPTER TWO
NO GOOD DEED
When Reya locked eyes with the female she had been hired to steal, she tasted bile.
The immortal had all the features of a human woman, save for the emerald marks glowing on her skin, curving down the sides of her arms, torso, and legs; they were elegant in a brutal sort of way, as though they had been carved into her to release an inner light.
She was folded in a corner of the small prison cell, arms wrapped tightly around her knees.
It was evident she hadn’t eaten a meal or seen sunlight in weeks.
But beneath the pallor and bruising, she was still the kind of stunning that stole one’s breath.
Ink-dark hair spilling around her, the female looked no older than twenty-five, but she could have been two hundred.
She was a Sage, the most lethal of all magic-born. And she hadn’t been taken captive quietly. Not only had they beaten her, they’d chained her to a bolt in the floor.
And around her neck—a solid Kellstone collar.
Blood rushed to Reya’s face.
A murderous rage warred with the fear in the immortal’s wide, steel-gray eyes when she looked at Reya.
Once, Sages had ruled the continent of Ianess.
With strength and senses far beyond that of humans and rare, powerful gifts of magic, they’d been as feared as they were revered.
But the discovery of Kellstone had leveled the field between Sages and humans, whose far larger populations had driven the Sages out of their lands over centuries of bloodshed and conquest. Most Sages were just human enough in appearance that they could cover their marks and hide in plain sight, but the majority had fled to safer foreign shores.
The caravan took a sharp left turn, and Reya adjusted her grip on the doorframe. The raised floor and low ceiling of the carriage kept the prisoner from standing, and one long, narrow vent in the rear wall let in light and air. The Sage retreated as far as she could into the corner.
This was why Lennox hadn’t told her what they were stealing, and why he’d promised such riches.
With the Kellstone mines yielding less and less each year, the Sage’s restraints were worth a fortune.
Yet they were nothing compared to what she was worth—dead or alive.
By hijacking the entire caravan, Lennox got them both.
Reya was loath to admit it was a genius plan.
And she had been instrumental in its execution.
A long, sharp whistle from Zaim indicated they’d passed the third and final marker. Four minutes.
The Bluehoods had never involved themselves in magic-born trafficking. So why now? And why this Sage? Did Gavin and Zaim know? She had so many questions, but the only one that mattered was what she was going to do next.
Lennox would do what he always did: sell to the highest bidder.
And in Reya’s experience, the person willing to pay the most was usually the most despicable.
At best, the Sage would become someone’s weapon.
A tool for wicked men, just like she was.
At worst… Lennox would ransom her back to the king they were stealing from, a monarch rumored to strap magic-born to examination tables.
Reya had no doubt this female would suffer a fate worse than death.
“What’s the holdup?” Gavin shouted, the wind ripping at his words so she could barely hear them.
The wood beneath her fingertips groaned in her grip.
She was this close to winning her freedom.
If she double-crossed Lennox now, she’d be going home not a copper richer for it, and there’d be hell to pay.
Magic was dangerous—on that much, she and the King of Rhiterra could agree.
Reya had spent the last ten years keeping well away from those who wielded it.
If freed, the Sage might attack first and ask questions later, and Reya had no desire to experience whatever power the Rhiterrans decided needed a damn collar to contain it. This female was not her problem.
As if reading her thoughts, the Sage let out a choked, almost reluctant sob, a pitiful noise ringing with rage and despair, and Reya squeezed her eyes shut, knowing the sound would haunt her forever.
Please, those otherworldly eyes seemed to say when Reya looked up. Don’t leave me here.
Reya’s shoulders curved around the tightness in her chest and the unwelcome weight on her shoulders. Once, she had been locked inside a box, too. What would she have given for someone to let her out?
She was a lot of things—thief, liar, killer.
The world had taken everything from her, so she had decided to take back.
In the last ten years, she’d been starved, left homeless, beaten, incarcerated, and damn near strung up for the crows.
There was blood on her hands that she could never wipe clean. Lennox had made sure of that.
But she didn’t steal people and trade them for coin.
If her father were alive to see what she had become party to, he would never forgive her.
Gavin was right. She was going soft.
Lennox would punish her, sure as the dawn would come, but Reya could survive it. She had before. Whatever she had become, she was still Gwendolyn and Hector Connery’s daughter. And she could feel their eyes on her from the stars.
Oh, damn it all to hell.
“All right, this is how it’s going to go,” Reya said.
She set down the chains and crawled inside the carriage cell on her hands and knees, over wood that was rotting under fluids she tried desperately not to think about.
Her breathing picked up speed as the walls closed in around her, and she shut her eyes, imagining she was standing in a forge that smelled of home, her father’s ghost smiling down at her.
The skin on her neck burned, but she refused to touch the necklace there.
She would not lose herself to this weakness—not here, not now.
“If you want to live to see the sunrise, you’re going to do exactly as I tell you.
Now, keep those hands where I can see them while I get rid of these. ”
There were wicked-looking sores around the Sage’s swollen wrists and ankles where she had tried to break free. When Reya reached to examine the restraints, the female’s fists swung. Reya barely ducked in time to avoid a hit to the face.
Una spare her.
“Knock it off!” Reya grabbed her by the wrists and slammed her up against the wall, a feat she only managed thanks to the female’s weakened state.
The Sage screamed and kicked as only an immortal could.
It was pure survival instinct, but Reya wanted to throttle her anyway, even as she marveled at the Sage’s grit.
“Save your strength for someone who’s actually trying to kill you,” Reya growled, bearing down with all her strength.
“Because believe me, there will be plenty.”
“Red, let’s go!” Gavin shouted, his footfalls thudding on the roof directly above their heads.
The female stilled, and Reya dared release one of her wrists to press a finger to her mouth. Three minutes.
“Nothing I could say would earn your trust, and we don’t have time for it anyway,” Reya said quietly.
“If you do not take the escape I am offering you, I will deliver you to my employer and let him decide your fate, and I won’t lose a wink of sleep over it.
Meanwhile, you will go down in history as the biggest fool to ever walk this earth—human or magic-born. You have eighteen seconds to decide.”
The female closed her eyes so tight her whole face wrinkled, as if that would make it all go away. Her swallow was audible, but she opened her fists in acceptance.
A fighter, then. Good.
“Wise choice.” Reya followed the chains to a ring welded on a steel plate in the floor.
Rhiterran blacksmiths often didn’t use the correct heat or clean their metal properly.
If she applied enough force to the right spot, the bond would snap if it hadn’t been properly fused.
Reya ran her thumb along the puckered metal of the weld at the base of the plate.
She retrieved her hatchet and struck the base twice.
The metal gave, and she grinned despite everything.
“Every cage has a weak spot. You just have to find it.”
Reya extended a hand to the Sage. It was a simple and yet loaded motion.
An offer up—if only the Sage had strength yet to take it.
Come on, Reya thought. They didn’t break you.
After a moment’s hesitation, the female’s hand clasped hers, and Reya saw it—a spark in those steel-gray eyes. Reya’s answering smile was all teeth.
“Hold on to me,” she said, gripping the Sage tight. “And don’t scream.” She threw all her weight into the jump, and together they leapt from the moving carriage. Reya twisted to take the brunt of the fall, and knew she would bear the bruises tomorrow.
The female howled as they slammed into the cobblestones, and Reya knew Gavin heard it.
“What did I say?” Reya growled, hauling the Sage up and wrapping her cloak around them both, trying not to gag. She was going to need at least three baths after tonight.
Gavin shouted at Zaim to stop the caravan, but they’d already turned the corner.
Even if they stopped, they wouldn’t be able to turn the horses around in the narrow alley, and Reya would be long gone by the time Gavin caught up to them.
Still, Reya broke into as quick of a run as she could with the extra weight bearing down on her, urging the female faster as they twisted and turned through the winding streets of Rhiterra’s worst neighborhood.
Dawn was still a few hours off, and this part of the city was mostly abandoned—hence why she’d chosen it—but even the few transients they passed wouldn’t dare cross someone in a blue hood.
The closer they came to the wall, the more likely they were to run into a patrol of Silver Guardsmen, but unfortunately, that was exactly where they needed to go.