CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #2
The small pathetic sound that slipped from between the shopkeeper’s lips filled Vesper with a glimmer of satisfaction. His grin was equal parts malice, a sick thrill of domination, and his last resort.
“I don’t think you realize who you’re dealing with.
I’m trying to be civil, I really am, but a man can only take so much.
And I’m about to lose every single fucking thing in my life.
If you don’t give me what I want, I’ll press this blade into your skin until you scream.
Do you hear me? Or should I say it slower so your tiny fucking brain can comprehend it?
Or maybe stealing that mask off your face and tossing you into a heap of that red shit will loosen your tongue. I’ll leave the choice to you.”
The man’s eyes widened and watered as they stared each other down. The shopkeeper’s breaths wheezed, his hands held up in surrender.
Vesper flinched at the hesitant grip on his shirt sleeve and his eyes slid to see Nef, her fingers tangled in the fabric. Slowly, she tugged his arm with the knife away from the shopkeeper's throat.
“Vesper,” she said, drawing out his name. “He says he doesn’t know.” Her eyes flicked between the two men in disappointment. “It’s time to go.”
Though he grit his teeth and his heart roared like a drum in his throat, his gaze slid to the weary eyed Nef. And his shoulders relaxed.
Begrudgingly, Vesper dropped his hold on the man’s shirt and shoved him back. He took a shaky breath and reached for composure, searched for it, sank inside himself until he found it. Breathed it in.
That wasn’t like him. That was something Destonne would do. Though the King wouldn’t have hesitated to carve into the man’s face for answers, at least Vesper had reined himself back before he did something he regretted. He was just stressed. So bloody stressed.
His eyes darted back to the shopkeeper with promise as he slid the knife back into its designated sheath. “While I don’t doubt your brain is too full of this cotton shit to hold more information, just remember I know where to find you if I learn you’re keeping important things to yourself.”
The man nodded and scuttled behind a filthy purple curtain, leaving Vesper standing there in despair. Back to square one.
Nef tugged Vesper to the exit and gave him a gentle shove. With more force than necessary, Vesper threw the door open and they both shrank outside into the dank alleyway filled with rubbish.
“Fucking prick. He knew more than he was letting on. I know it,” Vesper hissed. “Great so now we have another piece of useless information. What am I supposed to do? Go talk to the same hundred people? Ask them all about some legend? This guy probably pulled that story out of his fat ass.”
Nef took his arm and drew him away from the shop.
Her breathing was a little ragged as she said, “Maybe we can go further out? Morana is only so big. I know most of the towns are empty and the farmland is barren but—” She coughed again and this time, she doubled over and clutched her chest like it shredded itself to pieces.
Vesper’s eyes rounded and all his anger died.
He held her by the shoulders as she leaned on his abdomen for support, but she barely caught a breath between each spasm of her body.
And he could no longer ignore how similar those sounds were to the sickness around them.
But how could she have contracted it? They’d been in the north the same amount of time and faced the same exposure.
She’d also had a cough before they left for the north.
“Let’s go rest for a bit. We’ve been going hard for the last few days. You must be exhausted.”
“I’m alright,” she rasped as she clutched his tunic. Nef heaved a breath and unfurled her spine from its hunch. “I think I might have an idea where to go. The woman that came in—I followed her. And she was in a hurry.” Nef cleared her throat and her voice returned to normal.
Vesper’s heart skidded. “Why did you follow her?”
“She wasn’t sick, Ves. It was odd. I caught her eye and she didn’t have a trace of the bloodlace. I haven’t seen anyone else that hasn’t been infected. And then she—well, let me show you.” Nef swiped away a few flecks of sweat on her temple. Without another word she took the lead.
Vesper followed her through the dismal streets, winding around to a path that led out of the city walls to a giant field of bloodlace.
A frown pulled at Vesper’s lips. “This is barren farmland.”
“It is, but—” Nef pointed far off in the distance. “She was fast, but I caught her just as she … disappeared. I can’t describe it as anything else. She was running and then she sort of dropped off. It was so strange. Right over there.”