Chapter 6
Elysia ducked a fist flying at her face. Classic sounds of a bar brawl—glasses breaking, noses crunching, obscene hollering—crashed around her. Elysia dropped to the ground, grinning as she crawled as fast as she could on her hands and knees to the edge of the room.
Popping back up, her blood sang as she took in the ransacked tavern. Throats were slit and boots were stomping unmentionables. She winced as someone got thrown into the fireplace.
By the gods.
This was why you never snuck up on Gage.
A man spotted her and came at her with a roar. Grabbing the wooden chair beside her, she clobbered him as hard as she could. Wood splintered with a sickening sound as the chair broke against his face. The man slumped to his knees before falling sideways. The chair won that round.
Elysia scanned the room, trying to stay out of the fray. It was terrible, she supposed, but she’d secretly been dying to do that ever since she’d first seen Jessa attack without mercy and with only a chair during Topp’s traitorous raid below the sea.
Not subtle, very effective.
A familiar hand grabbed her by the collar and yanked her close, throwing her behind him. Elysia huffed at the manhandling. “For fuck’s sake, I’m fine. Did you see that chair move?”
Gage let a throwing star rip across the room. “You shouldn’t be here.”
The fighting simmered to a low boil as Gage’s men cut down the last few people standing.
Elysia peered around Gage’s shoulder at the final scene.
Blood. Guts. Excrement.
Gage did not have a glamorous job, she decided. The smell started to waft in the heat of the small room, and she involuntarily gagged.
Smirking, he glanced back at her. “Yeah, you’re just an old pro now, aren’t you?”
Elysia cut him an unimpressed look. Not everyone could be known as Kava’s Shadow. The title had clearly gone to his head. “I need to talk to you.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that when you showed up in the middle of a job.”
Gage snapped out orders to his men, who were already dragging bodies and gathering previously unpaid coin that was now paid in more than full. He pointed to a set of wooden stairs. “Let’s go. I don’t want anybody to see you.”
“I don’t think there’s anyone left to see me,” she muttered as she stepped delicately over the human remains littering the old porous wood floors. Some stains never really did come out.
Wooden beams vaulted the ceiling and soft lanterns lit the upper room. Blazing in the back was a woodfire stove with a kettle hanging off to the side. A small bed covered with handmade quilts was tucked against the wall.
Gage sank into a chair near the fire. He stared at her, his face an emotionless brick.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
He pressed two fingers against his lips, incidentally smearing blood and grime on his skin.
Eyes downcast, he wouldn’t look at her. He stared at the fire, the floor, anywhere but her. “I failed you. I never should have let you near that ball. You could have died. And I couldn’t do a damn thing. I knew, I knew I should have sent you away.”
Elysia was silent, her own eyes wide and soft.
An unfamiliar ache took up residence in her chest. Gage carried no blame, she had made her own decision, but the fact that he cared.
Her own parents had stood by like statues as her head almost rolled.
While Gage, like every other decent parental figure before him, struggled not to bear the burden for her.
She put her hand onto his, wrapping her fingers around his palm. Finally picking up his head, Gage met her gaze, and it was enough for a dark wave of guilt to crash over her. Another unfamiliar first, she realized her choices had caused him pain.
Voice breaking, his pain seeped out. “You disappeared. Into thin air, and I had no idea if you were okay. There was blood on Garrison’s sword. I just kept praying that you made it back to the death realm in one piece.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m okay, look at me—all healed.”
“You look like nothing ever happened.”
Releasing his hand, she sat back in her seat and lifted her chin, so the faint pink line on her neck showed. “There’s still a few scars.”
Nodding, he pointed at the floral helm on her forearm. “You took the deal.”
“What other choice did I have?”
His dark eyes flashed at her response. “Fates know that you would have ended up there somehow.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Gage’s thick, dark eyebrows drew together, but he didn’t answer.
She tapped the arm of her chair impatiently. “I get it. You’re mad, but I don’t have time for brooding or coddling. I’m not supposed to be here, so if there’s something you need to say, then say it.”
The sound of a tinkling collar broke the tension, both of their heads turning to the source of the sound.
A small black, copper, and white long-haired dog bounded up the stairs, racing over to Elysia, where it sat down staunchly.
With its lips peeled back in a fierce growl, all five pounds of the animal were menacing… and adorable.
Gage’s eyes grew wide, and he inhaled sharply. “What exactly is your proclivity for unnatural creatures?”
Elysia looked between him and the tiny dog in confusion. “You mean the raccoon? I’ve told you. She was Topp’s rehab project. The dog is unfortunately Aidan’s.”
Gage’s eyes hadn’t left the dog. “Not a terrible choice even if I don’t like it.”
“Yeah, because taking care of a dog is exactly what I need to be focusing on right now.” Aidan was going to be getting an earful when she returned.
Sighing, she grabbed the ball of fluff, pulling it onto her lap. The dog gave her a solid lick before showing Gage its teeth again in warning.
“Can’t wait to see what you bring home next. Did I mention the raccoon showed up again? I can’t get it to leave.”
Preoccupied, Elysia didn’t hear him. She ran her fingers through the dog’s fur, checking its collar for a tag.
She squinted.
CRUSHER
How fitting. She looked down at the pint-sized dog. “You should have been called Daisy or Sweetpea.” The dog grunted disagreeably.
Drawing her attention back, Gage questioned her. “Where are you headed?”
“About that, I need a favor.”
He folded his perpetually tanned light brown arms, already looking like was going to say no. “Why do I feel like I’m not going to like what you’re about to say?”
She offered him a rare, genuine smile as she scratched the pup’s ears. “Because you actually know me.”
He snorted. “That I do.”
Looking at him seriously, she held his gaze. “I want in.”
The words weren’t even fully out before he was shaking his head and frowning.
“Will you at least hear me out? Aidan’s going to be sending me all over the godsdamned world in search of this talisman.”
“And how is the Reyez family going to help you with that?”
“Don’t be dense.” She spoke crossly now.
“You don’t have to like it, but you know it’s practical.
Your family’s business sprawls all over this side of the world.
Either I have their protection, or I will inevitably come up against them.
You call me family, now make it true.” Her words ended in a growl.
Gage stared at her before finally speaking. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I know exactly what I’m asking.”
He pulled out a small knife and toyed with it as he settled in to clean the battle out from beneath his nails. “Really don’t think you do.”
“Then tell me,” she demanded fiercely.
Gage gave a dry laugh and looked up at the ceiling.
“You want in the family? Do you know the cost of being in this family?” He gestured grandly at the tavern below them.
“This is a casual Monday, Elysia. Do you think I can just brand you and then you’ll get a free pass?
You’re already indebted to a death god. Isn’t that enough? ”
She snarled right back at him. “You’re the heir to the entire organization, so yes, I do think that you can do that, and I need you to, so that I don’t end up dead as I hunt down treasure for said death god.”
A bitter silence fell between them.
“What good is he if he can’t protect you?”
“You taught me to protect myself.”
His voice softened. “You know you can’t escape him, right, Lys? Not even my family’s that good.”
“Godsdammit Gage, I’m just trying to cover my ass. Will you help me or not?”
Despite what he showed her, Elysia could tell he was angrier with her than he had possibly ever been before.
He never spoke much about his family or the Reyez empire, and she’d never forced it, but things had changed, and he knew it as well as she did.
The Reyez family brand would mean she could find a safe haven in almost any city she entered.
Maybe she would get lucky and not be in need of their protection, but she’d be stupid not to have it.
Frustration all over his face, Gage wrested the bloodied signet ring off his finger and used an iron poker to start heating it up in the woodfire stove.
Trepidation snuck into her tone. “I thought you just tattooed people.”
She’d seen the men lined up in his house while the tattooer inked a dark, thick band around their ring fingers.
Married to the family and only the family was what they said.
He crouched in front of the stove, holding the ring over the open flame. “My men do wear the band. You are not my men.”
Gage walked over to her and placed one hand on her shoulder. He held the ring with a tea towel, and there was gravel in his voice when he spoke. “This is going to hurt, but you can’t move, or else we’ll have to do it again, and the blurred burn will shame you. Understand?”
Elysia grimaced, bracing herself. Eyes shut, she grunted her permission. “Just do it already.”
The next thing she knew, she was biting back a scream and the smell of burnt skin was singeing her nose.
He pressed harder, the signet ring shoved into the sensitive hollow of her throat. “Don’t. Move.”
Tears streamed down her face, but she didn’t move. Slow breaths puffed out of her nose, her shoulders gently rising and falling while Gage’s fingers dug in.
“You’re almost there.” The ring seemed to be one with her skin, burning through the layers of flesh, ensuring it would brand and not heal.
An eternity later, he pulled the ring out of her flesh.
Gage’s gaze shuddered, locked onto the small, angry mark until he turned away with his mouth tight. He hadn’t wanted this for her.
She grabbed his wrist. “I’m sorry, but thank you.”
Turning back to where she sat, he pressed his palms down on her thighs, bent over so they were face to face. “Pray you don’t need it. Because no one becomes family without a cost. Not even you. And if by some miracle this all ends? You’ll still be family—no matter how long you live.”
“Whatever it takes.” Steel girded her words because it was true. She had no choice but to go wherever this journey took her.
He grabbed her palm and pressed a kiss over the faint scar. “Send word if you can.”
She nodded, standing up and preparing to leave. Her chest burned with pain, but a mischievous spark still entered her eyes.
Gage took a wary step back. “What, what are you looking like that for?”
She grinned and tossed the snarling ball of fur at him.
Gage’s blanching face was the last thing she saw, and then she was gone. Elysia laughed. She could’ve sworn she heard Kava’s big bad Shadow hiss in surprise.