Chapter 5 #2
With a deep breath in, I sauntered out of the shadows and into the drunken crowd that congregated outside the brothel. A few Shadowkin looked my way, but I kept my gaze focused on the steps as I made my way inside.
I was either losing my mind, or doing exactly as the king had asked—I’d soon find out.
Low laughter and the sound of glasses clinking greeted me.
I scanned the room, taking in the sweat-slicked bodies, the sickly perfume, the flickering candlelight bouncing off ruffling silk skirts.
Someone brushed past with a tray of drinks, and I snatched one without thinking—needed something to hold, something to make me look like I belonged.
I took a sip and nearly spat it back out.
Bitter, metallic, flat. Lucius ale would never taste like this.
I kept the glass anyway, cradled it in my palm like a prop as I stood by the bar.
Then a voice rang out across the room—gravelly, eager. “The Night Jewel is here.”
My gaze travelled to the top of the stairs. Sapphire descended, a smile plastered across her face. Yet I saw how hollow and empty her eyes were, and with each step she took, they only grew dimmer.
Like a moth to a flame, she found me across the room. Heat coiled in my stomach, blooming into a feeling I couldn’t name. Her eyes grew wider at the sight of me.
A smile tugged the corner of my mouth. Things were about to get interesting.
Sapphire made her way through the crowd, gently brushing her hands over the arms of pompous men. Her airy laughter rang above the lively hum in the room. She certainly knew how to demand attention. Perhaps I was wrong . . . perhaps she loved her life and I’d drawn my own inaccurate assumptions.
She moved to the bar, ordering a drink, so I followed.
I stepped to her side, leaning my arms onto the mahogany surface. “Remember me? The handsome gentleman from the marketplace?”
Without looking at me, she reached for the glass of clear liquor that the barman held out to her and downed it in one gulp. “I said handsome? That was an exaggeration on my behalf. I do apologise.”
She leaned her back against the bar as she watched the crowd. Still, she refused to look my way.
“So you don’t think I’m handsome?” I teased.
Sapphire turned to face me, stepping in close—too close—and I caught the heady blend of her perfume, sweet and musky like crushed violet petals left out in the sun just long enough.
Her red-painted lips curled into something that wasn’t quite a smile, and thick makeup masked the tired lines beneath her eyes, but not well enough.
The cracks were there—tiny fractures under the surface, waiting to split wide open.
“With the right amount of money, I can think whatever you’d like me to, darling. ”
A smile pulled at the corner of my mouth.
This woman was so different to the one I first met in the marketplace all those days ago.
She was poised, ready to respond with flirtatious body movements, and banter.
Yet the woman in the marketplace was calculated—almost cruel.
I wanted to slip into her mind to find out which one was the real Sapphire.
I leaned closer. “Can we speak somewhere privately?”
Sapphire glanced up at me, her eyes dipping briefly to look at my lips. “Depends on how much money you have.”
“What if I have none?”
She pulled back, a sigh sounding between us. The fire that danced in her cerulean orbs disappeared, only smoke remained. “Then you’re wasting my time.”
I lifted a brow as she took one more look at my mouth before she turned to walk away. I caught her elbow gently, not hard enough to startle, just enough to ground her. She froze, eyes dropping to where my hand met her skin—then rising, sharp and unreadable, to meet mine.
“I see the bruises you’re trying to hide,” I said, my voice low but soft.
For a breath, something flickered in her gaze. A call for help. Hurt. Then she tore herself free like I'd burned her.
Her eyes flicked past my shoulder, drawn upward, and I followed it, my gut already coiling. A man stood at the top of the stairs, smug and rotted with power. Greying beard, eyes like muddy water. I didn’t need an introduction to know who he was. The way Sapphire shrank into herself said it all.
Like a soldier knowing their duty, Sapphire plastered on her smile once again. I didn’t reach for her. Just stepped between her and the male watching over us.
“When can I see you?”
She took a small step towards me. My breath hitched at her proximity. Then she lifted a delicate hand and ran a single finger along the edge of my jaw. The trail of it left heat in its wake, searing into me like a dark orange ember.
Her voice was barely a whisper. “When you have pockets so deep even kings would be jealous.”
I swallowed down the foreign feeling building in my chest, watching her saunter away, her hips swaying with practised ease. She knew exactly what she was doing. This is why men come to grasp even a moment in her presence.
Yet . . . was it what she wanted?
I studied the crowd until it came to rest on a certain bald-headed figure. Egg man. It took everything in my power not to roll my eyes as he pushed through the bodies of men and women.
He stopped in front of me. “You look familiar.”
I sipped my ale—instantly regretting it—before answering, showing him that I had very little interest in conversing. “Sorry Egg, but you’re not my type.”
The top of his lip curled in disgust. “Are you bothering Sapphire?”
I placed the drink down, standing up straight. “Why? Are you her keeper?”
“You’d be wise to leave her be unless you're paying,” Egghead growled.
If this sorry excuse for a man thought he could rattle me, he was in for a brutal awakening. I’ve broken men harder than him before the sun’s even risen—chewed them up and spit out what was left.
“You’d be wise to take a step away from me.” I kept my voice calm.