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A deep chuckle left his lips as I gave the merchant an apologetic smile and set the dagger back on his table.

I would have to come back for it another time, when this demon wasn’t hovering over my shoulder. I turned, taking a few quick steps down the street in an effort to shake him, but his long legs kept a relaxed, steady stride beside me.

“Shouldn’t you be in the infirmary?” I muttered, snaking my way through the crowd.

“You really thought you could put me down with a little puncture wound? You’ll have to do better than that if you want me dead,” Dukovich responded, ducking his head under the colorful awnings of the peddlers booths we passed.

“If I wanted you dead, you would be,” I retorted, turning off the main road into an alleyway that connected Vatham Street to the Coldlight District.

“My, my, wherever are you going? Drathbain Street is no place for a lady.” I could hear the amusement in his voice and I spun toward him.

“Why are you following me?” I hissed.

“Why are you going to the black market?” he challenged, raising a brow.

I wasnotin the mood to answer any of his questions. “How did you find me?”

“If you are going to shed your skin, love, you really should make sure no one is watching,” he said as a grin spread across his lips.

“I stab you, and you decide it’s a good idea to stalk me? Are you fucking daft?” I snapped, walking the remaining distance of the alley.

Dukovich shrugged, that smile still plastered on his face. “Maybe a little.”

The energy in the air shifted as we stepped onto the lower streets of Nethkar. Dukovich was right, the Coldlight District was no place for a lady.

A smile split my lips.I was no such thing.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” I said, pulling my hood further over my face, “I have business to attend to.”

I took a step further into the street and he snatched my arm.

“You are not—”

“Get yourfuckinghands off me.” It was a snarl that left my mouth as I cut him off.

I didn’t turn back to look at him.

If I did, Iwouldkill him this time. I felt his fingers flex around my bicep for one quick second before his touch was gone and I strode into the sea of people.

I ducked into the crowd, letting my skin shift again in hopes that, this time, he would not be able to find me.I really needed to hit something, I thought to myself as I made myway down the night-covered street. I weaved through groups of people clutching tankards as they made their way from brothel to tavern, before stepping into a poorly lit shop just off of Drathbain Street.

A rat scurried between my feet and I jumped back, tightening my fingers around the handle as I recoiled away from it. The door knocked the bell hanging from the ceiling as it opened, alerting the shop keeper of my presence and her voice rang out through the space like a melody.

“Miss Ataliia, I was wonderin’ when I would see ye again.”

I lowered my hood as my eyes searched the cramped space for her.

Herbs hung from the ceiling, swaying softly above the tonics and potions stacked in every corner of the room. Every surface was covered with items that I didn’t recognize. Steam hung in the air, the sound of boiling water filling my ears and heating the area.

Finally, I spotted her, crouched over a large cauldron behind the shop’s glass countertop, slowly dropping in what looked to be the innards of a small animal. She let the last of the bloody organs slip from her hand and the boiling came to a pause, the contents turning into a liquid that resembled melted silver.

She stood, licking her fingers as she turned to face me and the sight of her tongue lapping up the blood made my stomach lurch. She wiped her hands on the black apron tied around her waist before unfastening it and tossing it across the shop. She stepped over a few parcels strewn across the ground, hay and glass vials spilling out of them across the floor. Her eyes met mine and her lips split into the most beautifully haunting smile.

A shudder skidded down my spine.

She was blind, her eyes white and cloudy as if magic swirled inside of them, but she always knew who I was when I walked into her shop, always knew it was me no matter the skin I wore.

Her dark brown skin was radiant against the velvet purple dress that hugged every curve of her body and somehow I was never prepared for just how mesmerizing she was.