Page 47

I thought about Sharla and Sverik. Upset they’d gone through that at all, but proud as hell for being there to stop it from going further. We still had no idea where the kidnappers were taking our people, but with no one ever returning, I’d bet it wasn’t anywhere good.

Odion projected his bottom lip and shrugged his husky, broad shoulders. “What better way to learn to keep up your defenses?” Odion moved to the weapons rack and shelved his sword, not one ounce of guilt weighing him down.

“Are we done?” I didn’t hide my disappointment. Ending on a loss wouldn’t maintain my high spirits from last night, a much needed distraction after departing from that seer’s presence.

The prince’s ball was next week, just a few days away really, and with my meeting tonight, the burden of it all weighed heavy. That asshole prince had the nerve to arrange for women to throw themselves at him while good, decent people like Sverik and Sharla had to live in constant terror after their ordeal. And the prince would do nothing about it. My blood heated another degree at the thought.

“Yeah, I need to call it early today, I’m afraid. With my hours being limited in the evenings, I have a few tasks left to finish today.” At the water barrel, he splashed the sweat from his brow and neck.

I strode near him, sheathing my daggers. “Limited hours? But you run your own business?”

“Yes, well, I may be my own boss, but I still answer to the Crown.” He toweled off his ebony skin.

“The Crown? They’re controlling your business? They can’t do that. Can they? Why is—”

Odion cut into my snowballing tirade. “The guardsmen have requested all shops along the strip close operations early. Say it’s for public safety.”

The fire behind my eyes roared. If I had Sverik’s ability, I’m sure I’d set this whole forest clearing ablaze.

If I had Sverik’s ability, I wouldn’t just stop there. That mystery ship in the night would burn, and so would the castle. My fists clenched so painfully I thought my nails might bite into my flesh.

So the guards were admitting they were well aware our people were in danger, no longer outright ignoring it, yet they’d rather place limitations on hard working people than get off their asses to help?

That level of audacity sent my mind whirling. Faster than I could blink, I turned on my heels and stormed away from Odion’s property.

“Woah, do you not want me to walk with you, girl?” he called after me.

“I have somewhere to be,” I snapped, not turning back.

Alejo and Gregory took me through the back alley, behind a string of shops on one of South Harbor’s streets. Not many ventured back here, unless they were workers taking out the trash or drunks using the secluded lane as personal urinals. That traffic only became heavy at night, but even though the sun was nearly setting, the stale smell of piss clung to the stones and the dirt. I pinched my nose, grimacing until we headed down a set of stairs into one of the shop’s cellars.

Gregory grabbed a lantern from the table inside the doorway that held a collection of them. He lit it, and we followed him down the shadowed hall, passing racks of plants and herbs. Whatever these were clearly thrived in cold, damp, dark environments. If I didn’t know the shop upstairs was a glassblowing studio, I would have assumed it to be a florist. Looked like a mini jungle down here.

A twinge of shame wrung my heart when I thought of the glass studio. My mother would probably work there had she still been alive. That beautiful woman with a smile that could chase away any storm. Who saw the best in people and would never hurt a fly.

And this is what her daughter had become.

We passed a few doors until we reached a specific one. Gregory knocked in a coded pattern. A lock clicked before the door opened. There were about seven others in the small room, using stacked crates as seats, or standing with their arms folded. Limited lighting obscured most of their faces, which I was certain was no accident.

“Who’s this?” the woman who opened the door asked, her glare sizing me up from my toes to my head.

“Our newest recruit,” Gregory said with a smile and chipper tone that conflicted with the nefarious state of all this.

“You vouch for her?” the woman questioned, my presence almost causing her anger to stir.

“I do,” Alejo said.

I gave him a grateful glance before we forced ourselves to fit inside the cramped space and the door shut behind us, the lock once again sliding into place. More plants adorned the limited shelves along the walls.

“Who tends to all these plants?” I asked, hoping to break the ice as a stranger amongst friends.

An awkward silence, one that extended for nearly a hundred years it felt like, engulfed the room.

“How Dee finds the time, or the care, is beyond me,” Alejo commented, shaking his head with a tilted smirk toward the woman who looked to be in charge. “They don’t even have much use. Hard to care for, and useless for flavor.”

“Enough. Continue with your update,” Dee said, cutting off Alejo from jabbering on and returning her attention to another.

“They’ve already hired services for a ball,” one man said, keeping his face angled down so his flat cap offered anonymity. I gathered that they’d begun their talks before we’d arrived, and I hoped we hadn’t missed anything important.