Page 26 of By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild #2)

Seventeen

Raptor

The gods are torturing me. Somehow, I’ve fallen out of favor with Old Garesh, and now he’s getting back at me by putting a gorgeous, curvy little human wench into my bed.

Gwenna’s tits are practically falling out of her loosened bodice, and they’re big and juicy and heaving, her cleavage deep enough to sink my muzzle into, and I’m so mucking tempted.

So mucking tempted.

I’ve never been the type to lust after a woman and not follow up.

Thanks to the god’s hand ever-present upon me, I’ve always been highly sexual.

But all of that was before Sarya. Sarya, Sarya, Sarya.

I’m resenting her absence. Does she not want to be found by me?

Is she avoiding me? Have I been assuming things between us all this time? Was I just another client to her?

I run a hand down my face, frustrated. I can’t afford to be so easily distracted by a pretty fledgling. Forcing myself to look away from her (magnificent) tits, I focus on her face…and realize just how pale it is. “You all right?”

“No, I don’t think I am,” she says in a faint voice.

“What’s wrong?” I gesture at the doors behind me. “Should I get a healer?”

Gwenna wrings her hands. “No healer. Don’t bother anyone. I…Can I trust you, Raptor?”

My senses go on alert. All the lust I’ve been struggling with goes cold.

Here it is, then. The information I’ve been sent here to seek out.

Mentally I’m already composing a letter to send to Rooster and Hawk right after this.

But I keep a smile on my face to reassure her even as every part of my spirit grows hard and tired. “Aye, you can.”

With a trembling finger, she points at the bag on her bed.

I open it and gaze down at the tube inside. It’s Old Prellian, and the glyphs immediately start to glow the moment the item is exposed to light. It’s either a carrying case of some kind, or a telescoping spyglass. Whatever it is, it’s valuable beyond imagination. And it’s in a fledgling’s hands.

Precisely where it doesn’t belong.

I’m immediately disappointed. I don’t know why—I’m here to find the thief, after all. I should be overjoyed that we can give up this farce of me being a fledgling.

But the fact that it’s sweet, sassy little Gwenna doesn’t sit right with me. She doesn’t seem like the monster who’s been responsible for all the atrocities that have been happening. It’s one thing to steal, and it’s another to murder your accomplices. “You stole this?”

“What? No! It’s not mine,” she immediately hisses, a look of outrage on her face. “Someone put it in my bag while we were out!”

I eye her, because of course a thief would say that. “How do I know that you’re telling the truth?”

“Hannai’s tits, why would I tell you to look at that thing if I was the thief? Why wouldn’t I just hide it away?” She glares at me, her entire body trembling, and looks on the verge of tears.

Gwenna could just be an excellent actress, but something about all of this feels sincere.

In the weeks since we’ve become fledglings together, she’s proven to be a hard worker and trustworthy.

Yet I can’t overlook this. I remain calm, and even though my mind isn’t made up, I’ll let her think it is so I can win her trust. “All right, then. Let’s say you’re not a thief.

Someone just came into the dormitory and dropped a priceless artifact into your bag. The question is, why?”

“I don’t know.” She presses shaking fingers to her lips, thinking. “There’s got to be some sort of reason behind it. Someone wants me gone from here. They’re clearly trying to frame me.”

“But why you? You’re just a fledgling.”

“I don’t know .” Gwenna gets to her feet, clenching her fists. “I haven’t been in the tunnels since last year. I don’t have access to anything in the archives. Where would I get something like that ?”

From a connection in the city, obviously.

Her friend in the archives, Sparrow. But Sparrow would never do such a thing.

And Gwenna seems incredibly upset at the sight of the artifact.

She could have hidden it away in a loose floorboard or under the garderobe sink (the spot where I hide my illegal potions) and I would have never known.

Instead, she’s bringing it to me. That’s got to count for something.

Because I’ve got a soft spot when it comes to her, I put my hands in the air. “All right, all right. I believe you.”

“Why would I show it to you when I could just mucking sell it to someone and get it off my hands?” she continues, practically hysterical as tears pour down her face. “If I’m caught stealing again, I’m destroyed. They’ll send me away—”

“Shhh,” I say, moving forward and capturing her smaller hands in mine.

I’m growing more and more convinced that she’s not involved.

No wonder she’s panicked. She doesn’t know what’s going on.

Doesn’t know that I’m here to hunt a thief.

She just knows she’s been given an artifact she shouldn’t have.

“It’s going to be fine, Gwenna. We’ll get rid of it. ”

“What if someone comes looking for it?” Her hands are shaking like leaves in my grip. “It can’t just have been misplaced.”

“We’ll take it to Hawk and Sparrow. They’ll know what to do with it.” And we’ll turn it over to the right hands.

Gwenna nods jerkily. “I’m sorry. Truly. I shouldn’t be involving you in this—”

“Nonsense. I’m a friend. Friends help each other out.

” Even as I say the words, my mind is racing.

It’s the weekend, so anyone could have come into the fledgling dormitory.

Everyone knows that Master Jay takes off on the weekends.

The nestmaid could have planted it here.

A courier. Kipp is in his shell house in the kitchen, but he could have acquired the item at some point and decided to leave it in Gwenna’s bag while we were at the wedding.

There’s no sign of Hemmen or Arrod, either. Those two are under suspicion as well.

I want to believe Gwenna’s telling the truth, I really do. But if she is, that means someone else related to this particular nest is in on things, and that means it all needs watching. I glance down at Gwenna’s expression, but she’s just as miserable as before, her chest heaving.

Surely it’s just coincidence that Gwenna’s practically got her tits out. It’s not necessarily a distraction. But if it is, it’s a mucking good one. If I wasn’t full of knot-withering potions at the moment, I’d be all over her right now. Perhaps that was the goal?

Or am I now thinking in conspiracies, too?