Page 14 of Inked in Emeralds (Inkbound #3)
“ G et down!” James growled, shoving my shoulder.
I dropped. A spear hissed passed me as he answered with a thrust of his hook. Air coiled, compressed, then tore loose in a bullet of wind that punched clean through the attacker’s skull. The man toppled without a sound, painting the wall behind him in blood.
Across the table Duncan roared, the glow of his berserker magic crackling over his skin. He caught a charging attacker by the collar, hauled him forward, and rammed his great sword through to the hilt.
More men poured through the doorway, knives and cudgels raised. One hurled a cleaver, but Hook batted it aside in another burst of wind, not breaking stride.
I squeezed the handle of my whip, clawing for magic that danced just out of reach. The little wisps of energy seemed to retreat just before I could latch onto them, like a forgotten word on the tip of my tongue.
“Kitchen’s closed,” Billy barked. She loosed an arrow, then rolled directly into the first two men, wielding her bow like a short staff.
She parried a dagger swipe, then smashed the brass grip into one man’s nose with a crunch.
He let out a shriek, hands flying to his face, and she took the chance to plant her boot right into his knee.
Bone cracked, and he folded like a wet noodle.
The second lunged with a rusty saber. Billy ducked, skipping right past him as Duncan lurched forward to cleave him in half.
A wave of revulsion rolled over me, but I shoved it aside as Andrea lunged forward yet again, tearing a knife from her belt.
I scrambled to my feet as she made a beeline for me, but Billy appeared between us in the blink of an eye, deflecting the blow.
Hook stepped up beside her, but she waved him off.
“You and pretty boy handle the others. I got this.”
“Don’t leave her side,” he grunted, sparing a quick glance at me before turning his attention toward the men by the door.
“You invite us for soup and then sell us out?” Billy hissed.
Andrea brandished the knife out in front of her and shrugged, eyes gleaming with menace. “Ten thousand gold buys a lot of soup.”
Billy leapt forward, dropping her bow to smash her palm right into the older woman’s sternum. The knife fell, and Billy kicked her backward, straight toward that bloody butcher’s hook hanging from the ceiling.
I cringed as Andrea flailed, trying to stop herself, but momentum won. The hook caught her right under the ribs, lifting her off the floor. She shrieked once and then sagged.
There was no time to celebrate as a crossbow bolt whizzed past Billy’s ear, embedding in the wall behind us. We both wheeled around to find Jack, standing in the pantry doorway, hands shaking as he cranked a new one into place.
His eyes darted toward his wife’s lifeless body with a wince. “Ah, you didn’t have to go and do that. Bounty’s nothing personal, girl.”
“Feels very personal right now.” Hook flicked his hand, and the wind gusted again, toppling shelves and sending jars crashing. Jack’s eyes went wild with fear as he fired, but his bolt missed by feet instead of inches this time.
Jack fumbled for a cleaver hanging close by as Billy charged at him, but he was too slow. She kicked him square in the chest. He stumbled back into the second hanging hook, the iron tip ripped through him, impaling him center mass. His scream was short-lived.
An eerie silence fell over the kitchen, broken only by the wet, sucking sound of Jack’s breathing and the simmering of soup still on the stove.
Hook wiped gore from his blade with a dish towel, pinning Jack with an icy stare. “How many more?”
“Just us,” Jack gasped, trying to lever himself off the hook, which only drove it deeper.
Billy stepped close, face carved from stone as she lifted her bow and pointed it straight at his balls. “Time to tell us about this bounty. Talk fast.”
His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he tried to wriggle away.
“Wanted posters on every tavern wall west of here. I saw them on my travels back home, but they hadn’t made it as far as Skunk’s yet,” he wheezed.
“Ten thousand for the dark-haired girl. Imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw you there. Figured I only had a day or so before every single ranger in the area was looking for her. Decided to leave early morning and wait to make my move.”
My throat tightened. “Where were you supposed to bring me?”
“Old watch-tower, five kilometers east. We were offered safe passage to hand you over to the monkey scouts.” He let out a gurgle and then coughed in a spray of bright red blood before he continued. “We needed the money.”
“The Scouts…are they always there at the watch-tower, then?”
He shuddered, eyes going in and out of focus as his head began to loll to one side. “Not… sure.”
Billy dropped her bow and lurched forward, grabbing a fistful of his hair and yanking his head back.
“Are they waiting there now?”
Jack spasmed, legs churning as if he was running the world’s slowest race. “I can’t…please…free my mare. She’ll find her way to Skunk’s place and he’ll take care of her. Don’t leave her here to starve.”
My stomach gave a squeeze. “Billy…”
But Duncan was already stepping forward, laying a hand on her shoulder. Billy released Jack’s hair with a snarl and stood back as Duncan slid a dagger across Jack’s throat in one, smooth motion. Mercy even after he tried to take us.
Billy met Duncan’s gaze, and he shook his head. “He had nothing more to tell us, and I couldn’t leave him there to suffer.”
She nodded and wordlessly picked up her bow as Hook rifled through a drawer and emerged with a stack of papers.
He slapped one on the table. It featured a fair likeness of me, whip raised, face twisted in anger. Above my image loomed bold words;
WANTED Thief and murderer. 10,000 GOLD, ALIVE. 5,000 DEAD.
I swallowed hard. “That’s not good.”
“We travel quieter from now on,” Hook murmured.
“Which means no more stops for supplies.” Billy was already raiding cupboards, and she tossed me a sack of dried beans.
Despite the logic of it, looting the house of the dead definitely didn’t feel like a very good-witch thing to do. I glanced around at the fallen bodies, barely holding back the urge to vomit. They had tried to kill me, so maybe what we’d done hadn’t been strictly bad .
Standing here in the midst of the carnage, though, I couldn’t exactly call it good, either.
More like a murky shade of gray that had me asking myself what I would have chosen to do if Hook, Billy and Duncan hadn’t been here and made the decision to kill everyone?
I shuddered. The truth was, I’d have died long before I got the chance to consider the morality of it. I’d been all but useless in the fight once again. A weakness rather than an asset.
My fingernails bit into my palm. Once I got my magic back, I’d be stronger, but that wasn’t good enough. What if I lost my magic again, or found myself in a situation where it wasn’t enough? Was I supposed to play the damsel and leave it to the others to protect me?
I traced my finger along the handle of my whip.
Never again.
Until I got my magic back, I’d have to find a way to compensate. At the very least, the goal would give me something to focus on, rather than just sitting around waiting and hoping.
I let out a breath as Billy handed me another sack of food.
“I’ll go release the horse.” Duncan’s eyes lingered on Jack’s slack face before turning away.
“Wait up,” Hook grunted. “There could still be others outside.”
Not exactly cordial, but better than the hostility he’d shown at the start. It was one, tiny pearl glimmer of good in an endless sea of manure.
I helped Billy load a small wheel of cheese, a sack of jerky, and some jars of pickled roots into a burlap sack. Then, she bent over Andrea’s body, stripping the woman’s belt-pouch, before tossing it to me. A handful of coins clinked inside.
Literal blood money.
“I don’t want it.”
“Suit yourself. Just know that she’d have happily gutted you for that reward.” Billy slung the hefty sack of food over her shoulder. Then, she straightened and stalked off without another word.
Outside a few minutes later, the sun hung high in the sky, and I watched as the mare cantered away. I tried to speak with her mentally, searching for a spark of connection with the animal, but there was nothing.
“You okay? Not hurt anywhere?” Hook stared down at me, his expression unreadable.
“Nope. Ready to go,” I said, adding in a thumb’s up for good measure.
“Let’s move, then,” Billy said. “Ranger trail south’ll keep us off the Yellow Road but moving in the same direction.”
We headed down the slope, leaving Jack’s cliffside home behind us as I did my best to forget those meat hooks inside.
Duncan and Hook both grabbed a sack of food from my hand, but I still felt heavier than ever. Somewhere, not too far away, an evil Witch lurked. One who was willing to pay a princely sum for my head.
And with each passing mile, I grew less and less sure I had the power to stop her from taking it…
Along with anything and everything else she wanted.