Page 52

G uttertown looked beautiful. People had pulled their stalls over and Sabine and the girls set up outside to make music for everyone.

The girls at the brothel had made themselves up and intended to flirt up a storm to bring in money.

Leodos stole Mom to go over the books because he got that she needed to rest.

It was almost time to start and Neco wasn’t back yet. I was worried and they could all tell.

“He’ll be back. He’s a big boy,” Ollie said.

“You don’t think he killed a Baron, do you?” I asked.

“Neco is way too careful for that. If he did, they’ll never be able to pin it on him,” Beck said.

“Isn’t that him? No one else is that big and walks like a cat,” Ronan said.

Yeah, that was definitely Neco walking up the road. I took off running and flung myself at him. He caught me and squeezed me.

“This is assault. What was that for?” he asked.

“I was worried you gutted Folcard.”

“Nah. I just manipulated him. I don’t think he’ll be bothering you too much and I got exactly what I wanted. No women or kids and I can turn down a kill if I want. I got the cure, too.”

“Shit, we did it? We got exactly what we wanted?”

“I wanted Neco to gut them,” Ollie snorted.

“You could pick them off one by one,” Ronan said. “You’d be doing Nestran a favor.”

“Mm, can’t,” Neco said, nuzzling my hair with his cheek. “They know I’m the Blight now.”

“Holy shit, you never told me you were my sister!” Autar yelled, jumping into the conversation and pulling me into a hug.

“Which makes all the times you told me I knew nothing about women hilarious, arsehole.”

“I still think women like it when you tell them they have splendid tits.”

“Not right after meeting them and not right before you ask them to marry you.”

“Hey, you think Sabine would marry me? She’s gorgeous and I love her voice.”

“I think she’d flirt with you if she wanted something, but I’m pretty sure she’s into women.”

“Damn. I wish I was a woman right now,” Autar moaned.

“No, you don’t because our father would have thrown you in the brothel.”

Autar leaned in.

“What’s the plan? We’re taking them down, right? I can get information from the inside because the idiot made me his general just because I’m big.”

I wanted that more than anything. There were more people who hated them than liked them. It just wasn’t possible because of the arse kissers like Goran.

“We can’t do shit to them. I might have gotten the cure and this would have gone differently, but Goran inadvertently snitched when he was trying to sell me out. We’d have to get everyone on board to overthrow them without knowing ahead of time and you just can’t trust some of these people.”

“It’s just not fair,” Ronan said. “They’ve screwed everyone over and there’s still people begging for scraps from them thinking they won’t. Even if they do help, it’s only when they benefit.”

“Nothing’s going to change until Nestran finds someone stronger than them who everyone can rally behind. Someone who can rally everyone and show them they can stand up to them,” Beck said. “But that person doesn’t exist.”

No, they didn’t. The gods were cruel. The people on Nestran with magic had a known weakness. They wanted the Barons gone, but they didn’t really want much to do with humans, either.

“They probably never will,” I said. “Let’s get your mom the cure and get the party started.”

“She’s over there with Rowena. Rowena wouldn’t want to miss this and with me gone, someone needed to make sure no one stepped on her foot by accident and got assaulted.”

Yeah, that was valid. I still liked that kid. Neco presented Theda with the cure. She gave him the ‘Mom’ stare before she drank it.

“This is the end of your dealings with your father, right?”

“Of course. Please take it.”

Neco wasn’t technically lying. Folcard was the one who hired him, not his father. I wasn’t going to correct him because I wasn’t a snitch. Neco was good at what he did and I didn’t want to worry Theda. I’d handle it.

Rowena flung herself at Neco. He picked her up and squeezed her.

Rowena didn’t know half of what was going on, but she was a smart kid.

She was still an Argent kid, and she knew what was up.

Her mom was sick and her brother had to go to her father.

Her father could have demanded payment from both of them when she was old enough. Neco took care of that.

“You know I’ll always protect you, right?” Neco growled.

“One day, I’m going to get big and change everything.”

“I’ll bet you will.”

Rowena was beloved in Guttertown. We would rally around her. The rest of Nestran would just see her as a Guttertown brat and probably wouldn’t.

I could hope, though, because that person Beck mentioned certainly wasn’t me.

“Let’s get this party started!” I yelled.

The rest of Guttertown started hooting and hollering. Yeah, it was time for a celebration the likes Guttertown had never seen.