Page 13 of Shadows and Flames (Twin Blades #2)

Chapter Nine

TANA

T he right hook to my jaw sent my head snapping to the side, but I immediately collected myself and twisted around my opponent.

I dodged the large male’s fists before throwing another combination of jabs and a swift kick to his side.

He fell back some, but I swallowed the laugh of triumph that threatened to bubble up my throat.

The tavern wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t busy either. The high-profile fights would be later tonight, and I was sad that we’d miss them.

“Slippery.” My opponent grinned good-naturedly when I evaded him again.

I caught sight of my cousin, sitting at a table with her hood pulled over her head.

She lounged in the seat she’d snagged in the corner of the room, but her pursed lips and raised brow let me know that I was dragging this out too long.

I flicked my eyes around the tavern, and sure enough, we’d lost the interest of much of the room as patrons turned back to their own conversation or drinks.

I had to remind myself that this was training but also wasn’t. The point of the ring wasn’t to try out all the ways I could dangle my opponent on a hook for a bit of exercise.

But it was so much fun! I’d spent years training with my cousin, so I’d been more than prepared for this sort of thing.

Meline was still leaps and bounds more experienced than I was, and I needed to encounter different styles if we were going to take on bigger contracts.

And our other goal, of searching for Francie, had led to more and more dead ends.

But we needed to keep moving—for more reasons than just that.

I let out a little giggle and shook my head.

I was much leaner and shorter than him, but when I dove straight for his middle, he fell over easily.

Before he could start any sort of counter-attack, I had my arms around his neck, legs clamped around his thighs, and I had the urge to plant a teasing kiss on the pale blond hair that stuck to his brow.

I repressed the urge, though, and just kept holding him tightly.

After he tried and failed to throw me a few times, he finally sagged and slapped his hand against the ground in submission.

To my surprise, he chuckled as I was announced the winner. It didn’t hold any malice, and when I released him and we both stood, he just dusted himself off and gave me a crooked smile.

“I know when I’ve been bested.” His shoulders were heaving, and there was a happy flush on his face. I felt my own rise underneath my brown skin, but I couldn’t blame it on exertion. To a human, this man would probably prove to be more than formidable.

But to a Lylithan?

I shrugged, ready to return to my perch beside Meline, but the man shocked me when he extended a hand. I’d seen the gesture before, of course, but it was so foreign here, where a glob of spit at your opponent’s feet was the custom.

Grin rising to match, I brought my hand to his. When his gaze heated, falling on my fangs, my smile darkened at the blatant interest.

The fighting circuits were a collection of loosely-associated taverns, back alleys, and run-down arenas. We’d been making our way through, taking small contracts since the bidding was never too far from the matches.

Before… everything, I would’ve been loath to admit that at over two-hundred years old, I was fairly sheltered.

Nethras. Versillia. Both were havens for the shrinking Lylithan population, places where our fangs and thirst were common. Not feared, nor particularly commodified.

Now, traveling with Meline, I realized how short our reach truly was.

“Well.” I shrugged and made sure to dart my tongue out to touch my fang.

Just a bit. “Perhaps I’d let you best me in other ways,” I tilted my head and noticed the stuttering of his heartbeat, “or maybe you’d enjoy a round two?

” Some private time with the human sounded delicious in more ways than one.

“Tana,” a tight voice rang across the room. She didn’t even have to raise it.

I groaned, shoulders slumping. Right. We were here for a purpose, not fun.

Honestly, when had we last just had some fun ?

What a stupid question. I knew exactly when.

Using my strength that more than tripled his, I pulled the human to his feet, and when he stumbled, I planted that kiss on his sweaty cheek.

There were several snorts, hoots, and hollers as I pulled away, but he didn’t seem to mind.

He looked awestruck as he rubbed where my lips had touched his skin.

Meline rose from her seat, and we both proceeded to the back corner of the tavern, weaving around mostly humans.

There was little to no magic swirling here, just the innate skill that they were too unaware to tap into.

The aether swam around us, still like a calm, never-ending river, and my limbs were buzzing with it.

Maybe that was why I was practically skipping as we neared the others that were already convened in the back room.

Today was the day. Where we would bid for something big .

I wound my arm through Leenie’s, and though she grumbled, she tightened her hold against mine. “You win one bout, and you’re walking on air.” I could hear the affectionate eye-roll in her words.

It hadn’t been another Lylithan or someone that matched me for strength, but he’d had some tricky techniques that provided enough challenge.

I lowered my voice as we settled in the back of what should’ve been a storage room.

Boxes of supplies were pushed to the corners, and in the center was a tall woman with her dark hair arranged in intricate braids.

The careful style contrasted extremely with the fighting leathers and weapons strapped all over her waist and thighs.

She read from a ledger, deep voice commanding the room.

“Next is a domestic dispute. Adulterous husband and all that.” She waved her hand as chuckles coursed through the room of assassins. “Wife is offering forty gold pieces for the deed.” A few hands shot in the air, but the first was from a short man in the front.

She pointed to him while the rest groaned.

Meline and I stayed still, leaning against crates of liquor while contract after contract were read. There was only about fifteen of us, and with a considerable number of jobs presented, a few were doubling up.

And we waited.

Despite this village’s size, the company of two dozen mercenaries alluded to the danger of assumptions. This town was small, but it was as dangerous as a crowded city.

There was no magic stirring in this room, sure, but I could feel the dark expertise pulsing. The well-worn and well- kept weapons that were enough to equip a small army. The calculating cuts of our competitions’ eyes.

Because that’s what my cousin had taught me. They were competition.

And judging from the wary glances in our direction, they saw us as the same.

The moderator whistled while she trailed her finger to the bottom of a page. “Assassination of the good governor himself, the chief solicitor, and head of the central bank. Clean jobs, the lot of them. Natural causes. Two thousand gold pieces.”

I straightened. Surprised by the size of the task, excitement bubbling.

It was just the thing. In an instant, my mind flicked through the possibilities.

The poison tonic I could concoct for at least one of them.

Mottleroot? Its properties caused a slower decline to make the death come on like a seasonal illness.

But swift enough to meet our needs. Most of my experience was with healing, but I was fairly certain I could influence the blood enough to trigger a heart attack, at least in a human.

That just left the other, but that could be Leenie’s choosing, and then we could use those funds to?—

“Done.” I whirled around, following the point of her finger to someone who was certainly not us. “Next is draining of the reserves from said bank.” The moderator went on, describing the particulars of the task, but I focused instead on my cousin.

Her brown and gold eyes stared forward, brow furrowed. She stared across the room.

“A retrieval. Will take you out of town, expenses not paid but final payment is—” Meline’s hand went up before the master assassin could finish.

And she didn’t, pointing to my cousin who took the job without even knowing with the bloody payment was! And that much travel would definitely incur hefty costs.

The moderator continued through the last contracts, and I nudged Meline with my elbow. “Care to share?”

She angled my way, and I eyed the edges of her tight dark curls that mirrored my lighter ones. We were mistaken for sisters even more now, but the mischievous lightheartedness we once shared was a faint memory of the old Meline.

Before she could answer me, I detected a new presence at my back, one that wasn’t focused on the bidding before us. Meline’s brown and gold gaze went over my shoulder, holding a note of familiarity that left me turning slowly.

“Fancy meeting you here, lass.” A bald male with black skin and gold teeth smiled down at the two of us. Though he was certainly the least human-looking mercenary in the room, no one seemed surprised or interested in his presence.

Aside from my cousin.

“Grimm,” she nodded, “you have something you’d like to share?”

His leathers shuddered as he mimicked her posture, arms crossed. But that smile never fell. “Let’s go get a drink.”

“So, what can a Mind Walker do, exactly?” I sipped from my mug of ale, filing away all my cousin’s old friend and mentor deigned to share with us. It was quite fascinating and more evidence about all that I just didn’t know .