Page 6 of Shadows and Flames (Twin Blades #2)

Chapter Five

Tomás

W hat the fuck?

“What the fuck?” I hissed at Elián who was crouching to look the little sneak in the eyes. Some gangly kid who had been following us and finally got close enough to snatch.

He tilted his head and looked the kid up and down. “Out with it.” Though his words were short, I caught the tinge of gentleness in them.

The kid didn’t, though. His skin was a few shades lighter than Elián’s, but it paled a couple shades more now being confronted by the both of us.

His dark green eyes were wide, and his mouth was parted to reveal a few missing teeth.

Why the hell was this child following us, and why was Elián acting like he knew him?

Though I was aware he enjoyed teaching the acolytes, for reasons I’d never understand, it wasn’t like he made a habit of interacting with them or any children outside of that. Right?

“I—I saw you earlier today. And I w-wanted t-to…”

I rolled my eyes and sunk down to crouch beside Elián. The lad did look like he was going to piss his too-short trousers. With both of us at eye level, he relaxed a fraction, but my hand fisting the front of his tunic didn’t loosen.

“To what?” Elián pressed.

The boy took a breath and opened his mouth to respond, but at the last moment, he swept a questioning glance over the both of us and blurted, “Where are your swords?”

My eyes narrowed at the boy. He’d met Elián when he was working, then. “Gone. Now explain yourself, Marco.” He knew the boy by name ?

His little hands tried to pry mine away from him, but I wasn’t going to budge.

If this was some sort of trap, the boy some sort of lure, I was going to hold onto him for collateral.

Though, he was looking at the both of us with a sort of awe that made me embarrassed for him.

His little heart was beating fast, but not as quickly as I’d expect if he was truly terrified. I loosened my grip. Just a little.

“O-okay. Um, um, I j-just, saw you walking down the st-street,” he took a breath, and the air whistled in the gaps of his lost teeth, “and I thought… you know…”

I shook his chest, just a bit, and he clamped his mouth shut, looking at me. “You thought what? I’m growing impatient, boy.”

Now he was afraid. At least of me. Which was laughable because Elián was definitively the more dangerous of the two of us.

He sucked in a quick breath. “I was going to ask to be a Sh-Shadow.”

My stomach dipped.

Elián’s brows rose quickly, and the boy looked frantically back at him. He stammered, “Master Elián, I-I’ve been keeping up on my training like you told me, and I w-want to be a fighter like you.”

I was stunned, but my friend tsked at the boy. “You don’t want to be a Shadow, boyo.”

The lad puffed his chest and looked at him defiantly. So, he did have a bit of fire in him. “Why? Because y-you kill people?”

Now my brows flew to my hairline. Yeah, he definitely had fight in him.

His heart had calmed considerably, and faced with this denial, it looked like he was prepared to prove himself.

I dangled my hand over my crouched leg. “That’s right.

Kill and steal and protect. We’re not soldiers, boy.

You want to learn to fight and save damsels?

Go talk to a city guard or something.” Not that they were useful at all.

But no one would ever call a Shadow ‘noble.’

“I don’t want to be a city guard. They’re useless.” The boy all but spat on the ground, and I felt myself softening even more toward him.

“But you know nothing about being a Shadow,” Elián cut in.

He righted his clothing and lifted his chin.

“Then tell me. I’ve already heard a lot, and it hasn’t changed my mind.

” How old was this kid? Five years or something?

He looked gangly, his clothes too small for his body.

Did the lad not have enough money for clothes?

I glanced at him again, and he seemed clean.

A bit more color had returned to his face, and he looked healthy.

But there was a wariness under his large eyes.

One that sent a curious pang through my chest.

“No,” Elián said, and the boy’s face fell. I clenched my jaw as I saw the sadness on his face while Elián and I stood.

“Perhaps the boy can have supper with us.” What the fuck—what was I even saying. “We were heading that way anyway.”

He looked at me with a bit of hope, and my chest tightened again. Elián shot a questioning glance at me before he reluctantly gave a nod.

“Yeah, yeah, tha-that would be great! Thank you!” The kid gave a full, gap-toothed grin, and I rolled my eyes to keep from returning the favor. I didn’t know what came over me when I’d blurted the invitation, but there was no taking it back now.

Elián was sneaking confused glances at me while we exited the alley, the kid chattering all the way.

Now that we’d agreed to at least sit with him for a bit, he seemed to want to tell us all sort of random anecdotes about his life in Nethras and pester us with questions about fighting and weapons.

And we had only been walking for two fucking minutes.

We surely looked a strange trio, and we were seated quickly and efficiently at the small restaurant. Elián and I wordlessly sat beside each other, backs to the wall. The boy was practically jumping out of his chair before us, and that just made me feel even… softer toward him.

“Have you talked to Lady Em? Is that why you’re here?”

We both stilled. Elián had been nodding along to the boy’s incessant chattering, but he became stone at the question. Not only had he not told me about this child he knew in Nethras, but he hadn’t mentioned that the child knew his female. He still wouldn’t even say her name , for godyx’s sake.

Though he’d seemed innocently curious when he’d asked the question, the boy quickly caught on that it wasn’t the right thing to say.

I snuck a glance at Elián beside me, and he remained frozen with his hand around a frosty mug of ale.

I’d almost protested him ordering one but decided quickly to drop it.

Even before the boy’s blunder, he’d been taking small, non-indulgent sips.

I cut in, “Have you?”

The boy looked at me gratefully and took a drink from his cup of water before responding, “Yes—” I winced, and the boy continued more cautiously— “well…Whitley has anyway.”

He seemed to shrink a little, his shoulders turning inward when he snuck a look at Elián.

“And Whitley is…?”

“My caregiver. They run the children’s home where I live.” I nodded, putting another piece of this fucked-up puzzle together.

“And Lady—what has she been speaking with Whitley about?”

The little boy heaved a sigh that held weariness well beyond his years. “Just two letters. Checking in about Francie.” When I gave him another questioning look, he added, “Whitley’s mate. One of my other caregivers.”

“So, your Lady Em,” I couldn’t help glance at Elián who was still sitting as motionless as a statue, “has been in communication with this Whitley about your missing caregiver. And you’ve convinced yourself that you want to become an assassin.

Have I got the right of it?” I crossed my arms and settled back in my seat while our server placed our food on the table.

Nogón and I ordered roasted chicken, and the boy had followed suit, though I suspected that he’d wanted something else when he began to order one thing but stammered out the name of the dish when it was his turn to order.

I began to dig into my food, uncaring that the two rainclouds with me were leaving their suppers untouched. Someone had to keep us moving, after all.

Though I was a quick eater, there was a long stretch of silence that ended with my plate half-finished and Elián’s low voice.

“Has she said anything else to you?” Sure, we had a child, barely old enough to walk, demanding that we make him a Shadow, but all he could focus on was the female he’d had and lost. It was taking all of my effort to not hunt her down to berate her for making him descend into this place.

The boy finally picked up his fork and began shuffling around the vegetables on his plate, probably to avoid Elián’s unsettling gaze. “Um… no. She just wrote to Whitley that she’d hoped we were all doing okay, considering. And that she thought of us often.”

I couldn’t help my sardonic chuckle at that one. If she thought about them so much, why hadn’t she visited? If she cared about Nogón, why could he not find her?

Elián leaned forward, finally taking a bite of his food.

That had been another part of this whole ordeal.

When he was upset, my best mate drank to excess and didn’t eat nearly enough.

Even when Leandro and Emmett had gotten killed, he hadn’t been in as bad of a way as when he’d returned to the Well.

The only thing that kept him feeding regularly was the impending threat of Frenzy always lingering.

He could starve or drink himself to death, but, luckily, the thought of going on a bloodthirsty rampage to quench that need was enough of a deterrent.

“So… would you reconsider?” Our table had grown quiet again, save for our chewing, but the boy tried his best to be nonchalant and quiet in his request. At least he wasn’t shouting in this very public space about what we were.

“Reconsider what?” I asked just because it made him squirm.

Before the boy could say anything, Elián grunted and contributed, “To be like us, Marco, is a very large decision to make. One that should be done carefully and with the consent of one’s parents or caregivers. Have you spoken to Whitley or Lydia about this?”

Elián’s comment made the boy fidget in his seat, almost like he’d wet himself or something. Oh, godyx, had he not grown out of that yet?