Page 31

Chapter sixteen

T here were four of them—three male, one female. Likely bandits or thieves. I didn’t know, but they weren’t good.

I focused on my breathing to keep from panicking, like this was only a nightmare and I was bound to wake up. One, two, breathe … and I could get my bearings.

“What do you want?” I asked, forcibly leveling my voice.

Two men stood with blades pointed at Ezra, his glare a silent warning to bide my time, to not do anything more compulsive than we already had in coming here alone, against orders.

A third man sidled up to where the female held me at knifepoint. Tall, thin, and balding, he loomed over me the way most men did. But I looked up defiantly as I’d learned to do when examined by a man of my own.

“That man you were with? He has money. And he looked at you,” the man grinned at me to reveal a set of yellow-stained teeth, “like you were his little pet. I’m sure he’d pay a pretty sum to get you back.”

“Let her go.” Ezra remained calm, as he’d been trained to be in Elias’s army. This wasn’t his first brush with danger. I remembered him saying they’d been attacked by thieves on their way to Warrich .

How Gavin had eliminated them single-handedly.

“I’ll get you your money,” my cousin promised.

The men behind him chuckled darkly, and the balding man, who I assumed was their leader, cocked his head at me. “I might want something more than money, now that I see what’s on the table.”

My churning stomach brought sweat to my brow and turned my blood to ice.

“Don’t you touch her!” Ezra moved to step forward but was held back by the two men, their faces contorted by sneers. They each grabbed an arm and pressed the tips of their blades into his sides.

I was just about to throw my elbow into the woman’s gut when I heard a wet squelch in my left ear, followed by one low, guttural gasp. A clang echoed, the knife at my throat disappeared, and a body collapsed beside me.

I looked down to see the female who’d held me at knifepoint now crumpled on the ground in a heap of limbs and black hair, eyes frozen open in terrible shock. Blood pooled beneath her head…

She was dead with a knife in her skull, buried to the hilt—a knife that had been thrown from the doorway of the temple, where, no less than thirty steps away, Gavin stood, drowning the vast, colorful space of worship in dark, uncompromising rage.

I let out a sigh of relief in spite of his rage, stumbling away from the dead woman as Gavin strode swiftly toward the center of the temple.

He didn’t look at me when he passed.

“Get her out of here—to the tavern,” he snarled in Ezra’s direction. The others had released him and began to retreat in fear. “ Now .”

The three remaining thieves cowered, looking between their dead female friend and the mass of muscled fury barreling toward them, horror etched on their ugly faces, realizing just exactly what they’d gotten themselves into.

My cousin lunged for my arm. I tried to look back, but—

“Don’t watch.” Ezra forced my shoulders forward. “Trust me.” He quickly led me out of the temple. The heavy door closed behind us, muffling the pleading cries of three grown men fated to a hell of their own making.

The warm sunlight and crisp air swirled around us, but a heavy weight descended, ripping away any enjoyment they could bring. “Will he kill them?” I asked.

“Yes.” Ezra didn’t hesitate as he dragged me down the cobblestone street. I took two rushed steps for every one of his long, lanky strides. I could barely register the bright world as it blurrily passed by, my reality even graver than before.

We entered a tavern through a back door, where Finn, Caz, and Gemma were waiting, their worried looks immediately settling into relief upon seeing us.

Caz stepped forward, no sign of the usual relaxed merriment on his tanned face. He turned to my cousin. “That was stupid, Ez.”

I stepped forward in Ezra’s defense. “It was my idea, and we were gone for less than twenty minutes.”

“It doesn’t even take half that time,” Caz answered, shaking his head. He looked disappointed, not mad, which somehow felt worse. “You can’t run off.”

Gemma avoided my gaze, but I looked at her. Arms crossed, shoulders tensed, eyes glued to the ground. I could tell she wasn’t happy, either.

“Just because Simeon put wards on this city to protect it from Molochai doesn’t mean there aren’t other dangers,” Finn added, his voice calmer than Caz’s, but no less disappointed.

Shame tried to cripple me. I fought it, because even though they were right, it wasn’t fair.

Hair rose on my neck when the door burst open behind me. It slammed against the wall, unsettling dust that danced inside the invading rays of sunlight .

A startled gasp escaped my throat. Three strides, and the intimidating form of my angry protector was before me, assessing me for damage. The man was so unnaturally quick in spite of his size.

“Are you hurt?” he demanded, cupping my face, eyes wild. “Did they touch you?”

“I—I’m fine.”

His chest heaved with violent breaths. He studied me for a few more moments, searching for proof that I was okay, fearing for signs that I wasn’t. Finally he turned, dropping his hands.

But I screamed when he grabbed Ezra by the throat and threw him up against the wall. Gemma gasped, covering her mouth with both hands while Caz and Finn both cursed and jumped.

“You brainless little shit!” Gavin pinned my cousin against the wall like a rag doll beneath his dominating hand. Ezra was tall but looked shrimpy in Gavin’s lethal grasp. “You put her in danger—”

“And you threw a knife at the woman—” Ezra choked, gritting his teeth as he tried in vain to pry Gavin’s steel grip off his neck. “Right next to Ary! You could have hit her! You could have missed!”

Gavin laughed, low and cruel. “I don’t miss.”

“You’re a fucking psycho!” Ezra gasped for air.

“And you’re lucky I don’t rip your throat out, Hart!

” Gavin spat out Ezra’s surname like a curse.

The others futilely shouted attempts to stop him, but he persisted, his deep voice thundering, “I don’t care if you decide to throw yourself onto a flaming pit of spikes, but you do not , under any circumstances, put her in harm’s way! ”

“Enough!” I pleaded, eyes wide with horror.

With every word he spoke, his grip on Ezra’s neck constricted, and I realized how much it would take—one twitch of his hand—and my cousin would be a permanent casualty of his rage.

My sweet cousin, who’d only wanted me to see the sights. “Gavin, you’re hurting him! ”

I felt four pairs of shocked eyes on me and realized it might be the first time they’d heard Gavin’s name. To them, he was only Smyth.

Trembling, I lunged forward and threw my arms around Gavin’s thick bicep, standing on the tips of my toes to reach it.

“Let him go!” I ordered, pulling on his arm with the full weight of my body. “Now!”

“Brawling in my pub already, Smyth?”

We turned to see a man standing in the doorway to a wider, brighter space. The main room of the tavern. He looked to be about mid to late twenties and had an impressive head of chocolate-brown curls and circular glasses.

“It’s not even suppertime.” He stepped forward and waved a lazy hand. “You could at least come out front, make a good show of it.” The man’s eyes widened when he shifted his attention to me, still hanging onto my protector’s arm. Then to Gavin. Back to me. He sighed, seized by quiet awe.

I gulped, realizing that Gavin’s friend knew exactly who I was just by looking at me.

“Let him go,” I said to Gavin, softer this time, relieved to see Ezra breathing again in the wake of a slowly relaxing grip. “Please. Let him go.”

With a deep, rumbling growl, Gavin released my cousin and stormed from the room without another word.

Ezra crumpled to the floor with his hands at his neck. I hated seeing those soft blue eyes and gentle smile contorted by bitterness and pain. I knelt beside him, stomach sick with worry.

“Well, then.” The man folded his hands and gave a wide smile, wholly unbothered by Gavin’s abrupt exit. “On that note, welcome to The Black Badger.”

Caz ran his hands over his face and through his hair, more distressed than I’d ever seen him.

Finn and Gemma introduced themselves to our curly-haired host. I couldn’t hear his name or what they said.

I was too focused on the angry red marks on Ezra’s neck, the damage that Gavin had done to my cousin all because of me.

“Ary, no!” Ezra reached for me as I turned to follow Gavin, my face hot with anger. “He’s out of his mind! Just let him go!”

But I slipped away after him into a dark room filled with bottles of wine and every type of liquor.

Lining the walls were oak barrels filled with beer or whiskey imported from different regions across Nyrida, indicated by the rough scribble labeling each one.

The rich aromas of smoke, caramel, and fruit packed into such a tight space burned in my nostrils.

Gavin was a master class in brooding, standing with the mountains of his shoulders flexed against the fabric of his black shirt, the shelving above his head groaning under the weight of his fingers.

His forehead rested on a barrel of whiskey that jutted out from the top shelf.

Even in the dark, I could see that his eyes were closed, his breathing unsteady.

Massive, but vulnerable at this moment. The sight almost sucked the breath from my lungs. But Ezra had been vulnerable when held against the wall moments away from strangulation. We all were vulnerable to Gavin’s mercy.

I shifted my feet loudly enough to announce my presence. Gavin’s eyes opened slowly. And I was about to reprimand him when—

“Did he make you go with him?” His shadow rose up behind him as he turned. A menacing, overwhelming spirit of rage.

“What?” I huffed out. “No, of course not.”

“Was it his idea?”

“It doesn’t matter whose idea it was.” I stepped forward. “I wanted to see the temple.”

“Then ask me to take you there!”