Page 6

Chapter

Three

DAIN

T he woman had magic in her veins.

Her palm buzzed against mine as we crashed through the forest hand in hand, branches whipping at our faces. It should have been harder to hang onto her. Running with joined hands sounded easy until you actually tried to do it.

But it was easy with her—because something inside me didn’t want to let her go.

It was as if a magnet had lodged under my skin, and it called to one hidden under hers.

The connection had started well before I touched her.

I’d stood on the platform, my features schooled to indifference as I worked at the ropes around my wrists.

Nikolas and I had escaped similar scrapes in the past. His job was to distract people with talk—something he excelled at—while I used the little bit of magic in my blood to break free.

Heat and mirage. Those were the gifts my distant elven ancestor had passed down to me. The first was the most useful, especially when I needed to burn through a rope.

The woman’s magic was similar, her skin hot to the touch.

Which meant she was elfkin—a human with an elf tucked in a branch on her family tree.

That explained the cloak, which she did her best to keep pulled over her head as we ran from the villagers.

Probably, she possessed a little too much magic.

The kind that could get a person killed in Andulum.

So what was she doing buying bonds in public?

Even as the question formed, its answer followed, the implications souring my gut.

Certain brothels kept elfkin for select customers.

They traded in “magical companions,” offering enhanced experiences for those with deep enough pockets.

As long as they kept the right people happy, the brothel owners with a surplus of magic enjoyed long and fruitful lives.

“This way!” Nikolas shouted, taking a sharp left through the trees. Footsteps thundered behind us. The woman was fast, but she was tiring, her breathing growing more labored. The pack she wore slowed her down. She couldn’t maintain the breakneck pace much longer.

Without missing a stride, Nikolas pulled a sunblade from his sleeve. Reluctant admiration filled me as he pinched it between his fingers. Somehow, he’d slipped the weapon past the jail’s guards.

The woman’s eyes widened at the sight of the palm-sized sunblade, which resembled an ordinary throwing star. But its glowing edges marked it as far more deadly.

“That won’t work here,” the woman gasped, her palm sweating in mine. She gripped her skirts with her free hand, holding the fabric above black leather boots that hugged slender legs.

Nikolas darted her a roguish smile. “Seems to be working just fine to me.” Twisting, he tossed the blade over his shoulder. A sharp whistle split the air, followed by a man’s strangled scream.

Victory. I couldn’t afford to look back. But the sunblade had found at least one target.

“Do you have six more of those?” I rasped. Tightening my grip on the woman’s hand, I leapt a shallow puddle. She soared over it with me, and we thudded to the ground and kept sprinting.

Nikolas flashed me a grin. “I have a few more tricks up my sleeves.”

I grunted. He was full of tricks, all right, and just as many bad ideas. Most of the time, his tricks went off without a hitch. But on the rare occasions they didn’t, we landed in hot water—or at the end of a noose.

Or worse.

Nikolas produced another sunblade and sent it spinning over his shoulder. A second later, a man’s sharp cry echoed through the forest.

“Sorcery!” one of the villagers bellowed.

I risked a look behind me. Two of the villagers stopped, their chests heaving. Fear replaced the greed in their eyes. They exchanged looks, then spun and fled in the opposite direction. The remaining three men continued the chase.

My lungs burned, and my legs quivered as I pulled the woman faster.

Any other time, three opponents would have posed no problem for Nikolas and me.

But the jail had been less than generous with food, and we’d been locked up for four days.

River water and crusts of moldy bread weren’t ideal sustenance for winning a fight.

The forest blurred, and black spots danced in my vision.

The woman stumbled, crying out as she clutched at a tree. Red flashed, and the sharp scent of blood snapped me out of my temporary fog. I shoved her behind me just as the villagers caught up to us.

Dirty and lean, they darted looks between me and Nikolas, who’d stopped, his feet braced wide and his arms loose at his sides. One of the men pointed a knife at my chest.

“End of the line,” he said, displaying brown teeth in his pockmarked face. “And the end of your days.” His companions flanked him, menacing smiles stretching their lips.

The woman stepped from behind my shoulder and planted herself firmly between me and Nikolas.

“Get behind me,” I muttered, but she ignored the command as she turned to Nikolas.

“Do you have any other weapons?”

He raised his fists. “I have these.”

Her brows knit, a distinctly unimpressed look on her face.

“We’ll be relievin’ you of that gold,” the pockmarked man said, shuffling forward. A blade flashed in his hand, the steel reflecting the waning sunlight.

Nikolas caught my eye over the top of the woman’s head. “Donkey?” he mouthed.

It was the name of several coordinated maneuvers we’d perfected on the streets of Saldu. As the men inched closer, I gave Nikolas a subtle nod.

He understood the signal. We’d move in three .

The woman lifted her chin as she stared down the men. “If you steal my gold, the sheriff will hang you.”

The pockmarked man chuckled. “Sheriff’s the one who sent us.”

Three .

The woman huffed. “I thought as much.”

Two .

“One!” Nikolas barked, and we surged forward. I went low while he went high, both of us striking the pockmarked man. Bending, I thrust my shoulder into his gut while Nikolas cracked his elbow against the man’s jaw. The man howled, and steel flashed as he stabbed the knife down.

“Look out!” the woman cried.

The knife whistled past my ear. I twisted away, and the blade met air. Nikolas kicked the man’s wrist, the crack of his boot meeting bone loud in the forest. The knife flew from the man’s hand as he went down. He jumped up just as quickly and then took off running.

Crunching leaves and rapid footsteps made me whip around. One of the other attackers fled through the trees, his arms pumping.

“Hey!”

The woman’s outraged cry made me spin. The third villager ripped the leather coin purse from her belt. I leapt toward him, but he moved like an adder, dragging her pack from her shoulders and bolting.

“No!” she cried, starting after him. I moved fast, hooking her around the waist and lifting her off the ground.

“Hey, hey, hey,” I said, clamping her back against my chest. “None of that.”

She kicked and struggled, trying to break my grip. “He took my money! And my things!”

Her scent teased my nose, the fragrance a heady combination of woman and sun-warmed flowers. She was slender but curved in all the right places, her backside grazing my groin as she wriggled.

“And left you with your life,” I said, pleased when my voice stayed steady despite my racing pulse.

Nikolas retrieved the fallen knife from the ground. He flipped it once and caught it, testing its weight. “Dain’s right,” he said, looking up. “That’s a good bargain, my lady.”

“That money was everything I had,” she growled, struggling harder. Her hood slipped, revealing a cascade of glossy black hair. Pointed ears peeked from the strands.

Shock weakened my grip, and the woman slipped free. She whirled to face us, her honey-colored eyes framed by thick, curling lashes. Pink stained her cheeks. Her plump lips were just as pink, the bottom one slightly fuller than the top.

Nikolas stared, his brown eyes wide. “An elf,” he said weakly.

The woman yanked her hood back up.

Nikolas cleared his throat. “We already saw the ears.”

She glanced at the knife in his hand. “You won’t hurt me. I paid your bond, remember? That means you’re in my service.” She looked at me. “Both of you.”

“We won’t hurt you,” I confirmed. The tugging magic I’d felt on the platform returned, the force of it urging me to move closer to her. Testing it, I took a small step backward. The wrongness of it sparked at once, the weight in my chest yanking me back to my original position.

“What kind of service?” Nikolas asked. Anyone else would have missed the wariness in his tone.

But I’d known him long enough to hear it, and I took another step toward the elf. “Brothels are out of the question.”

She put up a hand. “Not another step. And I have nothing to do with brothels.”

Nikolas tucked the knife away, his sleight of hand so impressive that I wasn’t certain where he’d stashed it. “That’s not what you told the sheriff.”

“A necessary lie,” she said, and a knowing glint entered her eyes as she looked between us. “I suspect that’s not a foreign concept to you.”

The tug between us intensified, its grip like a tight, hot fist lodged in my chest. The strange heat radiated through me, and it should have been impossible. Elves lost their magic when they crossed the Covenant. And yet, this one seemed to possess hers.

“Are you doing this?” I demanded, wariness rising.

She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “No, but…” Her expression mirrored my unease. “You feel it too?”

Nikolas gave me a look that let me know he’d already guessed something was afoot.

“Yes,” I said, fighting the urge to rub my chest. “What is it?”

She licked her lips. “I’m looking for something. I don’t know why it’s in Saldu Kuum, but it is, and…” She put her shoulders back, a determined glint entering her eyes. “I need it. I believe you can help me find it.”

“What is it?” Nikolas asked.

“That’s my business,” she said.

I folded my arms. “How do you expect us to find something if we don’t know what we’re looking for?”

She looked between us. “I don’t think I need both of you.”

Nikolas shook his head. “Dain and I come together. We’re what you call a package deal.”

The woman frowned.

“Take it or leave it,” Nikolas added with a shrug that looked careless and was anything but—not when it came to this.

“Where Dain goes, I go.” He smiled one of his crooked smiles that had charmed females from the Eastern Ocean to the southernmost inlets of the Iron Sea.

“And trust me, my lady, it’s better this way. You’ll have two protectors.”

“I thought you were thieves,” she said, apparently immune to his smile.

Nikolas deepened the expression until a dimple appeared in his cheek. Then he added a wink that had dropped panties throughout the kingdom. “Don’t believe the sheriff’s slander. Dain and I are businessmen.”

The elf didn’t look in danger of dropping her panties. “What kind of business?”

“Imports and exports,” he said smoothly. “We specialize in rare goods and luxury items. If you’re looking for treasure—and it sounds like you are—you couldn’t have happened upon a better pair of companions.”