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Chapter Sixteen

Victor

T his senseless killing is really starting to drain me, no matter how much Likho tells me that I should be happy to see someone’s life cut suddenly short. I can’t help thinking about my own fate and how suddenly it was cut off.

The only difference is these people didn’t have a dark bargain they could make to retether themselves to a slightly corrupted mind and body.

What they do have are family members. Parents? Siblings? Sweethearts? People who will be waiting for them to come home, people who will be waiting for all of eternity now.

The worst part is that the rest of the world has no idea what happened in this inn tonight. With the storm still raging outside, we are locked in here, isolated and left to deal with our own problems.

Our neighbors have no idea the bloodshed that has happened just the next door over. Estelle’s parents don’t know that they should hug her extra hard the next time they see her. It’s as if the outside world is peacefully asleep while we are left to survive and bear the burdens of what has just happened.

Three men are dead. Where will the senselessness end? Why did it even begin?

Why would Ibram kill his friend? I mean, the priest I get, he was saying he could discover the killer. But then to end himself after it all?

It doesn’t make sense, but then I guess these things aren’t supposed to. They exist only to remind you that you need to cherish life for as long as you have it. To remind you to tell your dearly beloveds that you love them because you never know when you might lose them.

I pat Estelle on the arm as she lets out a little sniffle. The poor girl. She has never experienced death like this before, not like I did on the prison ship.

I’m about to offer some platitude that is honestly useless in the face of a tragedy like this, but then something catches my eye, bouncing off a light that lands right in my face. I turn my head to see one of the inn rooms. The door is wide open, and the light is somehow bouncing off one of the rings lying on the floor.

I’m not sure how, or how it broke through my hazy thoughts, but I take it as a sign. I give Estelle one last pat on the shoulder before I tell her, “Why don’t you go get my father and the girls? Tell them the nightmare is over.”

She nods, sniffing loudly. She’s a strong girl, she’ll be fine. Especially with a task to occupy her mind. She races off toward the front of the inn to tell my father that he, Mika, and Vera can climb out of their smuggling hole.

I do fully intend to have words with my father about his smuggling under the table and never telling me, but first, I have some unfinished business. Those rings are a sign.

A reminder that I’m lucky. I’m alive, and so is Talyria, even after this blood-soaked night. So, what if we lied to each other? That just means that we’re more alike than we realized. I’m already on my third chance at life after surviving that killer in the wine cellar. I don’t think I should waste it by being mad at my wife for a crime I also committed.

I stride into the room and kneel down, picking up the rings. I slide them into my pocket, rising as I feel a soft smile across my face.

Mr. The Thief Queen .

It’s a bit of an odd ring to it. I hope she doesn’t mind being called Mrs. Innkeeper’s Son .

I turn with my hand buried deep in my pocket, just to see Lek standing there. I’ll be honest, I had expected him to follow along after Estelle like her second shadow. But here he is standing uncomfortably close to me.

I feel my eyebrows rise. “What are you—” I begin but I don’t get the rest of the sentence out because suddenly Lek is swinging his arm around, plunging a knife into my chest.

My mouth drops open as I draw in a sharp inhale, one that dissipates before I’m even done. I watch in shock as Lek rips the knife out of my chest and plunges it into my stomach. He rips it upward, slicing through my skin and sinews and organs.

I raise my eyes to meet his, they seem to be the only thing I’m capable of moving. Fortunately, it is as if I am disconnected from my body altogether. It’s as if I am watching this happen to another person. While this state of disconnect it leaves me useless to respond, at least I don’t feel it. Because gods that looks like it would jetting hurt.

“It was over, it was supposed to be over. Ibram was going to take the fall, but then you had to mess it up. You couldn’t keep your hands off of her, could you?” Lek’s spittle flies all over my face as he speaks, adding insult to quite literal injury.

“What?” I splutter, it’s half a word and half a cough. I can feel a thickness filling my lungs just as something warm dribbles out over my chin.

“Estelle!” Lek gasps, his eyes wide. “I’ve done this all for her. To show her that I’m someone interesting, but she goes for you instead. She always goes to you instead.”

I want to tell him that Estelle has never seen me that way. I’ve only ever been a shoulder to cry on, but I’m too busy gagging and choking on the fluid filling my lungs.

I can feel Likho’s magic rushing to heal me, but there is so much internal damage. It’s sluggish. To be honest, I’d likely be dead already if it weren’t for him literally forcing me to live.

I stumble backwards, hitting the floor before I realize that I’ve dropped. My head is ringing, but not loudly enough that I don’t hear the scream. “Victor!”