Page 31 of Zel (The GriMM Tales #2)

Twelve

ZEL

Z el could convince Ulrich to stay, to be with him, to live with him forever, he could. There was no future he wanted more now that he’d had a taste of it.

With that thrill of resolve lighting a fire in his belly, Zel descended from the wall in search of more bandits, circling the tower in the opposite direction from where Ulrich had chased after the one that ran.

Zel’s knack for stealth, even without his cloak to hide his hair, had made it easy to sneak up on the bandits in the garden.

He hugged the exterior wall to do the same as he moved toward the faint sounds of whispering.

The sun was beginning to rise, slowly brightening the clearing and surrounding wood. Zel couldn’t yet see who owned those whispers, but he knew he was nearing them. It was no wonder Ulrich occasionally left a husk or two outside to rot if trespassers could be this foolishly brazen.

“This is our chance. The monster went the other way.”

“ No . Enough of this. She’s not worth it!”

She?

“I’m going!”

“Louisa!”

A figure appeared, darting toward the wood, away from where Zel crept.

“Fine then!” the other huffed—and stepped around the wall right into Zel’s path. His eyes sprang wide, face covered with a mask like all the others. “It’s—”

Zel lunged forward, driving his dagger into the bandit’s heart. It was a quick, clean, near instant kill, and he immediately tore his dagger free.

The bandit dropped to the ground.

“Bertie!”

Louisa and… Bertie? Zel knew—

A whoosh of air gave him seconds to react, and whether good instincts, magical luck, or both, he tilted his head just as a dagger flew past his face.

The sting as the blade nicked his cheek filled him with equal shock and fury, and as he looked to the bandit who had been running away, before he could fling his own dagger back at her, something else flung from him instead.

Part of Zel’s hair unwound from his braids and lashed out as if of its own accord, fueled purely by his anger and the reality of his cheek being cut.

No, he was not yet immortal.

But yet would not become never .

His hair wound around the bandit’s waist like a whip and reeled her in with enough speed that no dagger flinging was necessary. Zel’s dagger was ready when she lurched into its path.

“R-Rapunzel…” she uttered, and he realized why he had recognized those names.

Zel tore away the mask covering the woman’s face. He knew her—Louisa. They had never been friends, barely acquaintances, but Zel knew her and her beloved Bertold. These were not bandits foolishly targeting the tower.

They were from the Thieves Guild.

Zel’s hair unwound from Louisa as miraculously as it had lashed out.

She pulled herself from the dagger’s blade, only to bleed out more quickly from its absence and almost immediately drop to her knees, falling right beside Bertie.

The spill of their blood met the spill of Zel’s hair on the ground, staining its gold with red.

When someone deserved death, whether simply an abhorrent figure or killed in self-defense, Zel felt justified in using his skills. He even enjoyed it at times. But he’d never killed someone he knew before.

“Zel—”

A hand clamped down on Zel’s shoulder, and he screamed as he seized its wrist, flipping the offender end-over-end to land hard on his back in front of Zel. “ Rudy ?!” he snarled, stopping his dagger's downward arc just before it made contact with Rudy's skin. “Are you ma—”

“We came to rescue you!” Rudy scrambled to his feet, adjusting his disturbed spectacles. He was the only one who hadn’t bothered to hide his face. “By God, Zel, what have you done?”

The others were all dead. Maybe a few had escaped before Zel or Ulrich took note of them, but the rest were dead. Zel had no true friends among the Thieves Guild outside of Rudy, but that was just it.

Rudy could have ended up slain or a husk too.

He still could if Ulrich found him.

“ Go .” Zel pushed Rudy toward the line of trees. “Get out of here! I don’t need rescuing!”

“Of course you—”

“Get out—!”

“I saw you with him!” Rudy bellowed, jealousy marring his face as he snarled back at Zel, standing his ground. “Last night. At Hessen House. You killed someone and then kissed that monster right out in the open while standing over the body.” The revulsion from Rudy caught Zel up short.

Two bodies were near their feet now, and many others lay beyond the tower wall.

Rudy glanced with a growing look of nausea at Louisa and Bertie. He had a pair of handaxes on his belt like many of the others, and knew how to wield them, but he had never had to use them against another. He had never killed before. “You didn't even bat an eye while slaughtering them.”

“No. That’s why I am the assassin, and you are the pickpocket.

” Because even if Zel had known they were from the Thieves Guild, he doubted he would have hesitated for long.

Rudy’s ignorance of the acts Zel was trained to commit was just another part of how dishonest their friendship felt sometimes compared to what Rudy believed.

It made Zel ache again like he’d ached the last time they’d met outside the tower.

“You were down the alley last night behind Hessen House? You saw…”

“I would never watch a lady!” Rudy looked at the ground with a faint flush.

Thank God . He must have looked away as soon as Zel hoisted his skirts, but he had still been there, spying.

Before Ulrich, Zel had never liked the idea of anyone seeing him kill.

His teachers, his parents, they were one thing, but Rudy had always seemed removed from the uglier activities of the guild.

Like that little girl all those weeks ago.

“You’re not wearing my pendant.” Rudy’s eyes finally returned to Zel. “You were last night. Did he take it from you?”

“ No .” But of course Ulrich hadn’t included it when he clothed Zel. “In case you’ve forgotten, I was rudely awakened by an attack this morn and didn’t have time to dress properly.”

“And what have you forgotten? Do you remember why you’re here? Because that didn’t look like false seduction from where I was watching you last night. He is doing something to you, Zel. Changing you. Bewitching you!”

Zel readied another comeback but paused. “How did I not see you? I sensed someone there, but I only saw shadow.”

The way Rudy tucked his arm behind his back proved he must be wearing some trinket of note. Zel snatched Rudy’s elbow with his free hand, still gripping his dagger with the other, and yanked Rudy’s arm into view. He wore a simple silver band on one finger. Modest as it appeared, Zel recognized it.

“Lothar’s invisibility ring. He never goes anywhere without it. You are mad. Stealing from the guild master? Why? Why risk so much for me—”

“Because I love you!”

“ Zeeeeeeel !” Ulrich’s roar resounded through the trees, and Zel and Rudy both froze. If Zel hadn’t worked his way around to the other side of the wall, they would already be caught. Ulrich would find them in moments.

“You must go!” Zel pushed Rudy again. “If he had caught you before I did, he would have sucked out your soul, do you understand?”

“Then he is the monster they say he is.” Rudy stumbled back a step, but he wasn’t fleeing. He wasn’t leaving.

“We are monsters to the people we kill too!” Zel spat. “We don’t even get to choose who we are sent after. The sorcerer only kills bandits who come asking for it, or thieves foolish enough to call in reinforcements he shouldn’t have risked. God , you travelled all night, and for what?”

Rudy shook his head, still not turning to go. “He has bewitched you—”

“Rudy—”

“Rapunzel—”

“I love him!”

Rudy stood agape.

“I love him,” Zel said again. “Because he knows the truth of who and what I am and wants me just the same. Could you?” He grabbed Rudy’s hand once more and brought it between his legs to grip through his single layer skirt and breeches.

“Because my name is Zel , not Rapunzel, and I am not what you think.”

Moments passed that seemed to take ages, diminishing the precious few that they had, as Rudy blinked in confusion before, finally, his eyes snapped wide. Zel pushed him in the chest again rather than bear the sting of Rudy jerking his hand away.

“Go. The heart cannot be bewitched, Rudy, only won.” Zel looked him square in the eyes, knowing that the only way to save his friend was to hurt him deeper than he yet had.

“Even if you still want my heart after learning the truth of my body, you were never going to win it. He already has. Now go. Please.”

Maybe because Zel had broken Rudy’s heart so many times, Rudy’s expression did not seem to change beyond numb shock.

“ Go , before you say or do something that will bring down wrath upon you I will not be able to protect you from. And if you don’t go, I might not even care that I can’t.”

ULRICH

T he young man was retreating, however reluctantly.

However stunned to have learned Zel’s well-kept secret.

So that was Rudy. Handsome even with spectacles.

Maybe more so with them, for they suited his face.

Yet Zel had chosen Ulrich, when this boy had risked nearly a dozen people just to ensure Zel’s safety and sanity.

For selfish reasons as well, given Rudy’s clear love for Zel, but as tempted as Ulrich was to drain the boy for daring this rescue, he recognized how much Zel truly cared for him in return.

Zel was doing everything he could to spare Rudy from Ulrich’s wrath, so Ulrich would let Rudy leave.

What mostly convinced him to do so was wondering whether Zel would be better off with someone mortal. If not Rudy, someone else someday, for surely Zel would come to loathe an immortal life as Ulrich had, and eventually, he would loathe Ulrich too.

Of course he would. What a fool Ulrich was to have even briefly entertained otherwise. He knew what his answer had to be the next time Zel asked his question.