Page 5 of Zel (The GriMM Tales #2)

“Yes, I did.” Zel hugged Rudy back, though he wondered if Rudy would be as jubilant if he’d witnessed the slaughter. Rudy was a handsome lad of Zel’s same age, with brown hair, sun-kissed skin, and blue eyes that required a pair of spectacles to see clearly.

The base of the Thieves Guild was beneath the city.

There were many secret entrances through the city’s undercrofts.

One such cellar entrance was in the storeroom of the shop Zel’s parents ran as cover—and used for additional funds, most of which still went to the guild’s coffers.

The entrance led to a series of passages, which eventually led to the guild’s primary common room for dining and celebrations.

For being a bit dark and dank, the base was always clean, always warm in the colder months, and cool when it was hot. If missions were successful, food and drink were as plentiful as possible for during a famine.

“Rapunzel did well,” Gregor said, hugging Zel in the wake of Rudy’s embrace while more cheers rang out from other members.

Zel preferred the shortened version of his name, but he could never quite get up the nerve to correct his parents.

He had only begun correcting others the previous winter.

“Though I think you were a bit more distracted than usual tonight,” Gregor added in a whisper.

“Sorry, Father.”

“It’s understandable, but you came through in the end, just like you will in the month to come.” Gregor kissed Zel’s temple before releasing him.

The cheers were the most other members of the guild—besides Zel’s parents, his teachers, or Rudy—had ever praised him.

Even here among peers, Zel was often looked at as something to be wary of, envious of, or worse, like he was some savior set to acquire the fortune they all hoped to share when the sorcerer was defeated.

The pressure was great and would get no easier until the deed was done.

Rudy was Zel’s closest and honestly only friend because he was one of the few who looked at Zel as simply Zel .

Well, when Rudy remembered that Zel preferred his shortened name over Rapunzel. It hadn’t been long since he’d begun to request it, but constantly correcting others grew tiresome, especially when so few listened.

Before Zel could find his mother in the crowd, Lothar’s voice rose above the rest. The many members in the room hushed and parted to reveal the guild master standing in front of the head table, where he would eventually sit.

It and the other tables were covered in various foods and goblets overflowing with wine or ale.

“Three cheers for Rapunzel! Newest assassin for Queen, kingdom, and guild glory!” Lothar shouted.

“Oy, oy, oy!” everyone answered.

It was surreal. The time was finally upon Zel to fulfill his destiny. Amid such revelry, he could almost forget what came with the morn and that he had made an orphan of a little girl tonight.

Gregor pushed Zel forward, and once Zel reached Lothar, he dropped to one knee in a reverent bow. Zel’s mask was already lowered from earlier, but Lothar pushed the hood from Zel’s head, cupped his cheek, and lifted his chin to make Zel look at him.

Lothar was not unattractive. If Zel were to guess, he would have thought Lothar looked about forty, but Zel’s parents had said he’d barely looked five winters younger twenty winters ago.

He was long-lived, a supposed blessing from the Queen, but not immortal like he craved.

The abundance of magical trinkets he wore was proof of that, from a ring that allowed for brief invisibility, to an earring capable of communication with whomever wore its twin regardless of distance, to any number of other baubles no one person knew all the secrets of, other than Lothar himself.

Only someone gifted with magic could craft magical items. The greater the potential of the person, the greater the items they could create.

Lothar had no innate magic, but with the guild at his disposal, he had the ability to acquire whatever he might wish for.

One item Zel had always been curious about was another ring, black, possibly even obsidian, with a circle engraved into it bisected by a horizontal line.

Everything about Lothar was a bit paler and brighter than others in the guild. Pale skin, pale hair that was almost silver, slicked back into a long ponytail, and icy blue eyes. For guild members, Lothar’s word was more law than the Queen’s, but his touch always made Zel’s stomach churn.

“Well done, dear girl.” Lothar leaned close to Zel’s face. “You are ready. The fairest of flowers have the sharpest of thorns, do they not? But they are no less beautiful for it, nor less worthy of being plucked in due time.”

Just as Zel could not show fear toward the sorcerer come tomorrow, he could not show Lothar his revulsion. “Yes, Master Lothar.”

Lothar lifted Zel to his feet. “I have a gift for you. Anna, come!” He snapped his fingers, and a woman stepped forward.

The shabby way she was dressed was the first indication something was wrong.

The collar around her neck was the other.

That was a control collar, one of very few in Lothar’s possession.

Similarly functioning wristbands were used on enslaved elves to prevent the use of their magic, but those rarely also enslaved their minds since that would have robbed them of their creative abilities, which was what elves were most used for.

This type of collar turned its wearer into a seemingly blank slate, silent and obedient.

It was said that their true selves were conscious but trapped, so they could only watch as their body obeyed any command given to it by whomever put the collar on them.

Lothar used the collars on traitors.

“Anna was caught stealing from our coffers!” Lothar announced to the room. “She had no excuses, merely her greed to have more than her brethren!”

Grumbles and jeers filtered through the crowd.

“You know what fate awaits such traitors.” Lothar returned his attention to Zel. “As a final gift for your induction, it is you, Rapunzel, who will carry out Anna’s sentence.”

“But… won’t that make her my ninth kill instead of the sorcerer as preordained?”

“Do not worry. You are going to have her kill herself.” Lothar handed the woman a dagger. “Anna, you will now obey whatever Rapunzel asks of you.”

Anna’s seemingly blank eyes met Zel’s, and to his horror, he believed it must have been true that her mind was her own somewhere within, because he could see the terror shining through.

She deserved this end, didn’t she, for daring what she had?

“We do not abide traitors,” Lothar went on. “Rapunzel, take your place among our ranks and tell Anna to split open her belly.”

Zel couldn’t help that he hesitated.

She deserved this… didn’t she?

“Remember, Rapunzel. We do not mourn our marks.”

“They are already dead,” Zel finished. “You heard him,” he said to Anna, “split yourself open for your wrongs against the guild.”

Despite the fear visible in her eyes, she wasted no time before turning the dagger, stabbing it into her side, and slicing across her middle, deep enough to spill her innards on the floor in front of her.

She dropped, and Lothar kicked her onto her back.

Zel knew why, for while this would not count as his ninth kill, he was still expected to watch the light leave her eyes, while her blood pooled toward his boots.

At least the light dimmed quickly.

“To Rapunzel!” Lothar shouted. “Tomorrow, her true task begins!”

“To Rapunzel!” the crowd echoed.

“Enjoy yourself tonight, pretty petal.” Lothar stepped over the body as uncaring as ever, while some of his guards came forward to clean up the mess.

“And get out of those clothes and into something more befitting of a woman. Unless you desire anything else tonight, as reward for a job well done? Do you, Rapunzel?”

“Only one thing, Master Lothar. Please, call me—”

“ Z el!” Rudy panted Zel’s name beside his ear, while hoisting him onto the table in the storeroom.

Not even he knew the truth, despite being the only person Zel had fooled around with since the first stirs of fleshly yearning set upon them.

“God, I love your breasts.” He kissed and licked Zel’s neck.

“What breasts?” Zel laughed, for he had never tried faking a larger bosom but made a point to remark on his flatness as if it was his unfair lot in life.

Using the cellar entrance into the shop’s storeroom, Zel had slipped away first, after whispering to Rudy the common code for their rendezvous, a Thieves Guild saying they had taken as their own:

“ Only empty pockets need filling. ”

It was particularly used among pickpockets, since the pockets of their marks were always full, and their pockets needed filling. Rudy had yet to fill Zel’s pocket , but the promise that he might always lured him.

Zel and his parents lived on the second floor, so he had gone up to change, then met Rudy back here.

The layers expected of a woman could be a pain.

Bodice and apron over shirt and outer petticoat, over corset and inner petticoat, all over chemise and stockings.

Rudy was adept, however, at getting everything up top undone to slip his hands into Zel’s chemise and brush his fingers across Zel’s nipples.

He arched into Rudy’s touch, always enjoying when his friend did that.

“I prefer small breasts,” Rudy said, grinding his clothed cock against Zel’s thigh. “Large ones get in the way.”

“Oh? And how many large ones have you fondled?” Zel turned his head to tongue Rudy’s ear. He did so love being touched like this. He loved touching someone else. He loved the heat it roused in his belly. The difficult part was preventing Rudy from discovering the hardness between his legs.

“I have fondled plenty!” Rudy argued. “But my other girls let me touch them in more places.”

Liar , Zel thought. He doubted Rudy had fooled around with anyone else, and if he had, they definitely hadn’t allowed him between their legs.