Page 14 of Bound and Tide

“You get free run of three blocks—that’s a lot of purses to snatch, so I know you got it, and I know I been clear about what will happen if you don’t pay up.”

Maia kicked, and the humidity in the alley changed, faint arcana in the air.

“Don’t try none of that magic shit on me,” spat the man. “It’s coin or your fingers.”

Metal glinted in the thug’s other hand, and Xander rolled his eyes. A knife was terribly unoriginal, but it would be effective, and it would be quick. Theatrics would have to wait, he supposed, silently making his way down the alley, footsteps covered by Maia’s wheezing protests.

Xander was taller than the girl’s assailant but nowhere near as thickly muscled. The thug could have just broken Maia’s appendages rather than cut them off, but Xander gathered longterm planning was not his specialty. He clicked his tongue, stopping just beyond the range if the man swung. “How is she meant to pick pockets if she’s not got all her fingers?”

Maia’s aggressor snapped his head around, grip relenting, and she took a deep breath. “Who the fuck are you?”

“The person who’s apparently going to settle her debts. How much does she owe you?”

Two equally confused faces stared back under the slim light of the moons. Xander tapped a foot and waited.

“Ten gold,” the thug eventually barked.

Xander arched a brow at Maia. “What in darkness’s shadows did you buy off this brute for ten gold?”

She only snorted and tried to pry the fingers away from her neck.

“She runs in my territory, and I keep her safe. She ain’t paid up in moons, and it’s what I’m owed.”

“Safe? From what—limb lopping?” Xander scoffed. “Sure, all right, ten it is.” He rifled blindly in his satchel and handed off the amount, and even the rats in the alley squeaked in surprise.

Maia was unceremoniously dropped, dragging in coughing breaths as she collapsed against the wall. The man pocketed the coins, sidestepping Xander, knife still brandished. “Same time next week,” he said without looking over his shoulder.

“Ah, sir?” Xander folded his arms in his cloak. “To whom do you pay safety insurance so that I might barter her a better deal?”

He didn’t turn back, striding away into the dark. “No one. I said I run this street, and I don’t give discounts.”

“That makes things a little easier then.”

There was just a smidgen of magic left itching under Xander’s skin, but it was enough. His blade sailed through the air, noxscura following behind, and the dagger implanted itself right at the base of the man’s skull all the way to the hilt. He went stiff, choking out surprise, and then fell forward to the cobbles with a definitive thump. There were so many more climactic ways of killing a man, but the suddenness of his death would have to do for showmanship.

Xander grinned at Maia, pleased enough with her wide-eyed stare.

“By all the gods,” she wheezed as she retrieved the box she’d dropped and clasped it against her chest, “did you…did you just kill Tobias?”

“Well, I saved a different man’s life today, so I’d say, betwixt the Abyss and Empyrea, I’m even.” He strode up to the fallen hooligan and flicked his wrist. The knife quivered but did not extract itself. He tried again, but it remained still. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he groaned and bent to pull it out. The brute’s head lifted along with the dagger until the weight of his skull pulled the handle from Xander’s grip. When his face fell back to the cobbles there was a bone-snapping crack. “Really?” he asked the knife.

The dagger wiggled in response, but it wasn’t even arcane, just standard vibration.

Begrudgingly, Xander pressed a boot to the back of the recently deceased’s head and gave the weapon a vicious tug. With a satisfying squish and a repulsive splatter of blood up his pants, the blade was finally free. “Oh, these trousers too? But I just had everything laundered.”

Footsteps filled up the alley, Maia’s shadow disappearing in the direction of her home.

“As if I don’t know where you’re headed.” He collected his coins from the body and quickly checked the other pockets, finding a few additional silver and another of those religious trinkets. So much for being under the protection of the gods.

Xander had met his running quota much earlier in the day, so he leisurely strolled around the corner and up to the door that had just been slammed. He hesitated before knocking, but the voice didn’t come, thank darkness. He counted off a few moments of quiet as he continued to hesitate—was it something else that held him back? The girl had already seen him, been saved by him, the ungrateful brat, and yet somehow indecision still weighed heavily in his gut. He knocked, and the silence that answered nearly sent him back to cleaner streets and his not-comfortable-but-better-than-here bed.

But he couldn’t waste Red’s help.

“I’m not here to kill you, if that’s what you think,” he called up against the intricately carved door. “I’m bored of doing murder now. I’d prefer a chat instead.”

There was still no response.

“Look, I know you’re in there, and it should be obvious to you that I’ll eventually make my way inside, so you may as well opt for the choice that keeps this pretty door intact.”

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