Page 63 of The Omega Thief

Raz nodded. He did. And he took a shallow breath. His Fenrir tried to shift, and Raz didn’t have the energy to stop him, but he heard the frustrated snarl in his head as the shift failed. “I can’t shift,” he whispered, panicked, looking at Attiker. He loved this man with everything. His kingdom. His life. His whole heart.

“Highness,” Benta urged. “You’re on the clock.”

Attiker glanced at Laronne. “A wild Neeral? I can do that.”

Laronne gripped his shoulder. “Female. It has to be female. And you have to bring it here alive.”

Attiker nodded and clutched Raz’s hand. Raz stared down at their entwined fingers. It was odd. He could see Attiker holding his hand, but he couldn’t feel him on his skin, and his fingers refused to curl. His arm grew heavy.

Attiker bent and kissed him, but he smelled Attiker more than he felt him. He tried to tell him he loved him, but he couldn’t quite manage that either.

Chapter twenty-eight

Attikerdidn’twanttomove, didn’t want to leave, but Grandmother stepped up to him and shook his arm just as he was standing frozen while Laronne, Thakeray, and Benta got Raz on to a pallet to take him to the infirmary.

“You need to go,” she said.

Attiker dragged his eyes from where Raz laid. “But—”

“We each have a job,” she said, taking his hand. “Laronne will care for him while you’re gone. Carter, Pinkerton, and I will manage things here.” She cupped his cheek. “But you, my dear, are the only one that can go get what we need to save his life.”

Attiker met Ash’s worried gaze and nodded to the door. Bartholemew and the rest followed him out. Bartholemew leaned close. “Come to the cellars before you leave. It’s important.”

Attiker glanced at him, but then he watched all his friends leave.

“You’re thinking the docks?” Ash muttered as they once more headed out to get provisions and then, finally, the stables. Their horses were well rested, and it took nothing to ready them, much to the consternation of the stable master, who seemed to find it incomprehensible that Attiker should ready his own mount. Ash used his own horse again, and Attiker picked the steady pony that had gotten him home safely last time.

“The docks have plenty of brown rats,” Attiker agreed. “But we need advice on the Neerals.”

“Wish Jib Korban was alive.”

Attiker agreed. “Except he’d be what, three hundred years, give or take?” It was ridiculous. He was having an asinine conversation when what he wanted to do was turn around and go back to Raz.

“Think Her Highness was right,” Ash said after he’d fallen silent.

Attiker glanced over at him. “What?”

“We’ve all got a job to do.”

They arrived at the newly renovated cellars for the Two-Headed Salamander in a little under a half-bell. Attiker hadn’t seen the renovations since the fire, but by the look of things, they weren’t far from reopening. Jenny opened the door on them and ushered them behind the nearly finished new bar and down the steps into the cellar. He smiled grimly at the faces before him. Bartholemew, Gosforth, Karter, and Jenny. He blinked in shock as a figure in the corner lowered her hood.

“Princess,” Attiker whispered. “What are you doing here?”

Veda smirked and accepted the tankard Bartholemew passed her. “I couldn’t miss the greatest ale in Cadmeera, could I?”

Jenny giggled, and Bartholomew pressed a tankard into each of their hands, and Attiker sat.

“My brother has to remain neutral.” Veda stood and pulled off the necklace Attiker had been given should they need safe passage through Rajpur. “But this is a permanent gift, Your Highness. He doesn’t want it back.” Attiker took it with a grateful thank you, put it over his head, and tucked it under his shirt out of sight.

“Isaac and Seamus had to get back, but both say they’ll help if you think they can.”

Ash leaned forward. “You do know the same rules apply. That we all can’t go?”

“Aye,” Gosforth agreed. “But yer need a plan. Yer can’t go off at half-cock.”

Attiker rubbed his head. He knew.

“What about the docks?” Ash said again.

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