Page 86 of Cursed Shadows 5

I find that a week is too soon and the work is too great. All First Wind, Hedda and I are slaving away in the dwelling upstairs. I dust and sweep and clean out the hearth. Hedda decides she is now helpful, and she hunts rodents.

Then my fingers creak with movement, and my knees crackle as I stand, and so I decide my body has had enough.

Without Eamon’s nagging on our monies, I let myself venture to the nicer streets of Kithe for better ham cuts and some fresher potatoes. Maybe I splurge a tad and get the already peeled and boiled potatoes, because cooking is not my ally—and I still haven’t quite figured out how long to cook them to point of soft but not mush. Also washing potatoes is such a dull chore.

My phase’s expenses are stacked in the netted bag pulled over my shoulder; it weighs down on my muscles and blossoms an early ache before I even reach the streets of Cheapside.

I shouldn’t.

Without an escort, Eamon still gone, Hedda a mere pup galloping around my boots, and no allies in these streets, I shouldn’t take the shortcut to Cheapside, those little lanes and alleyways.

I shouldn’t, but I do.

Maybe it’s that the bag is weighing down too much too soon on my shoulder, and I’m sure I’m going to bruise, or that I’m already exhausted from my phase at the tavern and I just want to be by the fireplace, a cooked meal on a plate, and the warmth of Hedda curled up at my side, and that the shortcut saves me close to half an hour.

Whatever it is, I risk it when I shouldn’t. I take the shortcut in the Quiet, and I am a fool for it.

Hedda is content.

She knows not the danger I put us in.

Clumsy limbs galloping around my every step, her hunting instincts playfully tuned to the legs of my overalls that she pounces on every other moment.

I’m halfway down the final lane to my street when that whisper returns.

“Nari.”

A breath shudders my chest.

The whisper came from the dark behind me—a whisper I have not heard since I saw Daxeel phases ago. I thought it gone.

Foolish me.

Loosening a steadying breath, I push forward and keep on my way. But I hardly make it three steps before Hedda grunts an excited sound and shoots past me.

I frown down at her, neck twisting to follow her back up the way we came…

Towards Daxeel.

I whirl around to face the shadows thicker in this lane than out in the street where there are glowjars and lantern lights.

I wait for him to step into the faint light that flickers down on me from the window above, orange flames burning in a hearth.

He does. And at his boots, Hedda paws at him.

The cerulean gleam of his eyes is fixed on me.

I adjust the strap of my bag. “What are you doing out here?”

He lifts his gaze over my head.

I trace it across the street—and up to the double paned windows of my dwelling.

My face smooths and I turn a flat look on him. “You came to watch me again.”

“Yes.”

I huff an exhausted sound and tug the strap off my shoulder. The bag thuds to the ground, and I’m glad for all the vegetables and meats being wrapped in parchments.

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