Page 41 of Wanted: A Roommate Who Isn't Evil

The Shadow Fairy laughed. A crack of thunder blotted out the end of his chuckles, but he bit his lower lip over a grin. “Because you’ll forget all about thatperson in no time.”

The girl’s face fell. Her gaze darted to the oar in the boat. She tried to grab it, to use it to save herself, but he got to it first and held the dull edge at her throat.

“Don’t try to fight me, Siren. You and I are partners now. We’re going to have a long, beautiful friendship. Because while you might control me through the night, I’ll certainly control you through the day,” he said. His free hand swung out and caught the side of her face. The girl stared at him with wide eyes as everything she knew slipped away in a heartbeat; all the names, all the places, all the thoughts and hopes, and the boy who had saved her from the river that day.

She blinked. Then she looked around, wondering where she was, why the sky was angry, and who this person standing in front of her was. A silver-haired fairy extended a hand with a smile and said, “Hello there, Siren. I’m Barnabus. Your friend.”

For three and a half years the girl and Barnabus travelled across the Four Corners of Ever, performing crimes in the capitol cities and villages alike. They were nearly unstoppable, growing rich and evading every authority who tried to hunt them down to restore order. But on a chilly day after they returned to the North Corner of Ever, they picked the wrong fairy to rob, and they found themselves surrounded by a band of females with sharp weapons.

“Stand back, you faeborn females! My partner will haunt yourdreams! She’ll bring nightmares to your door—” Barnabus’s words were cut off as he was stabbed. The girl gasped.

The remaining females surrounded the girl with fairsabers poised at her throat, and she lifted her hands in surrender.

As the girl watched her partner of over three years fade away, she felt her heart twist in her chest. It was the first thing she’d felt in a long time. Having lost all her memories, she’d found it difficult to feel anything at all most days. But perhaps losing Barnabus was something she wasn’t ready for. She didn’t know anyone else.

The silver-haired Shadow Fairy reached for her with his last bout of strength. He cast her a strange, unexpected smile, and as his breathing turned ragged, he whispered, “Thank you for such a fun ending to my existence. As a gift, I’ll give back what I stole from you before I go, Siren.”

She didn’t know what he meant until he lifted a shaky hand and placed it against the side of her face.

Warmth bled through her mind.

All at once, an entire childhood of memories flashed inward, burning into her understanding like a flame. She saw a sinking ship, she saw the moment she met Barnabus for the first time, how he’d tricked her. She saw her months on the Mycra Sentorious, how her captain had mistreated her and forced her to bring nightmares and terrors upon his enemies. She saw the village where she grew up. How the crew of the Mycra Sentorious had approached and pressured her mother to sell her when the poor woman couldn’t speak up to object.

Thegirl lifted a hand over her trembling lips as she recalled.

Barnabus choked, struggling for air. The girl watched him take his final breath, his eyelids sliding closed forever. But she felt an entirely different set of feelings about his passing now. Tears filled her eyes—the first time in over three years that had happened—and she sat there, stunned, until one of the females around her spoke.

“Is it true you have a gift?” the female asked.

The girl couldn’t speak. Her throat was thick. Her mouth was dry.

“I’ll give you a choice then. I can kill you alongside your friend—”

“He was not my friend,” the girl rasped, realizing it far too late.

“Ah. I see. Then perhaps you’d like to take the second option. Join us, and I’ll help you develop your gift. I can make you truly lethal so no Shadow Fairy can ever control you like that again,” the female promised.

The girl looked up with stinging red eyes, beholding a fierce-looking fairy with black hair like hers, wild green eyes, and fair skin. It was like looking at an older version of herself.

“Not all dreamslippers look the same,” the female said, “but,queensbane, clearly a few of us do.” She put away her fairsaber and extended a hand. “You’re not alone anymore, fairy. Train with us. Give me five years, and I’ll turn you into a deadly and powerful thing no one will be able to stop. You’ll never have to work for another soul in your faeborn life.”

The girl eyed the female’s hand. “Who are you?” she asked.

“We’re the remnant of the Sisterhood of Assassins of the North.”

“A remnant?” The girl blinked her tears away.

The female huffed a bitter laugh. “We were disbanded and mostly slaughtered by our Brotherhood counterpart. But pockets of us survived. We’re attempting to rise again and wage war on the Queene.”

Strength returned to the girl’s legs, and she stood. “I have someone to f…” she began, but she stopped.

Once, she’d had someone to find. Someone who had promised to come back and find her. But it seemed Dranian had never tracked her down like he said he would. Not in the months she’d been on the ship, and not in the three years she’d been at Barnabus’s side. If Dranian Evelry had been searching for her, he could have followed the rumours of the dreamslipper. Barnabus’s tactics weren’t subtle.

Did she still have someone to find? If she hunted Dranian down now, would he still want to see her? Much time had passed. Perhaps he’d forgotten about the promise he’d made. And besides… she’d promised him she would protect him. She swore to become his fairy guard. And she’d watched him get beaten with rocks and sold.

The girl swallowed and looked back at the fierce female. A dreamslipper who embodied a vision of power. Someone who could teach her to be powerful, too. Someonewho could stop her from getting taken advantage of.

“My unhidden name is Rosa. What’s your name?” the female asked, seeming to notice the girl’s resolve change.

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