Page 56 of Zel
A whoosh of air gave him seconds to react, and whether good instincts, magical luck, or both, he tilted his head just as a dagger flew past his face. The sting as the blade nicked his cheek filled him with equal shock and fury, and as he looked to the bandit who had been running away, before he could fling his own dagger back at her, something else flung from him instead.
Part of Zel’s hair unwound from his braids and lashed out as if of its own accord, fueled purely by his anger and the reality of his cheek being cut.
No, he was not yet immortal.
Butyetwould not becomenever.
His hair wound around the bandit’s waist like a whip and reeled her in with enough speed that no dagger flinging was necessary. Zel’s dagger was ready when she lurched into its path.
“R-Rapunzel…” she uttered, and he realized why he had recognized those names.
Zel tore away the mask covering the woman’s face. He knew her—Louisa. They had never been friends, barely acquaintances, but Zel knew her and her beloved Bertold. These were not bandits foolishly targeting the tower.
They were from the Thieves Guild.
Zel’s hair unwound from Louisa as miraculously as it had lashed out. She pulled herself from the dagger’s blade, only to bleed out more quickly from its absence and almost immediately drop to her knees, falling right beside Bertie. The spill of their blood met the spill of Zel’s hair on the ground, staining its gold with red.
When someone deserved death, whether simply an abhorrent figure or killed in self-defense, Zel felt justified in using his skills. He even enjoyed it at times. But he’d never killed someone he knew before.
“Zel—”
A hand clamped down on Zel’s shoulder, and he screamed as he seized its wrist, flipping the offender end-over-end to land hard on his back in front of Zel. “Rudy?!” he snarled, stopping his dagger's downward arc just before it made contact with Rudy's skin. “Are you ma—”
“We came to rescue you!” Rudy scrambled to his feet, adjusting his disturbed spectacles. He was the only one who hadn’t bothered to hide his face. “By God, Zel, what have you done?”
The others were all dead. Maybe a few had escaped before Zel or Ulrich took note of them, but the rest were dead. Zel had no true friends among the Thieves Guild outside of Rudy, but that was just it.
Rudy could have ended up slain or a husk too.
He still could if Ulrich found him.
“Go.” Zel pushed Rudy toward the line of trees. “Get out of here! I don’t need rescuing!”
“Of course you—”
“Get out—!”
“I saw you with him!” Rudy bellowed, jealousy marring his face as he snarled back at Zel, standing his ground. “Last night. At Hessen House. You killed someone and then kissed that monster right out in the open while standing over the body.” The revulsion from Rudy caught Zel up short.
Two bodies were near their feet now, and many others lay beyond the tower wall.
Rudy glanced with a growing look of nausea at Louisa and Bertie. He had a pair of handaxes on his belt like many of the others, and knew how to wield them, but he had never had to use them against another. He had never killed before. “You didn't even bat an eye while slaughtering them.”
“No. That’s why I am the assassin, and you are the pickpocket.” Because even if Zel had known they were from the Thieves Guild, he doubted he would have hesitated for long. Rudy’s ignorance of the acts Zel was trained to commit was just another part of how dishonest their friendship felt sometimes compared to what Rudy believed. It made Zel ache again like he’d ached the last time they’d met outside the tower. “You were down the alley last night behind Hessen House? You saw…”
“I would never watch a lady!” Rudy looked at the ground with a faint flush.
Thank God. He must have looked away as soon as Zel hoisted his skirts, but he had still been there, spying. Before Ulrich, Zel had never liked the idea of anyone seeing him kill. His teachers, his parents, they were one thing, but Rudy had always seemed removed from the uglier activities of the guild.
Like that little girl all those weeks ago.
“You’re not wearing my pendant.” Rudy’s eyes finally returned to Zel. “You were last night. Did he take it from you?”
“No.” But of course Ulrich hadn’t included it when he clothed Zel. “In case you’ve forgotten, I was rudely awakened by an attack this morn and didn’t have time to dress properly.”
“And what haveyouforgotten? Do you remember why you’re here? Because that didn’t look like false seduction from where I was watching you last night. He is doing something to you, Zel. Changing you. Bewitching you!”
Zel readied another comeback but paused. “How did I not see you? I sensed someone there, but I only saw shadow.”
