Page 21 of A Fate Unwoven
Lena frowned. This couldn’t be the man her mother had told her about all those years ago. He was too young. Too … arrogant. But shewas quickly running out of options. It was only a matter of time before someone saw them. Before one of the guards she’d seen earlier patrolled this part of the city.
Or before the prince she was bound to serve hunted her down.
“Kelia.” Her mother’s name stuck in her throat, the pain a welcome reminder of why she was doing this. She risked a look over her shoulder, toward the dark city beyond. “Do you have somewhere we can talk?”
The smuggler flashed another infuriating smile. “My home isn’t far. Although I do insist you remove your dagger from my throat before I take you there.”
Lena hesitated. “How do I know I can trust you?”
“You don’t need to trust me,” he said, an emotion she couldn’t quite place darkening his expression. “You just need to trust I can give you what you want.”
Lena swallowed. “And what’s that?” she asked, close enough to feel his breath against her cheek.
His eyes roamed her features in a way that left Lena feeling strangely raw. “Freedom.”
The word sparked something in her. She might not have trusted him, but … he was the only chance she had of escaping her fate.
And so, not taking her eyes off the smuggler, Lena lowered her blade.
EIGHT
LENA
“Thisis where you live?” Lena asked, trying to keep the judgment from her voice.
There was nothingwrongwith the small house Casimir had led her to. Tall and narrow, it was made mostly out of a mixture of dull, gray brick and paneled wood, all topped by an angular, straw roof which had seen better days. It looked exactly like every other building crammed onto the dirt-trodden streets of Deyecia.
The smuggler’s brow furrowed. He looked genuinely offended. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s just so …” Lena waved her hand in the direction of the house, struggling to find the right word. She’d expected the infamous Raven’s hideout to be, well,hidden.
“Normal.” She eventually settled on.
“Has anyone ever told you your observational skills are astounding?”
Lena huffed. She didn’t have time for this. Every second they spent arguing was another second the Ehmar boy had to find her.
And another second for the ancient power in her veins to grow.
Is that such a bad thing?The ancient voice she’d heard in the forest asked.
A shiver ran down Lena’s spine. “Let’s just get inside,” she said.
“As you wish.” Casimir strode up to the front door, pulling a rickety old key out from somewhere inside his woolen cloak. Lena kept her distance until the door was open—until she could peer into the hallway beyond and see what awaited her.
It didn’tlooklike the home of someone secretly working for the emperor. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t a trap. That someone wasn’t waiting for her on the other side of that doorway with chains ready to wrap around her wrists …
Lena’s chest tightened. A heartbeat passed before the smuggler cleared his throat.
“You first,” Lena said, clutching the hilt of her blade.
He raised an eyebrow but said nothing, instead sauntering into the hallway with all the grace of a dancer. Lena followed after him, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as the narrow walls of the lantern-lit hallway closed in on her. She hated small spaces. There was no room to draw her bow here. No places for her to hide.
“May I?” Casimir’s voice cut through her panic.
It took her a moment to realize he was referring to the still-open door at her back. The one he’d have to brush past her to close. Lena stiffened. He was already too close. She could taste the leather and fresh-air scent of him on her tongue. The air around him shifted, and the mark on her wrist emitted a teeth-clenching throb as the bright, almost luminous lines of his threads flared into view. Lena’s muscles tensed, and despite years of relying on her survival instincts, she turned her back on him just to avoid looking at them.
She closed the door, taking a few seconds to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth, until the pain in her wrist began to fade. When she finally turned around again, Casimir’s threads had thankfully faded from view.
