Page 34 of Winter's Edge
It let out a pathetic little howl and squirmed violently in Faust's grip.
I'd shot all kinds of wilds before, young and old, I was sure, because we needed to eat, but never one I could see through. And never one to prove a lie.
I'd talked myself into a corner. Now it was time to talk myself out. Because I couldn't do it. I couldn't shoot this wolf pup, even if this poison I'd brought really did work.
"You have anything older?” I asked as calmly as I could manage. “I'm not accustomed to shooting pups just to make a point."
"And I'm not accustomed to little girls demanding I pay them when I already did." Faust’s voice came out low, dangerous.
"You never paid me."
"I'm sure I did. I paid the man who says he works for your pa. Sounds like there was a communication breakdown between the three of you, which is not my problem. Shoot the pup or get out. Either way, do it quick."
When I refused to do either, he made a low growl in the back of his throat and turned to the door, the room tilting crazily through the pup's eyes.
"What about an advance for spring?" I blurted, my desperation lifting my voice higher.
He stopped. "That's not how any of this works. Why don't you go home to your pa, little girl."
"I could work for you up until winter. Sweep, do dishes. Whatever you need me to do." I swallowed down the terror those words brought me. I shuddered to think what 'whatever' might be, but I didn't have much of a choice. It sounded like Lee and Jade didn't, either, and I had to do anything I could to get them far away from here, with money, so we could survive like we always had.
"I don’t hire people who waste my time," he said, and then left, taking the pup's eyes and every last shred of hope I had with him.
I slumped into the chair, feeling my defeat crush deep into my bones. What now? See if someone else was hiring? Like the brothel? The idea made me numb, hollow, and maybe that would be how it would feel lying on a bed with a stranger on top of me. I might as well be dead.
Right now, I wasn't though. I could still find a way to survive the winter. I could steal food, but without sight, I couldn't see who might be watching me and then afterward throwing me in jail. Terrible idea.
I gathered every ounce of will I had left and rose from the table. I would go get Lee and Jade at the very least. After that… Well, I didn't have it in me to think that far ahead.
I left the tavern the same way I came in, though much slower, listening over the taps of my walking stick for where Faust had gone with the wolf pup. But the hallways were empty, the rooms beyond silent other than the main part of the tavern, which I avoided.
Outside, the frigid air closed in with snapping bites and the harsh promise of the coming winter. The reminder I didn't need turned my lungs to ice.
I had no sense of how long I’d been in the tavern, but the gnawing in my stomach suggested quite a long time. It might have even been night. Time to head back, see if Archer—
Something hard rammed into my shoulder as it passed, and I spun around, in absolutely no mood for that bullshit.
"Get the hell out of my way,” I snapped. “There’s plenty of road. This part is mine.”
A whistling chuckle came on a horse-shit scented gust of wind. One that I'd heard before floating on the wind the night Hellbreath came back to me. A chuckle that locked my muscles up tight.
Him. The bald guy who'd shot Baba. The guy who'd stolen the package and ruinedeverything.
"So sorry. Must not have been looking."
I recognized his voice, too, the strange accent. The same as when he’d shouted at Baba before he shot him.
The snow between us crunched as he came closer.
I fought the urge to back away, to shoot him with a real poison-tipped arrow, to scream for help, to beat him to death with my walking stick. He was the reason I was here right now, seriously considering selling my body for money while it sounded like part of my family had been taken against their will, and my baba might be dead. Fury shook through me, more penetrating than the cold.
"Hey, don't I recognize you?" he asked.
My stomach turned in sickeningly slow circles that he was even looking at me. He'd stood in the same room with me at Archer and Grady's when he stole the package. Who knows how many times he'd seen me before or after that.
"Doubtful," I said, trying to keep my voice even.
"No, I never forget a face. You’re that blind girl, aren't you? Kane Song's girl."
