Page 26 of Wicked Thieves
“What an enormous comfort,” Anelize laughed bitterly, “that should excuse the torment and fear you and your Watchmen have instilled into countless others.”
The Vedran arched a brow in challenge, “Perhaps none of this would have happened if you had remained home like a good little apothecary. Trouble finds those who seek it out, after all. Did you stop to consider that?”
Her blood seared through her veins as she held up a finger, “Do not condescend to me. You are the last person who has a right to say such a thing when it was you we found in that alley moments away from meeting death. You look down your nose at me with self-righteousness, regardless of the suffering your men have brought onto others. Onto mysister…yet you expect me to be anything other than rage personified?”
His face became difficult to read, the deep blue of his eyes appearing to grow darker as he stared at her. As if gauging how to approach a feral beast that was moments away from ripping him to shreds.
Then he said, so calmly that it grated on her already frayingnerves further. “You are in your right to feel however you wish. I am not here to try to endear myself to you. The reason I am here, however, is to propose a bargain.”
Anelize scoffed. “You’ve truly gone mad if you think I’d strike a bargain with you.”
“Hear me out. I’m not foolish enough to wonder why you’re so eager to go to Castle Rime. I’d have done the same if I were in your shoes. But I wasn’t lying to you when I said it would be dangerous. There are more than just Watchmen to worry about in there. With your particularly limited skillset—ah, let me finish.” He held out a hand before she could speak. “I can’t take on the chance of risking your life as well as the men who are following me down this path. The Dobrins, Castian, the children left orphaned on the streets, the countless Vedrans lying in hiding in the most horrid places you can imagine. All of them depend on this working. There is too much at stake. However…”
She waited, the silence stretching between them maddening, until he said, “Learn to control your gift, train with Henry and Zara. They will teach you all they can. If I could bring you anevitto teach you I would, but there are none. The Senin is in four weeks. Give yourself time to relearn what you’ve lost, and me to plan everything. Do this, and then maybe I can find a way to slip you inside.”
If the cost of being able to find Enid comes at the risk of losing herself to the wicked curse of her power, then so be it. She would do anything to have the chance to hold her in her arms again where she will be safe.
Decided, she gave him a curt nod. “Fine.”
The Vedran smiled. “Good. We have ourselves a bargain then. I’ll see you soon, Temperance.”
As he turned to walk away, she said, “That’s not my name, and you know it.”
“Isn’t it? I think it a rather fitting contradiction. Seeing as you hadn’t given me a name before, I had to improvise. Unless you wish to grant me the honor now?” He arched a dark brow in both question and challenge.
A cold smile crept over her lips. “You must have heard it plenty of times from the others by now.”
“Call me a glutton. I like being given what I most crave, not taking that which isn’t granted to me freely.”
“What’s your name then?” she retorted much like a petulant child would. Whatever game it was they were playing now, she was clearly on the losing end of it.
“Been wondering that for a while then, have you?”
“Ass.”
He chuckled. “Aeric Maren. Your turn.”
She was silent for a long moment, repeating his name to herself. A slow lingering song that echoed and took form within her mind. She made him wait before she spoke again, her pride ever present when it comes to him apparently. Then she finally said, “Anelize Yarrow.”
“So it is.” Aeric hummed to himself as he turned to walk away, back down the hall. Before she could spew an insult at him for wasting her time for his own sense of entertainment, he called over his shoulder, “I think I prefer Temperance better.”
Sleep had not come for her as easily as she would have liked.After missing two days and all that she’d come to find out about the rebels, she found she wasn’t tired at all.
Henry and Zara eventually came to wish her good night, the former feeding more logs to the fire for her. It seemed as though both him and Zara had been told that she’d agreed to train with them for they had each pulled her into an embrace before slipping out of the room with the promise to see her tomorrow.
Anelize took to pacing the length of the room in her thoughts. Wandering every now and then to the window to watch the patrols stalking up and down the streets. Dozens of torches illuminating the city beyond as far as she could see. Confirming that Aeric hadn’t been lying to her about stirring up trouble in the port.
Her pacing lasted until her bones started to ache and a shiver ran down her spine. She slowly made her way to the hearth, sinking onto the floor to welcome the warmth emanating from the floor. She stared into the dancing flames until her eyes burned from exhaustion as the logs cracked amidst the stifling heat. Thoughts of Enid spinning around in her mind like twine. There was no stopping them.
Eventually, she turned toward the bed and sank onto the soft covers, tucking her legs close to her chest as sleep forced her to finally close her eyes.
Still, she couldn’t stop thinking about Enid.
Had she been locked away in a dungeon with the others? Or was she kept separated, forced to endure horrors of her own? Had she eaten or been given something to stay warm? Her wandering thoughts left her laying there until all sorts of images haunted her, making her sick to her stomach and her head to pound. It was onlywhen she thought of her standing in the shop, promising to be there when she would return, that the tears had come. Pressing her face into the soft pillow, they spilled down the sides of her face.
Crying for Enid, for Wellyn, and even for herself.
The tears did not stop even as she succumbed to a dreamless sleep.
