Page 45 of Dishonor Among Thieves
Rain stumbled past me, armed with nothing but a poker, and watched the blood mark the path of the mage’s escape from the manor.
“Why!” Neo charged at me, his sword drawn. “How could you let her escape! She could have killed us all. She still might!”
I dropped onto the floor and rested my hands against my knees. I hung my head, the charm around my neck dangling forward ominously from its leather cord. “Kill me,” I said quietly. “I understand if it’s what you must do.”
“I should end you here,” he seethed, “but first I must know why.” Neo grabbed the back of my shirt and roughly pulled me to my feet. “What do you know! Tell me what that was!”
An acrid taste filled my mouth as I held back the need to be sick. My eyes burned, and my tongue felt heavy and dry. I was still on all fours, unable to stand, unwilling to try. My shaking hands could hardly support my weight. I wept violently as I tried to explain.
What I’d seen would change my reality forever. My past, my present. My future. Tears choked my words as I looked into my husband’s furious face. Any hope I might have had died in my chest, my freedom a flower clipped from its stem and left to wither in the sun.
“That mage was my sister.” I coughed, gagging as I forced the words out. Shame and confusion compressed my chest, making it almost as hard to breathe as the illusion had. I lifted my chin to see Neo’s blood-red eyes close, his fangs retract, and his sword lower as he considered my words. “That was Gini.”
ChapterTwelve
Neo sheathed his sword and turned away from me in disgust. “Get up,” he barked. “The only place you’re welcome now is the cellar. You’ll be locked up where you can’t hurt anyone until we decide your fate.”
“Neo, wait.” Odile released the arms she had wrapped around her sister and tiptoed through the wrecked sitting room, avoiding the blood spilled on the dark tile.
“This is not the time for compassion! She must be dealt with as the danger she is,” he growled. “This woman has brought doom to our door!”
“That’s my point exactly.” Odile lowered herself to the floor, getting down on hands and knees. Her probing voice was gentle, curious. “You met this girl just days ago, and she’s not been out of your sight since she arrived here. She’s had no contact with anyone that we know of, so how did the mage find us?”
Odile rested a hand on my shoulder. Her question was kind, as if she hadn’t immediately leapt to Neo’s conclusion. That I hadintentionallybrought danger to their door. That I somehow was behind the mage who came here wreaking destruction on the manor. I didn’t blame his sense of caution, but it made far more sense that I was the one in danger—not them. There was no reason they would have been targeted by my sister if I was not here.
I leaned back on my heels and covered my face with my hands, not caring to wipe the snot and tears away. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t process what I’d seen, why this was happening. My heart ached with questions that erupted from deep within me. Why? How? I didn’t understand, and if I couldn’t provide answers to them, Neo would be done with me. Send me to the cellar, and then what? Brick me into the wall? Leave me to die?
I shook my head, my voice breaking with grief and regret. “I am so, so sorry. I…truly don’t understand.”
“Was that really your sister?” Odile asked. “Could that have been another illusion? A trick she played on your mind to convince you to let her past?”
I shook my head, immediately rejecting the idea. I sniffed hard, my swollen eyes and runny nose making it nearly impossible to speak clearly. “My sister’s magic doesn’t work that way. She can only cast illusions that make you believe something is real. Minor mind control. That’s all she can do. She cannot create the appearance in the physical world of something that doesn’t exist. She can make you think you cannot see her, but that’s far easier than taking someone’s own memories or treasured thoughts and creating something inside their mind with them.”
“You’re sure?” Odile dug into her sleeve and withdrew a length of clean cloth and handed it to me to wipe my face. “Maybe she manipulated your thoughts so you believed the woman you saw was your sister?”
Gia looked badly shaken, but she agreed. “When the woman arrived, she looked exactly as she did when she left. I would have no idea what Brex’s sister looked like. If she was trying to control me, or scare me, there are plenty of other things she could have shown me.”
“If she meant to deceive the entire household, she would arrive looking like exactly what Brex expected. Don’t be fools!” Neo’s nostrils flared as he shouted, his eyes hard and unfeeling.
“Yes, that makes sense, but…” Fresh tears sprung to Gia’s eyes, as if even in explaining it, she was reliving the pain and fear. “The entire time I was bound, I sawnothing. Only felt the sensations, and my body reacted as if it were all real. It was all the more terrifying because I could not see anything to fight against. It was as though my enemy was my own mind.”
I blew my nose miserably and nodded. That sounded exactly like Gini’s magic.
“You’re certain?” Odile asked, her eyes staring into mine. “You do not believe that was someone else, someone who maintained the illusion of looking like your sister, while at the same time controlling both Rain and Gia?”
I shook my head. “I suppose it is possible, but…who would it be? I don’t know anyone else who would want to appear to me in Gini’s guise.” I bit my lip hard to stop myself from crying again. This type of betrayal was senseless. Why would my sister come here to hurt people I cared for? And how, by the gods, how did she find me? “I believe that was truly her. I believe she did this to all of you. I just do not understand why. I simplycannotunderstand.”
“She did this to you too,” Gia pointed out. She was more guarded than Odile, but she seemed shaken, not nearly as suspicious of me as Neo.
He knelt beside Odile and me, fury in his drawn brows. “Answer me this. How did she know where to find you? Who knows you’re here!”
“I don’t know,” I said, growing more hopeless under his scrutiny. I looked at him, my words weak and pathetic, even to myself. I wasn’t certain if the roles were reversed if I’d believe the words coming out of my mouth. “Not a soul in the Realm knows I’m here. I’ve told no one. Spoken to no one. I had no idea whether Gini was even still alive. That was the whole reason I sought you out in Fish Head End, demanded your job. I wanted to return to the foundling home and buy the information I needed to find her. To be reunited with her. I thought she… I thought she truly loved me.”
My mouth was so dry it was difficult to speak. The pain in my throat had faded, but I felt the shadowy tendrils of magic as if the vines were still wrapped around my neck. I swallowed what little saliva I could and pressed a hand to the front of my throat.
Neo’s eyes followed my every move. The way I licked my parched lips, my trembling hand as I reached for my charm. I could no longer count on the precious little comfort it might bring, but the habit felt natural to me now.
There was no compassion in his stony gaze as he snarled a question. “What is this? What is that token you hold so dear?”
