Page 51 of Dishonor Among Thieves
I nodded, the soft, melodic song that played in my soul when he touched me waning into whispers. “I will.”
Together, we walked hand in hand down the stone stairs, Rain close at our heels. Rain went off to prepare Antonia and Dale while Neo stood outside the closed sitting room door.
“Brexia. Wait.”
My hand was on the knob, frozen in place at the sound of his voice.
He moved close behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He whispered against my ear. “You freely choose this?”
If I’d had any tears left, I might have shed them then. But I could not. Would not.
“Yes,” I said, my voice clear and steady.
I turned my back to the door and reached for him. This kiss was insistent, demanding. Scarcely a candle’s flame compared to the wildfire that was beginning to burn between us. I opened my mouth to him, covering his plush, broken lips with mine, committing the taste and touch and feel of him to memory. His hands roamed my hips, tugging me impossibly closer until Gia’s soft cough behind us reminded us there was no time for passion. Not now. Never again.
“I’ll allow no harm befall you,” he promised, as he slowly pulled his hands from my body. “You will be safe.”
“I make the same vow to you,” I said. Swallowing hard, I released him. For good. “I’ll send out Odile.”
He opened the door. After I went inside the sitting room, he closed it softly behind me, sealing the promises and hope of the last few days away forever. I looked over the room where my quest for a job, for a husband, for stability had begun just a few short days ago and dizzying pangs of love and longing struck my chest. I pinched my nose, the sting of tears threatening to undo every plan I’d made.
I freely chose this,I reminded myself. Even if the choice would not deliver what I so desperately wanted, I took comfort in the fact that at least the decision had been mine. This moment, where I was, and what I planned to do was the result of the only power I’d ever had.
I would wield and not waste it.
I got to work, searching for and finding my throwing knife on a table that had been set back onto its legs. I slipped the blade into the vacant fitting on my thigh. “Odile?”
She looked like she’d fallen asleep leaning back in the velvet armchair. “Oh!” She sat upright and immediately leaned forward to check on Elgit. “He looks surprisingly good,” she said, her voice groggy. “His temperature remains steady. That’s a very positive sign. His body is working hard to heal itself. He may just pull through.”
I was so very relieved. “Odile, I owe you my thanks,” I said, extending my hands. She took mine in hers. “You spoke up for me. Believed in me when the easier course would have been blame.”
“Well, I believe in you, Brex.” She lifted my hands to her lips and kissed the back of each hand. “The easier course is rarely the right one,” she said sweetly. “I know that too well. My sister and I are no strangers to isolation, to persecution.” She flitted her eyes down toward our hands.
I remembered the trouble Neo had mentioned that Gia and Odile had had with vampires.
“My father was a crofter,” she said quietly. “He managed the farmland and livestock, as well as the farm staff that lived and worked on Haeloc’s vast estate many, many years ago.”
“Haeloc?” I widened my eyes, shocked at the connection. “You have a connection to him as well?”
She nodded. “My family lived in the crofter’s residence until… Well, when I was a very young girl, just four years old, I fell off a horse in Lord Haeloc’s stable. He was there, saw the accident, and bit me. Treated me with his venom so I would not suffer. But he did not gift me health without exacting a deep price.”
She released my hands as Gia opened the door and peeked in.
“I’ll be a moment, sister.” Odile continued her story. “When my mother fell ill many years later, my father begged Haeloc to bite her so that he might heal her. Haeloc refused, and my father went mad with despair. Ran into the village begging for someone to bite my mother and save her. He was drawn and quartered by the common folk right before our eyes. My sister, a girl of just eight, watched as our father was executed without so much as a trial. Our mother died a few days later, and we were cast out of the crofter’s residence. For years Gia and I worked to pay punishing fines imposed by the shire-reeve for our parents’ crimes. Even to this day, I’m prohibited from charging fees or collecting any gifts for my healing work.”
“Prohibited?” I echoed.
She nodded. “The shire-reeve considers healers necessary but untrustworthy. Inclined to magic and alchemy.” She sighed. “No faith in those things they do not understand. Like bodies and herbs and what truly heals. Listening and compassion have cured more patients than any tonic, at least in my practice.”
“By the gods,” I gasped. I could not imagine surviving what these two had seen. “How do you have such kind, open hearts? After all you’ve been through?”
Gia called to her sister. “We must ready ourselves.”
Odile released my hands and quietly gave up her seat to me. “I’ve seen so much pain, so much loss. Life loses its beauty when a soul hardens itself. And I refuse to give my soul over to the likes of Haeloc or that mage. Or any who might harm me. My soul is my most precious possession, and only I can protect it. Staying kind, staying open… That was a choice,” she said. “One I’ve never once regretted.”
I watched while the sisters closed the door behind them, their soft chatter dissipating as they headed upstairs to change into armor.
As soon as I was alone, I searched the room. The mess had been swept up, likely by Dale, the shredded fabric and feathers from the wrecked pillows now gone. The furniture had all been set upright, and I spotted my favorite embroidered pillow on a small table. It had escaped destruction, but only barely. Antonia’s expert fingers could no doubt repair it.
