Page 47 of Dishonor Among Thieves
“Neo, don’t touch her! She’ll come back!” Odile’s words were watery, distant.
My present reality, the floor beneath my back, the rain falling outside the manor, disappeared as I returned to that fourth day. I should have been blood-sick. I should have been weak and thirsty. A woman whose face I still could not see brought me a rat. It scampered into the corner of a small wooden trap, its fluffy fur filthy with broken bits of grass and hay. I didn’t want to pet it, didn’t want to touch its sleek fur and tiny nose.
“Drink,” the voice urged. “It’s your time, girl. Drink, or die of lack. Your choice. I’ve been paid either way.”
My mouth watered, sour saliva spilling past my lips. I dribbled down the front of my dress, certain I’d be sick. The rat’s tail was so thick, like a cord of rope. I didn’t want to touch it, but I snaked my fingers through the slats of the cage in greeting. I would not hurt it, but it knew no better, well-trained in what was to come and making its feelings about the matter clear. It lunged wildly, seeking escape, and I dropped the entire cage. The wood fractured, and the tiny thing squeaked at the possibility of freedom. But she, the woman, slapped me, my name ringing in my ears like a curse.
“Find your own prey to drink, if you won’t accept mine. Die if that’s what you want. No one here will weep for you.”
I was alone again. The room went dark. The woman snatched the rat and left me to die of blood-thirst. But I didn’t. I wouldn’t. Two days later, when I should have been hollow and fragile, one foot hovering in Forráheim, the Realm of the soul, she returned.
“You cannot be… This cannot… Unless…”
I understood then. She did not know she’d welcomed a common person into her sanctuary. I was not like my mother. She had been deceived. My mother had paid handsomely for my care, but in leaving me with others of her kind, my powerless mother had done the one thing she believed she could do to ensure my survival without her. She handed me to those who shared the terrible power of my secrets.
But my mother could not have known, surely, that the woman whose care she delivered me into wanted nothing more than a few extra half-pennies in her purse. She cursed my mother’s soul, swore at me. Slapped me again and again. Until finally, wicked laughter grated my ears.
“You’re worth little to me alive, but even less dead. Get up. You’re now mine to keep. Mine to control. Mine.”
My eyes snapped open, and I shook so hard my teeth cracked against each other. I broke into an icy sweat, rivulets of moisture tickling my neck and face. I was lying on my back in the sitting room, Odile’s anxious face above mine, Neo’s beside her. His stony expression revealing only anger.
“Burn that godforsaken thing,” I whispered, pointing to the token. And then everything went dark.
* * *
I driftedin and out of consciousness after that, aware vaguely of being carried up the stone steps of the manor. I was too exhausted, wrung out like a decades-old cleaning rag, to care. I flitted in and out of dream, memory, and reality. Blankets covered me, and I grew too hot, kicked them away. Water was held to my lips, and if I sipped, I knew not how I managed to swallow.
When I finally opened my eyes, I recognized Neo’s quarters. I was in his bed, awkwardly tossed across the entire thing, legs and arms splayed, a bare foot poking from beneath layers of blankets. Tendrils of fire flared from the hearth, its lulling flicker competing with the gentle patter of rain against the windows. I blinked rapidly, feeling lighter and more alert than I had in a very long time. I reached for the charm around my neck, but to my relief, it was gone. My fingers only momentarily missed their worry stone, but I clenched them into a fist as I recalled the reality. That “gift” had been controlling me. Manipulating my memories. Altering my world so that I could not be truly free.
“I want her dead,” I whispered to the dark, silent form hovering in a corner. “I will kill her with my own hands.”
Neo stepped into the light cast by the fire. His chest and feet were bare. He wore only a thin pair of breeches tied loosely around his hips. “Those are hardly the first words I expected to hear out of your mouth, but somehow, I’m also not at all surprised. The loss of enchantment suits you.” He smirked and sat on the bed beside me, every muscle and ridge in his back shifting with the movement. He reached a hand out, and I accepted his offering.
He laced his fingers through mine, mirroring the gentle, intimate move I’d tried and so horribly failed at earlier this morning. He held mine firmly, studying my fingers and stroking the skin of each digit with his free hand.
“How are Dale and Antonia?” I asked softly, breathing in the clean, rain-scented fragrance of his room.
“They are quite well.” Neo nodded. “My brother and I were due to drink. Our venom has healed the damage done by the mage. I expect Antonia is already on her way up with a meal she expects you to awaken and eat. I told her not to haul water for a bath until she’d rested, but Flynn is downstairs, so I expect once you’re up and about, we’ll have quite a parade of visitors.”
“Flynn… How did the girl with the death mask take the news?” Although my mind felt crystal clear, my heart was weary. I might yet be cast out from this place or would leave of my own will. But that did not mean I would stop caring about the people I’d already grown so fond of. I looked at Neo, searching the sharp planes of his face.
“She was understanding.” He lifted my hand to his face and breathed a kiss again my skin. “We have time to sort that out.”
Liquid fire traveled up my arm at his tenderness. My breath shuddered and my body warmed, but I would not let a single sign of affection distract me.
“And what of Elgit?” I asked.
“You’ve been up here two short hours,” he said. “Not days. The goblin’s condition is the same. Odile has taken over his watch while Rain and Gia have set about repairing the damage to the manor. The storm has kept away any from the village who might need her healing. No small favor from the gods.”
I sighed and closed my eyes, holding fast to Neo’s hand. “Gini was never my sister,” I said, still lost to disbelief of that realization. “She was the house mother, owner of the place where she raised foundlings. Orphaned beings not like the common folk. Vampires, shapeshifters. So many species, all destined by their birth to hide.” I flared my nostrils and glared at him. “She profited from my mother’s innocence. From her mistake.”
I explained to him how my mother believed she was leaving me with others like her, others who would protect me as one of their own. “What she didn’t realize is that being human made me disposable.” I’d cried so much today, I hardly had the ability to form tears. My eyes stung, but I carried on, my voice clear. “Gini claimed me as hers. I worked, cleaned, accepted abuse and poor treatment. I had nowhere else to go, and if I did in fact try to leave…” I shrugged. “I had no skills. No money. No horse.”
Neo’s grip on my hand tightened, his jaw clenched as he listened.
“I often wondered why she didn’t just kill me. But I truly believed that over time, she grew used to my company. I worked hard, cared for the children.” I smiled. “Maybe that’s why I couldn’t leave Elgit to die. He reminded me not only of my mother, who I know died alone, but all the children I nursed through loneliness and sickness year after year. They were my family. My siblings. Even though I was nothing like them.”
“What happened?” Neo asked, moving closer to me on the bed. I shoved aside the blankets so he could tuck in beside me. “Why did you leave Byrlad?”
