Page 54 of Silver Tongue Devil

My gaze was so fixed on her retreating form it took me a few moments to realize Scot was standing there, staring at me.

“What?”

Scoffing, he rubbed his bearded chin. “I have known youa longtime, and in all those centuries, I have seen you with a lot of lasses, including Amara.” He wagged his head. “But I have never seen you as fucked as you are now.” He strolled away before I could respond, his statement echoing in my gut, riling up resentment and defensiveness.

Fuck that shit. I would never be fucked over by a woman again. Amara was a mirror of me then. Opportunistic, seductive, with no morals or boundaries. We were too much alike, but I stupidly believed it made us perfect together, bringing out each other’s worst side at a time I didn’t want a conscience. I didn’t want to remember all I had lost, what I had done. She played me like a fiddle, using me, stringing me along, bringing me close again only to stomp on what was left of my black heart.

Finally, I had seen the error of my ways, and now I was ashamed of my weakness. I vowed I would never let it happen again. Especially with a foe whose father’s blade hung on my belt.

Pirates weren’t meant to be with one person. Our love was the sea, the adventure, tasting and sampling everything all over the world. Gaining riches, killing, and plundering.

And that was the way I wanted it.

The sky rumbled with an early afternoon thunderstorm, suffocating the air with humidity and adding to the stench in the streets. A mix of spices, food, garbage, feces, body odor, and rats.

“Stay close,” I muttered to Kat from under my hood, pulling her in tighter, my attention on anyone bumping into us, the streets bustling with activity around us. I had seen Shang-hai grow from a new trading post to a pirate haven, rocketing to the top when it became a major exporter of cars, phones, and computers. When the wall fell, magic destroyed all of it, plunging Shang-hai into dark times, splitting the rich and poor even more.

Nowadays, it was yet another city becoming a shadow of itself as the elite took more and more, ignoring everything beyond their own needs while the working class suffered under the heavy hand of greed and cruelty.

It was scary how fast prevalent cities could fall in the aftermath when their communist tendency went full force or they returned to the “warlord era.”

The crowded, dirty sidewalks, filled with horse carriages and wagons, were lined with skyscrapers, a strange mix of the old world and new. The extreme between the haves and have-nots was prevalent, the poor now back in rags, trying to make a small living in the streets while Emperor Ju and his rich friends lived in excessive wealth away from the poverty-stricken people he forced to be here. And every year, more and more joined the impoverished, becoming another statistic.

The less money and opportunities there were, the more cutthroat a place became, everyone trying to claw a little higher up the ladder, trying to survive.

Keeping our heads deep in our hoods, a cloth across our nose and mouth to not only block the stench of horseshit and sewer, but to keep our faces hidden, I steered us toward the area even most criminals and Ju’s police stayed away from. The area was run by the Chinese mafia, who controlled the black market, which included almost everything. Ju had made many things illegal—alcohol, porn, drugs, prostitution, weapons—pretty much anything wanted by the people. But in doing so, he drove the need higher. Restricting people only made them more desperate for it.

Especially anything which lets the people escape this hell.

“This way,” I muttered in Kat’s ear, tugging her down an alley, the thunderclouds darkening the passage in deeper shadows. The air changed, even in the humidity, and the hair on my arms prickled. Every person working a cart we passed, hanging around smoking, was watching us. Nothing happened in this area without the Triads knowing. The deeper we went into their territory, the more hostile eyes were on us. My connections here were old because I hadn’t been in these parts in a long time, but I had no doubt Duan Ru was still here. The man had been around as long as Tsai, and he was the person you went to for information.

Tension wormed up my back as I kept my head forward. I was aware of everything around me, sensing figures following us to the pub which, funnily enough, was called “Smugglers Inn,” a criminal haven since the early days of piracy.

“We’re being followed,” I whispered to Kat, holding her firmly on one side, my grip on my weapon on the other. I picked up our steps a little, trying not to act like I felt threatened by them.

As the pub came into sight, a string of men, loaded down with guns and swords, stepped in front of us, blocking our way, jolting me to a stop.

“Shit.” I hissed under my breath, pulling Kat to a stop with me as more of these guys surrounded us, making me twitch with tension. The need to protect her, to keep her safe, forced my body slightly in front of hers. “Stay quiet. Let me handle this,” I muttered to her. Besides being able to slip away into the shadows, my talent to get myself out of any predicament with a flick of my silver-tongue was my forte.

“Not looking for trouble,” I spoke. “Just wanting to get a drink. Meet up with an old friend.”

“You have no friends here.” A man pushed through the throng, stepping out in front.

Shit.

The man was all of five feet, six inches, a little fatter than I recalled, but still had the same sharp eyes and scar on his upper lip.

One I put there.

“Yeo…” I grimaced. “Look at you now.”

“Croygen,” he snarled. Our paths had crossed lifetimes ago when he was an errand boy for the Triad boss. He was smart and ruthless and clearly worked up to the top. Lucky me. “You dare step into my city?”

“Was your name on the welcome sign? Sorry, I must have missed it under the layer of horseshit.”

He glowered at me. “I have waited for this day, and then they told me you were here.”

“I’m so flattered you missed me.” I put my hands on my chest. “I’ve been feeling so low about myself lately, so you don’t know how much this means to me.”

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