Page 126 of The Blackened Blade

“I prefer the small soft kind anyway, not your rough scaly fingers. How about it, Red? I mean thisisyour fault. You should take a little responsibility, right?”

A light chuckle falls from her lips; the sounds sweet and seductive, and making my dick just that bit harder. Her smile grows, stretching those blushing cheeks as she shakes her head. “I think you can handle it yourself.”

“But where's the fun in that? I’ll be thinking about you anyway so–”

Ezra slaps the back of my head, cutting me off. “Watch it.”

He has a cute little glare going on as I shrug and adjust myself.

I turn back to Red but she's already making her way to the next shop. She moves quickly from one place to the next, never lingering for long. Her eyes constantly flickering back and forth to each shop as if she were a kid seeing new things for the first time.

Guess she really had spent too much time in that shitty academy and not having any fun. But I’m here now.

She makes her way over to a small little bakery near the corner. It has some sort of multi-layered cake in the front with long gold candles sticking out the top. Her eyes go a little dazed for just a split second before she snaps out of it.

“You want some cake, Micai?” Ezra calls, his brows drawn as he watches her change in expression. But she shakes her head.

“I’m good.” She takes off toward the next shop, not even glancing back as she moves. Maybe she was hungry.

I swipe a fresh chocolate muffin from some douches table. He opens his mouth and tries to stand up, but sits straight back down when he sees my face.Wimp.

A couple of strides and I’m back with Red, handing her my gift.

Her brows scrunch cutely together as she takes it from my hand, “How?”

Her eyes flicker to me and back at the shop, before a small soft smile appears on her lips. She takes a small bite, her eyes widening slightly with a small twinkle growing in them as she goes in for another bite. A tender look spreads on her face, something a mix of awe and pure joy.Fuck I needed to feed her more.

If something so small could make her give me an expression like that, then I needed to rob the whole fucking bakery. And Ezra looks like he's thinking the same.

We spend the next few minutes window shopping, with Red only ever stopping for a minute or two before moving on. That is until we reach a small dress shop.

Her little blue eyes gaze toward a silky teal number on the mannequin in the window. And fuck would she lookediblein that. It’d cling to every delicious curve she had, and with such a thin slip of fabric, it would be so easy to–

“Do you want to go in?” Ezra asks, cutting off my train of thought and growing semi. But he was probably thinking something similar from the heated look in his eyes.

Red shakes her head before turning away, glancing back at the window only once before she quickly moves on.

Ezra quickly claims her right side as we make our way over to her and head toward the next place.

We head onto a couple more shops, talking and joking, until we reach a small metal trinket shop. It's got strange, fancy metal pieces hanging in its window and has Red’s full attention. We head in, looking at all the large and small metal decorations and trinkets. They had a lot of different shit here; some looked old, while others looked brand new. But everything was made from different types of metal.

I wonder if they’d have any blades?

Red and Ezra head over toward the jewellery as I find the old weapons section. Or the‘Antiques’as Ezra pointed out. But even being old, these blades looked like they could slice into flesh and bone with ease. Looks like I’ll be adding to my collection.

Flipping a bronze dagger between my fingers, I glance back at Ezra as he tries his best to talk Red into letting him buy her something. But she flat out refuses.

My brows pull down together, something slithering at the back of my mind with the look on her face as I try to place the familiar expression. There was a strange look in her eyes; something that went beyond stubbornness or someone being guarded…but what? And why did it have me clenching my fists and feeling so angry?

What did my little Red have to face to make her so unwilling to receive anything from others? And for her to be so happy with something as tiny as a robbed muffin?

I know she’s like us, that she has her own pain…but how deep does it run?

Has someone hurt her? The thought has me instantly clenching my fists harder, the force of it drawing blood as it drips down my fingers and creating a trail to the path below.

No. I shake my head. She couldn’t smile so beautifully everyday and be as strong as she is if she had suffered like that.

Me and my brothers were different. We only survived our pain because we had each other, and even then we’re still broken. Our cracks show.

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