Page 57 of Heartless Enemy

“Then who was it? Ghosts?”

“It might have been the other shift.”

“Just get more from the fucking pantry.”

Panic crackled through me like a lightning bolt.

Making a split-second decision, I quickly unhooked my sword belt and shrugged out of my jacket before shoving them at Levi. “Set up those metal steps and get Derek down. I’ll distract them.”

“With what?” Levi hissed back as he fumbled to grab my things.

“Just do as I say.”

I snatched up a crate of what I hoped was bottles of ale, and then hurried out the door. Kicking it shut with my heel, I purposely looked down at the floor as I took a determined step into the living room.

Glass clinked as the bottles rattled when I slammed right into someone’s chest.

“Oh,” I said while letting a mask of innocence descend on my features. Blinking, I looked up at the guy in front of me and then swept my gaze around the room as if in surprise. “You’re back earlier than I expected.”

Ten men stared back at me with equal surprise. They were of various ages, all the way from barely twenty to somewhere in their forties, by my best guess. But they all had the same look in their eyes. The look of dark mages who knew that the world cowered before them.

“Who the hell are you?” a man with a bald head demanded.

I recognized the voice. It was the same person who had been bossing someone else around earlier, making it likely that he was their captain or something like that.

“Master White hired me,” I said, suddenly thankful for my brief time in captivity because it had taught me that the worldwalker preferred people to address him asMasterWhite. “To help serve you while you rest up before your next shift.”

They blinked in surprise. I just looked from one face to the other with an expression that made it seem like this really should have been very obvious to them.

Several of the men raked their gazes over my body. I was wearing one of my tight-fitting black and red leather outfits, which admittedly wasn’t the most feminine of styles, but on the other hand it also made me look more like I was part of this world rather than a normal civilian.

“I noticed that you were out of ale,” I continued while lifting the crate in my hands a little higher and striding forward as if I belonged there. “So I brought out some more. Would anyone like a bottle?”

The utter confidence with which I spoke and moved made the last of their doubt evaporate, and they all exchanged a glance before shrugging. I handed out bottles of ale while they settled back into their seats again.

While being careful not to glance towards the pantry, I tried to remember exactly how long it had taken Levi to set up those massive metal steps last time. We were a lot higher up this time, so it should take more than a couple of minutes at least. I would just need to stall for a while and then come up with an excuse to go back into the pantry. Hopefully, by then Levi would be done and Derek would already be down on the ground so that I could just run down the steps as well.

“How about some entertainment too?”

I froze. Taking my time setting down the now empty crate, I tried to muster enough patience not to summon a lightning bolt and shoot it into someone’s heart. Once I was certain that I wouldn’t, or reasonably certain at least, I turned around and raised my eyebrows in a show of innocent confusion.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I thought you said you were here to serve us,” the bald captain said, flashing me a toothy grin.

“I am.”

He flicked a wrist towards the floor in front of their couches and chairs. “So, serve us.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean.”

His gray eyes hardened as he sat forward on the couch and leveled a commanding stare on me. “Dance.”

By the Current, how was I supposed to make it through this without murdering someone? I resisted the urge to glance towards the pantry again, wondering if Levi had heard what they were saying as well. Given that he didn’t come charging through the door, he was most likely too focused on setting up the metal stairs to hear anything. At least that was good. We needed to sneak out of here unnoticed. And a room full of dead guards would hardly be inconspicuous.

After summoning patience that I didn’t really possess, I painted a smile on my face and said, “Oh, of course.”

I wasn’t nearly as talented as the people who performed in some of the cabarets back in Malgrave, but I had spent my fair share of time dancing behind the red-painted doors in the Entertainment District too, so I wasn’t completely without rhythm.

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