Page 67 of Outlaw Witch

The look she gives me is daring, like she just wants us to try something so she can test out her theory. Glancing again at Z, I can see his eyebrows are raised out of his usual stoic mask.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure Silver’s sister-slash-friend is spoiling for a fight.

“Right, well, she told you part of our deal was that we’d, er, find jobs for you guys, right?”

“Make it so you don’t have to live in that deathtrap,” Z adds.

“Right.” Hanna raises her eyebrows.

“Well, it took a little while, but we’ve found something for you three. And we have stuff in the pipeline for the others.” I beam at them.

It was harder than I expected. Even in our business, where people turn a blind eye to red tape, employing three nameless magic users with zero information on their background was tricky.

Seems Silver was right about how shitty things might be for them all. Not that I doubted her. But if our district, which deals in less than legal business all the time, shuns them, what chance do they have elsewhere in this city?

Which begs the question...

“How come you guys don’t move somewhere else? I mean, I didn’t realize how bad Arcanum was for people like you—” I hesitate when I receive a wary glower from the big guy, and another from Z.

“I, er, sorry. No offense or anything. I just don’t see why you wouldn’t just go somewhere else, which doesn’t have the same snobbery.”

“Money and ID checks,” the big guy growls. It’s the first time he’s spoken, and I jolt at the sound of his voice. It’s even deeper than Z’s, which I didn’t think was possible. Like a damn statue has come to life and started talking.

I hum thoughtfully at his response. The money I get. I guess bus tickets out of here, plus somewhere to stay without knowing you’ve got a job on the other side, would make things tough.

“ID checks?”

“Yeah, you know the guys that check ID for everyone in and out of the city. They get kind of rude when you have no ID on you. They like to start waving their shock sticks around and yelling. It’s a whole thing,” the other guy says with a careless wave of his hand.

I glance at Z, who shrugs, looking totally disinterested in this entire conversation. I guess when we leave the city, people know who we are. I’ve never been stopped by anyone with a shock stick. Never been yelled at either.

Fuck, just how out of touch am I? I’ve lived in this city for twenty-three years, been working for five, so you’d think I would know how things go around here.

I feel ignorant. Like a pretty little princess so busy in her tower, she didn’t notice the ogres eating the villagers outside.

“Damn.” I feel like a prize prick once again.

“Can we move this along?” Z grumbles.

“Right. So we found work for all three of you. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a steady paycheck and the job comes with accommodation. I mean, I’ve just decided that so it might be a scramble, but I’m sure we can find someplace that’s available. It can’t be worse than where they’re at right now.

I can tell Z’s not happy with me as I lead our merry band out onto the street. He’s burning a hole in the side of my head, but I ignore him.

“So, what are these jobs? Body disposal? Torture? Casual mutilation of your enemies?” Hanna asks brightly.

At my startled look, she shrugs. “What? I figure you guys run a criminal enterprise, right? You’re like the human mob or whatever.”

I chuckle as Z snorts a laugh behind me. “Well, it’s nothing as exciting as that.”

Seriously, most of the dodgier stuff we do is information-gathering and smuggling. We’re not exactly assassins.

Sure, we might help fiddle elections here and there, but for the Archarcan council, but we’re not evil geniuses. Hanna must have a pretty powerful imagination.

I wonder if Silver thinks the same thing about us.

“It’s nothing exciting,” I tell them as I lead the way through the street outside, toward the cafe where we were chronically understaffed. “Sorry to disappoint, but you’re in the fully respectable but probably very dull world of selling coffee to under-caffeinated mages.”

“Right.” Hanna glances through the window at the huge winding queue and the stressed out barista behind the counter. “It’s a front, though, right? Money laundering and all that stuff? I listened to a podcast that said that you’d be surprised with how many failing businesses only exist because they’re a front for nefarious purposes.”

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